User:JohnSullivan/Hackable1

2009-05-18T05:36:13Z

JohnSullivan: /* References */

User:JohnSullivan/Hackable1

2009-05-18T05:03:50Z

JohnSullivan: /* GPRS */

JohnSullivan: /* GPRS */

Following the instructions at http://freerunner.android.koolu.com/release-files, I formatted my 8GB microSD card to be one FAT16 partition, and untarred the [http://trac.koolu.org/wiki/Releases Beta 6] archive at root.

It booted, but then complained that the process Application Settings in process com.android.settings was not responding. I tried clicking Wait a few times. Then I put the phone aside for a few minutes and the screen blanked. I reactivated it by hitting the power button, then there was a new error that the process com.android.phone had stopped unexpectedly. I clicked "Force close", which was the only option.

I saw the same error after clicking on the Open Source Licenses viewer.

Unfortunately this image includes a Skype icon of some kind. Do not want.

Basically nothing worked after installing. I received the "com.android.phone" error whenever I tried to do anything meaningful.

It also doesn't seem to like my SIM, as it complains that I have no service.

Looks like someone reported the Application Settings error [http://trac.koolu.org/ticket/25 here].

How do I get an account for the Trac instance?

To get adb working on my Debian testing amd64 box, I installed ia32-libs.

adb kill-server
ADBHOST=192.168.0.202 adb devices

Note that it shows up as eth1 rather than usb0.

ia32-archive on my mipsel laptop should work but doesn't install right now.

Connecting with adb shell and running logcat, I see the bluetooth headset service crashing constantly. As per [http://forum.koolu.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=77 this thread], removing the APN entries seems to solve the problems.

== Removing nonfree stuff ==

After starting an adb shell, "pm list packages" shows what's installed. But, "pm uninstall com.android.providers.drm" returned failure. So did disconnecting from the shell and running "adb uninstall com.android.providers.drm". "pm list packages -f" lists not only the package names but also the files that they are associated with. Trying to rm the "/system/app/DrmProvider.apk" file just errors because the filesystem is read-only, even after I remount it rw. Well, that's because /system is on its own partition. So, this seems to do it:

adb shell mount -o remount,rw /dev/mtdblock6 /system
adb shell rm /system/app/DrmProvider.apk

== GPRS ==

Beta 6 has a bug in it so that the keyboard doesn't work for pop-up dialogues. This means not being able to enter information in the GPRS APN setup widget.

So, enter "internet2.voicestream.com" in a note via Notepad. With the note open, press and hold on the screen. The copy/paste menu will pop up. Copy All. Go to the APN settings, press power and add APN, then edit the APN field, long touch on the field, and select paste. Switch back (by holding down AUX and selecting) to Notepad, type the name for the APN (like "tmobile"), and repeat. But right now, with any APN defined, the phone application keeps crashing..

I also see mention of epc.tmobile.com for the APN, might be worth trying.

I tried the trick of turning airplane mode on, rebooting, and turning airplane mode off, after defining the APN, but that didn't help.

"/data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases" has the sqlite3 db with settings in it.

== References ==

* http://forum.koolu.org
* http://panicking.kicks-ass.org/download/
* http://trac.koolu.org

User:JohnSullivan/Android

2009-05-16T19:57:06Z

JohnSullivan: /* GPRS */

User:JohnSullivan/Android

2009-05-16T19:30:16Z

JohnSullivan: /* References */

User:JohnSullivan/Android

2009-05-16T19:20:06Z

JohnSullivan: add gprs info

User:JohnSullivan

2009-05-16T19:09:38Z

JohnSullivan: /* Debian */

= State of the 'Runner =

I'm using a FreeRunner, with [[Qtopia on FreeRunner|Qt-Extended]] on the flash but mainly using [[Debian]] on the microSD. Currently I'm experimenting with [[SHR]] and [[/Android]] as well.

I'm in [[Openmoko_Local_Groups:_Boston|Boston]].

