Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Holy s*** again! Of course, it's my tar noobines again. The file inside .lzma archive isn't corrupted, it's just .tar with wrong name. So, after un-lzma'ing, just untar it (plain tar, without compression), and you should get final, working .ext3 file.

I'm going to fix that in uploaded file anyway, but - people that already downloaded it, and haven't deleted yet - I've confirmed that it's 100% working after un-lzma'ing *and* un-tar'ing after.

/Estel

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

It would require to exchange clipboard contents between different xserver displays an unfortunately I have no idea how to do this.

Some time ago I made some benchmarks between my class 10 microSD card and the eMMC. The overall result was that the eMMC is about 1.3 times faster than the microSD card. I guess that might explain the results.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

I can confirm the image file works after untar-ing. And it, or at least Libre-Office Calc) is indeed significantly faster, the same test as in post #2560 gave these results:

- swap on sd, ED w. Estel's image 'installed' an emmc partition: 75,55,50
(previously 80,70,65)

The UI also reacts better, before I sometimes had to click the menu bar twice to open a pulldown menu.

@ Estel: it looks like the Chromium extensions you installed did not carry over into the image file.

Edit: test results added

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Is this of any help sulu? Seems like an almost identical situation unless I've missed something:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1431913

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Nice find! xsel seems to be exactly what we need.
I just tried the script from ubuntuforums.org and at least for text it works. I also tried to copy images with it but unfortunately that didn't work. Instead I only got a single dot (the script's default empty content) when trying to insert an image. I'm not sure if the problem was on the copying or on the pasting side.
You'll find an optified version of Debian Lenny's xsel package (I just moved the files around, so there's no change in the source code) attached to this post. Install it under Maemo and follow the instructions at ubuntuforums.org!

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Thanks for testing, guys!

Last night I've uploaded fixed version - this time, it was lzma'ed on device. BTW, it's awesome how much difference using swap on microSD and correct swap-related settings does - *without* using nice, I was able to do other things on device during whole compressing, + I got "surprise" call, and was able to pick it up + talk without any single glitches. Whole process took only few hours (compressing 3GB file).

I'm announcing it just today, as I've first downloaded it, unpacked (also on device, so I'm 100% sure it will work using lzma -d, or ED installer), and tested.

The link haven't changed (I just replaced file):
http://lorienart.pl/cover/ed-squeeze-final.ext3.lzma

It can be mounted as ext3 and ext4 flawlessly. I've also successfully mounted it as ext2 and enabled LXDE, yet, haven't performed any further ext2-related testing.

/Estel

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Thanks - i'm currently using it with ext2 :)

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

As for lack of Chromium extensions in resulted image, I've traced down the problem - for some reasons, using workaround for stupid Chrome Store behavior ("developer mode" for installing extensions), it's not possible to keep them on Debian partition (dialog, where Your provide path to extension folder, can't point to hidden directories, starting with "dot", and our mount is ".debian").

No big deal, though - those are small files, and one can keep them - for example - in /home/user/chromium-extensions. On how to download and load in developer mode (need to be done only once), follow:
http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...postcount=2495

for Scrollbars anywhere, You can also download from this instead:
http://lorienart.pl/cover/scrollbars-anywhere.tar.gz

...untar, and jump directly, to part of instructions, that explain loading in dev mode. This is exact copy of my extension setup (although, I'm pretty sure, that You'll need to load and configure them anyway).

For best effects, in Scrollbars Anywhere options, use following (leave rest unticked):

This will enable scrolling page like in microB, yet, You'll be able to easily select text holding ctrl. Also, ctrl + click open link in new tab.

Overall, by *unticking* "use system border and title bar" (*right click on upper Chromium bar", You got effect like this:
http://lorienart.pl/cover/chromium.png

To easily navigate through opened tabs, use ctrl + number (control+ blue arrow + number). With possibility of binding left alt somewhere, we could use that to achieve back & forward - for now, one need to pres buttons. New tab is ctrl +t.

/Estel

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Today is the first time i used chromium - the first time ever really using a debian browser and it works great!

Some "Must Have" features (for me) were missing on N900's browser - ones that i always have on my PC such as saving all tabs on exit, undo for closed tabs (history) and keyboard control for switching/opening new/closing tabs.

Chromium works really well with several tabs and deals great with hebrew characters which other browsers had problems dealing with.

I also used it with portrait mode and full screen which is very cool.

Estel - This image of debian you prepared is really awesome - i already worked with GIMP, LMMS and LibreOffice and all are working great till now :)

I'm using the image mounted to ext2 partition.

