Community Updates/2009-12-31

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(Introduction: =introduction)
(Community: =FCSE, fixing)
Line 141: Line 141:
  
 
==Community==
 
==Community==
* Michael Trimarchi has compiled '''frequency scaling''' and '''FCSE''' (Fast Context Switch Extension) from [http://lists.arm.linux.org.uk/lurker/message/20091001.203525.e1d1afd4.en.html ARM mailing list] into android-kernel. That is a great news, as it greatly improves performance with Android! For all interested, there is nice [http://lwn.net/images/conf/rtlws11/papers/proc/p01.pdf white paper]. Not so fresh, but gives nice overview on how FCSE works on some ARMv5 architecture. Michael also mentioned that he tries to merge DRM and GLAMO mesa support soon.
+
* Michael Trimarchi has compiled '''frequency scaling''' and '''FCSE''' (Fast Context Switch Extension) from '''[http://lists.arm.linux.org.uk/lurker/message/20091001.203525.e1d1afd4.en.html ARM mailing list]''' into android-kernel. That is a great news, as it greatly improves performance with Android! For all interested, there is nice '''[http://lwn.net/images/conf/rtlws11/papers/proc/p01.pdf white paper]'''. Not so fresh, but gives nice overview on how FCSE works on some ARMv5 architecture. Michael also mentioned that he tries to merge DRM and GLAMO mesa support soon.
  
 
*Werner Almesberger, one of most active gta02-core project contributors, wrote up a '''[http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/gta02-core/2009-December/000797.html component situation update]'''. These components are needed for making gta02-core project devices. In a short summary we should have many components, but some of them might be missing.
 
*Werner Almesberger, one of most active gta02-core project contributors, wrote up a '''[http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/gta02-core/2009-December/000797.html component situation update]'''. These components are needed for making gta02-core project devices. In a short summary we should have many components, but some of them might be missing.

Revision as of 15:32, 31 December 2009

Editing: (13:52, 31 December 2009 (UTC)) This page is being edited by LeadMan: Adding new entries to CU, should take additionally about 1 hour, please do not interfere until this comment disappears.

If this note persists without edits in the history, feel free to remove the Editing template from the page.


Contents

Period 2009-12-10 to 2009-12-31

Introduction

Past few weeks was very busy time for many of people because of ending of 2009 business year, Christmas in many cultures and short-coming New Years Evening. Many ofFreeRunner developers, testers, hardware designers and others of us involved in similar projects are no exception of this "rule". As you probably noticed this Community Update is also release one week later than usuall. Luckily for users many of them used their free time to develop new versions of applications or distributions to give us something to play with! Take some of your time to know what is new around FreeRunner community and worth to check. Best wishes to all of you in forthcoming 2010 year!

Distributions

Qtmokomain.png QtMoko [15+16]

QtMoko is stable distribution that combines Debian/Qtopia using QT 4.6 on framebuffer as toolkit. It has also compatibility layer for running X applications. This is mainly bug fixing release. I hope SMS receiving is now OK thanks to old patch from Mike Westerhof. Modem multiplexing can be now enabled. The kernel is latest andy-tracking and has FIFO fix from Thomas White which could give some more performance. Fso-keyring should give no more warnings when working with apt-get. Changes from version 14:

  • Using QT 4.6 (with 2 patches that should be upstream in QT 4.6.1)
  • Better QVGA support (no flickering for QMplayer videos now)
  • Reading contacts from SIM in unicode (Ant)
  • Wlan - fixed WPA-PSK with AES (Torfinn Ingolfsen)
  • Fixed RTC problems after apt-get upgrade
  • 10MB smaller image size - no python preinstalled now
  • Added icon for sharing GPRS connection with PC
  • Disabled modem multiplexing - fixes problems with hang in dialer after boot
  • For me GPRS is now more stable (with no multiplexing).
  • Powering up modem from code
  • Fixed alsa scenario for voip
  • Enabled voip and google talk
  • New applications
  • Hopefully SMS receiving is fixed (mwester)
  • Multiplexing can be enabled in configuration file
  • Glamo SD card clocking workaround
  • Updated kernel
  • Fixed fso-keyring to latest version (ghislain)
  • Using Debian toolchain


Codename: 'v16'
Homepage: http://activationrecord.net/radekp/qtmoko/
Image: images

Hardware Works
Neo 1973 yes
FreeRunner yes
GTA04 ?
HTC-Dream ?
Other ?


