User:Jebba

  • Name: Jeff Moe
  • Email: moe@blagblagblag.org
  • Nick: jebba, jebbajeb, jebba900, etc...
My old nokia
My old Nokia phone, replaced by N900. Makes a nice background :)


Usually I dot my laptop with READMEs in various ~/devel/ subdirs, but in this case I decided to write up some notes here. These are mostly for my own reference, but perhaps they will be of use to you.

Contents

Package Building HOWTO

Here's how to build a "standard" ./configuresque package for Maemo 5, using "foo" as an example. This is a command line application...

Environment

First set up your initial environment in the scratchbox to save future keystrokes. This only has to be set up once.

# log in to development/SDK server:
ssh -C flauta.freemoe.org

# Enter scratchbox
/scratchbox/login

# Set up your full name for debianization (enter your name, not mine!):
echo 'export DEBFULLNAME="Jeff Moe"' >> ~/.bashrc

# Set up email address for debianization (enter your email, not mine!):
 echo 'export DEBEMAIL="moe@blagblagblag.org"' >> ~/.bashrc

# Re-read bashrc to drag in above:
. ~/.bashrc
 
# Check that all looks cool:
echo $DEBEMAIL ; echo $DEBFULLNAME

Package Setup

Now do the actual creation of the package:

# Set up some dirs for workingspace:
mkdir -p ~/foo/freemoe

# go there
cd ~/foo/freemoe

# grab source from upstream
wget http://foo.googlecode.com/files/foo-1.2.3.tar.bz2

# Untar the source
tar jxf foo-1.2.3.tar.bz2

# Upstream doesn't have .gz in this case, \
# so re-tar because the version of debhelper in Maemo 5 doesn't support .bz2 (!)
tar zcf foo-1.2.3.tar.gz foo-1.2.3

# Enter source dir
cd foo-1.2.3

# Check WTF the LICENSE is
less COPYING

# Initial setup of package
dh_make --single \
  --copyright gpl \
  --file ../foo-1.2.3.tar.gz

# Set up for maemo-optification:
echo auto > debian/optify

debian/control

debian/control defines info about the package that is read in such places as the application installer.

  • In the Description:, lines MUST be preceded by a space. Blank lines must have a space and then a period.
  • Figuring out Build-Depends: is currently left as an exercise for the reader. Hints:
fakeroot apt-get update
fakeroot apt-cache search bar
fakeroot apt-get install bar
Here is a sample debian/control:
Source: foo
Section: user/multimedia
Priority: extra
Maintainer: Jeff Moe <moe@blagblagblag.org>
Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 5), autotools-dev, maemo-optify
Standards-Version: 3.7.2

Package: foo
Architecture: any
Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}, ${misc:Depends}
Description: Foo does everything you want.
 Foo does everything. It is fantastic.
 .
 Be sure to explore all of Foo, especially the clone x-fade tool.
 .
 There is so much to Foo!

debian/changelog

Edit changelog:

dch -i

Edit debian/changelog to read:

foo (1.2.3-1) unstable; urgency=low

 * Initial release for Maemo 5 (Nokia N900).

-- Jeff Moe <moe@blagblagblag.org>  Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:00:02 -0300

Build Binary X86 Package

Now you're ready to actually build the package. This may help you find out what the Build-Depends: are as well.

X86

Now see if it works in x86:

# Switch to X86
sb-conf select FREMANTLE_X86

# Go to the correct dir:
cd ~/foo/freemoe/foo-1.2.3

# Compile!
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -b -uc


Optify .deb

If that all went cool, "optify" the package (am I doing this right?--I was doing it differently before, but this was recommended by upstream and is how the Maemo builder box does it):

# Go to correct dir
cd ~/foo/freemoe
 
# Optify X86 package:
maemo-optify-deb foo_1.2.3-1_i386.deb

# Optify non-binary package (if any):
maemo-optify-deb foo_1.2.3-1_all.deb

# Or if you have a bunch of packages and you're lazy, just
for i in *.deb
 do echo $i
 maemo-optify-deb $i
done

# Check optification results:
dpkg -c foo_1.2.3-1_i386.deb

Test in scratchbox

You can test your package in the scratchbox:

# Install in scratchbox
fakeroot dpkg -i foo_1.2.3-1_i386.deb

# Run it!
foo

Build Binary ARMEL Package

Now you're ready to actually build the package that will run on the phone.

ARMEL

# Switch to ARMEL
sb-conf select FREMANTLE_ARMEL

# Go to the correct dir:
cd ~/foo/freemoe/foo-1.2.3

# Compile!
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -b -uc


Optify .deb

If that all went cool, "optify" the package (am I doing this right?--I was doing it differently before, but this was recommended by upstream and is how the Maemo builder box does it):

# Go to correct dir
cd ~/foo/freemoe

# Optify ARMEL package:
maemo-optify-deb foo_1.2.3-1_armel.deb
 
# Optify non-binary package (if any):
maemo-optify-deb foo_1.2.3-1_all.deb

# Or if you have a bunch of packages and you're lazy, just
for i in *.deb
 do echo $i
 maemo-optify-deb $i
done

# Check optification results:
dpkg -c foo_1.2.3-1_armel.deb


Build Source Package

Build a source package for uploading to builder (I'm not 100% this is the optimal command, but worksforme).

# cd to dir
cd ~/foo/freemoe/foo-1.2.3
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -S -uc -us -sa

Put Package in Personal Repository

Now that it's all built and cool, copy the file over to your N900. I put it in my own repo and install it with apt on my N900. You don't have to set up a repo to do all this, but it's nice

# Exit from scratchbox
logout

# Create source dir on web server:
mkdir -p /var/www/users/jebba/dists/unstable/main/source/foo_1.2.3-1

# Create binary dirs on web server:
mkdir -p /var/www/users/jebba/dists/unstable/main/binary-armel
mkdir -p /var/www/users/jebba/dists/unstable/main/binary-i386

# Copy over orig tarball:
cp -p /scratchbox/users/jebba/home/jebba/foo/freemoe/*.diff.orig.tar.gz \
/var/www/users/jebba/dists/unstable/main/source/foo_1.2.3-1/

# Copy over diff:
cp -p /scratchbox/users/jebba/home/jebba/foo/freemoe/*.diff.gz \
/var/www/users/jebba/dists/unstable/main/source/foo_1.2.3-1/

# Copy over dsc:
cp -p /scratchbox/users/jebba/home/jebba/foo/freemoe/*.dsc \
/var/www/users/jebba/dists/unstable/main/source/foo_1.2.3-1/

# Copy over changes:
cp -p /scratchbox/users/jebba/home/jebba/foo/freemoe/*.changes \
/var/www/users/jebba/dists/unstable/main/source/foo_1.2.3-1/

# Copy over ARMEL binary:
cp -p /scratchbox/users/jebba/home/jebba/foo/freemoe/*_armel.deb \
/var/www/users/jebba/dists/unstable/main/binary-armel/

# Copy over X86 binary:
cp -p /scratchbox/users/jebba/home/jebba/foo/freemoe/*_i386.deb \
/var/www/users/jebba/dists/unstable/main/binary-i386/

# Regenerate repository headers:
cd /var/www/users/jebba/

# Binary ARMEL Packages
dpkg-scanpackages dists/unstable/main/binary-armel /dev/null \
| gzip -9c > dists/unstable/main/binary-armel/Packages.gz

# Binary X86 Packages
dpkg-scanpackages dists/unstable/main/binary-i386 /dev/null \
| gzip -9c > dists/unstable/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz

# Source Packages
dpkg-scansources dists/unstable/main/source /dev/null \
| gzip -9c > dists/unstable/main/source/Sources.gz

Install Package

Install the sucker.

