Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

I'm planning to create a new image once Jessie is frozen (5th of November).
To do that I need my Cubieboard2 (mainly for recompiling glibc [1]) back which I have lent at the moment. So I can't run any real tests right now.

Since I've never been much into artwork I have no real interest in providing images with my favourite software selection or desktop configuration. I only really care that my images work as a minimal Debian desktop in a way that less experienced Debian users can handle.
My idea with the Wheezy images was that others who have more fun in polishing things have an easy base to begin with. This is why I seldomly release images because once it runs as best as I can make it run I consider my work done.


[1] http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...postcount=3030

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

I'm experimenting at the moment, qole. Figuring out what works well, etc. I've been thinking about creating a build using fluxbox as the default window manager, though. Is that acceptable? I've noticed all available builds cuirrently using lxde (which is great, by the way).

I saw someone using blackbox, so I assume it's workable without too much trouble.

I modified pdaXii13 on the Zaurus by building (compiled on the device itself actually) and heavily customizing Fluxbox 1.0 for it a few years back, so the idea of doing something similar in Easy Debian is attractive.

Thank you for this great project. It is greatly appreciated!

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Why not?
I've built images with jwm and e17 just for testing, so that's not much of a problem.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Thank you, sulu. I was wondering if using lxde was some kind of unifying guideline to give the project some uniformity, but I think having different choices might bring some value as well.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

I think the only guideline is to share what you think is worth sharing.

In my opinion lxde is the best compromise between performance, ease of use and easy configurability.
Afaik fluxbox heavily relies on using the right mouse button which is sort of a pain in Easy Debian. And it has quite tiny desktop elements by default which might be hard to decipher on the N900 if you're over 40. ;)
But I'd be happy to be proven wrong and see some well-done fluxbox implementation in ED.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

One of the nice things about fluxbox is that you can configure almost everything. Usability will be one of my main concerns, definitely. :)

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

A quick tip for new users (probably most of you already know).

If you install large packages, the Maemo watchdog has the bad habit of kicking in due to install processes taking too much of the N900's resources and making it unresponsive. This will reboot the N900, interrupting the package installation, and most likely breaking the EasyDebian image.

1. It's always a good idea to backup your working EasyDebian image.
2. When you install software from the repos, use apt-get install and not synaptic.
3. Prior to installing, remove any external USB storage, and unmount the microSD card manually. For the latter, as root do:
umount /media/mmc1/
4. Use the following command from Debian Chroot:
nice -n 19 ionice -c 3 apt-get install --no-install-recommends <package name>

A little explanation:
Unmounting external storage is to prevent a potential issue with dpkg (used in the backend by apt-get install) which seems to have caused reboots for some.

The nice and ionice commands are to avoid the install processes from taking too many resources, making the N900 unresponsive, and causing the watchdog to reboot.

Also, the --no-install-recommends flag for apt-get install is necessaty in squeeze and later because otherwise it will consider recommended packages as dependencies, causing a lot of space from our limited Easy Debian images to be wasted.

Finally, to remark that if you want to be extra cautious you can additionally install only a limited number of packages at a time to minimize even further the chances for a reboot.

This last strategy is implemented by first finding out every package that will be installed (including dependencies) without actually installing it, for example by using the -s flag of apt-get install, as in:
apt-get install -s <package name>

Then, just install a subset of the packages set at a time.

Thanks to leetnoob, sulu, qole, and others for the original tips. Just condensing some of what I've recently learned by going through the thread.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Very good summary!

As a remark:
You can make --no-install-recommends a default behavior by adding this line to /etc/apt/apt.conf:The same works for suggested packages:is equivalent to the switch --no-install-suggests

My images have both lines in apt.conf by default. If you temporarily want to tell apt to install suggested or recommended packages, just add the switches --install-suggests and --install-recommends

To change this permanently just replace the "0" with a "1" or delete the line altogether. apt's default behavior is to install suggested and recommended packages.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Thank you, sulu. That will come in very handy! :)

BTW, I just installed Okular for testing, figuring it wouldn't work, but it works just fine, even on stock (not overclocked) N900. That's quite impressive.

