Mer

The Mer platform is a Linux distribution for mobile devices based on the Maemo platform from Nokia. Mer goals include:

  • Improving and developing parts of Maemo that are of interest to the Maemo community.
  • Making it easier to port existing desktop applications by hildonizing and adjusting them to the tablet form factor.
  • Encouraging third party experimentation and development.
  • Supporting tablet hardware no longer receiving updated OS software by Nokia.
  • Making Maemo a generic platform for all tablet devices, including non-Nokia ones.
  • Focusing Maemo community efforts in platform-related areas

It is -not- a Nokia project, it's a project started by maemo.org community members.

Mer platform development will be done in the open, with public SCM repository, bugtrackers, and Wiki-based blueprint discussion.

We should stop seeing the tablets as strictly under-powered embedded systems, and see them for what they really are: powerful, power-efficient, economical handheld computers.

Historically, the Mer platform came from a discussion on reconstructing Maemo and a desire to make a proof of concept system of the thoughts in this proposal (M-R PoC), which developed into Mer after realization that it was a viable direction of development.

If you would like to participate in and contribute to Mer - participate in the Mer Sprints

If you want to see documentation for Mer releases - see Mer Releases


Contents

Sprint 0.7

Period: until 1 february 2009

Sprint 0.6

Period: - 18 january 2009

Tasks

Completed Good progress Just standing Some help needed! Really stuck/delayed Urgent for next release
Committed & Target Task Owner  % Highlights
When committed to What Who 0% Progress

Bugs

Bug reports in bugzilla discovered through or related to Mer development in this sprint:

4023+criticalDesktop platformRESOLVEDWONTFIXSapwood doesn't align PixbufOpenRequest properly (crash on 770)Sven Herzberg


Sprint template

Sprint January 2009 and before: Basic installable image

The purpose of this milestone:

  • To provide a basic installable firmware image, both through installer and through flashing, for N8x0 tablets.
  • The image must include a basic user interface and ability to connect to Wi-Fi networks.
  • To provide a installer and image for 770 tablets.
  • To provide initial developer tools so we can start developing for the tablets.
  • Begin initial talks with Nokia and maemo.org on how to distribute full firmware images.
  • Prepare for next milestone in terms of collaborative technologies.


Tasks

Completed Good progress Just standing Some help needed! Really stuck/delayed
Committed & Target Task Owner  % Highlights
December Proposal for distribution of firmware images including closed-source bits needed for community editions Stskeeps 10% First proposal involving initfs bits proposed through maemo-community.
December Initial imager - script to debootstrap and putting Mer on top of Ubuntu Jaunty minbase (x86, armel) for Mer/x86, Mer/armv5te (770,n8x0) Stskeeps 100% Provided here and guide here
December Basic hildon-desktop up on Xorg, running with advanced-backlight and load-applet Stskeeps, johnx, etc. 100% In repository
December Initial Scratchbox1 SDK for Mer/armv5te Stskeeps 100% Provided here
2008-15-12 - 0.7 Installer for Mer on Diablo b-man 90% Initial versions
2008-17-12 cx3110x-umac-module (symlink to umac.ko module qwerty12 100% Now in repository
2008-17-12 nokia-n8x0-firmware (symlink to firmwares in initfs) qwerty12 100% Now in repository
2008-17-12 hildon-desktop-env with hildon-input-method setup qwerty12 100% Now in repository
January Diablo kernel that boots from rootfs instead of initfs, and runs /sbin/tablet-init instead of init qwerty12 100% Provided here
January Mer logo, (rescue menu) artwork, wallpaper, theme (titan) wazd, Stskeeps 100% Now in repository (mer-omap-fb-splash, mer-rescue-menu, titan), also see here
January Missing localization strings in Hildon, (#4001) Stskeeps 50%
January Document how to get packages included in repository Stskeeps 100% provided here
0.7 qemu-eabi cputransp for Scratchbox qwerty12 95% Deb (i386) & source package provided here - package and qemu binary fine, postinst & prerm scripts need testing (most likely to work fine however).
2009-01-12 Fix backspace and enter kills Xorg bug meizirkki/johnx/Stskeeps 100% Upstream Xorg / Ubuntu bug, fixed in upstream
Open system sounds (startup chime, touchscreen tap, etc) opengeekv2 0%
Replacing SDK icons with more modern ones none 0%
2009-01-16 Include dsme-tools & wifi power saving from Deblet Stskeeps 100% In repository now
0.7 Working X-terminal with hildon input method working none 0%
16-01-2009 - 0.7 nit-kernel-compat (support kernel booting rootfs directly), base on nitboot qwerty12 90% In repository - needs testing
Modern kernels, get newer kernels working with the 770, N8x0, and use stlc45xx on N8x0s none 0%
Include hildon-theme-layout-4-synth (alter to use proper fallback icon theme) and tritanium, meta, okuda, kobayashi from extras-devel none 0%
2009-01-18 Include hildon-theme-liberty and hildon-theme-layout-4ex (alter to use proper fallback icon theme, and depend on clearlooks?) Stskeeps 100% Included in 0.6 images.
Bring in new changes from http://gitweb.pingu.fi/?p=xf86-video-omapfb.git;a=summary to xserver-xorg-video-omapfb none 0%
Make hildon-desktop-env use a configuration file to determine wether it needs to show cursor or not (useful for x86) none 0%
Make kernel-diablo-modules-gserial and implement support with help of rescue menu none 0%
2009-01-17 Move project from launchpad to maemo.org garage Stskeeps 40% Project retrieved (mer.garage.maemo.org), Mer on bugs.maemo.org. Blockers: Multiple git repositories per project Personal git repositories.
Figure out how to make gnome-keyring invisible to the user (or make NetworkManager use something else) none 0%
Fix key generation of openssh-server so it doesn't do it on imager but does it when booting none 0%
2009-01-19 Mer-ize hildon-application-manager Jaffa 100% In repository now. lp:~aflegg/m-r/hildon-application-manager needs to be merged to lp:~mer-committers/m-r/hildon-application-manager. Screenshots: 1, 2, 3
Update debhelper in Mer Scratchbox SDK devkit none 0%
Figure out why python-osso fails to build in SDK none 0%
Package up advanced-power as a debian source package none 0%