Testing via manual copying

If you don't have your own personal repository, do something like this, where 10.0.0.2 is the IP address of your N900:

# copy file to N900
scp -p /scratchbox/users/jebba/home/jebba/foo/freemoe/*_armel.deb \
10.0.0.2:MyDocs/

# ssh into N900
ssh user@10.0.0.2

# Install .deb
sudo gainroot
dpkg -i /home/user/MyDocs/foo_1.2.3-1_armel.deb

Testing via personal repo

If you have your own repo, enable it, ala:

# edit sources to enable personal repo:
sudo gainroot
vim /etc/apt/sources.list

# In my case, I add the line:
deb http://www.freemoe.org/users/jebba unstable main

# Update repo
apt-get update -o dir::cache=/home/user/MyDocs/.apt-archive-cache

# Install package
apt-get install -o dir::cache=/home/user/MyDocs/.apt-archive-cache foo

Test Package

Now time to actually test it. Just run it :)

foo

Also helpful commands, like:

dpkg -I foo
dpkg -l foo
dpkg -l | grep foo
dpkg -L foo

Upload to Builder

If your package works well, time to upload to Maemo's builder to put it in extras-devel. Note, you'll need to have set up an ssh key on garage to do this.

# go to the dir, from outside the scratchbox
# (if your ~/.ssh key isn't in the scratchbox)
cd /scratchbox/users/jebba/home/jebba/foo/freemoe

Uh, just run this script:

#!/bin/sh

echo
echo "Uploading:"
ls *.tar.gz *.diff.gz *.changes *.dsc
echo

echo -n "All look ok? ctrl-c to quit " ; read ok
echo

scp -p *.tar.gz *.diff.gz *.changes *.dsc \
jebba@garage.maemo.org:/var/www/extras-devel/incoming-builder/fremantle/

Chill

Now just wait for the package to finish. You can repeatedly hit <reload> in your browser, or ctrl-5 here:

Debrick

Debrick without reflashing!

I have found a way to "de-brick" a device that does not require reflashing.

If your device is booting up and hung with the second dot lit, like:

*  (*)  *  *  *

this may solve your problem.

1) Get the proprietary (gah!) Nokia firmware flashing program.

2) Power off your phone.

3) Hold down "u" on your fone and plug the USB cable into your phone and your GNU/Linux laptop. This will put it in the same mode as you need when you are flashing it.

4) Run this command as root (or preface with "sudo"). It will only take a second or two.

./flasher-3.5 --enable-rd-mode

5) Unplug cables and your system will reboot (or poweroff).

6) Boot up your system, it is now in R&D mode. :) It will (possibly?) prompt you to enter time/data again.

7) Now that everything is fine, power off the system normally again. DO NOT LEAVE YOUR SYSTEM IN R&D MODE, as it eats babies.

8) With your phone powered off hold down "u" on the phone, and plug in the USB cables to the phone and your GNU/Linux laptop.

9) Run this command as root (or preface with "sudo"). It will only take a second or two.

./flasher-3.5 --disable-rd-mode

10) Unplug cables and your system will reboot (or poweroff).

11) Boot up your system, it is now recovered and NO DATA LOSS! Yippeee.


More info


Photos of what the hang looks like using a kernel that has the framebuffer console enabled: [1]


Some bugs, maybe related: [2] [3]


If you found this post helpful, please vote for this bug: [4]


Too mucha programmaz

I bricked my N900 (December 3rd) by adding the extras-testing + extras-devel repos and then installing lots of applications. I hit 100% on / (root filesystem) and on reboot the system hung at the "dots" part, ala:

  * (*) * * *

I had filled up to 100% a number of times before and rebooting the phone had cleared up space (e.g. 100% full before reboot, 96% full after reboot). This is likely because 5% or so is reserved for root. Anyway, the most recent time it didn't come back alive...

Gah, bricked again

I was "participating" in the "Bug day", when someone suggested installing gettext to look at translations. I installed this, but got up to 99% full. I then did an `apt-get clean` to empty the cache and this dropped me to 98% full. I've often booted gnulinux boxes with 99% (or even 100%) full, so I figured 98% was fine. I wanted to reboot because often when you reboot the N900, you get space freed, due to the icon cache being liberated. Anyway, on reboot, I got a brick exactly as described above with the second dot more lit than the others (which I have seen reported by others):

  * (*) * * *

This time I have my handy kernel with a console, so I can actually see WTF is going on. The images here show some details. In sum, things booted up and the root filesystem check went fine. Then it got an error right after "Freeing Init memory 152K" like this:

getbootstate: Unexpected reset count 50 exceeds maximum (51)
getbootstate: Entering state 'MALF'.
getbootstate: Houston, we have a problem, powering off...

The /sbin/getbootstate program is in the package "getbootstate". But look at this and hold back the tears:

[sbox-FREMANTLE_ARMEL: ~/getbootstate] > apt-get source getbootstate
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
E: Unable to find a source package for getbootstate

The getbootstate package appears to be closed source. :( That pretty much ends the debugging and my bug day. Gah.

Flashing N900 with 0xFFFF

Many parts of the N900 are Free Software, but lamentably, many parts are still closed proprietary shit. Nokia's maemo_flasher program is an example of a closed application that Nokia makes for use with the N900. I understand why some parts of their suite are still closed (e.g. pre-ofono GSM stack), but why the flasher has to be closed I have no idea. Gar.

Thankfully, there is The 0pen Free Fiasco Firmware Flasher, which is designed for flashing Nokia tablets and is Free Software (GPLv3). Unfortunately, 0xFFFF doesn't work with the N900. There is some progress to support the device. You can grab the most recent code from the mercurial repository thusly:

hg clone http://hg.youterm.com/0xFFFF

I sent the author of 0xFFFF the output of my crash. Hopefully it will soon be a usable tool for flashing the N900. I built RPMs for Fedora 12 x86_64 running the latest mercurial code--the ones in the Fedora repo aren't even the lastest tarball release (0.3.9 vs. 0.4.0).

0xFFFF for Fedora

  • NOTE: recently I checked out the code via Mercurial and saw that the 0xFFFF developer has added much more N900 specific code, but I haven't tried it yet.
  • UPDATE: I have built the latest and greatest code of 0xFFFF from today and made a Fedora 12 package. You can grab it here:

Binary:

Source:

  • The 0xFFFF GUI uses gtkamlc. This is not packaged in Fedora. I built it, but compiling the GUI is still barfing.

Flashing with Nokia's Proprietary maemo_flasher

I now have ONE non-free program installed on my computer  :( It's the only way I know how to debrick the phone.

See also: Updating tablet firmware on this wiki.

yum -y install glibc.i686 libusb.i686
  • Untar the files....
  • Power off phone and unplug USB.
  • Hold down "u" on N900 keyboard and plug in USB cable between computer and N900. A USB icon will appear in the upper right corner--you can let go of "u" on the keyboard at this point.
  • Run this as root:
./flasher-3.5 -F ~/devel/maemo/FLASH/RX-51_2009SE_1.2009.42-11_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f -R
  • Done.