Does anybody use an external keyboard with EasyDebian?

I'm wondering if support for a bluetooth keyboard with integrated mousepad would be better than in Maemo? In Maemo, as far as I can tell you have to go through the extmou and extkb setup, and support for specific devices is not guaranteed.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Freemangordon's extkbd works best for most keyboards and ED's programs started inside Maemo, but completely fails inside any desktop environment run via ED.

Qole's bt--hd-scripts (or how was it called) works less reliably that extkbd, but works fine inside ED's desktop environments.

extkbd and bt-hd-scripts conflicts with each other (you have seen that one coming, haven't you?...)

/Estel

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

[QUOTE=Estel;1443280]HAHA. Yes, you set that one up nicely and I did see it coming. :)

Thank you, Estel. In this case I would only be interested about using a keyboard inside LXDE, so from what you say things look promising.

My main goal is working with a bluetooth keyboard with integrated trackpad. I think I'll just have to get one and try. When that happens I'll report back.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

I kind of killed my main N900 (MyDocs even disappeared completely). I think it happened because of running xmaxima's test suite with a low battery. Or maybe I just punished the filesystem too much the past few days installing and running many big programs in EasyDebian ;)

I flashed (eMMC + Combined), and still this didn't solve the issue of the missing /dev/mmcblk01p1 (aka MyDocs).

TestDisk didn't help much. I started gparted from my Ubuntu computer, and it would segfault when I tried to mess with the FAT32 partition (resize, move, etc). I finally converted the partition to ext3, and it seems that ext3 is more tolerant to errors than FAT32 (not surprisingly). From that, I converted again to FAT32, and flashed again, and then I could see MyDocs. Not sure about the logic involved in this, but something just changed.

Since I screwed the N900 so badly, I figured it was a good chance to rebuild from scratch, so with the help of a Gparted Live USB key (my Ubuntu Gparted still was giving me problems) now I have this partition setup:

1. FAT32 (MyDocs) 8GB
2. ext3 (/home) 8GB
3. Extended partition
4. ext3 logical (7GB) (EasyDebian partition #1)
5. ext3 logical (7GB) (EasyDebian partition #2)
6. Linux swap (as stock, 768MB)

So now I have 8GB to install Maemo programs, and 2 big ext3 partitions for EasyDebian. Probably will keep in one a stable configuration, and use the other for testing.

I haven't tested yet that EasyDebian will work by copying an image to one of these partitions, but I don't see why not. :)

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

***UPDATE***
The MyDocs partition wasn't visible either from Windows 7.

I fired up the GParted Live USB drive again, and ran Check for Errors (which runs a fsck command on the drive) a couple times. Now, I see the drive again in Ubuntu. I restarted the N900 and that didn't hurt things.

I do know that TestDisk was reporting some I/O errors on the original FAT32 27GB volume, so let's see how reliable things are from now on.

Any ideas are welcome.
***END UPDATE***


Alright, so I ran into a problem. I connected the N900 in storage mode to my Ubuntu system, and now MyDocs can't be mounted. (Although if I use BackupMenu Storage r/w Mode, I can see all partitions including MyDocs just fine.

Also, I did a fsck -af /dev/mmcblk0p1 and I didn't get any errors.

I get this error message:

And when I look into dmsg, here's what I get:

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

No idea what's wrong there and as I've recently demonstrated in another thread I'm certainly no expert in N900-flashing. So maybe opening a dedicated thread where people with real knowledge will look would be a good idea.

But I'd suggest to reflash again with the stock partition layout, then simply switch /home/user and MyDocs partitions [1].
That's at least what I did with my main N900 long ago and it works fine. For ED it doesn't really matter if it has its own partition or if it runs inside a dedicated subdirectory anywhere else. After all it's just a regular chroot. For example at the moment I have 3 different ED setups sitting in 3 different directories on my 27GB /home/user.