If you have a question or suggestion for me, feel free to leave it on the talk page here or [http://wjsullivan.net/Contact.html contact me by email and more]. I'm also in #openmoko, #openmoko-cdevel, #freerunner-android, #openmoko-debian as johnsu01.

== Blogging and Writing==

I'm blogging a bit about my experiences and hacking on the FreeRunner at http://journal.wjsullivan.net. Posts [http://journal.wjsullivan.net/tag/freerunner tagged with "freerunner"] are syndicated to http://planet.openmoko.org.

I started a microblogging group for FreeRunner users at [http://identi.ca/group/freerunner identi.ca].

This is a personal page, but related articles I've written for the FSF include:

* Is the Google phone free as in FreeRunner? (FSF Bulletin, Fall 2008, will be available online soon)
* [http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/5-reasons-to-avoid-iphone-3g 5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3g]
* [http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/why-free-software-and-apples-iphone-dont-mix Why free software and Apple's iPhone don't mix]

=== Highlights ===

* [http://journal.wjsullivan.net/232100.html T-Mobile GPRS on the FreeRunner with Qtopia]

== Hardware ==

* GTA02
* Altec Lansing 2.5mm headphones (which have a mic too, though I don't know if it works)
* 8GB microSD card
* [http://people.openmoko.org/joerg/calypso_moko_FW/moko11/ GSM firmware version moko11-beta1]

== Booting ==

I'm using [[Qi]]. This was installed from [http://people.openmoko.org/andy/ here] with:

dfu-util -a u-boot -R -D qi-s3c2442-master_a2d11c4dd18c9517.udfu

The kernel then needs to be renamed/linked to /boot/boot/uImage-GTA02.bin.

We also need a /boot/boot/append-GTA02 file containing:

root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 console=tty0 loglevel=8 rootdelay=1

== Android ==

See [[/Android]].

== Debian ==

I'm using the [http://people.openmoko.org/andy/ andy-tracking kernel], 2.6.29 d1a9cf85c8608601. I tried 15ca3dafb2662db4, but it seemed to not detect the battery. It also vomited HDQ errors in the logs and then spontaneously shutdown after being up for about 3 or 4 minutes.

=== Uses ===

I'm currently using it with T-Mobile. I'm using e17 and Illume for the window manager environment.

==== Audio ====

* gmpc/mpc/mpd/mpdscribble as a scrobbling music player
* I have gotten a Nokia BH-208 bluetooth headset to pair, and to make the beep that it should make when calls start and stop, but there is no sound other than hissing.
* I'm working on getting A2DP going with another headset, but haven't had success yet.
* I tried gpodder as a podcasting application, and it works okay but for some reason it doesn't like the URL for the main podcast I want to listen to, which is Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. Do I really want a dedicated podcast app anyway?

==== Calendar ====

Currently experimenting with http://www.pimlico-project.org/dates.html. I built it from svn on 2009.02.04 and it seems to be working very nicely. It does not seem to have an alarm for appointments, though, and there are some font issues with the yearly calendar view that are causing the numbers to overlap.

==== Contacts ====

I built http://www.pimlico-project.org/contacts.html from svn on 2009.02.04. I successfully imported all 177 of my contacts. From my Nokia phone, I sent them all over bluetooth to the FreeRunner (with obexpushd), and then cat'd them all into a single vcf file. I pointed Contacts toward this, and it imported them. Took a few minutes to do the import, but it worked.
However, upon opening Contacts recently, all my contacts were '''gone'''. I have no idea how this happened, but I'm certainly not trusting it without constant backups for the forseeable future.

