Community Updates/2008-12-29

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This is a DRAFT [Community Updates] to be released next Monday !
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This is the DRAFT [[Community Updates]] to be released next Monday !
  
  

Revision as of 19:02, 25 December 2008

This is the DRAFT Community Updates to be released next Monday !


Contents

Distributions

  • Om 2008.12 Update is out ! This is the latest and probably last of the ASU familly line of distributions. Officially upgrades 2008.9, optimized with faster boot, volume control during phonecall, and much more. Read the announcement, then go to the download dir.
  • Android. Koolu announced their first beta release. Based on Sean's image, Wendy from Openmoko produced test reports (PDF) concluding that Android Image On Freerunner really looks good, but [...] not ready to be a daily phone yet. Interesting applications waiting to be fixed to work on Freerunner include bluetooth, wifi, GPS, browser...
  • hackable:1 announced (documentation). Led by Marcus Bauer of TangoGPS fame, this project aims to implement the GNOME Mobile stack on top of Debian on FreeRunner. Its installation is specially simple: download the tarball, unpack the files on a 2 GB SD card, put the card in the FreeRunner.

Applications

New:

  • Carlo released OpenVibe, the first opensource vibrator :) Pander also offers an open source MIDlet in a JAR to control the vibrator function. We are still waiting for test reports tought.
  • Yann released meooem 0.0.1, a realtime weather notifier opkg page. Setup the displayed city in /etc/meooem.conf.
  • Ilja pushed out version 0.1.0 of om-manager, a python Freerunner manager: flash, backup, get logs, manage packages, VNC (if x11vnc is installed on the phone).
  • Valéry released Neon, a simple Python/EFL image viewer, designed to be lightweight, fast, and easy to use.
  • Nathan shared his GPRS launcher script and the ipk for Gtkdialog it uses. The script can be used to start the connection, stop the connection, or to simply find out the current GPRS status.
  • Openmoko's next generation telephony, messaging and addressbook application paroli was merged with tichy, the application starter. So opkg install tichy, setup according to Mirko's email, and enjoy.
  • Angus offers a "where are you now" daemon that can SMS back its location upon request.
  • Chris submits for testing the prototype for a fullscreen keyboard.

Updated:

  • OpenMooco 0.3 released. Changes include: better graphics from openclipart.org by "bsantos", more responsive, kernel 2.6.28 new sysfs paths ready, thinkpad HDAPS merged in.
  • ZOMG!, an opkg frontend, updated. Faster, cacao and jamvm compatible (jamvm still recommended).
  • navit, a drivers' GPS navigation system (trac) is being optimized for the FreeRunner by Christian Anke and others.
  • Damian A. Spriggs started working on a MAME port. The Multimedia Arcade Machine Emulator is a must for all retro-gamers out there. I can't wait to play P*c-M*n and G*l*xi*n again on my subway commute !
  • Angus updated pymixer.py to use the FSO framework. It should automatically detect scenario changes and update the mixers now. Put fsomixer.py into /usr bin and chmod +x it. volume_fso.desktop goes into /usr/share/applications.

Community

  • Recognizing that they have never been able to get the projects gforge running well, Openmoko decided to throw the towel and suspend the project. Sean said: "If somebody wants to step up and own this responsibility -- you bet -- we'll pay the bill." Luckily Armin Ranjbar, System Administrator, stepped forward (among others) to lead the newly formed, community-led gforge administration team on the Openmoko server. He is creating an admin mailing list were interested people can join him (link needed).
  • opkg.org relaunched ! New look, same API. Now if Openmoko wants to terminate useless projects, how about the "community repository" ? Is there any community project to feed opkg from the gforge ?
  • The documentation team discussed on how to write the missing Neo's reference handbook.
  • OpenJDK integration into Jalimo was finished, including packaging. Cacao+OpenJDK runs on the FreeRunner. A step towards better Java support in all OpenEmbedded devices.

Hardware

  • Users needing the "big capacitor" rework to cancel the buzz are still waiting for the final word from Openmoko or resellers. The technical feasibility was confirmed by several hardware repair shops, although the technical draft needs more details (how to open the case, possibility of using alternative capacitor types, possiblity of applying other A5 -> A7 hardware upgrade like the GPS/uSD fix at the same time).
  • The level of lust for 3G on GTA03 reached astounding highs on the community mailing list. Carsten explanations on [ the costs of a 3G module] threw some cold water on that.

Tips and tricks

  • No audio on 2008.9 after suspend/resume ? Try killing and uninstalling speech-dispatcher.
  • Terminal-based applications slow to startup on FDOM ? Try opkg remove termcap, processing /etc/termcap each time takes like 10 seconds.
  • Media player so sloooow it's unusable ? Try running it with a -15 nice priority value (For users of pythm+mplayer, set it up in /etc/pythm.conf).
  • A cooler theme in 2008.12 ? Try replacing "asu" with "illume" /etc/enlightenment/default_profile.
  • Enlightenment eating 20% CPU ? Disable drop shadows by deleting /usr/lib/enlightenment/modules/dropshadow.
  • Enlightenment crashing with the illume theme in 2008.12 ? Try disabling drop shadows. Otherwise, change the "Engine" in the enlightenment config from SOFTWARE_16 to SOFTWARE (to access the config, disable qtopia under /etc/X11/Xsession.d first, restart X, do the config, then move qtopia back).
Personal tools

This is the DRAFT Community Updates to be released next Monday !