As for the "magic" that happened when switching from vfat to ext3 and back I think that both file systems store their metadata in different places, so one doesn't necessarily get overwritten by the other. Not long ago I got someone's SD card from a camera (vfat) that had some strange encounter with Linux Mint. After that I could mount it as vfat and as ext3, both showing me the exactly same directory structure (except for lost+found), but I could only see the files when mounting it as vfat. I could only correct this by deleting and recreating the partition altogether.


[1] http://wiki.maemo.org/Repartitioning...Docs_partition

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Thank you, sulu. I will probably start a thread in the N900 or Fremantle forum, as some things are a little puzzling.

Your experience with that flash medium is illustrative, thanks.

Everything seems to be working fine, however, so I will experiment further with my setup for now. This problem that I had with my N900 made me do some reading, and I realize now that I want to minimize the use of FAT32 in my N900. The swap of MyDocs and /home was an alternative I thought about. I also thought about just converting MyDocs to ext3 altogether, but because of the assumptions made by the N900 startup script machinery some hacking I'm not comfortable with at this point is involved.

During my first firmware flash attempt I experimented. Converting MyDocs to ext3 will boot the N900, but it will do so in a very bizarre state, as the N900 will mount it as /home/opt, so all image resources like backgrounds, icons, fonts, etc will show as big "missing image" placeholders. Converting MyDocs to ext2 instead results in the dreaded reboot loop.

Regarding using ED in a dedicated partition vs a file image, is there no performance incentive whatsoever to using it in its own partition?

One of the reasons I decided to go with 2 additional ext3 partitions for Easy Debian is that after the problems I had, I don't like the idea of an ext3 image hosted in a FAT32 partition, as I think it can result in problems with the image itself when corruption in the host partition takes place (just a theory).

I am already running Easy Debian from one of the dedicated 7GB partitions, and so far so good! :)

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Freeing the ED chroot from the image brings a quite noticeable performance boost, because it eliminates the problem of having one file system on top of another, both not necessarily aligned to each other.

But it is not necessary to have a dedicated partition for that chroot. All it needs is a folder on a file system that supports POSIX file permissions (like the ext filesystems but not vfat).
Basically I could release ED "images" as simple tarballs containing only directories and files that users simply extract into a dedicated directory. The only reason I don't do this is because I assume that most people still have their big partition as vfat MyDocs and therefore require some POSIX-compatible overlay.

I for one have three different chroots running at the moment: wheezy_armel, wheezy_armhf and jessie_armel
Each of them sits in its own subdirectory (with these names) on my /home/user partition.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Excellent, thank you for the explanation. I do remember a conversation earlier with Estel and somebody else about using folders.

Since now I have 2 additional ext3 partitions (aside from the one I'm using right now for my current EasyDebian installation), I'll give this a try.

I'm about to partition my external microSD card to set up FlopSwap. So far I have been running ED and the swap partition both from the internal eMMC. I'm interested in seeing if I can achieve any performance gains by having swap on microSD.

**EDIT**
After installing FlopSwap, and setting swap on microSD, LibreOffice Writer starts cold (no data in swap) in 24 seconds. This is vs 31 seconds in my previous configuration (EasyDebian ext3 image in MyDocs, swap in eMMC).

Really nice! :)

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Debian Jessie went into freeze on 5th of november and as anounced earlier I took this as a chance to build a first Easy Debian image based on it.
So here it is (reinob kindly uploaded the image to dropbox):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/oxeppgy5n9....img.lzma?dl=0

md5sums:user password: user
root password: root

btw I screwed up (again) with the nameserver in /etc/resolv.conf. Please see step 17 on how to fix it if you want to have network access from within the image.
Also, I forgot to set libc6 and libc-bin on hold in this image. Please see step 14 on how to fix that on your own.


