Mer/Releases/0.12

Image:Mer infobox icon.png
Mer is back : Please visit http://www.merproject.org to learn more about this news.


Mer 0.12 was prepared in the sprint 7. April 2009 - 20 April 2009 with a testing period: 20 April 2009 - 27 April 2009. If you want help with the release, show up in #mer on IRC, on irc.freenode.net.

Contents

[edit] Call for developer participation

There will be a Maemo/Mozilla hackfest in Copenhagen (Mozilla Maemo Danish Weekend), Saturday-Sunday 30-31 May 2009 (with party Friday 29 May), where Mer is one of the focus areas as well. As it is a hackfest the focus will be more on coding than on presentations. From Mer project so far Stskeeps will be attending.

If you have the time and ability to show up (there might be an option of sponsorship) and ability to push some code or artwork or other things through and help out - do show up, it'll be a blast and will bring us closer to Mer 1.0. We hope to establish a IRC presence as well if you want to contribute remotely.

Focus area from Mer project point of view will be a weekend focused on getting Mer ready for day-to-day usage (1.0), both logistically (repositories, restricted builders, etc) and user interface (control panels, getting audio to work on N8x0, and so forth).

[edit] Notable accomplishments and news

  • Claudius Henrichs will be heading up the localization area.
  • David Greaves/lbt is now in charge of Builders & development tools component.
  • Matthew Craig/mtc in charge of Outreach
  • Based on Ubuntu Jaunty official release.
  • John Bloom (johnx) manned a Mer table at LinuxFest Northwest 2009
  • WiFi issue on N8x0 finally fixed
  • Power saving on N8x0 works again.
  • We will be switching to alternate repositories soon, as we are integrating with OpenSUSE Build Service. This means no more stuff will go into repository.mer.tspre.org post-0.12.
  • Sound support, but requires closed blobs, and someone needs to step up and code a DSP protocol driver for PulseAudio (source code for protocol open)
  • Battery monitor (tablet-battery-monitor), requires closed blobs (installs them itself)
  • galculator ported
  • BlueMan ported - which means tethering, DUN, PAN, and a lot of interesting things
  • Hildon desktop when dying, now shows a dialog box that it died.
  • Drag lock fixed
  • large-statusbar-clock
  • Several fixes to Panels.
  • set kernel.core-pattern to something sane consistent across platforms (/var/cores)
  • Pocket Loox 720 port now has some additional things to make it usable (such as working touchscreen)
  • More work on Freerunner port
  • Launchpad refused our l10n's, cos Nokia uses tana_fi_internet instead of english strings, and hence we'll work with maemo.org and Transifex.
  • Alternate theme by Meizirkki: hildon-theme-sumea-mer
  • We actually use maemo-launcher now so a lot of things should use less memory and work better. 770 port should be more usable too.
  • Some claim Mer has quite good battery life on N8x0 now.
  • Mer is now officially Scratchbox-free, thanks to impressive work on QEMU by ScriptRipper

[edit] Known issues

  • home applets behave oddly when in non-800x480
  • Screen should not dim and turn off during first boot wizard
  • Magic X menu stretches too far, before adding v ^ buttons.
  • Happens occasionally: Initial configuration - Root Password Confirmation Prompt - No virtual keyboard
  • X driver for omapfb does not use Manual updates yet and hence can be a bit slow in updating the screen which may give the impression the system is slow.
  • Rotation in advanced-backlight kills hildon desktop
  • No charging screen on flashable image
  • modifying panel settings causes HD to sometimes crash
  • 770 rescue menu does not seem to work (keys doesn't work)
  • 770 doesn't pick up correct RTC, or it doesn't have it set
  • Control panel may appear to have no menu but it actually doesn't have one.
  • Can not enter an address in hildon-application-manager
  • X-Terminal is not localized yet, at all (shows webameedit, etc)
  • The task switcher does not appear rightmost as it should
  • There seems to be a bit of "air" around windows, near left and right corners, also in marquee.
  • Marquee background acts weird.
  • JFFS2 version of N8x0 port causes weird video problem when rebooting.
  • Midori has no HIM in text fields.
  • Powerlaunch not working correctly while charger plugged in, no reaction while pressing power-button, no keyboard backlight
  • Advanced-backlight crashes hildon-desktop while charger plugged (might be tablet-battery-monitor related)
  • Marquee-panel doesn't scale when rotating the screen.
  • Deselecting dropdown menu plugin crashes desktop
  • Powerlaunch button prompts not correct (no "Yes" "No")
  • Applications "Organise" dialog unresponsive

[edit] Screenshots

Video: Mer 0.12, Xorg with fbdev driver

[edit] Disclaimer

  • There is no warranty. This may blow up your MMC, steal your wife or cause doomsday to come around. But if you find some bugs, please report them on bugs.maemo.org Bugzilla and we'll try to see what we can do to fix the bug causing it.
  • If anything goes wrong, grab a USB cable, and rescue mode is done through holding down Home key when booting Mer (on tablets)

[edit] Installation guide

Installation guide can be found here, including link to Mer installer for N8x0 - version should be 2.0.0-mer9

[edit] Released images

MD5sum URL Description
90cbc781caa3ef18718cb3cc38ef3e7c http://stskeeps.subnetmask.net/mer/0.12/mer-armel-770-image-v0.12.tar.gz rootfs tar.gz for Nokia 770 port
a72837f1599176543541b0496bebc48f http://stskeeps.subnetmask.net/mer/0.12/mer-armel-beagleboard-bootfs-v0.12.tar.gz bootfs for Beagleboard port
5d125c0b2caf8cd9b4846c0656f28c66 http://stskeeps.subnetmask.net/mer/0.12/mer-armel-beagleboard-rootfs-v0.12.tar.gz rootfs for Beagleboard port
871f73e9b5ce4c384804aa1b5f068b85 http://stskeeps.subnetmask.net/mer/0.12/mer-armel-n8x0-image-v0.12.jffs2 flashable image for Nokia N8x0 port, JFFS2 part (requires kernel below)
6136f3875cd813f609daf1b92cffcdc5 http://stskeeps.subnetmask.net/mer/0.12/mer-armel-n8x0-kernel-v0.12.zImage flashable image for Nokia N8x0 port, Kernel part (requires jffs2 above)
1189a3dfba353fb38d3e086a6317b8c6 http://stskeeps.subnetmask.net/mer/0.12/mer-armel-n8x0-kernelstd-v0.12.zImage kernel for standard setups, Nokia N8x0 port. Use to get extra features (working USBnet on XP, etc)
483ca616952b906cf6affead288009b7 http://stskeeps.subnetmask.net/mer/0.12/mer-armel-n8x0-image-v0.12.tar.gz rootfs tar.gz for Nokia N8x0 port
d34c57e3ee32122cf6e73571cf72d9ad http://stskeeps.subnetmask.net/mer/0.12/mer-x86-generic-image-v0.12.tar.gz rootfs for X86, generic
1fab670b98530e59697e4338d2684667 http://stskeeps.subnetmask.net/mer/0.12/mer-x86-generic-image-v0.12.vmdk.zip VMDK, X86 for VirtualBox, VMware, etc.
192e4217de16b2e1a534b3ccf2fff034 http://stskeeps.subnetmask.net/mer/0.12/mer-armel-pocketloox720-v0.12.tar.gz rootfs tar.gz for Pocket Loox 720 port (experimental)
3c6be5fe1756514dda07a4ab5ab44e29 http://stskeeps.subnetmask.net/mer/0.12/mer-armel-pocketloox720-v0.12.zImage kernel for Pocket Loox 720 port (experimental)