==== Connectivity ====

* Tethered via bluetooth to my Nokia E61, which gets it a T-mobile EDGE connection.
* wifi-radar for connecting to wifi networks

===== Wifi =====

I was having trouble with wifi recently -- I could get an address, and do dns lookups, but couldn't reliably ping any host including the gateway. If I left ping running long enough, it would eventually get a few successful ones, but overall it was unusable. I tried a few things including setting the rate with iwconfig and making sure power management was off, but that didn't help. I installed [[Wmiconfig]] and did:

wmiconfig -i eth0 --power maxperf

Now things seem to be working again. But that massively increases power consumption, so I'm still trying to debug the root of the problem. It seems to have something to do with channels and interference, since I can connect to the AP at work, where there are fewer other APs around to crowd the airwaves.

To disable wifi:

wmiconfig -i eth0 --wlan disable

As of M5, in FSO you have to activate the WiFi resource in order to use it. For example (on one line):

mdbus -s org.freesmartphone.ousaged /org/freesmartphone/Usage org.freesmartphone.Usage.SetResourcePolicy WiFi enabled

This will activate it for multiple clients -- you could also request it instead of setting a different policy, and since the default policy is auto, it will go back off again when you release it.

===== Bluetooth =====

I'm using bluez 4.33 compiled from source, and bluetooth-gnome 1.8 also compiled from source. I use obexpushd for receiving bluetooth files. I'm compiling from source because when I tried the packaged versions in Debian, the keyboards did not stay paired. I had to re-pair them every time power to either the FreeRunner or the keyboard was turned off.

==== Display and Desktop ====

I'm using xserver-xglamo.

The illume theme was using the default ugly X crosshairs mouse cursor. I installed the crystalcursors package and made sure via update-alternatives that it was in use, but it didn't work in e17 until I went into Settings => Look => Mouse Cursor. I selected "Use X cursor", "Show cursor", and changed the cursor size to 16px (under Advanced). Now it's a more pleasant arrow.

The default font size in illume was far, far too small. To increase it, go to Settings => Look => Scaling => Advanced. Set custom scaling on, and then increase the personal scaling factor. Mine is currently set at 2.3. You'll need to restart in order for things to fully settle.

By default, the AUX button is not configured to lock the screen. I changed this by going to Settings => Input => Keybindings. Highlight the first entry, click Modify Key, then press the AUX key. Set it to execute "Desktop Simple Lock".

If icons for installed applications don't show on the desktop, you can try editing the desktop files in /usr/share/applications to make sure that they say "Applications" in the category field and not "Application".

==== E-mail ====

Claws (apt-get install claws-mail) is working well for e-mail. It has a small screen setting that is very usable.

Sending mail didn't work at first. Turns out you have to create a queue folder in order for that to work -- go to File => Add Mailbox and make a local mailbox called Queue. Then under Configuration => Edit Current Account => Advanced under Folder, check the "Put queued messages in" and then select that folder.

==== Games ====

* Xboard seems to work for chess.
* I tried Gnubik, but the software OpenGL is just too slow.
* Enigma was not playable
* Nethack works in the terminal :)
* [http://linball.sf.net/linball-openmoko.tar.gz linball] is a little pinball game, start with ./linball -f
* [http://mokomaze.projects.openmoko.org/ Mokomaze] is awesome! Work through various mazes, using the accelerometer for control. Installable in Debian with "apt-get install mokomaze".
* [http://code.google.com/p/acceleroids/ Acceleroids] also uses the accelerometer, but so far seems very difficult to control. Maybe I'll get the hang of it. Note that you start it with sdlroids-launcher.sh.

==== GPS ====

TangoGPS.

==== Input ====

===== Stylus =====

* I use a PaperMate PhD Multi pen, which has a pen, pencil, and stylus. It also happens to be the same kind of pen I've used for years anyway -- I just switched the multi version when I got the FreeRunner.
* [http://www.jetmall.net/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=303 This Cowon stylus] looks interesting, and the idea of having something attached to the device is appealing.