Bugs

Bug reports in bugzilla discovered through or related to Mer development in this sprint:

IDSeverityProductStatusResolutionSummary (6 tasks) Assignee
4016blockerMerRESOLVEDFIXEDgnome has broken dependences because of libgnomevfs2-extraCarsten Munk
3858+normalSystem softwareRESOLVEDFIXEDmaemo-launcher build-depends on libhildondesktop-dev, which in turn build-depends on maemo-launcher-devGuillem Jover
3997criticalDevelopment platformRESOLVEDWONTFIXdbus-glib 0.78-0maemo1 causes hildon-desktop to crash in background-manager.hSoumya
4001normalDevelopment platformRESOLVEDWONTFIXMissing en_GB translations for logical names that already existed beforeSoumya
4023+criticalDesktop platformRESOLVEDWONTFIXSapwood doesn't align PixbufOpenRequest properly (crash on 770)Sven Herzberg
3939+normalDesktop platformRESOLVEDWONTFIXsapwood loops infinitely at malformed requestunassigned

Activity log

17th January

  • stskeeps: added docpurge to repository, added docpurge to n800 and 770 images, re-running imager. helped meiz get Mer on his x86. prodded andre about 'Mer' product in bugzilla, and got it setup. Reported bug on multiple git repositories per project, personal git repositories to ggit project.

16th January

  • stskeeps: remade Mer blueprint to fit more into maemo.org processes, added mer-generic-x86 to play with at some point, and added nit-kernel-compat to imager. fixed up nokia-770's kernel-modules-770 so we can make images for it in imager. added dsme-tools to repo. got x86 port going.

Documentation and tasks

SDK

First, install Fremantle SDK, and add yourself as a user to scratchbox.

As user:

ISSUES:

  • You might have to do export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/share/pkgconfig:/usr/lib/pkgconfig to get some pkg-config stuff going
  • You might have to set cpu right and such to target armv5el (no vfp)
  • You probably need to get EABI cpu transparency target too
  • 'not safe for cross-compilation' warnings (not true, i think)
  • fakeroot apt-get dist-upgrade is good once in a while to keep up to date.

Mer Installer

Make installer for Maemo/Diablo that does the following:

  • Depends on bootmenu (bootmenu with bootmenu.d item), wget, rootsh, zenity, gnutar, binutils, and e2fsprogs
  • Allows simple installation (partition my internal/external MMC to 50mb FAT, 128mb swap, rest linux), or advanced (choose my own partition)
  • Partitions, mkfs.ext3's and unpacks a downloaded tar.gz (built by the imager, uploaded to some http.). Should support resume of dls (wget -c?)
  • Sets up the bootmenu item for Mer.

Straightjacket packages

This is a list of packages that did not compile in Scratchbox, and that we had to build natively:

qemu-eabi cputransp for Scratchbox

See http://maemogeek.blogspot.com/2007/11/installing-qemu-arm-eabi-patch-into.html

Make a debian package with this binary (for i386), installing into /scratchbox/devkits/cputransp/bin/qemu-arm-eabi-sb2 and adding 'qemu-arm-eabi-sb2' to /scratchbox/devkits/cputransp/etc/cputransp-methods when installing, and removing when removing (sed -i?)

Edit |SDK to make instructions use qemu-arm-eabi-sb2 instead, and getting your .deb package.

Getting your package included in the Repository

  • Make sure it compiles after getting your build dependancies, dpkg-buildpackage.
  • Ideally test both dpkg-buildpackage -S -us -uc, dpkg-buildpackage -b -us -uc, dpkg-buildpackage -B (some packages may not build any arch-dep packages, so that's ok. Microdocument it on Jaiku.)
  • bzr export

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