Info from flasher

sudo ./flasher-3.5 --query-rd-mode
flasher v2.5.2 (Oct 21 2009)

USB device found found at bus 002, device address 008.
Found device RX-51, hardware revision 2101
NOLO version 1.4.13
Version of 'sw-release': RX-51_2009SE_1.2009.42-11_PR_MR0
The device is in production mode

Unpacking flash image

$ mkdir RX-51_2009SE_1.2009.42-11_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM-UNPACKED

$ cd RX-51_2009SE_1.2009.42-11_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM-UNPACKED/

$ sudo flasher-3.5 -u -F ../RX-51_2009SE_1.2009.42-11_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin

Setup

Now that the device is debricked, I can use the thing again and "all" my data is there, but the repository setup is back to default and the applications I want are gone, amongst other things. To re-setup:


ssh server & keys

  • Enable Extras repository: tap, tap, tap...
  • Install openssh client/server package
  • Install rootsh package
  • Set up keys and such for easy access (my device hostname is burger):
  • On laptop, ssh into the sucker:
ssh root@burger
  • As root on N900, ssh to localhost as a quick/dirty way to setup /root/.ssh:
ssh localhost
  • On laptop, copy over ssh key and log back in:
scp -p ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub root@burger:.ssh/authorized_keys
ssh root@burger
  • To allow ssh access for user "user", the passwd file needs to be edited.
vi /etc/passwd
  • Change
user:!:

to

user:*:
  • Set a password for user "user" (I couldn't ssh in without doing this, but someone on IRC said it wasn't necessary):
passwd user
  • Switch user to "user" and blow out the old known_hosts (or at least edit it) to remove the now bogus "localhost" entry:
su - user
rm .ssh/known_hosts
  • Quick/dirty way to set up /home/user/.ssh:
ssh localhost
  • Then GTFO:
exit
exit
  • This should work happily
ssh user@burger

Packages

Set up Repositories

  • Configure the repositories to set up things I like:
# vi /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hildon-application-manager.list

deb https://downloads.maemo.nokia.com/fremantle/apps/ ./ 
deb https://downloads.maemo.nokia.com/fremantle/mr0 ./ 
deb http://repository.maemo.org/extras/ fremantle free non-free
deb http://repository.maemo.org/extras-testing/ fremantle free
deb http://repository.maemo.org/extras-devel/ fremantle free
deb http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/tools free

apt-get update

Apparently the above gets blown out if you run the hildon application manager, so the repos need to be added via tap tap tap.

Install Needed Packages

apt-get install x11vnc
apt-get clean && sync

Mas y mas y mas

apt-get install vim bash htop ogg-support less file strace
apt-get clean && sync

Perhaps

apt-get install python-dbus python-gobject sysklogd klogd
apt-get clean && sync

Mas y mas y mas y mas y mas. The really big list...

mkdir /home/user/MyDocs/.apt-archive-cache/archives/
mkdir -p /home/user/MyDocs/.apt-archive-cache/archives/partial
apt-get -o dir::cache=/home/user/MyDocs/.apt-archive-cache    etc...


account-plugin-idle
adblock-plus
anki
ankimaemi
ankiqt
attitude
canola2
canola2-lastfm-plugin
canola2-tuning-plugin
canola2-youtube-plugin
canola-thumbnailer
conboy
decoders-support
easy-deb-chroot
emerillon
espeak
fmradio
gcompris
gcompris-sound-en
gcompris-sound-es
gonvert
google-album-art-downloader
gpxview
horizon
kmplayer
leafpad
maemo-mancala
maemo-mapper
maemo-recorder
maemo-recorder
mancala
mbarcode
midori
miniature
mirror
mplayer
mtracker
mytube
pastebinit
pidgin
qik
raeddit
rapier
recorder
rsync
sib
supertux
tuxpaint
vncviewer
xchat
xournal
zbar
zoutube

Configuration

Here's some configuration settings that got lost on reflash. I'm not sure where they are stored, so they need to be re-setup via tap tap tap. Note: if you do a backup on the device you may be able to then run restore which refreshes this, making the below unnecessary; untested.

The below are mostly stored in gconf under /system/osso/dsm/display, I believe these should be restored as per the back-up/restore application. - codeMonkey

Display

  • Settings-->Display-->Backlight time-out: 2 minutes
  • Settings-->Display-->Lock screen automatically: uncheck
  • Settings-->Display-->Display stays lit when charging: check

Text input

  • Settings-->Text input-->Word completion: uncheck
  • Settings-->Text input-->Auto-capitalization: uncheck
  • Settings-->Text input-->Insert space after word: uncheck
  • Settings-->Text input-->2nd language: Español (América Latina)
  • Settings-->Text input-->Use dual dictionaries: check


Time Zone

  • Settings-->Date and time-->Time Zone: Buenos Aires (this is unfortunately wrong due to incompetence of Argentine government)
  • Settings-->Date and time-->Update automatically: leave unchecked for now. When timezone data gets fixed, check it.

Connectivity

  • Settings-->Connectivity-->Internet connections-->Search interval: 5 minutes

General

  • Settings-->General-->Device lock-->Change lock code (default is 12345)

Email Accounts

  • Region: Argentina
  • Service Provider: Gmail -- I broke down and got a gmail acct :(
  • Account title: Gmail
  • Name: Jeff Moe
  • User name: jebbasan
  • Password: foo

Misc

echo ":syntax on" > ~/.vimrc
  • Uh, where should this be put, if no bash? In ~/.profile for busybox.
export TERM=xterm-color
  • To remove the overcute hands shaking at bootup (and therefore boot faster), edit /etc/hildon-welcome.d/default.conf thusly:
[hildon-welcome]
#filename=Hands-v32-h264.avi

You could also put in a different movie (playable by gstreamer), but a still image will not work.

Kernel

Stock kernel:

uname -a
Linux Nokia-N900-42-11 2.6.28-omap1 #1 PREEMPT Wed Oct 28 15:32:55 EET 2009 armv7l unknown

kernel, kernel-modules, kernel-flasher: 2.6.28-20094102.3+0m5

Custom Kernel Modules

I have built a pile of kernel modules which should work with the stock N900 kernel. See here:

http://www.freemoe.org/users/jebba/kernel/modules/

Installing my custom kernel

Linux Nokia-N900-42-11 2.6.28-omap1-jebba5 #1 PREEMPT Mon Dec 14 00:54:55 MST 2009 armv7l unknown


I have built custom kernel packages closely based on the standard kernel that ships with the N900. Differences:

  • FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE=y - This fantastic option means you can see console when the kernel boots up, so you see all the text you usually see when booting up a Linux kernel.
  • IKCONFIG, IKCONFIG_PROC=y - The kernel configuration is available in /proc. To grab it:
zcat /proc/config.gz
  • CONFIG_LOGO=y, CONFIG_LOGO_LINUX_CLUT224=y - Tux, the Linux penguin, at boot! :)
  • The kernel name is 2.6.28-omap1-jebba5 so as to not confuse it with the stock kernel.

You can install this kernel via my repo with apt-get (untested), or manually, which is recommended for now. Procedure (assuming you are running the kernel that ships with the device):

  • Make a backup of your current kernel's modules. That way if you want to revert, you can flash it via USB cable and the modules will be there. (You can also revert via dpkg, but this is just in case of "emergencies").
cp -a /lib/modules/2.6.28-omap1 /lib/modules/2.6.28-omap1.orig
  • Grab my kernels with wget or whatever (check the dir for more recent versions too).
wget \
http://www.freemoe.org/users/jebba/dists/unstable/main/binary-armel/kernel_2.6.28-20094102.3+0m10_armel.deb \
http://www.freemoe.org/users/jebba/dists/unstable/main/binary-armel/kernel-modules_2.6.28-20094102.3+0m10_armel.deb \
http://www.freemoe.org/users/jebba/dists/unstable/main/binary-armel/kernel-flasher_2.6.28-20094102.3+0m10_armel.deb
  • Install the .debs with dpkg. Note the flasher has to be installed last. If you install them with dpkg all at once, dpkg will prioritize the flasher first, so it won't move the kernel into place. Point of no return:
dpkg -i \
kernel_2.6.28-20094102.3+0m10_armel.deb \
kernel-modules_2.6.28-20094102.3+0m10_armel.deb
  • Now install the flasher, which will automatically flash when installed:
dpkg -i kernel-flasher_2.6.28-20094102.3+0m10_armel.deb 
  • Ok, so the kernel is there, but lets move the original stock modules back into place so you can flash the zImage via flasher-3.5 and USB cable should it be necessary. First we need to remove the mostly empty old dir, then copy the backup:
rm -rf /lib/modules/2.6.28-omap1
cp -a /lib/modules/2.6.28-omap1.orig /lib/modules/2.6.28-omap1
  • Now just reboot, yee haw!
sudo reboot
  • Enjoy. :)

Flashing Kernel

Notes

  • The docs I can find about this all look pretty antiquated.
  • The stock system runs with 62 kernel modules loaded, including things like ext3 and fat.
  • The kernel debs that are installed are: kernel, kernel-flasher ("Linux kernel updater"), kernel-modules.