When using Ctrl+ to zoom in, the page does not format correctly and the left part of it is not accessible (not even by scroll bar or dragging). is there any solution for this?

How do you install flash support?

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Anyway to start it from LXDE? Icon seems to be present but it doesn't start chromium actually... As the statusbar of maemo when starting from chroot terminal is taking much screenspace

Also I found scrolling better when

And maybe releasing the .desktop files of LibreOffice, chromium or did I miss them, saw you talking about it somewhere though... Yet have to find more issues. Not really an easy debian user before as I always failed with updating... Now let's see if I can get all pentest tools working in ED ;)

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

You can start it from the menu, at least it works for me.

Also, if you switch off 'use system border and title bar' (see Estel's mail above), the Maemo menu is no longer in the way. Note that it only worked after I had restarted and set the statusbar to semi-transparent. (I don't know if both of these are necessary)

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Hmm my /home/user/.config/chromium/ seemed to be corrupted or something. Deleted that folder and now it's working from LXDE don't know what caused this...

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

I'm glad You all liked it :)

@impeham
I can't reproduce chromium behavior You've reported, when using "ctrl +" and "ctrl -" . In my case, pages are rendered correctly, and it's perfectly possible to drag page in any direction (yet, I'm using scrollbars anywhere, as I've written in last post - shouldn't matter, in that case). Are You sure, that it isn't related to some particular site?

@mr_pingu
Maybe You've opened Chromium via "Ed root" Maemo icon (one opening terminal as Easy Debian root)? This makes Chromium unusable from user, i.e. from LXDE, or from proper Maemo icon launching program directly. Same apply for LibreOffice.

Generally, using ED root terminal from within Maemo should be used *only* to do "root'ish" tasks - like dpkg-reconfigure locales, etc. In any other case, open regular Maemo terminal, and execute 'debbie'. This result in Ed terminal as 'user'.
---

.desktop files for Maemo - allowing to (hassle-free) launch Chromium and LibreOffice - are available as this post attachment. Untar it to (Maemo) /usr/share/applications/hildon/*

/Estel

*Easiest way to do it, is - as root:

Code:

---

mv location/where/you/saved/desktop-files.tar.gz /usr/share/applications/hildon/
cd /usr/share/applications/hildon
tar -xzvf desktop-files.tar.gz

---

after that, it's safe to remove tar archive:

Code:

---

rm desktop-files.tar.gz

---

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

I will be very greatful is somebody tell me what to do after downloading the image file.I have placed it in MyDocs.Read the wiki ,installed chroot package.When I started the image installer it did not recognise the preloaded image.I dont know how to mount the image.Infact I have debian installed in my laptop and gparted is there.Please tell me in a simple manner.It would be joy to have squeeze.

Thank you.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

first of all, You need to unpack img. Use lzma (from terminal, or any GUI program You like) to achieve it. For casual users, I strongly recommend unpacking on desktop/notebook, then transferring image file itself to N900. Without proper swap-related configuration of Your N900, You can have unresponsiveness/reboot problem while unpacking.

Unpacked image is 3GB file (ed-squeeze-final.ext3). Place it somewhere - for example, on MyDocs. Then, edit /home/user/.chroot file (You should have it, as You installed easy chroot), find appropriate line (every option is explained in #comments), and edit it, to point into Your file, i.e. /home/user/MyDocs/ed-squeeze-final.ext3.

Thats all. For more detailed informations, please refer to Easy Debian Wiki page.Also, keep in mind, that using image file, performance won't be amazing - 'cp -a' image file to dedicated partition (little more advanced topic) would give much better results.

/Estel

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

After using it for a while, i noticed that it sometimes happens and sometimes not - it happened twice for maemo talk, but now it seems to work ok - i'll try to isolate to get what exactly is causing this.

Estel - how do you install the flash plugin? i noticed that it is not included even as disabled in the plugins list...

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Please would you point to notes for installation and any "known issues". I can read perfectly well but get a bit lost on new territory - I become unsure if points made are "you need to know this" or merely "isn't interesting that...". The beauty and problem of all fora!
Things like - is it best to install on-device or on-SD? Does it need to be in its own partition or just plonked on the eMMC?
- a pointer to some clear advise that doesn't meander too much, would be greatly appreciated.

As an aside,
- I see it's running chromium as the main browser. Are mozilla ones just too unwealdy?
- Once this edit of ED becomes established, how easy would be to migrate libraries known to work on the N900 to the maemo repos? e.g. ffmpeg v0.7 (or at least 0.55) or RTMPdump 2.3 etc., etc.?