Distributions

  • Om 2008.12 Update is out ! This is the latest and probably last of the ASU familly line of distributions. Officially upgrades 2008.9, optimized with faster boot, volume control during phonecall, and much more. Read the announcement, then go to the download dir.
  • Android. Koolu announced their first beta release. Based on Sean's image, Wendy from Openmoko produced test reports (PDF) concluding that Android Image On Freerunner really looks good, but [...] not ready to be a daily phone yet. Interesting applications waiting to be fixed to work on Freerunner include bluetooth, wifi, GPS, browser...
  • hackable:1 announced (documentation). Led by Marcus Bauer of TangoGPS fame, this project aims to implement the GNOME Mobile stack on top of Debian on FreeRunner. Its installation is specially simple: download the tarball, unpack the files on a 2 GB SD card, put the card in the FreeRunner.

Applications

New:

  • Carlo released OpenVibe, the first opensource vibrator :) Pander also offers an open source MIDlet in a JAR to control the vibrator function. We are still waiting for test reports tought.
  • Yann released meooem 0.0.1, a realtime weather notifier opkg page. Setup the displayed city in /etc/meooem.conf.
  • Ilja pushed out version 0.1.0 of om-manager, a python Freerunner manager: flash, backup, get logs, manage packages, VNC (if x11vnc is installed on the phone).
  • Valéry released Neon, a simple Python/EFL image viewer, designed to be lightweight, fast, and easy to use.
  • Nathan shared his GPRS launcher script and the ipk for Gtkdialog it uses. The script can be used to start the connection, stop the connection, or to simply find out the current GPRS status.
  • Openmoko's next generation telephony, messaging and addressbook application paroli was merged with tichy, the application starter. So opkg install tichy, setup according to Mirko's email, and enjoy.
  • Angus offers a "where are you now" daemon that can SMS back its location upon request.
  • Chris submits for testing the prototype for a fullscreen keyboard.

Updated:

  • OpenMooco 0.3 released. Changes include: better graphics from openclipart.org by "bsantos", more responsive, kernel 2.6.28 new sysfs paths ready, thinkpad HDAPS merged in.
  • ZOMG!, an opkg frontend, updated. Faster, cacao and jamvm compatible (jamvm still recommended).
  • navit, a drivers' GPS navigation system (trac) is being optimized for the FreeRunner by Christian Anke and others.
  • Damian A. Spriggs started working on a MAME port. The Multimedia Arcade Machine Emulator is a must for all retro-gamers out there. I can't wait to play P*c-M*n and G*l*xi*n again on my subway commute !
  • Angus updated pymixer.py to use the FSO framework. It should automatically detect scenario changes and update the mixers now. Put fsomixer.py into /usr bin and chmod +x it. volume_fso.desktop goes into /usr/share/applications.

Community

  • Recognizing that they have never been able to get the projects gforge running well, Openmoko decided to throw the towel and suspend the project. Sean said: "If somebody wants to step up and own this responsibility -- you bet -- we'll pay the bill." Luckily Armin Ranjbar, System Administrator, stepped forward (among others) to lead the newly formed, community-led gforge administration team on the Openmoko server. He is creating an admin mailing list were interested people can join him (link needed).
  • opkg.org relaunched ! New look, same API. Now if Openmoko wants to terminate useless projects, how about the "community repository" ? Is there any community project to feed opkg from the gforge ?
  • The documentation team discussed on how to write the missing Neo's reference handbook.
  • OpenJDK integration into Jalimo was finished, including packaging. Cacao+OpenJDK runs on the FreeRunner. A step towards better Java support in all OpenEmbedded devices.

Hardware

  • Users needing the "big capacitor" rework to cancel the buzz are still waiting for the final word from Openmoko or resellers. The technical feasibility was confirmed by several hardware repair shops, although the technical draft needs more details (how to open the case, possibility of using alternative capacitor types, possiblity of applying other A5 -> A7 hardware upgrade like the GPS/uSD fix at the same time).
  • The level of lust for 3G on GTA03 reached astounding highs on the community mailing list. Carsten explanations on [ the costs of a 3G module] threw some cold water on that.

Tips and tricks

  • No audio on 2008.9 after suspend/resume ? Try killing and uninstalling speech-dispatcher.
  • Terminal-based applications slow to startup on FDOM ? Try opkg remove termcap, processing /etc/termcap each time takes like 10 seconds.
  • Media player so sloooow it's unusable ? Try running it with a -15 nice priority value (For users of pythm+mplayer, set it up in /etc/pythm.conf).
  • A cooler theme in 2008.12 ? Try replacing "asu" with "illume" /etc/enlightenment/default_profile.
  • Enlightenment eating 20% CPU ? Disable drop shadows by deleting /usr/lib/enlightenment/modules/dropshadow.
  • Enlightenment crashing with the illume theme in 2008.12 ? Try disabling drop shadows. Otherwise, change the "Engine" in the enlightenment config from SOFTWARE_16 to SOFTWARE (to access the config, disable qtopia under /etc/X11/Xsession.d first, restart X, do the config, then move qtopia back).