===== Softkeyboards =====

* The illume keyboard is quite usable, especially rotated horizontally. To get it to use the full available space after rotating the screen, go to settings, turn the keyboard off and back on again. Or, just check the "Restore after login" box in the screen rotation settings. Then you don't have to toggle the keyboard.
* I change the the "small" dictionary (by clicking the upper left corner of the keyboard) -- I find the full dictionary to be too slow.
* I'm now using [http://www.opkg.org/packages/illume-default-alt_0.1_arm.ipk this layout]. It can be extracted on Debian with ar x, and then tar on the data.tar.gz file. See the [http://n2.nabble.com/file/n2172078/Screenshot-1.png screenshot] from Shashank Bharadwaj who designed it. I've also made it available in [http://wjsullivan.net/git/?p=freerunner.git;a=blob_plain;f=Default.kbd;hb=e88af70654605cc4ef86704fc2f956f80740208d my git repo].
* cellwriter won't work easily with illume, because it shows up as a separate window rather than what the illume keyboard does.

===== Freedom =====

I'm testing [http://www.freedominput.com/site/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=14&category_id=1&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=88 one of these] credit-card sized bluetooth keyboards. It pairs and types and the form factor is excellent.

===== FrogPad =====

* The FrogPad works well, but if frameworkd is in charge of the screen blanking, the screen will go blank while you're typing. I solved this by commenting out the "Idleness Brightness Handling" section of /etc/freesmartphone/oevents/rules.yaml file. Now screen blanking is just handled by X, and so it stays on while I'm typing.

==== Phone ====

I'm working on getting acceptable audio quality. I can get audio through my wired headset by manually loading the state file after the call connects, but it's far too soft by default and the microphone on the headset does not work.

===== Echo issue =====

I am currently not experiencing any complaints about echo.

Things to try if the problem appears:

For sound out of the handset, the [[Improving_user_experience]] page says to set control.4 Speaker Playback Volume to 95.

http://docs.openmoko.org/trac/ticket/1267

http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/hardware/2008-August/000451.html

===== Buzzing =====

I previously had complaints about buzzing sometimes, but often it is okay too.

Now, I've had the hardware SOP fix for this applied, and it's working great. No more complaints about buzz.

http://www.mail-archive.com/support@lists.openmoko.org/msg00564.html

http://docs.openmoko.org/trac/ticket/883

http://docs.openmoko.org/trac/ticket/1352

http://people.openmoko.org/joerg/GSM_EMI_noise/big-C_rework_SOP__DRAFT3__.pdf

===== fso-el =====

This is my project to create an Emacs interface to the freesmartphone API. It's what I will be using for the time being to make and receive calls, and send and receive SMS.

The home page with information about getting the code is http://wiki.wjsullivan.net/collaboration.cgi/FsoEl.

===== Paroli =====

[http://www.paroli-project.org/ Paroli]

===== Zhone =====

* [http://trac.freesmartphone.org/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=closed&status=new&status=reopened&component=zhone%2Fgeneral&order=status All Zhone bugs]

Zhone requires python bindings, from https://svn.enlightenment.org/svn/e/trunk/BINDINGS/python ? Installing this requires python-setuptools. The default path should also be changed because it tries to install things to /root/usr...

I'm suffering from the infamous buzz and so far am not able to use the device as my regular phone.

====== Build deps ======

These are packages I needed to install in order to build Zhone. apt-get build-dep zhone didn't work -- no source package available.

* cython

==== Reading ====

I'm using epdfview to read PDFs. I had problems with it crashing on larger PDFs at first, but I haven't seen that in a while. I think it's probably because I added a swapfile. xpdf and evince are also options.

[http://books.google.com/googlebooks/mobile/ Google's mobile book search] works great.

fbreader is also good, even just the version installed from Debian. It supports ePub books.

==== Time ====

I use ntpd and sometimes ntpdate-debian -u to sync the time, then hwclock --adjust immediately to fix the hardware clock. I also have ntpdate-debian -u run as an ip-up script on ppp/GPRS connect. I have otimed disabled for now, because I'm trying to figure out why the device is losing time while it's on. It has the correct time on boot, but then will lose minutes rather rapidly -- 7 or 8 per hour. This happens even when ntpd is running and the device is connected to the network via usb.