Great work people. Really looking forward to trying this out!

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

@ESTEL

I am very much pleased with your post.And i admire the fact that you did not tell me "if you dont know this you dont deserve this thing:D.

what I did is, downloaded the image of you and extracted in my linux laptop.Archive manager did all the thing for me.

Then I placed it in /home/user/MyDocs.Installed easy debian chroot package.

Then I had to edit the /home/user/.chroot in leafpad pointing to your image file.

At last I am typing this post in chromium web browser:).

If you could tell me the size of dedicated partitions and locations I would do that to taste the speeds you people are experiencing.

On top of every thing,as qole suggested please start a new thread with a nice tutorial.

Thank you very much for this nice image.
EDIT: where did this thanks button go?

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

@impeham
Well, i didn't did *anything* to enable flash. It should work out of the box... I use tweakflashversion (from Maemo) to "cheat" sites, that I use flash 10 - no idea, if it is relevant, or not. It was working (for me) with Iceweasel on old image, and it's working in Chromium same way.

I think I would remember doing anything "special" in ancient past, but who knows... Maybe someone else got an idea? Is it working for others, out of the box?

@demolition
As stated many times before in this thread (no problem, i understand, that it all may sounds confusing), best scenario is to use it on dedicated partition. Now, the "best of best" is to use it on eMMC *and* use (Maemo) swap on microSD *only* - no matter what type of card You have, it may be even slowest one. This gives performance benefit for whole Maemo, and to ED too, as added "bonus". If, for any reason, You still want to use swap on eMMC, it may be wise to have ED on dedicated partition - yet, in this case, it depends on SD card performance.

As for "why Chromium" - well, Iceweasel is too heavy/slow behemoth. Chromium is *much* faster - at the same time, providing most useful extensions (lazarus form recovery, scrollbars anywhere, etc), that we can find on Iceweasel.

I have no idea. Just keep in mind, that we're chrooting here, so having thing working on ED, doesn't mean that it will work flawlessly in Maemo, and - more importantly - that Maemo components (especially, closed-source) will cooperate with new version.

For both You and udaychaitanya16 - to use ED from dedicated partition, just create one (via any tool, that You feel fancy), then - no matter if from within Maemo, or from desktop PC, with N900 connected and it's partitions reachable:

1. Mount (empty) dedicated partition that You've just created
2. Mount Your ED image (mount -o loop /path/to/ed-squeeze-final.ext3 /path/to/mountpoint)
3. cp -a /path/to/image/file/mountpoint/* /path/to/partition/mountpoint/
4. Edit /home/user/.chroot, to make it point into Your partition, instead of image file (for example, /dev/mmcblk0p4, if Your dedicated ED partition is 4th on eMMC).

That's all. Just remember, that to gain best speed benefits, You should have Your Maemo swap on microSD (with eMMC swap disabled *completely*). Further speed improvements are possible to gain via correct swap-related settings, as - most of the times - ED programs are quite swap-intensive - yet, swap settings are out of scope of this discussion.

/Estel

// Edit

udaychaitanya16 to use "Thanks" button, you need to verify Your email address from profile settings.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Hi,

please help me with the following case. I have repartitioned my internal memory of N900. I made 8G for apps, 18G for MyDocs and remained approx 3G as ext3 for EasyDebian installation. It is /dev/mmcblk0p4 . The question is now how to mount it that Debian Image Installer to see it and to give me chance to install the image there. I have tried to make dir called "EasyDeb" in /home/user/ and to mount /dev/mmcblk0p4 to this dir, but installator did not recognize it as suitable. It gave me again to chose between MyDocs and mmc1. What I am doing wrong?:confused:

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Installer doesn't allow You to use dedicated partition - You need to do it manually.

Background story - when qole created it for the first time, repartitioning was considered hi-tech topic (which was a little exaggerated, to say at least - repartitioning using GUI linuxboxes busted this myth), so he focused totally on using Ed via image file.

To be honest, preparing correct partition layout is one of easiest things, that "power user" can do - I wonder, if adding support for dedicated partitions (i.e., automatically extract image content there, as bonus step for installer) would be much hassle to add into installer?

qole, what do You think? Of course, it would be 100% optional.

/Estel

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

@Estel

worst thing happened to me.I wanted to re partition my emmc and 16 GB sd card.I started with making a live usb of Gparted since I could not un mount FAT partition of N900 from my installed Gparted in my computer.