See Also

  • Compiling the kernel - "This is an article from the old midgard wiki that hasn't yet been fully updated for this wiki, please update it."


Compile custom kernel

I followed the procedure in the Maemo Kernel Guide, without making changes. This gave me a bootable kernel. :)

sb-conf select FREMANTLE_ARMEL

sb-conf setup MaemoKernel \
-c cs2007q3-glibc2.5-arm7 \
-d qemu:perl:svn:apt-https -t /scratchbox/devkits/qemu/bin/qemu-arm-sb

sb-conf select MaemoKernel

sb-conf rs MaemoKernel \
/home/jebba/maemo-sdk-rootstrap_5.0_armel.tgz

# disable other stuff in apt sources.list

mkdir ~/maemo_kernel

sb-conf select MaemoKernel
fakeroot apt-get update
cd ~/maemo_kernel
apt-get source kernel
cd kernel-2.6.28

make EXTRAVERSION=-omap1 bzImage
ls -lh arch/arm/boot/zImage

# flash the thing
flasher-3.5 -f -k /scratchbox/users/jebba/home/jebba/\
maemo_kernel/kernel-2.6.28/arch/arm/boot/zImage

# wow, sure flashes fast, like in 1 second


To unbrick if something goes wrong, unpack the main N900 .bin flash image and flash with the kernel from there. See unpacking flash image section.

Random kernel notes

  • "SmartReflex can perform continuous dynamic voltage scaling around the nominal operating point voltage according to silicon characteristics and operating conditions. Enabling SmartReflex reduces power consumption. Please note, that by default SmartReflex is only initialized. To enable the automatic voltage compensation for VDD1 and VDD2, user must write 1 to /sys/power/sr_vddX_autocomp, where X is 1 or 2.
~ $ cat  /sys/power/sr_vdd1_autocomp
0
~ $ cat  /sys/power/sr_vdd2_autocomp
0


  • Enable framebuffer console so bootup messages can be seen.

VNC

VNC allows you to view the screen of the N900 on your laptop so you can do things more easily that having to use the tiny little thing if you are working on it all day.

  • Set up the Extras-testing repository
  • Install x11vnc (I think it's in -testing).
  • Set up a password for VNC on on the N900:
x11vnc -storepasswd
  • Run this script on your laptop (my hostname is burger and my laptop's IP is 10.0.0.3):
ssh -n user@burger \
       "x11vnc \
       -usepw \
       -display :0 \
       -desktop burger \
       -allow 10.0.0.3 \
       -nolookup \
       -q \
       -bg \
       -o /home/user/vnc-log \
       "
  • This works fine with tigervnc on Fedora 12.
  • Running x11vnc with "-ssl" does not work--I think the problem there may be with tigervnc as x11vnc starts with it OK.
  • I usually do VNC in an ssh tunnel--I don't know if this would create too much of a load on the N900 or not. Will test.
  • VNC behaves differently whether the keyboard is slid out or not. Basically, you want the keyboard out.

Backups

Thankfully, pre-bricking, I had made a backup. There are a billion different ways to do this, but one quick way is good old rsync. This script backs up everything except the --excluded directories which are either things I don't want to back up (cities) or things you can't/shouldn't back up (/proc).

#!/bin/sh

rsync \
       -avv -ult --progress --stats \
       --rsh=ssh \
       --exclude /home/user/MyDocs/cities \
       --exclude /home/user/MyDocs/.sounds \
       --exclude /proc \
       --exclude /dev \
       --exclude /sys \
       --exclude /syspart \
       root@burger:/ \
       /home/jebba/BACKUPS/burger/

Video

Encoding Video

I had some video which played way too slow on the N900, so I re-encoded with this pile of cruft:

#!/bin/sh

mencoder $1 -oac mp3lame -ovc lavc \
       -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:mbd=1:vbitrate=300 -vf scale=352:208 \
       -ffourcc DIVX -o $1-out.avi

Run thusly:

burger-encode ralf.mov

And it will give you "ralf-out.mov.avi"...Uh, I will have the output file get a reasonable name, of course... Works for now. This does not work on the N900 at the moment because the mencoder in the mplayer package is compiled without mp3lame support. Bah.

See also (where I got above from): Manual_video_encoding.

Ok, here's a far better script than the above that I took and slightly modified to work with gpac instead of mp4creator.

#!/bin/bash
# n900-encode
# Encode videos for N900...
#
# On Fedora 12 (rpmfusion.org) needs packages:
# gpac, mplayer, mencoder, x264, faac
# Run thusly:
# n900-encode [in video] [out video] [options]
# Example:
# n900-encode cabezon.mp4 cabezon.avi
#
# Largely taken from:
# http://www.seiichiro0185.org/doku.php/n800:mp4encoding

_INFILE="$1"
_OUTFILE="$2"
_MPOPTS="$3"

identifySource()
{
  mplayer -identify -ao null -vo null -endpos 2 ${_MPOPTS} "${_INFILE}" | grep ID_ > /tmp/n800-encode.$$.ident
 FPS=$(cat /tmp/n800-encode.$$.ident | grep ID_VIDEO_FPS | uniq | cut -d '=' -f 2)
  ASPECT=$(cat /tmp/n800-encode.$$.ident | grep ID_VIDEO_ASPECT | tail -n 1 | cut -d '=' -f 2 | cut -d ' ' -f 2)

  WS=`expr $ASPECT \> 1.6 \& $ASPECT \< 1.9`
  
  if [[ `expr $ASPECT \> 2.0` -eq 1 ]]
  then
    WS=2
  fi
  case ${WS} in
    0) SCALE="320:240"
      echo "encoding for standard"
      ;;
    1) SCALE="400:224"
      echo "encoding for widescreen"
      ;;
    2) SCALE="400:192"
      echo "encoding for extra-widescreen"
      ;;
  esac
}

encode()
{
  x264 -o "$PWD/n800-encode.$$/video.264" "$PWD/n800-encode.$$/video.y4m" --threads 3 --no-cabac --bitrate 250 -A i4x4,p4x4,p8x8,b8x8 --level 1.2 >/dev/null 2>/dev/null &
  faac -b 96 --mpeg-vers 4 -o "$PWD/n800-encode.$$/audio.aac" "$PWD/n800-encode.$$/audio.wav" 2>/dev/null >/dev/null&
  sleep 1
  mplayer -vf scale=${SCALE},unsharp=c4x4:0.3:l5x5:0.5 -ao pcm:file="$PWD/n800-encode.$$/audio.wav" -vo yuv4mpeg:file="$PWD/n800-encode.$$/video.y4m" -ass -embeddedfonts -noframedrop ${_MPOPTS} "${_INFILE}"
  rm -f "${_OUTFILE}"

  MP4Box -new -add "$PWD/n800-encode.$$/video.264" -add "$PWD/n800-encode.$$/audio.aac" -fps ${FPS} "${_OUTFILE}"
}

prepareTemp()
{
  mkdir -p "$PWD/n800-encode.$$"
  mkfifo "$PWD/n800-encode.$$/video.y4m"
  mkfifo "$PWD/n800-encode.$$/audio.wav"
}

cleanupTemp()
{
  rm -Rf "$PWD/n800-encode.$$"
  rm -f /tmp/n800-encode.$$.ident
}

trap cleanupTemp SIGINT SIGTERM

identifySource
prepareTemp
encode
cleanupTemp

mplayer

Play video from main "good" back camera:

mplayer tv:// -tv device=/dev/video0

Play video from front camera (next to screen):

mplayer tv:// -tv device=/dev/video1

Note, the front camera looks absolutely terrible like there is far too much gain or something and has a huge band across the right side. I'm hoping this is just a kernel driver issue and it will contain less suck in the future.

