User:JohnSullivan

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Contents

State of the 'Runner

I'm using a FreeRunner, with Qt-Extended on the flash but mainly using Debian on the microSD. Currently I'm experimenting with SHR as well.

I'm in Boston.

If you have a question or suggestion for me, feel free to leave it on the talk page here or contact me by email and more. I'm also in #openmoko, #openmoko-cdevel, and #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 tagged with "freerunner" are syndicated to http://planet.openmoko.org.

I started a microblogging group for FreeRunner users at identi.ca.

Related articles I've written for the FSF include:

Highlights

Hardware

  • GTA02
  • Altec Lansing 2.5mm headphones (which have a mic too, though I don't know if it works)
  • 8GB microSD card

Booting

I tried Qi. This was installed with:

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

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

However, it won't boot from the SD. I see an error about ext2 group descriptors, and then it boots from flash. So now I'm back on u-boot.

Debian

I'm experimenting with the andy-tracking kernel.

The kernel version in the Debian repositories is 2.6.24, and I'm starting to suspect that it is responsible for some of my wifi and bluetooth issues. andy-tracking is 2.6.28 and might help.

However, with 2.6.28, if I have e17 set to restore screen rotation on login, then I get a blank white screen. Leaving it in portrait works.

Uses

I'm currently using it without a SIM with:

  • e17 and Illume
  • TangoGPS
  • Emacs for text editing
  • subversion for pulling in my home directory

Audio

  • gmpc/mpc/mpd/mpdscribble as a scrobbling music player
  • I have gotten a Nokia 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, 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?

Connectivity

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

I'm using bluez 4.27 compiled from source, and bluetooth-gnome 1.8 also compiled from source.

Display

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.

E-mail

I'm still figuring out which e-mail client to use, but for right now I am reading and sending e-mail via SquirrelMail.

I'm experimenting with Claws. It looks promising -- it even has a "small screen" setting which is almost right.

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 :)
  • linball is a little pinball game, start with ./linball -f

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.
  • 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.
  • How do I make the font size on the keys and for the guessed words to choose from be larger? I assume it's somewhere in the illume theme file.
  • I'm now using this layout. It can be extracted on Debian with ar x, and then tar on the data.tar.gz file. See the screenshot from Shashank Bharadwaj who designed it.
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.

Reading

This is proving difficult. epdfview reports a .gz pdf file as "encrypted" and asks for a password. I guess it doesn't handle gzipped files. After gunzipping it, I was able to open the file, but as soon as I try to go to the next page with Page Down, it segfaults. Trying to read the same PDF (the Debian Policy Guide) with evince results in an error about not being able to allocate sufficient resources. xpdf crashes as well. Is this PDF just too big?

Web browsing

Iceweasel configuration
  • Set my home page to http://delicious.com/johnsu01/mobile, which will have frequently used bookmarks.
  • Remove the search from the navigation toolbar. (Right-click, customize toolbar, drag the search box to the dialog.)
  • 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.

Performance

Boot time is currently about 3 minutes. 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

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 .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

  • Mailutils segfault
  • Iceweasel windows for configuration are opening to a size larger than my screen, which makes them impossible to use.
  • I'm having a lot of stability problems with Debian/e17 -- it's locked up several times in the last couple of days to the point where I have to remove the battery.
  • wifi-radar randomly deletes the contents of its configuration file and then won't start when the file is empty. (Debian bug filed.)
  • Font dpi issue
  • The screen lock defined in the illume theme file isn't being used. Instead when I lock the screen I get the default e17 password lock.

SHR

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.

Reference


Personal tools

State of the 'Runner

I'm using a FreeRunner, with Qt-Extended on the flash but mainly using Debian on the microSD. Currently I'm experimenting with SHR as well.

I'm in Boston.

If you have a question or suggestion for me, feel free to leave it on the talk page here or contact me by email and more. I'm also in #openmoko, #openmoko-cdevel, and #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 tagged with "freerunner" are syndicated to http://planet.openmoko.org.

I started a microblogging group for FreeRunner users at identi.ca.

Related articles I've written for the FSF include:

Highlights

Hardware

  • GTA02
  • Altec Lansing 2.5mm headphones (which have a mic too, though I don't know if it works)
  • 8GB microSD card

Booting

I tried Qi. This was installed with:

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

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

However, it won't boot from the SD. I see an error about ext2 group descriptors, and then it boots from flash. So now I'm back on u-boot.

Debian

I'm experimenting with the andy-tracking kernel.

The kernel version in the Debian repositories is 2.6.24, and I'm starting to suspect that it is responsible for some of my wifi and bluetooth issues. andy-tracking is 2.6.28 and might help.

However, with 2.6.28, if I have e17 set to restore screen rotation on login, then I get a blank white screen. Leaving it in portrait works.

Uses

I'm currently using it without a SIM with:

  • e17 and Illume
  • TangoGPS
  • Emacs for text editing
  • subversion for pulling in my home directory

Audio

  • gmpc/mpc/mpd/mpdscribble as a scrobbling music player
  • I have gotten a Nokia 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, 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?

Connectivity

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

I'm using bluez 4.27 compiled from source, and bluetooth-gnome 1.8 also compiled from source.

Display

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.

E-mail

I'm still figuring out which e-mail client to use, but for right now I am reading and sending e-mail via SquirrelMail.

I'm experimenting with Claws. It looks promising -- it even has a "small screen" setting which is almost right.

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 :)
  • linball is a little pinball game, start with ./linball -f

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.
  • 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.
  • How do I make the font size on the keys and for the guessed words to choose from be larger? I assume it's somewhere in the illume theme file.
  • I'm now using this layout. It can be extracted on Debian with ar x, and then tar on the data.tar.gz file. See the screenshot from Shashank Bharadwaj who designed it.
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.

Reading

This is proving difficult. epdfview reports a .gz pdf file as "encrypted" and asks for a password. I guess it doesn't handle gzipped files. After gunzipping it, I was able to open the file, but as soon as I try to go to the next page with Page Down, it segfaults. Trying to read the same PDF (the Debian Policy Guide) with evince results in an error about not being able to allocate sufficient resources. xpdf crashes as well. Is this PDF just too big?

Web browsing

Iceweasel configuration
  • Set my home page to http://delicious.com/johnsu01/mobile, which will have frequently used bookmarks.
  • Remove the search from the navigation toolbar. (Right-click, customize toolbar, drag the search box to the dialog.)
  • 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.

Performance

Boot time is currently about 3 minutes. 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

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 .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

  • Mailutils segfault
  • Iceweasel windows for configuration are opening to a size larger than my screen, which makes them impossible to use.
  • I'm having a lot of stability problems with Debian/e17 -- it's locked up several times in the last couple of days to the point where I have to remove the battery.
  • wifi-radar randomly deletes the contents of its configuration file and then won't start when the file is empty. (Debian bug filed.)
  • Font dpi issue
  • The screen lock defined in the illume theme file isn't being used. Instead when I lock the screen I get the default e17 password lock.

SHR

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.

Reference