Before that I read a wiki about partitioning.It suggested to have backupmenu.so I installed that and backed up root and opt.Booted gparted and it could see the partitions on emmc.

Then I did silly,funny partitioning.I gave 3GB for ED and called it debian,3GB with a lable home,768Mb as linux swap.I gave the lables on Gparted only.

In case of sd card I have allocated 1GB space for linux swap.

It was a successful operation until I realized that I could not back up any thing from backupmenu.Then it went into reboot loop.I had to flash it.That was not a problem since I have downloaded image with me always.

After that the first thing I did was to install rootsh.It installed flawless but I could not upgrade it because I dont have enough memory to upgrade it. I could not understand what df -h gave me nor can paste it since I dont have ssh.In the settings menu it told me I have literally 1 KB available.I wanted to have 3 GB available for installable applications and ended up with 1 KB.

I am ready to flash a hundred times.Do I need a backupmenu again?If so how can I install that with my great partitioning scheme?

Please save me from this partitioning trap.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

1. Start device in backupmenu mode
2. connect it to gparted live [whatever] and select (on device) "mass-storage mode: read&write".
3. You should see your partition scheme in gparted. Check what5 went wrong, and re-repartition it, when appropriate.

Remember, that You can only restore backupmenu backups for same kernel version, as one that was on device, when You created backup. So, if You backuped with kernel-power from -devel, be sure to install it, before trying to restore backup.

In worst case, You can flash everything (including vanilla eMMC layout), and try repartitioning again.

Also, keep in mind, that You should not use ext4 for home partition, if You're not using kernel-power *and/or* You don't know how to modify backupmenu to work with it. In such case, stay with ext3, You aren't losing much.
---

This is quite off-topic here, so in case of further problems, please find similar thread, or, if such one is lacking, create Your own, them drop me a link to it via PM. I'll be glad to help, but not in ED thread.

/Estel

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

For me it doesn't work from Chromium, it consitently gives me the error:

"the following plug-in has crashed: /usr/lib/browser/plugins/libdebianflashplayer.so"

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

I can confirm this, i can't reproduce videos with chromium. "about: plugins" reports that i have the 9.0 r31 version (usr/lib/browser/plugins/libdebianflashplayer.so).

in maemo, i use tweakflashversion on the default pr1.3 libflashplayer.so, using the 10.1.64 (froyo version) i can reproduce videos perfectly with microb.

is there any way to replace the libdebianflashplayer.so with the libflashplayer.so i have in maemo? i tried with a symlink. it doesn't work, but i have not skills and i've just started with easydebian (i don't even know where all my confs are saved, and i really made a lot of mods, like installing icons, themes and a few chrome plugins, no idea where they are saved tho)

can we just update the debian flashplayer? or replace the default .so? i guess that libdebianflashplayer.so comes inside the img so replace it would be useless or at least not permanent, just asking, i don't want to start another flash 10.1 epic thread

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Hello, friends.

Seems that the installation on dedicated partition has to be done manually. Could someone help me with some additional info what I need to do/read. If there is such a information just give me the link and I will read/study it. Then if I have question I will ask, otherwise I will just do it and will post the result/problems I met.
Regards

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...postcount=2579

One page ago...

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Estel,

Can you estimate how much was the performance gained by using a dedicated swap partition for debian and installing debian image to a dedicated partition?

i assume you made both on the microSD card (class 10?) - is that right?

i currently mount the image file from the internal MyDocs and not using another swap partition for debian - chromium is not working so smooth but reasonable - if the change in performance is significant i would do it your way.

Thanks for your hard and contributing work!

[EDIT]
i just made a simple test and moved the debian image file to the SD card (i am using class 10) and mounted it from there.
just by doing so, performance is about doubled with all debian applications - libreoffice, gimp and chromium - much much better!

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

1.mounted dev/mmcblk0p4
2. "ed"is my mount point
3.This got my nerves out.what idid is4.edited .chroot directing to /dev/mmcblk0p4

When I started the debian lxde its a failure.What wrong am I doing there.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

I guess you want to copy the estel-image to mmcblk0p4?

First mount the image and the partition mmcblk0p4 to a directory:
Then your copy command should look like this:
With your command above, you copy from (empty?) mmcblk0p4 to the mounted ed-image.
----> the general principle is alwas: cp <-opt> <source> <destination>
You can also copy/backup directly from partition (mmcblkXpY) to image file and verse visa with dd.

Example:

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

There's been a surge in new user questions lately. This surprises me, since I didn't expect there to be new users for a discontinued product (the N900).