More extensive scriptlet:

mplayer \
        -fs \
        -v \
        -nosound \
        -ao null \
        -nojoystick \
        -nolirc \
        -ontop \
        -framedrop \
        -stop-xscreensaver \
        -nocache \
        -noslices \
        -vo xv \
        -tv device=/dev/video0 \
        tv://

The -tv option can take many more options, like:

-tv brightness=50:contrast=50:hue=0:saturation=-0:gain=0:device=/dev/video0

If your camera settings get weird (e.g. like everybody looks like a green monster), just quit mplayer, close the camera and re-open it. The default/stock program will reset it.

See also

use cam as desktop webcam with gstreamer

DBUS

This section is being merged to form a new, better, more powerful Phone control page. See also call forward & CSD.

Here's a number of dbus examples that can be run as simple shell scripts. When running them they should be run with `run-standalone.sh` in front of them to set up the environment correctly. Otherwise they may barf when run from cron, startup, install scripts, etc. They run fine when run as user "user" without `run-standalone.sh`. Example:

run-standalone.sh dbus-send /foo bar 'boo'

dbus-send-call

dbus-send --system --dest=com.nokia.csd.Call --type=method_call --print-reply \
/com/nokia/csd/call com.nokia.csd.Call.CreateWith string:"$1" uint32:0

With this fantastic command you can make a fone call from the command line. Change $1 to whatever number you want, or if you put this in a shell script, run it and use the number you want to call as the option, ala:

dbus-send-call 15555551234

dbus-send-call-start-ui

dbus-send --print-reply --type=method_call --dest=com.nokia.HildonDesktop.AppMgr /com/nokia/HildonDesktop/AppMgr com.nokia.HildonDesktop.AppMgr.LaunchApplication string:'rtcom-call-ui'

dbus-send-tick

Vibrates like the "tick" when you tap or somethig.

dbus-send --print-reply --system --dest=com.nokia.mce /com/nokia/mce/request com.nokia.mce.request.req_vibrator_pattern_activate string:'PatternTouchscreen'

dbus-send-vibrate

Vibrate the phone  :)

dbus-send --print-reply --system --dest=com.nokia.mce /com/nokia/mce/request  com.nokia.mce.request.req_vibrator_pattern_activate string:'PatternChatAndEmail' is a little bit longer

dbus-send-activate-led

dbus-send --system --type=method_call --dest=com.nokia.mce /com/nokia/mce/request com.nokia.mce.request.req_led_pattern_activate string:PatternCommunicationIM

dbus-send-deactivate-led

dbus-send --system --type=method_call --dest=com.nokia.mce /com/nokia/mce/request com.nokia.mce.request.req_led_pattern_deactivate string:PatternCommunicationIM

dbus-send-disconnect-net

dbus-send --system --dest=com.nokia.icd /com/nokia/icd_ui com.nokia.icd_ui.disconnect boolean:true

dbus-send-email-new

dbus-send --print-reply --type=method_call --dest=com.nokia.modest /com/nokia/modest com.nokia.modest.MailTo string:mailto:

dbus-send-email-tx-rx

Doesn't work

dbus-send --session --type=method_call --dest=com.nokia.osso_email /com/nokia/osso_email com.nokia.osso_email.send_and_receive

dbus-send-get-imei

dbus-send --system --print-reply --type=method_call --dest=com.nokia.phone.SIM /com/nokia/phone/SIM/security Phone.Sim.Security.get_imei

dbus-send-google

dbus-send --system --type=method_call --dest="com.nokia.osso_browser" --print-reply /com/nokia/osso_browser/request com.nokia.osso_browser.load_url string:"google.com"

dbus-send-hello-world

dbus-send --print-reply  \
--type=method_call --dest=org.freedesktop.Notifications  \
/org/freedesktop/Notifications org.freedesktop.Notifications.SystemNoteDialog  \
string:'Hello, world!' uint32:0 string:'NAO OK!'

dbus-send-im-here

dbus-send --type=method_call --print-reply --dest=org.freedesktop.Telepathy.MissionControl /org/freedesktop/Telepathy/MissionControl org.freedesktop.Telepathy.MissionControl.SetPresence uint32:2 string:"I'm here"

dbus-send-lock

dbus-send --print-reply --system --type=method_call --dest=com.nokia.system_ui /com/nokia/system_ui/request com.nokia.system_ui.request.devlock_open string:'com.nokia.mce' string:'/com/nokia/mce/request' string:'com.nokia.mce.request' string:'devlock_callback' uint32:'3'

dbus-send-media-play

dbus-send --print-reply --dest=com.nokia.mediaplayer /com/nokia/mediaplayer com.nokia.mediaplayer.mime_open string:"file:///$1"

dbus-send-music-pause

dbus-send --dest=com.nokia.osso_media_server /com/nokia/osso_media_server com.nokia.osso_media_server.music.pause

dbus-send-notification

Usage:

dbus-send-notification "foo bar boo bah bang"
dbus-send --print-reply  \
--type=method_call --dest=org.freedesktop.Notifications  \
/org/freedesktop/Notifications org.freedesktop.Notifications.SystemNoteDialog  \
string:"$1" uint32:0 string:'NAO OK!'

dbus-send-pause-panucci

dbus-send --type="method_call" --dest=org.panucci.panucciInterface /panucciInterface org.panucci.panucciInterface.playPause

dbus-send-reboot

dbus-send --system --type=method_call --dest="com.nokia.dsme" --print-reply "/com/nokia/dsme/request" com.nokia.dsme.request.req_reboot

dbus-send-regist-status

dbus-send --system --print-reply --type=method_call --dest='com.nokia.phone.net' /com/nokia/phone/net Phone.Net.get_registration_status

dbus-send-show_conn

dbus-send --print-reply --system --dest=com.nokia.icd_ui /com/nokia/icd_ui com.nokia.icd_ui.show_conn_dlg boolean:true

dbus-send-shutdown

dbus-send --system --type=method_call --dest="com.nokia.dsme" --print-reply "/com/nokia/dsme/request" com.nokia.dsme.request.req_shutdown

dbus-send-speaker-off

dbus-send --type=method_call --dest=com.nokia.osso_hp_ls_controller /com/nokia/osso_hp_ls_controller com.nokia.osso_hp_ls_controller.loudspeaker.force_ loudspeaker_off

dbus-send-speaker-on

dbus-send --type=method_call --dest=com.nokia.osso_hp_ls_controller /com/nokia/osso_hp_ls_controller com.nokia.osso_hp_ls_controller.loudspeaker.force_ loudspeaker_on

dbus-send-task-switcher

dbus-send --type=signal --session /com/nokia/hildon_desktop com.nokia.hildon_desktop.exit_app_view

dbus-send-unlock

dbus-send --system --type=method_call --dest=com.nokia.mce /com/nokia/mce/request com.nokia.mce.request.req_tklock_mode_change string:"unlocked"

dbus-send-unlock2

dbus-send --print-reply --system --type=method_call --dest=com.nokia.system_ui /com/nokia/system_ui/request com.nokia.system_ui.request.devlock_close string:'com.nokia.mce' string:'/com/nokia/mce/request' string:'com.nokia.mce.request' string:'devlock_callback' uint32:'0'

