Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

According to my tests, loop is a bit faster than dm-loop (and both are very close to raw hardware speed), though I don't see anything in the change logs between 2.6.21 and 2.6.28.

Anyway, the modules are here:
http://my.arava.co.il/~matan/770/n900

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Honestly, that is shocking to me... I was looking forward to a speed boost with dm-loop that we apparently aren't going to get.

Thanks anyway, Matan.

I guess I will focus on the new image file.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

I didnt want to start a new thread or try to get off course, but would it be possible to use Android in the same type of way you have Debian setup to run within Maemo/Fremantle? A detailed answer would be nice, but I'll understand if its not.

Thanks

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

bdogg64: I honestly don't know. Theoretically, it is possible, if someone found a compatible rootfs (perhaps NITDroid? Any other ARM Android tarballs floating around?). It certainly would be interesting. I wish that Ubuntu guy who was working on Dalvik would put his work into the Ubuntu repositories, so we could get it for our devices, too...

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

A speed tip: change your mounting dir from /debian to /.debian so tracker, the Maemo media indexer, stays out of your chroot.

I'm changing this in the next version, but until then you can do it yourself.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

I know how to build an ARM Android tarball, I'm just don't know how to pull much of the rest of the pieces together. Thanks for the response. Keep up the good work!

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Thanks to a post in the Diablo thread, I was reminded to map the LXDE "window move" function on the N900. I have settled on the Ctrl-. (Ctrl and period) combination. Any objections?

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

More tips:

- enable blue keys on N900 keyboard in LXDE: copy /usr/share/X11/xkb directory to your chroot

- speed up OpenOffice: kill help agent, turn off Java, stop autocompletion of words.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

What is the best way to resize the easy-debian filesystem? I have an 8GB ext2 microsd and can't figure out how to expand it with your rootfs.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

techdork: I recently answered your question in the Easy Debian Diablo thread, in this post.

EDIT: Note that I have also uploaded a rootfs file at qole.org/files as well: debian-squeeze-m5-rootfs.tar.gz

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Thanks Qole :cool:

EDIT: @qole http://qole.org/files/debian-squeeze-m5-rootfs.tar.gz = 404 .. should be http://qole.org/files/debian-squeeze-m5-img.bz2 no?

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

It wasn't 404, it was 403 forbidden, because I used scp to upload it and that seems to set the wrong permissions... fixed now...

Install easy-debian on the internal drive
 

My microSD card is really slow, so I've installed easy-debian on a new partition of the internal drive.

Here are my instructions :
my sf file for a new ext3 partition of 3.6G: PS : I've wrote that just after reading titan's contribution, Thanks to him, qole and 白い熊 ;)

EasyDebian
 

I'm downloading EasyDebian on Freemantle and get the message that the file downloaded is corrupted during the installation process.
The file in question is:

debian-squeeze-m5-img.bz2

and it downloads it but doesn't seem to be able to extract/mount the image due to it being corrupted.
The download location doesn't make a difference (microSD or internal) and I've tried downloading from my Mac and copying over via mass storage mode and it still says the file is damaged.
Any ideas?

Many thanks

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Doc_Raj: If you don't use the included installer, then you have to download the file, then extract the image file using bzip2, then rename the extracted file (debian-squeeze-m5-img) to debian-squeeze-m5.img.ext2.

The installer checks the md5sum of the file to make sure it downloads correctly. You should probably use it.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

In the spirit of "release early, release often" I have uploaded my current rootfs, with a working LXDE install. Download debian-m5-v2-rootfs.tgz and untar it (tar xzvf) into a partition or a 2GB image file (that you make using the instructions in this post).

To start LXDE, use the command "debbie xephwm5" and if LXDE loses keyboard, use "debbie xephfocus" to get the keyboard back again.

If you want the Fremantle-like theme with wide scrollbars, choose "MurrinaNightOrange" from the list of themes.

The new package with everything set up for you is coming soon, but I thought some eager testers might want to start now...

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

about 1000000000 thanks!!

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Image file now on the server:

debian-m5-v2.img.ext2.bz2

It is 2GB now, since the N900 has a lot more space, but people have said that larger files have problems on some file systems...

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

New package in Fremantle Extras Devel, and changes pushed to the garage git repo.

I removed Maemo icons for OpenOffice and Gimp since they are unusable in Maemo, and added an icon for fixing the keyboard in LXDE if it stops working.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

That's really nice Qole - thanks as always.
For everybody testing, don't forget to push the cpu to the performance governor, as described here and elsewhere - might reduce your stress, too :)

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Hi Qole,

after running the update this morning my webbrowser doens't seem to work anymore???
So strange.

Deinstallation of the whole package did remove this strange bug...

and after reinstallation everything keeps working...