For the most part the same instructions I put up for creating a wheezy image [1] still apply. However, there had to be some changes.
I hope this covers the whole process:

1)
As mentioned in [2] we need to patch glibc to accept Fremantle's 2.6.28 kernel. You'll need an armhf/armel system running at least kernel 2.6.32 to do all this, so doing it on the N900 itself is no longer an option.
I did all of this on my Cubieboard2, which took about 6 hours. Once you have an image running you can create new patched glibc packages on the N900 (if the watchdog doesn't kill it).
I would strongly advise against using qemu, at least if you're over 40 and want it done before you retire.
If you need newer glibc packages and can't create them on your own drop me a note and I'll build them. But it may take a week or so.

a)
On a Debian Jessie armhf (or armel) system get the glibc sources
b)
change into the created folder and apply the following changes:

Additionally the testsuite checks have to be ignored during the package generation because some of them will fail:
c)
We need to tell dpkg that we changed the sources:
This will ask you to specify a name for the patch (chose whatever you like) and bring up the standard editor to provide a description for it.

d)
Now you can build the packages

2)
While we're at it we can patch pulseaudio as well since it needs to use an older protocol version to be able to communicate with Fremantle's pulseaudio.

a)
get the sources
b)
change to the folder and apply the patch from [3]:
c)
make changes known:
d)
build the packages

3)
Once this is done (or in parallel) we can create our image.

a)
create 2GB image file (adjust size if desired)
b)
format image file with ext2 (or ext3 etc.)
c)
mount image

4)
Then we install Debian via debootstrap

a)
install base system (if you ommit --arch debootstrap will use the host's architecture; chose the Debian mirror closest to your location [4])
b)
create /mountpoint/etc/apt/sources.list with this content (again, chose your mirror)
c)
(optional) disable default installation of recommended and suggested packages via these entries in /mountpoint/etc/apt/apt.conf

5)
So far in the image /var/run is a symlink to /run. For pulseaudio and dbus to work we need this to be swapped (the missing /mountpoint in the last line is not a typo)
we also need directories for pulse and dbus in /var/run
So far /var/lock was a symlink to /run/lock. Since we just deleted and recreated /run, this symlink now has no target which means it is treated as a file, not a directory.
For the xserver to start we need this to be a directory again:

6)
replace the standard keyboard layout in the chroot with the N900 keyboard
I usually do this by mounting my N900 to say /mnt/n900 and copying the whole directory directly from the device

7)
copy the self-built glibc and pulseaudio packages somewhere into the image. Usually you won't need all of them. In any case you'll need the libc6 package itself and the libc-bin package (in my case: libc6_2.19-12_armhf.deb and libc-bin_2.19-12_armhf.deb) and the pulseaudio and libpulse0 packages (pulseaudio_5.0-13_armhf.deb and libpulse0_5.0-13_armhf.deb).
Everything else can either be taken from Debian directly or I didn't need it for my basic setup. You can also find all the binaries I created or used in this [5] binary archive.
In earlier Easy Debian images we also installed libgtkstylus for tap&hold for right click support. This package isn't available in Jessie anymore but the Wheezy package [6] still works. So download it and put it where you put the self-compiled glibc and pulseaudio packages.
There's another way of adressing this tap&hold issue via evdev that wicket used for DebiaN900 [7]. It's advantage is that it doesn't need deprecated packages and that it works for all applications, not only those written in Gtk+. It's downside is a lot of additional Xorg-related packages that would have to be installed. And I haven't fully understood how it works yet, mainly how to find out which devices have to be defined. Any assistance with this would be appreciated.


8)
extra binaries

a)
you'll need these binaries for keyboard focus in the chroot (take them from the provided archive [5], an existing image you have, or compile them on your own; sources are here [8][9])
b)
if you use the provided armel binaries on a armhf image you'll need this symlink (see [10])
c)
additionally you'll need a script /usr/bin/startlxde1 that starts lxde on $DISPLAY :1 with this content:
Make sure this script is executable for the user.

If you prefer (and installed) another desktop you can replace startlxde in the 2nd line (e.g. with startxfce4), this script however has to keep its name startlxde1
You can find this script in the binary archive at [5] as well.