Gripes

  • Not all Free Software....
  • 256M of NAND is way too little if it is going to be the root filesystem (/). It is way to easy to fill up. I see that they need to do this for reflashing, but since on reflash all the applications in /opt get lost anyway, what good does it do to have them there? Seems they could have mounted /usr on the 32G, or even better just put /boot on NAND and in that case NAND could even be smaller. Seems very dumb to have 32G+ of space on the device, yet still fill up the rootfs! The vast majority of users are going to have no clue how to repartition (which I will do here shortly) and aren't going to be able to install many applications, which should be a great strength of this device since it can multitask so well and the repositories are going to blossom
  • 4 rows of keys would have been a lifesaver.
  • No | (pipe) or tab key
  • The camera doesn't autofocus, or at least not when you need it to.
  • When charging the phone and talking on it, the power cable is sticking out the top, not the bottom.
  • No dictionary/translation program (!)
  • Docs, info, contacts, etc. are spewed all over the place. For instance, try to find out info about Canola. Some on this wiki, some in garage, some at their site, etc. Where does one file a bug? I've been told to ignore garage and do most at *.maemo.org, but then they should ditch those parts at garage to make things cleaner.
  • SDK pretty much assumes you are running 32-bit Debian or Ubuntu. It's not really cooperating nicely in a Debian Lenny install inside qemu.

Bugs

Bugs to file

Broken

  • Alarms not getting backed up with settings.
  • Per FSH:
ln -s /etc/opt /opt/etc
  • After reflash, extra apps are still in /opt, but are "missing" since the symlinks from /usr/bin are gone.
    • More steps needed - which exact apps, did you restore from Backup? --andre
  • Saving preferences in xchat crashes.
    • I can confirm this, but I don't know if the Maemo port of xchat has a separate bugtracker in garage.maemo.org --andre
  • "Clear private data on exit" in Midori doesn't actually clear ~/.cache/midori/web (!). I spoke to packager (kalikiana) on IRC and he said he would look into it.
`rm  -rf ~/.cache/midori ; rm -rf ~/.config/midori`       Start midori.  Go to some website.  Click "Tools".  Click "Clear Private Data".    Check "Clear private data when quitting Midori"  (but DON'T click "Clear private data" button).   Tap blurry part at top to close private data window.   Exit Midori.   `ls -R ~/.cache/midori/web`  and see the .pngs or whatever.
  • `less`, `vim` etc. don't see to like $TERM=rxvt-unicode. Using $TERM=xterm-color works fine. Probably not worth filing a bug...
    • vi is available via default, but not vim. Feel free to file a bug report with exact steps. --andre
  • lcuk: package liqcontrolpanel's summary is "short description". Package should be removed entirely.
  • Image viewer: 1) rotate image 2) view thumbnail. Image doesn't get rotated in thumbnail in *some* cases.
  • Maps viewer (OVI): The program is running ok in Spanish, but map data is in English (e.g. "South Pacific Ocean" "South America"). I first ran the program in English, but have subsequently set the system to Spanish.

RFEs

  • Alarm clock should show current time, not time alarm was set for, or when you hit snooze, you can't see current time (and think it is alarm time!).
  • In package manager you have to keep scrolling down to the package you want. You can't just hit "r" for example and have it scroll to "r" in the list of packages. This is actually pervasive throughout Maemo 5. It seems to only really do this in Contacts app.
  • It totally sucks that if someone steals your phone, they pretty much own you. At least /home/user/MyDocs should be encrypted. Ideally this would be done with LUKS and decrypt at boot with a password. Perhaps encryptfs
  • Need a #maemo-devel channel too, as #maemo is noisy...
  • xchat is totally not tweaked for maemo, such as scrolling...
  • mplayer should use pulsebarfaudio by default, not alsa:
echo "ao = pulse" > ~/.mplayer/config
  • Media Player doesn't thumbnail videos after they are taken with the N900 camera/video app. It didn't after closing and re-opening app, but I see they are now thumbnailed (post flashing). Anyway, it should do them "immediately".
  • Lots of internationalization packages are taking up space needlessly. But if, for example, Swedish Calendar support is removed, it wants to remove the whole calendar. The i10n packages should be removable without removing the whole app.
  • App Manager should include $LICENSE in Description.
    • Worth an enhancement request, explaining why you want this --andre
  • qik.com doesn't work with gnash (I mailed them and they mailed back saying, uh, ya, sorry).

Bugs of Note

Here's a few bugs of interest to me. Please vote for them. :)

No Source Code

Builder

Argentina Time Zone

Calendar/Tasks

Chat & Call & SMS


Contacts

Canola

Desktop

Mailing Lists

diff/busybox

wiki

lsb-core

ringtones

My Packages

These are packages I have built and are available in the maemo repository, packages I've built and are in my repository or packages I'd like to see built.

In Maemo Repository

Burgerspace

  • Fantastic. Heh.
  • Workz.
  • maemo packages page
  • Talk discussion thread
  • Bugzilla
  • Built deps libflatzebra and libflatzebra-dev
  • Is aligned left, not center.
  • Press spacebar to begin.
  • ctrl key for salt.
  • Oli wants to throw salt with Z instead--update .desktop
  • First package I figured out the Maemo way for desktop/installer icons and .desktop file for menus. Now that I see all that, this gonna be ez.
  • gtk icon cache script in postinst.
  • get some better larger icons.
  • Need to get fullscreen mode, as too much is cropped.
  • Waiting for bugzilla Product.
  • Many N900 keyboards don't have up and down arrows without holding Fn! This seems like a huge FAIL to me, but need to work around it.

Asterisk

I have asterisk packages in extras-testing.

Connected to Asterisk 1.6.2.0-3 currently running on Nokia-N900-42-11 (pid = 1692)

Asterisk Packages in Maemo extras-testing

Asterisk Bugzilla

Misc


diffmo!

ok, out of sheer frustration with missing diff utility (required by the GNU Coding Standards) I have packaged up "diffmo", which is diff, diff3, sdiff, and cmp, but renamed to diffmo, diff3mo, sdiffmo, and cmpmo. :)

  • colordiff - would be nice too. I've built it, but it requires diff. May patch it up so it uses diffmo.

Packages in My Repository

I have set up a package repository. To use it you need to add my repo. In the application manager, add it thusly (I'm translating from Spanish, so the words may be slightly different.

  • Catalog name:
jebba
  • Web address:
http://www.freemoe.org/users/jebba
  • Distribution
unstable
  • Components
main

Packages TODO

Package these or get someone to do it.


Dictionary / Translation

I'm really surprised there aren't a dozen of these.

  • fantasdic - dictionary


Wikipedia

I have done an offline wikipedia reader for FREEEEE in the past, but it was only 2000 articles (though with images). Still way small.

  • evopedia looks rad - Gah, uses squashfs which isn't in the n900 kernel (no suprise there), but also isn't in the 2.6.28 kernel. Which would mean patching it in to a kernel that has branched quite a ways from mainline. Which means pain. :(

Misc

  • git - Poked at this for a bit based on git in Debian Sid and updated to the latest release, but they have so much other stuff going on in there, I'm just gonna start from scratch. It compiles and runs, but getting it all into a clean .deb is a mess right now. Also fails tests because there's no `expect` in repos yet.
  • some video conferencing app (telepathy-gabble), jingle etc.


  • tangogps - "an easy to use, fast and lightweight mapping application for use with or without GPS."
  • boa - lightweight webserver (cute). Using lighttpd, which seems to fit the bill already tho.
  • lshw - wants PCI stuff, so maybe won't work very well anyway. It doesn't show too much on my Sharp Netwalker.

See Also

SDK

There are a couple different SDKs (at least) that can be used. I have the main/standard SDK up and running on Fedora 12 x86_64. It is based on Scratchbox 1. There is another SDK, Maemo SDK+, which is based on Scratchbox 2, but I don't have that working yet.