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Is there any reason I should upgrade if I've got my filesystem setup with lots of stuff installed? Is there a way to replicate what changed in the rootfs in mine without starting over?

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

debernardis: Does the performance governor make a difference on the N900? I had been told otherwise.

twoboxen: I'll try to post a small file with the Debian rootfs changes. But you can use the new rootfs without harming your old one. It is just (another) 2GB file in MyDocs...

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

That would be great! Thanks.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Ok, I've tried to think of all the changes I've made. I've probably forgot some... Anyway, I've put the new/changed files into chroot-changes.tgz for you to download. This untars into a directory called "chroot" which should be then copied over to your mounted chroot with the "chroot" dir being the / (root dir) of your chroot.

You also need to apt-get install zenity and habak into your chroot.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Tried updating to newest version today, cannot install: "Operation temporary disabled due to low memory" all the time :-(

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Where did i go wrong or miss something ?
I had the last version of Debian LXDE running with the installer and it worked from the start.
No i have lot of Problems.
I Flashed my N900 and want to install the LXDE. Download works well, but then the problem starts. The part where the installer extracts, my N900 starts to freeze, i had the message "Operation temporary disabled due to low memory"
3 or 4 times later i was looking, the Homescreen was here. I started LXDE and get this error :

Mount failure!
/media/debian-m5-v2.img.ext2.bz2 failed to mount on loop0
mount: mounting /dev/loop0 ond /debian failed: Invalid argument

I liked that app, but it looks like im not good enough to use it :(

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Same here... ;/
ps.
With old img was fine... ;p

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

This was a great project.

I've installed it.
Things work great, slow of course.
I installed it in MyDocs and changed /debian to /.debian and pointed it to this in .chroot in /home/user

The keybord is mapped for "us" in LXDE, and I got nordic mapping. So it would be nice if there was a choice for different layout in the install-process.

I did the
"echo performance >/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor"

Is there more trick for performance?

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

you have to extract the image first, using bzip2 or something that can handle the format, and then mount the extracted file (should be called "debian-m5-v2.img.ext2", without .bz2).

if all these steps are supposed to be included in an installation script, a bz2 image does not make much sense, since tar on the N900 doesn't support bzip2.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

THX that did the trick :) Up and running again

Edit : Browser stoped working 4 me too. Thx for the hint with the reinstallation.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

You were told right. My timings for abiword starting, with either governor, are the same. Better so :)

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

I have been using Easy Debian for a couple weeks now, but just yesterday I tried LXDE. It looks really interesting, but I can't use the keyboard ANYWHERE in ANY app inside of LXDE. Is this a known issue? How would I address this?

(I know there was talk of setting window focus, but I thought that was just for emacs or something. Was that only relating to LXDE?)

Thanks!

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

I suggest switching to gzip, lower compression or decompressing with -s.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

OptX, Pioso: "Operation temporarily disabled due to low memory..."?? I will try to find out what is causing that... Anyone else know?

hstende: Your keyboard mapping should be copied over from Maemo if you do the following:

You might also have to set your locale using dpkg-reconfigure locales.

twoboxen: The new version of the package (0.34), using the new image (debian-m5-v2), or your old image with my chroot-changes.tgz package, should get your keyboard working. And if you lose the keyboard (this happens to me if I switch away for a while), there should be a new icon with a keyboard, screwdriver, and wrench in front of the red diamond with the "d". Click on that and it will get keyboard focus back again.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

arkanoid: is the fact I'm using high bzip2 compression causing the low memory problems on peoples' N900s? I'm trying to get the files as small as possible for downloading, but if it is causing problems when decompressing, then that defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Trying the decompression on my N900... That's totally ridiculous! The N900 locks up for an immensely long time...

I guess I'll accept a 50MB larger file if it doesn't trash the N900.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Ahh! Bug in the installer! It doesn't extract the file properly!

Unzip manually, or wait until I get the next version uploaded (later today). So sorry.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Bah! The N900's bzip2 doesn't work with a file of this size! It fails with "File too big"!

We will have to use the kludgy command:

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Just wanted to note that I had some success getting sound working in the chroot through alsa by using the instructions posted here for temporarily disabling pulseaudio: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=37708



With this I've managed to record/playback audio in audacity from a chroot.

WARNING: Be very careful about speaker use when suspending pulseaudio, as the n900 uses a software equalizer in PA to prevent speaker damage. When running straight through ALSA (i.e. using pasuspender) this daemon WILL NOT PROTECT YOUR SPEAKERS FROM DAMAGE. Don't blame me if you blow a speaker, try at your own risk, etc....


I recommend low volumes and/or headphones when playing at this for now.
Also, keyboard in LXDE is still not working for me even after copying the chroot changes and installing qole's listed packages.