9)
chroot into the image

10)
update apt and install additional required packages (add any packages you like)

11)
fix this locales warning we just received (adjust the locale if you wish; info from here [11])

12)
Up until Wheezy lxpolkit was a seperate package and it wasn't included in Easy Debian by default. With the switch to systemd in Jessie lxpolkit was moved into the lxsession package.
Since we have no systemd in Easy Debian (and we can't get it running with this old kernel) lxpolkit will start, but bring up an annoying message box complaining about a missing PID every time we start Easy Debian.
The easiest way of getting rid of this is to delete these files:

13)
go to the folder you copied the packages to and replace Debian's glibc and pulseaudio packages with recompiled ones (either from the provided archive or your own ones) and install libgtkstylus

14)
make sure they won't be overwritten by future Debian updates (note: if you use synaptic you have to hold them there as well because synaptic doesn't care for what dpkg says)

15)
also hold xkb-data (this is where the keyboard layout comes from)
holding lxsession might be wise as well, although it's not critical if it's updated. You'll just have to live with the annoying lxpolkit message or repeat step 12)

16)
create a user account. Fremantle's "user" has the UID 29999, but Debian starts creating users by default with a UID of 1000. So we have to specify the UID explicitly. But before we do this we should make sure that the "users" group has the right GID as well. By default it has the GID 100 and is already created but we want it to be GID 29999. So altogether it looks like this

17)
Up to now your image most likely contains an /etc/resolv.conf with an entry like this, which under normal circumstances will prevent any network access from within the image:Change it to look like this:
Finally I did some basic tests with the image.

What works:

I) gparted works (at least it doesn't crash right away)

II) audacity works, but it needs some tweaking. On the N900 in Maemo you'll find these files:
They contain lines like these:
Add this line:
Then audacity will start (although it will still spill some warnings in the terminal about missing devices) and you'll actually be able to record audio.


What does not work:

I) It's the return of the gimp text tool crash that occured in Wheezy/armel but not armhf. With Jessie we have it in armhf too (I haven't checked Jessie/armel so far). If I start gimp from the image on my Cubieboard 2 it works.

II) Everything udev-related won't work as udev now relies on systemd. I can't estimate what that means right now.



[1] http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...postcount=3053
[2] http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...postcount=3030
[3] http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...6&postcount=34
[4] http://debgen.simplylinux.ch/
[5] http://www58.zippyshare.com/v/Bqm1uBWR/file.html (md5sum: d7e6f0bb49c3371fe2a5cc411b856322)
[6] https://packages.debian.org/wheezy/libgtkstylus
[7] http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=93878
[8] http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...4&postcount=23
[9] http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=425218&postcount=7
[10] http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...postcount=3040
[11] http://www.thomas-krenn.com/de/wiki/...d_unter_Debian

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Thank you for your work and for your detailed exposition of what you have done, sulu! It is a great resource.

I will install your image in the next days and test.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

It seems qole is on vacation or something.
Could someone else please host the image before it vanishes?

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

I'm uploading it to dropbox. Will post public link when available!
(verified md5sum OK).

Add.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/oxeppgy5n9....img.lzma?dl=0

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Just spent four days reading through this thread. I installed easy debian four years ago but didn't really understand it well. Now I see the possibilities,. Great work guys!

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

There is a lot of information in this thread - which image at this point is considered the most update to date/stable for running Debian on the N900 via easy chroot?

Thanks!
~Jeff

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

most up to date:
My Jessie image from here [1].
This is pretty much bleeding edge, based on a Jessie snapshot right after the freeze in early november.
It hasn't seen a lot of testing yet and due to the age difference between Maemo and Jessie needed some major ugly tweaks.
As a rule of thumb: If you know how to keep Debian testing running without breaking it you should be able to handle this image as well.

most stable:
depends on what you consider "stable". Either it's Estel's Squeeze image debian-m5-estel.img.ext3.lzma or my Wheezy image debian_wheezy3sulu_armhf.img.lzma, both from here [2].

Estel's image is based on the quite aged Debian Squeeze.
Therefore has the benefit of being halfway compatible with Maemo in terms of software. Also afaik all the Debian software that's been tested so far works. It also has some software preinstalled that many people find useful and therefore is certainly a good start for beginners.
But it also has the disadvantage of being outdated. Debian Squeeze is not maintained anymore (don't be fooled by LTS, it only applies to the x86 architectures). So you shouldn't use this image for anything where security is involved.