Hackable-1-Screenshot-today.png Hackable:1

Hackable:1 is a community distribution for hackable devices like the Neo Freerunner. It is based on Debian and implements the GNOME mobile platform. After rev5rc1, spent hours and hours debugging this or improving that to finally get the rev5 out. Here are the changes since rev4:

  • Most of the software stack now runs under the 'hackable1' user, for security purposes.
  • SMS proper implementation
  • The contact list bug has been found and fixed!
  • Power management improvements, suspend works, bluetooth and wifi are no longer turned on by default.
  • An application called 'h1settings' can be used to configure phone features, as well as time and date.
  • We created a new theme to celebrate this new release!
  • We got a splashscreen! It features a Chuck figure to reflects the rev5 codename.
  • For those who used to love the games on OM2007.2, we put them back!
  • Boot time seems to have been improved a bit.
  • This rev5 release has entirely been built from the automatic build system.
  • CDBS is now used for some packages.
  • Git repositories can now be used as sources for remote projects.
  • A Linux kernel is now packaged in hackable:1, in order not to rely on fso-pkg anymore.
    • Debugging has been disabled (boot time improvement)
    • Easier kernel upgrade when using an ext2 partition to store the kernel on µSD cards
    • Separation of kernel modules in three sets: essential (comes with the kernel), common modules and "more modules"
    • You can read a bit onhttp://zecrazytux.net/Embedded/Hackable1/Custom_Kernel.html


Codename: 'Chuck'
Homepage: http://www.hackable1.org/
Image: images

Hardware Works
Neo 1973 ?
FreeRunner yes
GTA04 ?
HTC-Dream ?
Other yes


Applications

New Applications

T9brain.png t9brain / TuxNINE / Tux9 / Tux9Brain

The keyboard is meant to be a finger-friendly alternative to the usual terminal-style keyboards whose main purpose is to be the most efficient and easy-to-use text-entry method. It is designed with SMS texting in mind.


Homepage: http://t9brain.projects.openmoko.org/
Package: t9_latest.tar.gz
Tested on: Hackable:1


Podpooch-home.png PodPooch

PodPooch is a fork of MokoPod, thus it allows you to retrieve and listen to podcasts.


Homepage: http://github.com/timabell/mokopod
Package: podpooch
Tested on: SHR-Unstable


Application Updates

Launcher.png Launcher r0.4

Launcher provides an elegant way of grouping and launching applications. It features events notification too - missed calls and messages at the moment. It also has built in apps for contacts, sms and phonelog. Changes

  • Clean Ups, Bug fixes and Speed ups (hopefully)
  • Should indicate last call made and sms sent in contacts app
  • Better re-sending of failed sms's


Homepage: http://www.opkg.org/package_220.html
Package: Launcher
Tested on: SHR-Unstable


Podboy.png Podboy 1.0.0

Podboy is a podcast aggregator/player written in Python/Elementary. Its interface aims to be easy and finger friendly. It uses Feedparser Python module for download/parsing of podcast feeds, Gstreamer for playing of episodes and SQLite for storing data. Recent changes include:

  • Added Bluetooth A2DP support
  • No more config file, now settings are stored in database
  • Fixed callbacks with new python-elementary (revision >= 43900)
  • Added date at the begin of episodes titles
  • Used InnerWindow widget instead of Window widget for confirmation dialogs
  • Added a confirm dialog when a single episode is deleted
  • Speed up startup (~3 seconds less)
  • Renamed Preferences into Settings.
  • Added "About" page
  • Many small fixes here and there


Homepage: http://code.google.com/p/podboy/
Package: podboy
Tested on: SHR-Unstable


Qsuunto-lite.png QSuunto-Lite 0.1.0

QSuunto-Lite is an application to download your logged dives from your Suunto dive computer or view previously dowloaded ones. For those of you who do not own a DC or do not have cables/adapters yet, you can use the samples provided in divetools-ab-samples.


Homepage: http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/QSuunto-Lite
Package: QSuunto-Lite
Tested on: SHR-Unstable


Literki.png Literki

Since SHR is using Xorg now, all four scroll buttons work, and the pointer seems to be a little bit faster. This should greatly improve web browser experience. You can now use the mouse pointer to click tiny little links, and use the scroll buttons instead of scroll bars. Changes:

  • fixed vibration
  • fixed some embarasing memory leaks
  • added horizontal and vertical scrolling buttons to the touchpad - they simulate mouse wheel scrolling.


Homepage: http://www.opkg.org/package_232.html
Package: literki
Tested on: SHR-Testing,SHR-Unstable


Community

  • Michael Trimarchi has compiled frequency scaling and FCSE (Fast Context Switch Extension) from ARM mailing list into android-kernel. That is a great news, as it greatly improves performance with Android! For all interested, there is nice white paper. Not so fresh, but gives nice overview on how FCSE works on some ARMv5 architecture. Michael also mentioned that he tries to merge DRM and GLAMO mesa support soon.
  • Werner Almesberger, one of most active gta02-core project contributors, wrote up a component situation update. These components are needed for making gta02-core project devices. In a short summary we should have many components, but some of them might be missing.