I haven't found a good alarm clock app yet.

Time is displayed in small analog clock form in the e17 toolbar. It's not ideal but it's okay for now.

==== Web browsing ====

===== Iceweasel configuration =====

* Set my home page to http://delicious.com/johnsu01/mobile, which will have frequently used bookmarks, but I have the start page set to blank.
* Remove the search from the navigation toolbar. (Right-click, customize toolbar, drag the search box to the dialog.)
* [http://sniptools.com/vault/disable-auto-completion-in-firefox-address-bar Disable autocompletion in the address bar] -- makes typing impossible. I had to do this (and other iceweasel configuration) over X forwarded ssh, because iceweasel config windows keep coming up larger than the screen.
* Probably need to install Adblock and add a filter to block all of these javascript form field suggesting scripts (like google.com or youtube.com) -- they really slow things down and make typing frustrating.

I tried the delicious extension but it seems to make things too slow. I might try again. The reason I'm using iceweasel instead of midori is because I'm hoping that one of the mouse gesture extensions will be useful.

===== w3m in Emacs =====

I'm experimenting with using this more. With an Emacs X frame open, I can display the images as well and it seems like a reasonable way to look at most pages.

===== Other options =====

Fennec doesn't build easily yet, though some people apparently have it working.

NetSurf was too buggy for me -- very strange things were happening in input fields. Plus, it doesn't support JavaScript, and seemed a little sluggish.

=== Performance ===

Boot time with u-boot was about 3 minutes. Switching to [[Qi]] has brought it down to about 2. I'm currently starting mpd and mpdscribble at boot, which I will stop by writing a shell script that starts them if they are not already started when I actually open the music player.

I'm also using exim4, which was adding almost a full minute to the boot time. Doing:

dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config

And answering "Yes" to the "Keep number of DNS-queries minimal" question helped reduce this.

I'm currently experimenting with using a swap file, to see if that improves stability. I made that with:

dd if=/dev/zero of=swapfile bs=1024 count=524288
mkswap swapfile

Then added to fstab:

/swapfile none swap sw 0 0

And to start using it immediately:

swapon -a

/sys/class/i2c-adapter/i2c-0/0-0073/pcf50633-mbc/ is where the chg_curlim file lives.

=== Suspend ===

I edited /usr/local/etc/enlightenment/sysactions.conf to use the FSO Usage.Suspend dbus method instead of acpi to handle suspend, and commented out the suspend event in the rules.yaml frameworkd file. This way I can use the e17 menu to handle things. If you just use apm, then gsm events will wake the phone back up randomly.

Resume wasn't working for me -- when I tried to resume, I got a blank gray screen. I could still do things over ssh, but there was no display. I've fixed that by adding [http://wjsullivan.net/git/?p=freerunner.git;a=blob_plain;f=display;hb=e88af70654605cc4ef86704fc2f956f80740208d this script] to /etc/apm/resume.d.

=== Important configuration files ===

My /etc/modules (for 2.6.24 -- this is not needed with the andy-tracking kernel):

snd-soc-neo1973-gta02-wm8753
g_ether
bluetooth
bnep
ohci-hcd
hci_usb

My .Xresources:

UXTerm*font: -bitstream-terminal-bold-r-normal--18-140-100-100-c-110-iso8859-1
UXTerm*background: black
UXTerm*foreground: cyan
XTerm*font: -bitstream-terminal-bold-r-normal--18-140-100-100-c-110-iso8859-1
XTerm*background: black
XTerm*foreground: cyan

My .xsession:

export GTK_MODULES=libgtkstylus.so # enables right-click by holding down stylus in GTK+ apps
enlightenment_start

My .gtkrc-2.0:

gtk-font-name = "Sans 6"
style "scroll"
{
GtkScrollbar::slider-width = 25
}
class "*" style "scroll"

(The small font and the large scroll bar are to help cope with dpi issues that xglamo has right now. For portrait orientation I use "Sans 14" for the font.)