My Wheezy image on the other hand is based on the current Debian stable release and therefore the software is still maintained. You should be pretty safe using it for tasks where security matters, provided you run apt-get update && apt-get upgrade first.
It runs stable for the most part but Gparted won't run at all. It also only has little software pre-installed (which might be a reason for its stability - there's little that can go wrong), so you should have a basic knowledge about using apt.
edit: You'll need kernel power for my armhf images. //edit


[1] http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...postcount=3138
[2] http://qole.org/files/

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

my N900 got blank screen during installation of easy debian img package.

I followed the http://wiki.maemo.org/Easy_Debian for installation.

I used the Application Manager and installed Easy Debian. It worked fine. (I guess)

Then I clicked on the Debian Image In icon, one of those made by Easy Debian, and proceed to install
the image with Libreoffice in internal memory, so when the installation was at 96% was the last photo I took.
While, I went to do another stuffs and when I came, i saw on screen something like I should to choose Ok, or another option, but I couldnt select anything, because when I tried to take a photo of this message, the screen go blank. Blank but ON.
It doesn't seem to be a battery problem because it was connected to the charger.

So, what could be the problem?
I did not turned off or take out battery yet. Should I? or it is better to wait? (I have waited nearly 4 hs since then).
It has happened this to anyone?

http://imgim.com/easydebianchroot-debianimageinst-1.jpg
http://imgim.com/easydebianchroot-debianimageinst-2.jpg
http://imgim.com/easydebianchroot-debianimageinst-3.jpg
http://imgim.com/easydebianchroot-debianimageinst-4.jpg

By the way, one piece is missing so I can't use microSD memory.
http://imgim.com/n900.jpg

Any help would be very appreciated.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

By the sound of it, it has not rebooted, just blanked. Unless I misunderstood.
Have you tried Ctrl+Backspace? That should wake it and bring it to the app list.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Just in case you reboot, can you reproduce the problem?

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Thanks pichlo; i tried Ctrl-Backspace, but didn't work. Also to push the power button once to end the running process, but nothing.

So, I decided to poweroff.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

I powered on, and started applications installed (Debian Chroot, Debian LXDE), but I got an error message about corrupt image file.

So I removed 2 files on /home/user/MyDocs :
debian-m5-estel.img.ext3.lzma and other similar name.

The steps I followed :from http://wiki.maemo.org/Easy_Debian

Install instructions
1-Install the easy-deb-chroot package. found in the Extras repository.
2- Go to application menu and run the application called "Debian Image Installer". A terminal program will open and guide you through several steps of pre-configuration:
-First screen will give you a warning which you should acknowledge by clicking OK.
-Second screen will ask you to Choose an image to download and give you 3 image options. (i chose debian with libreoffice)
-Third screen will ask you to Choose where to place the image file ( i chose MyDocs, the internal memory of the phone) ..That will start the download of the compressed image (about 300 MB) and eventual extraction of the image file. It may take more than 15 minutes to download if you have fast Internet connection, and another 30 minutes or more to extract it on your tablet. Make sure that there are no other processes running and that the extraction is not interrupted. (till here.)

Now I got an error: when running Debian Chroot, Debian LXDE:
MISSING DISK IMAGE. ERROR! You have no debian img.ext2 file on your memory cards. Please use the Debian Image Installer in Extras.

I guess it's expected since I deleted it manually debian-m5-estel.img.ext3.lzma and the other file.

The guide mention another way, manually download the image file. What would be better, try that or try again from the cell using Deb Img Install?

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

I think I never used the image downloader script. I've always downloaded my images manually.

You can find most of the image files here:
http://qole.org/files/

Just extract them to your µSD card or MyDocs partition and enter the path to the extracted image in the /home/user/.chroot file.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

just put some tape and paper on the microsd it ll work ;)

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

I just stumbled upon this N810 thread [1] and read this:

I've never seen an N810 in real life, but as far as I understand the "recent" armhf images I created should not work on the N810.