My second N900, the one I got after my first one's USB port broke, is looking old and battered.

Is there somewhere you can buy new N900s, or are you trying new things on your old N900s?

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

i'm from the philippines and found two brand N900's in two cities. it's still possible that there are people here who just bought a brand new device. plus, have you seen reggie's post: talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=82019?
there are still lots of regular TMO visitors and we still get spikes from time to time. as somebody mentioned somewhere, "The N900 refuses to die." :)

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

@qole
Viva en-nine-hundred... mmm ... not sure that has much of a ring but you get what I mean. Because of its uniqueness, lots of us won't let the N900 die!

As far as buying new one is concerned: yup, it's still possible in the UK, unless all the vendors are spoofs! Getting one from from an actual shop is unlikely. A lot of devices for sale are second hand though. The N900 got a bad repuatation for unreliability and being over-complicated, especially amonst sales staff. I also think Nokia had a bad reputation well before Nov 2009. Therefore, the N900 didn't really sell, especially in zones dominated by carrier subsidies. It's possible that the devices that didn't sell might have been bought up en-masse for resale elsewhere?

As you and many others commented: speed aside, the N900 is unmatched by any other device currently available.

Back to ED: have you tested the most recent image? Any thoughts/comments/etc.?

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

I'm back at home, and I'm just downloading Estel's image tonight. I'll let you know when things are up and running via the installer.

But again, I strongly suggest Estel takes discussion of his image to a new thread here in Alternatives, leaving this thread for discussion of the scripts and stuff.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

I've added Estel's image to the installer. But it is really clear when running LXDE that we need to figure out a way to set up different environments for different images.

I suggest we look into using the embedded startup scripts to configure the user's environment when using these contributed images.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Thanks, qole! I waited with new thread, until image appear "officially" in the installer. Do you feel like adding LibreOffice and Chromium .desktop files into the package as well, or do You think, that they should be downloadable from somewhere else (dedicated thread, or via embedded startup script)?

Also, could You elaborate more on:

...? I don't exactly get what You mean - what things, that require environmental variables tweaking have You observed? Would love to get it straight before "announcing", as I'm quite a noon when it comes to such things (enviroment tweaking).

/Estel

// Edit

I'm not surprised by high interest in N900-related things at all. First of all, Maemo and N900 have no very high momentum - IMO, higher than in *any* moment of it's history, including release (talking about actual contributions, not chit-chat - see CSSU and kernel-power).

Second, You may agree with it or not, but for many people, N9(50) is a total or almost-total failure. There is (still) no competing device for N900, even on far horizon - latest Nokia products, seems to be targeted on quite different target group - Personally, I would say, that it's close to what WebOS used to be. But, of course, it's off-topic here.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

@qole

how to install printer drivers on easy deb??

i've succeed installing libreoffice yesterday.. it's great, but now i want to install cups and i see this line..

dpkg-reconfigure cups
Stopping Common Unix Printing System: cupsd.
Starting Common Unix Printing System: cupsdFATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.28.10-power49+pre50/modules.dep: No such file or directory
FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.28.10-power49+pre50/modules.dep: No such file or directory
FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.28.10-power49+pre50/modules.dep: No such file or directory

tell me what should i do??
thank you

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Estel: I mean we could put image-specific configuration files inside the image, and then use the embedded startup scripts (probably onfirstchroot-ext.rc to copy the config files into the /home/user directory. Alternatively, the image's onfirstchroot-ext.rc script could unmount the Maemo /home/user directory and use the image's version instead. That's probably the best, it would maintain per-image config files and let the user personalize them.

As for the N9, it is still very early days. There's a bluetooth keyboard app in the Nokia store already, and open mode works well. Interestingly, there's no keyboard focus problems on Harmattan, even though they said the keyboard focus problem wasn't a bug on the N900...

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Concept of using config file per-image is great, but when it goes to my image, it doesn't contain any specific thing in /home/user ;) Personally I use modified .xbindkeysrc and different .chroot, but it's not dependent on any particular image, it's just about my preferences (running from dedicated partition as opposed top image file, etc).

I'll try to prepare announcement thread today.

/Estel

// Edit

As per N9(50), time won't change hardware fails - capacitive screen, lack of SD slots, lack of easily-removable battery, etc. Using external keyboard is also hardly a solution for developing/overall productivity on-the-go.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Using Estel's prepared image, when launching Chromium -> about:plugins, this is the list i see - there is no flash plugin - Estel is this what you have and flash is working when you use youtube?