FIXME: Need to add sources.list.

=== Issues ===

* [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=510949 Mailutils segfault]
* Iceweasel windows for configuration are opening to a size larger than my screen, which makes them impossible to use.
* wifi-radar randomly deletes the contents of its configuration file and then won't start when the file is empty. (Debian bug filed.)
* [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=500626 Font dpi issue]

=== Replicating my install ===

(I don't suggest you follow these instructions yet unless you are talking to me, they are in progress.)

# Install Qi
# Boot into SHR or whatever
# wget install script and make it executable
# QI=true QI_VERBOSE_BOOT=true HOSTNAME=claude ./install.sh all
# Reboot
# set root password
# apt-get install screen apt-utils subversion nano sudo distcc cvs ntp xauth
# screen
# cd /boot
# wget kernel
# rm uImage.bin
# ln -s NEW_KERNEL uImage.bin
# wget modules
# untar modules
# reboot
# dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
# fix resolv.conf
# edit sources.list -- remove experimental and change mirror to local (maybe this should be done in the install script option)
# Get my patched version of raster's e install script: wget http://git.wjsullivan.net/freerunner.git/get_e.sh
# chmod +x get_e.sh
# export CC="distcc arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc"
# export DISTCC_HOSTS="whatever"
# ./get_e.sh
# dpkg-reconfigure locales
# Put .xsession file from above in place over default one (copy the default out of the way if you want first)
# copy illume-desktop.menu file to /etc/xdg/menus/
# copy Default.kbd from my git repo to /usr/local/lib/enlightenment/modules/illume/keyboards/ (copy the current one out of the way if you want)
# copy .Xresources from my git repo to /root/.Xresources
# copy .gtkrc-2.0 file from git repo to /root/.gtkrc-2.0
# /etc/init.d/nodm restart
# make a swap file
# install some software: apt-get install tangogps iceweasel claws-mail wifi-radar ttf-bitstream-vera
# remove some software: apt-get remove --purge matchbox-keyboard openmoko-panel-plugin
# bluetooth?
# Modify /usr/local/etc/enlightenment/sysactions.conf to use suspend script instead of acpi.
# Put script to fix resume in /etc/apm/resume.d
# Comment out the suspend event in the rules.yaml file for frameworkd.
# Comment out the handling of the power/execute button in rules.yaml.
# Configure screen lock
# Set power button to call e17 shutdown menu.
# build emacs
# install fso-el
# Upgrade GSM firmware

== SHR ==

* [http://shr.bearstech.com/shr-testing/images/neo1973/ Images]

Well, the first test did not go well. It looks nice and feels snappy, but it froze up completely within a few minutes of use. I had to remove the battery and reboot. Also, Midori did not show any address bar, and typing C-l did not help. So I was unable to actually enter a web address to browse to.

The freezing has stopped, but there are other issues.

The dialer crashes after pressing Call, with a resource not available error. [http://trac.shr-project.org/trac/ticket/122 Trac ticket] explains that this is because SHR doesn't work / isn't tested with the andy-tracking kernel.

== Reference ==

=== This wiki ===

* [[Flashing]]
* [[Debian]]
* [[Manually using Bluetooth]]
* [[Development_Environment]]
* [[OpenmokoFramework/mdbus]]

==== Enlightenment ====

* [[Edje examples]]

=== Elsewhere ===

* [http://wiki.debian.org/DebianOnFreeRunner Debian wiki page]
* [http://www.emdebian.org/tools/crosstools.html Embedded Debian]
* [http://wiki.debian.org/EmdebianToolchain Embedded Debian Wiki]

==== FSO ====

* http://docs.freesmartphone.org

== Debugging ==

[[/Backtraces]]

----

[[Category:Debian]]

User:JohnSullivan/Android

2009-05-16T18:57:07Z

JohnSullivan: removing the drm module