Installing Maemo 5 SDK on Fedora 12 x86_64

Prepare host system

Add "vdso32=0" to your kernel bootline so it looks something like this (I also have selinux disabled). Edit /boot/grub/grub.conf. You have to reboot for it to take effect.

kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.31.6-145.fc12.x86_64 ro root=/dev/sda2 selinux=0 quiet rhgb nompath nodmraid SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 KEYTABLE=la-latin1 vdso32=0

Install Xephyr

sudo yum -y install Xephyr

Download and patch wizard

Grab the wizard script.

wget http://repository.maemo.org/stable/5.0/maemo-sdk-install-wizard_5.0.py
chmod +x maemo-sdk-install-wizard_5.0.py

Apply this patch to maemo-sdk-install-wizard_5.0.py:

--- maemo-sdk-install-wizard_5.0.py.orig    2009-11-16 08:16:39.000000000 -0300
+++ maemo-sdk-install-wizard_5.0.py    2009-12-04 17:29:00.905719892 -0300
@@ -2308,7 +2308,7 @@
        tries = 2
        while (True):
            try:
-                exec_cmd(sb_installer_fn + opt)
+                exec_cmd(sb_installer_fn + opt + "-s " + SB_PATH)
            except:
                tries -= 1
                if tries:
@@ -2348,7 +2348,7 @@


        # do the installation thing
-        cmd = "%s -d -m %s" % (sdk_installer_fn, self.__sdk_inst_m_opt_arg)
+        cmd = "%s -d -m %s -s %s" % (sdk_installer_fn, self.__sdk_inst_m_opt_arg, SB_PATH)

        if self.__targets_exist:
            if self.__remove_targets:

Run wizard, run

Then start up the install wizard:

sudo ./maemo-sdk-install-wizard_5.0.py

In SDK install wizard GUI:

  1. Next
  2. Custom Installation, Commit
  3. Gar, Next
  4. Install anyway, Next
  5. User jebba, Next
  6. Install options, Next
  7. VDSO suport, I accept, Next (though I did boot with vdso=32 ...)
  8. Development environment, Next
  9. Accept barf, Next (gah)
  10. It will then download everything and install. Perhaps a couple Nexts and it is done.


"No dpkg" error

If you get the following error, it is because your maemo-sdk-install-wizard_5.0.py script didn't get patched correctly, as above.

which: no dpkg in (/usr/bin:/bin)
dpkg tool in path... no
E: This script requires dpkg to install .deb files.
V [17:19:35 04.12.2009]: Installer execution failed
V [17:19:35 04.12.2009]: ----- Begin logging exception -----
Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "./maemo-sdk-install-wizard_5.0.py", line 2705, in run
   task( )
 File "./maemo-sdk-install-wizard_5.0.py", line 2318, in __taskInstallScratchbox
    raise Exception("Installer execution failed")
Exception: Installer execution failed
V [17:19:35 04.12.2009]: ----- End logging exception -----
V [17:19:35 04.12.2009]: Executor set exit status to (status_error)


See also:

Running Maemo 5 SDK on Fedora 12 x86_64

Now that the SDK is happily installed, you can run it.

New Group sbox

In the terminals where you will be running commands you need to run this to show up in the sbox group. Any subsequent times you log out and in you don't need to run it again (in other words, you just have to run this when you first set things up):

newgrp sbox

Start Scratchbox & Xephyr & Login

After installation scratchbox is "booted" up. Subsequently (e.g. after a reboot of your laptop) you will need to start it thusly:

sudo ~/devel/maemo/scratchbox/sbin/sbox_ctl start


Get Xephyr going, which is the X server. Note the Fedora 12 version doesn't have the "-kb" optioned mentioned in other docs.

Xephyr :2 -host-cursor -screen 800x480x16 -dpi 96 -ac


Log in to Scratchbox:

~/devel/maemo/scratchbox/login

This should give you a prompt like this:

[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] > 

Then to launch the emulated GUI, run this at the above prompt:

af-sb-init.sh start

Then you should have the emulator up and running! :)

Using SDK

Frequently Used Commands

Build binary package:

cd foo-1.2.3
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -b -uc

Build source package:

cd foo-1.2.3
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot

Switch to build for ARM:

sb-conf select FREMANTLE_ARMEL

Switch to build for x86:

sb-conf select FREMANTLE_X86

Kill off things running if it won't let you switch between ARM/x86:

sb-conf killall

Grab and start building a source package:

apt-get -b source foo

File that describes package being built:

vim foo-1.2.3/debian/control

File that has build rules (e.g. where ./configure is):

vim foo-1.2.3/debian/rules

File that lists patches to be used:

vim foo-1.2.3/debian/patches/series


Source Repositories

One of the "easiest" ways to get things built is to just check to see if it is in any of the Debian repositories and just pillage it from there. Grabbing it from an "old" repository and building it will be easiest because the dependencies are more likely to be the same. Grabbing it from the latest and greatest repository means you will get the most recent version of the package, but will probably have to go through and sort out more dependencies.

Note, you (or I) probably don't want to add the binary repositories to your build environment or you may cause some total chaos in your system. In this case, I am only adding the source repositories.

These are the source repos I added to /etc/apt/sources.list. Note that you have to do this within both architectures (x86/ARM) as they don't share the same sources.list.

# Etch
#deb-src http://ftp.ccc.uba.ar/pub/linux/debian/debian/ etch main contrib

# Etch Backports
#deb-src http://www.backports.org/debian etch-backports main contrib

# Stable Lenny
#deb-src http://ftp.ccc.uba.ar/pub/linux/debian/debian/ stable main contrib
#deb-src http://ftp.ccc.uba.ar/pub/linux/debian/debian/ lenny main contrib

# Testing Squeeze
#deb-src http://ftp.ccc.uba.ar/pub/linux/debian/debian/ testing main contrib
deb-src http://ftp.ccc.uba.ar/pub/linux/debian/debian/ squeeze main contrib

# Unstable sid
#deb-src http://ftp.ccc.uba.ar/pub/linux/debian/debian/ unstable main contrib
#deb-src http://ftp.ccc.uba.ar/pub/linux/debian/debian/ sid main contrib

Some of the same repos above are listed twice, just to help me keep straight all of Debian's releases. For example "sid" and "unstable" are the same thing. Explanation:

  • Etch - This is what the SDK is based on. It was released in 2007. Version 4.0. ("oldstable").
  • Etch Backports - These are packages which aren't in Etch, or at least not updated to the latest and greatest in Etch, but people "outside" of the Debian project maintain more recent packages. For example, they may have a more recent version of a web browser when Debian's Etch just backports patches to an ancient version.
  • Lenny - This is the "stable" version of Debian. Version 5.0. Released February 2009.
  • Squeeze - This is the "testing" version of Debian and when it is fully done will be the "stable" release and will be version 6.0.
  • Sid - This version will never be stable nor "released" and is always on the bleeding edge. The latest, most recent packages are in this repository. This is like "rawhide" in Fedora and -current in OpenBSD.

maemo-optify

ANOTHER NOTE: I'm not using maemo-optify anymore since VDVsx said it wasn't the real proper way... Now just doing --prefix=/opt and such...

QUICK NOTE (XXX FIX):

From: Marius Vollmer <marius.vollmer@nokia.com> 
Jeff Moe <moe@blagblagblag.org> writes: 

> I installed the maemo-optify 0.2 package from extras-devel but it is missing 
> the  maemo-optify-buildpackage script. I see it in git. 

Ahh, right.  The maemo-optify-buildpackage script is not used any
longer.  I have removed it from Git to reduce the confusion.

The real dpkg-buildpackage in the SDK has been modified directly to call
maemo-optify.