So I'd like to ask if there's anybody out there (N810 user or not) who'd still be interested in armel images?
I'm lazy by nature, so I have no interest in creating them for /dev/null, but the overhead is manageable if someone actually has a use for it.


[1] http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=94565

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

More current, more recent images ...
well sulu...
I know I wouldn't turn 'em down ...
got my vote...

and I'm sure there are lots of others interested...
whether they pipe up and say something is another matter.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

you should not ask @ sulu
just do it

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

actually...
the past few months I've been thinking about doing just that ...
but for the immediate I have multiple projects started I want to finish up first before adding more to my plate.

regardless
@nokiabot I didn't ask.
Sulu noticed, mentioned, and offered.

And frankly any offered help of any kind to the n8x0 devices would be more than welcomed I'm sure to a sub-community that doesn't have really any competent members developing for it any longer (I can't really count myself... being a puttering part-time hacker muddling and slogging through most stuff at best...the physic end of making cool stuff FOR devices is more my forte. )..most having moved on to the n900, n9 and other devices....
so yea ...I think I can speak on behalf of new (still getting new n8x0 owners coming here..) and old n8x0 members.

In advance...
we welcome said offered help ...
from whatever corner...
in whatever capacity ...
in whatever way.
gratefully

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

I just created a Wheezy/armel image by using my Jessie instructions from here [1] (skipping steps 1 and 12 as they are not needed for Wheezy):
http://netload.in/dateij871EOglNK/de...l.img.lzma.htm

I didn't do a lot of testing in my N900 but I'd like to know if audio output from the image works on the N810 and of course the usual suspects (gimp, gparted) might cause trouble on the N810 as well.

I've also found a very odd bug:
When running top from a terminal, that terminal won't accept any Enter key inputs anymore after quitting top. It will however accept inserted Enter characters like pasting them from a text file. And after running and quitting some other TUI program (e.g. iotop) that terminal will also accept Enter key inputs again.
I had this behavior in roxterm-gtk2 and in lxterminal, so it doesn't seem to be terminal-related but top-related.
I think none of the other images I ever used had this problem. At least my usual Wheezy/armhf image doesn't have it.

I also have a Jessie/armel image almost ready, but I'd like to have some N810 feedback for the Wheezy image first.
Since I don't know the N810 I'm not sure, but you might have to replace the contents of the /usr/share/X11/xkb directory in the image with the one on your device, like I described in step 6 of [1].


[1] http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...postcount=3138

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Thanks sulu...
If I get the chance this evening I'll try it out.
Failing that ...tomorrow I'll have the time to see how it wants to behave on both the n810 and n800.

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

damm, you misinterpeted i refferd sulu
btw test and report back ;)

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

Ah...
sorry there nokiabot completely misunderstood what you meant.
you didn't mean " you shouldn't ask @ sulu ...just do it..."
you meant ..."@ sulu, you shouldn't ask ....just do it"
That does make all the difference in the world!
hrm...took that quite the wrong way there nokiabot...sorry there.
In light of that ...um..
yeah nokiabot I absolutely agree!
@sulu ....you shouldn't ask... :D

anyway...on the same tangent...
I was going to suggest...
@ sulu...
If say...oh I dunno ...just throwin' this out there...
someone just off the top...shipped you and gave you ...
a n810, batt , and a charger....
on only 1 condition...
use the hell out of it...
enjoy the hell out of it...
develop (whatever you could come up with) the hell out of it...
until say...oh I dunno ...the sun burns out...
would you want them?
Our end of the device line sure could use the finesse of your skill set...we just don't have people here anymore.

The same offer goes for any competent member who will develop on the n800.
If it ends up sulu is the only one willing then ...well you could have both a n810 and n800 shipped to you at my earliest convenience.

I have 3 n810's and 3 n800's ....2 of each I use ...1 for daily ...1 for x-perimentation... and I have 1 of each just sitting in a drawer as backups. No point in them just sitting. They aren't benefiting the community in any way doing so.
So how about?
Sulu?
Also ..Anyone else with some skills willing to throw in their bid for one?

Re: Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing
 

ship a keyboard bearing one to meee ! :D