Event News

  • 2009-02-06/07 The tenth FOSDEM is a two-day event organized by volunteers to promote the widespread use of Free and Open Source software. Taking place in the beautiful city of Brussels (Belgium), FOSDEM meetings are recognized as "The best Free Software and Open Source events in Europe". This year, FOSDEM hires professional guides to offer a free guided tours of Brussels for the spouses/partners.If he/she would like to accompany you, and is not interested in the FOSDEM conference, this will make the stay worthwhile. Brussels is a city with a rich historical past, and a cosmopolitan present. The way FOSDEM works is a little different from other conferences. Entrance is free, but donations are welcome. There is no registration, just come to the campus and enjoy the conference.
Personal tools
Editing: (13:52, 31 December 2009 (UTC)) This page is being edited by LeadMan: Adding new entries to CU, should take additionally about 1 hour, please do not interfere until this comment disappears.

If this note persists without edits in the history, feel free to remove the Editing template from the page.


Period 2009-12-10 to 2009-12-31

Introduction

Past few weeks was very busy time for many of people because of ending of 2009 business year, Christmas in many cultures and short-coming New Years Evening. Many ofFreeRunner developers, testers, hardware designers and others of us involved in similar projects are no exception of this "rule". As you probably noticed this Community Update is also release one week later than usuall. Luckily for users many of them used their free time to develop new versions of applications or distributions to give us something to play with! Take some of your time to know what is new around FreeRunner community and worth to check. Best wishes to all of you in forthcoming 2010 year!

Distributions

Qtmokomain.png QtMoko [15+16]

QtMoko is stable distribution that combines Debian/Qtopia using QT 4.6 on framebuffer as toolkit. It has also compatibility layer for running X applications. This is mainly bug fixing release. I hope SMS receiving is now OK thanks to old patch from Mike Westerhof. Modem multiplexing can be now enabled. The kernel is latest andy-tracking and has FIFO fix from Thomas White which could give some more performance. Fso-keyring should give no more warnings when working with apt-get. Changes from version 14:

  • Using QT 4.6 (with 2 patches that should be upstream in QT 4.6.1)
  • Better QVGA support (no flickering for QMplayer videos now)
  • Reading contacts from SIM in unicode (Ant)
  • Wlan - fixed WPA-PSK with AES (Torfinn Ingolfsen)
  • Fixed RTC problems after apt-get upgrade
  • 10MB smaller image size - no python preinstalled now
  • Added icon for sharing GPRS connection with PC
  • Disabled modem multiplexing - fixes problems with hang in dialer after boot
  • For me GPRS is now more stable (with no multiplexing).
  • Powering up modem from code
  • Fixed alsa scenario for voip
  • Enabled voip and google talk
  • New applications
  • Hopefully SMS receiving is fixed (mwester)
  • Multiplexing can be enabled in configuration file
  • Glamo SD card clocking workaround
  • Updated kernel
  • Fixed fso-keyring to latest version (ghislain)
  • Using Debian toolchain


Codename: 'v16'
Homepage: http://activationrecord.net/radekp/qtmoko/
Image: images

Hardware Works
Neo 1973 yes
FreeRunner yes
GTA04 ?
HTC-Dream ?
Other ?


Hackable-1-Screenshot-today.png Hackable:1

Hackable:1 is a community distribution for hackable devices like the Neo Freerunner. It is based on Debian and implements the GNOME mobile platform. After rev5rc1, spent hours and hours debugging this or improving that to finally get the rev5 out. Here are the changes since rev4:

  • Most of the software stack now runs under the 'hackable1' user, for security purposes.
  • SMS proper implementation
  • The contact list bug has been found and fixed!
  • Power management improvements, suspend works, bluetooth and wifi are no longer turned on by default.
  • An application called 'h1settings' can be used to configure phone features, as well as time and date.
  • We created a new theme to celebrate this new release!
  • We got a splashscreen! It features a Chuck figure to reflects the rev5 codename.
  • For those who used to love the games on OM2007.2, we put them back!
  • Boot time seems to have been improved a bit.
  • This rev5 release has entirely been built from the automatic build system.
  • CDBS is now used for some packages.
  • Git repositories can now be used as sources for remote projects.
  • A Linux kernel is now packaged in hackable:1, in order not to rely on fso-pkg anymore.
    • Debugging has been disabled (boot time improvement)
    • Easier kernel upgrade when using an ext2 partition to store the kernel on µSD cards
    • Separation of kernel modules in three sets: essential (comes with the kernel), common modules and "more modules"
    • You can read a bit onhttp://zecrazytux.net/Embedded/Hackable1/Custom_Kernel.html