Tools to make using /opt convenient for Debian packages.

git clone git://gitorious.org/maemo-af/maemo-optify.git

Maemo-optify is available in the repos and you can apt-get it from within scratchbox, but the .deb is missing the maemo-optify-buildpackage script. I emailed the author to let him know. In the interim, grab it from git, and:

cp -p maemo-optify-buildpackage /usr/local/bin

To use it is super-simple, and worked for me without hassle with asterisk:

echo auto > asterisk-1.6.1.11/debian/optify
maemo-optify-buildpackage -rfakeroot -b -uc
maemo-optify-buildpackage -rfakeroot -S


Uh, I also want files of all sizes to be moved to /opt, not just ones above 2048 bytes. Asterisk has 600k of files still, since it has lots of sound files smaller than 2k. There is a forthcoming option to define this in debian/optify, but that feature isn't in place yet. So in the interim remove the maemo-optify packages (from both X86 and ARM), and use this "patch":

--- maemo-optify/maemo-optify    2009-12-04 21:30:51.770927951 -0300
+++ /usr/local/bin/maemo-optify    2009-12-06 17:39:22.000017316 -0300
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@
        dbg "link, nope\n";
    } elsif (! ($entry eq "." || $entry =~ /^.\/usr/)) {
        dbg "not in /usr, nope\n";
-    } elsif ($size >= 2048) {
+    } elsif ($size >= 0) {
        if (!blacklisted ($entry)) {
            dbg "yes, saved $size bytes\n";
            $total_count += 1;

Upload to extras-devel

Maemian

Lint tool for Maemo packages. Gotta do no ssl verify to clone things from git.maemo.org

GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY=0 git clone https://git.maemo.org/projects/maemian

See also


Configure Scratchbox environment

Within scratchbox:

echo ":syntax on" > ~/.vimrc
echo ":set paste" >> ~/.vimrc
echo ":set nobackup" >> ~/.vimrc
echo "export TERM=xterm-color" >> ~/.bashrc

I still feel like a total noob sometimes in that I don't even know how to get my fkn Home/End keys to work in the scratchbox. heh. Hint anyone? :)

SDK Errors

If you get this:

ERROR: Scratchbox is not properly set up!

Run this:

sudo /scratchbox/sbin/sbox_ctl start

SDK+

This is the "alternative" SDK based on Scratchbox 2. I don't have it working yet on Fedora 12 x86_64. It complains and says it just works on i386 ARCH.

Maemo SDK+ - Alternative SDK for Maemo based on Scratchbox 2.

http://maemo-sdk.garage.maemo.org/maemo-sdk-installer.py
chmod +x maemo-sdk-installer.py
sudo ./maemo-sdk-installer.py install -g

Hmm. Well, this is crashing and burning on x86_64:

$ sudo ./maemo-sdk-installer.py install -g
Operating system's machine or word size (x86_64) is not supported.
These are supported: ['i386', 'i686']
System check failed!


Things possibly needed:

yum -y install redhat-lsb

debootstrap

Perhaps I should install this sucker in an etch chroot...

yum -y install debootstrap
debootstrap --arch=i386 etch /home/jebba/devel/etch-i386 http://ftp.ccc.uba.ar/pub/linux/debian/debian/

Free Development Box

I have set up a server for folks to use that don't have access to a /scratchbox, can't set one up, want a faster one, etc. If you would like access to it, drop me a note at moe@blagblagblag.org

Website

The website has subdirs for users if they want to share the .debs they make. I have made mine a repository so packages can be grabbed with the Hildon Application Manager or apt-get.

buildrepo

This is my buildrepo script. I think I may change the repository setup so I have fremantle, harmattan, etc. sub-directories. It is not generating .diffs, which would make `apt-get update`s faster, but then again, it's a teeny repo right now so that probably doesn't matter. Tips welcome.

#!/bin/sh

# Binary Packages
dpkg-scanpackages dists/unstable/main/binary-armel /dev/null | gzip -9c > dists/unstable/main/binary-armel/Packages.gz

# Source Packages
dpkg-scansources dists/unstable/main/source /dev/null | gzip -9c > dists/unstable/main/source/Sources.gz

QEMU

The build server is running as a qemu guest. It is launched from the host thusly:

#!/bin/sh

/usr/local/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 \
        -drive \
        file=/kvm/flauta.qcow2,index=0,if=virtio,cache=writeback,boot=on \
    -drive \
        file=/kvm/www-freemoe.qcow2,index=1,if=virtio,cache=writeback \
    -drive \
        file=/kvm/scratchbox1.qcow2,index=2,if=virtio,cache=writeback \
        -cpu qemu32 \
        -m 2048 \
        -vnc :5 \
        -daemonize \
    -enable-kvm \
    -name flauta \
    -net nic,vlan=0,model=virtio \
    -net user,hostfwd=tcp:63.247.92.155:22-:22,hostfwd=tcp:63.247.92.155:80-:80 \
    -smp 8 \
    -runas jebba
  • It is running the "current" QEMU git (d0be2513d5eefb47a83f9a303fe142dd8ef72848).
  • Host kernel is custom 2.6.32.
  • Guest is running Debian Lenny with stock Lenny kernel.
  • The guest is running a custom 2.6.32 kernel now. A good sample .config optimized for qemu would be fantastic. Currently only seeing 883M (before seeing 2G) likely due to turning off 4G/4G which I turned off for speed per QEMU docs. Not sure if lots of memory will speed things up anyway--the filesystem will just get cached on the host.
  • The guest panicked once (when building a kernel.deb for ARM running `dpkg-buildpackage -j8 -rfakeroot -b`...), hence the drive to run a more recent guest kernel.

VoIP

SIP Configuration

Right now, I can make calls out ok, but the other end can't hear me... It's almost certainly due to NAT and how SIP works. Here's my configuration with Ekiga:

SIP Configuration 1
SIP Configuration 1
SIP Configuration 2
SIP Configuration 2
SIP Configuration 3
SIP Configuration 3
SIP Configuration 4
SIP Configuration 4

sbdmock

Build tool

  • Install on topo
(05:44:08 PM) tbf: jebba: just make sure to always run the beast with "--debug" switch to see what breaks

Random

Things to file/organize.

  • irc.freenode.net #maemo #canola
  • Under the battery there are two sets of gold "dots" on the motherboard. What are these for? JTAG? USB? Serial???
  • SDK hung forever after download at: "Preconfiguring packages".
  • Can Maemo be installed on Sharp Netwalker, since Ubuntu on that thing is a terrible dog by comparison?
  • People I /ignore in #maemo IRC (with pidgin plugin that doesn't seem to save the ignores...):
/ignore +pupnik_ +luke-jr_ +PaulFertser +Klowner_ +TommyBres
  • lshal
  • [5] - Core domain architecture
  • Turn on camera LEDs (e.g. for flashlight):
SpeedEvil: jebba: you open the camera file descriptor and send a ioctl(V4L2_TORCH_ON)
SpeedEvil: jebba: well, there may be a dbus thingy for it - there is no need though. mplayer could do it if it could control arbitrary v4l2 controls - but it can't
(07:39:24 PM) cehteh: SpeedEvil: V4L2_CID_INDICATOR_INTENSITY  ... the dim mode is supported in the driver
  • Icons:
(05:13:43 PM) VDVsx: 48x48 for the app menu and 64x64 for the desktop shortcuts
  • To make an icon to be put in debian/control (MUST be 48x48):
openssl base64 -in emacs-48x48.png | sed -e 's/^/ /' >> control
  • Accelerometer:
(12:34:03 PM) DocScrutinizer51: jebba: (accel) it's a lis302. I'm sure on wiki.openmoko.org you find quite some details, and link to datasheet
  • HOWTO ignore lamers on talk.maemo.org: click their Username, click "View Public Profile", click "User lists", click "Add to Ignore list", click "yes" to confirm. (OrangeBox for starters)

Thanks!

Hope you enjoyed the show. Feel free to edit this page.