Codename: 'Chuck'
Homepage: http://www.hackable1.org/
Image: images

Hardware Works
Neo 1973 ?
FreeRunner yes
GTA04 ?
HTC-Dream ?
Other yes


Applications

New Applications

T9brain.png t9brain / TuxNINE / Tux9 / Tux9Brain

The keyboard is meant to be a finger-friendly alternative to the usual terminal-style keyboards whose main purpose is to be the most efficient and easy-to-use text-entry method. It is designed with SMS texting in mind.


Homepage: http://t9brain.projects.openmoko.org/
Package: t9_latest.tar.gz
Tested on: Hackable:1


Podpooch-home.png PodPooch

PodPooch is a fork of MokoPod, thus it allows you to retrieve and listen to podcasts.


Homepage: http://github.com/timabell/mokopod
Package: podpooch
Tested on: SHR-Unstable


Application Updates

Launcher.png Launcher r0.4

Launcher provides an elegant way of grouping and launching applications. It features events notification too - missed calls and messages at the moment. It also has built in apps for contacts, sms and phonelog. Changes

  • Clean Ups, Bug fixes and Speed ups (hopefully)
  • Should indicate last call made and sms sent in contacts app
  • Better re-sending of failed sms's


Homepage: http://www.opkg.org/package_220.html
Package: Launcher
Tested on: SHR-Unstable


Podboy.png Podboy 1.0.0

Podboy is a podcast aggregator/player written in Python/Elementary. Its interface aims to be easy and finger friendly. It uses Feedparser Python module for download/parsing of podcast feeds, Gstreamer for playing of episodes and SQLite for storing data. Recent changes include:

  • Added Bluetooth A2DP support
  • No more config file, now settings are stored in database
  • Fixed callbacks with new python-elementary (revision >= 43900)
  • Added date at the begin of episodes titles
  • Used InnerWindow widget instead of Window widget for confirmation dialogs
  • Added a confirm dialog when a single episode is deleted
  • Speed up startup (~3 seconds less)
  • Renamed Preferences into Settings.
  • Added "About" page
  • Many small fixes here and there


Homepage: http://code.google.com/p/podboy/
Package: podboy
Tested on: SHR-Unstable


Qsuunto-lite.png QSuunto-Lite 0.1.0

QSuunto-Lite is an application to download your logged dives from your Suunto dive computer or view previously dowloaded ones. For those of you who do not own a DC or do not have cables/adapters yet, you can use the samples provided in divetools-ab-samples.


Homepage: http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/QSuunto-Lite
Package: QSuunto-Lite
Tested on: SHR-Unstable


Literki.png Literki

Since SHR is using Xorg now, all four scroll buttons work, and the pointer seems to be a little bit faster. This should greatly improve web browser experience. You can now use the mouse pointer to click tiny little links, and use the scroll buttons instead of scroll bars. Changes:

  • fixed vibration
  • fixed some embarasing memory leaks
  • added horizontal and vertical scrolling buttons to the touchpad - they simulate mouse wheel scrolling.


Homepage: http://www.opkg.org/package_232.html
Package: literki
Tested on: SHR-Testing,SHR-Unstable


Community

  • Michael Trimarchi has compiled frequency scaling and FCSE (Fast Context Switch Extension) from ARM mailing list into android-kernel. That is a great news, as it greatly improves performance with Android! For all interested, there is nice white paper. Not so fresh, but gives nice overview on how FCSE works on some ARMv5 architecture. Michael also mentioned that he tries to merge DRM and GLAMO mesa support soon.
  • Werner Almesberger, one of most active gta02-core project contributors, wrote up a component situation update. These components are needed for making gta02-core project devices. In a short summary we should have many components, but some of them might be missing.

Event News

  • 2009-02-06/07 The tenth FOSDEM is a two-day event organized by volunteers to promote the widespread use of Free and Open Source software. Taking place in the beautiful city of Brussels (Belgium), FOSDEM meetings are recognized as "The best Free Software and Open Source events in Europe". This year, FOSDEM hires professional guides to offer a free guided tours of Brussels for the spouses/partners.If he/she would like to accompany you, and is not interested in the FOSDEM conference, this will make the stay worthwhile. Brussels is a city with a rich historical past, and a cosmopolitan present. The way FOSDEM works is a little different from other conferences. Entrance is free, but donations are welcome. There is no registration, just come to the campus and enjoy the conference.