Mer v0.6 released
 

Mer for Nokia 770, Nokia N800, Nokia N810, and X86, version 0.6

Information about Mer can be found at http://wiki.maemo.org and release information and released files on [url]http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer/Releases/0.6[url].
I also has a list of known issues so please read them through first before installing.

For x86 there's both a filesystem tar.gz, and a VDI (VirtualBox appliance), for N8x0 both installer, tar.gz, and jffs2 + kernel images.

There's a friendly installer made by b-man for N8x0 as well, so people can try it out without having to reflash their tablets.

This release is mainly for very early adopters and hence you shouldn't expect too much of it. :)


THIS RELEASE IS ONLY FOR YOU IF:

* You know how to connect your tablet to your computer using usb networking if need be (for tablet version)
* You know what CTRL-ALT-F1 does on a traditional Linux box (for x86 version)
* You're not using clone-to-SD (unless you know how to make a bootmenu item for it) (for tablet version)
* You know how to figure out your tablets wi-fi IP on your wireless network, and how to SSH into it. (tablet version)

It is not a complete mobile OS like Maemo, yet, but it is a good way to start getting into Mer development and contributing to it, so we can make it a complete OS. Next release is 1st February 2009 (0.7)

A screenshot of current state (Mer 0.6/x86 on Virtualbox):

http://bsd.tspre.org/~stskeeps/mer-virtualbox2.png


If you would like to help out with Mer (in any way), read through http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer/Sprints , and perhaps come hang out with us on IRC, #maemo on irc.freenode.net

Another screenshot (Mer 0.6 on N810), screenshot by meizirkki:

http://bsd.tspre.org/~stskeeps/mer-meiz.png

Thanks to all the people participating in Mer to get this release through: johnx, Meizirkki, r2d2rogers, qwerty12, wazd, zenvoid, b-man, Andrewfblack, etc. And of course thanks to Nokia for all the open source components, which without this project would not be possible.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

Installed, and the important things working!

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

Ubuntu-help-centre is working - looks cool :D

http://trac.tspre.org/bman/Screenshot1.png

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

I'm getting a CRC error when unzipping mer-x86-generic-image-v0.6.vdi.zip using unzip or 7a. Using md5sum on the zip file, I get the following:

billt@darkside:~/Download$ md5sum mer-x86-generic-image-v0.6.vdi.zip
b5998d470f56dba1aec6f2a4f703ba70 mer-x86-generic-image-v0.6.vdi.zip

Am using Ubuntu 8.10 with 2-GB system RAM.

Can anyone help?

thaibill

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

Maybe it's time for a new Mer subcategory for easy follow...

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

My md5sum on my side is 8c142b2bc4670a6644e85ec3806096ee, i'll try and reupload and see if it helps :P

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

It worked for me yesterday, I only got some VirtualBox errors due to missing packages :) .

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

Just curious but does Mer support/feature the a2dp fixes (read no extreme CPU usage) ?

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

We don't even have sound yet :) But, we have newest Ubuntu bluez, if that might explain your question.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

Mer is debian based.. same as deblet... may as well just use the Debian section.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

You'll probably get a response something like this or this.

Technically, it's Ubuntu based, so we should use the Ubuntu section. Oh, wait, never mind.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

@Solca and Stskeeps: Is it true that you guys are collaborating on a n8x0 U-Boot port?

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

I gave my opinion when requested, is there a problem?

If you want more forums, feel free to pursue the issue. I don't believe we need more, but it's hardly up to me.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

hrm..

Yes..

I so see the error of my ways now... my mistake.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

The kernel and image resulted in an endless reboot loop on my N810 for v 0.6.

...Just thought I'd throught that out there for anyone considering giving it a try.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

remebered to add .item for it, that contains linuxrc -option?

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

The kernel bypasses initfs, so no item required.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

I meant the flash installed images. I guess I should have specified. Either way, they leave the N810 in a reboot loop. I tried it with and without RD mode enabled.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

No, we were looking into using a minimal kernel + embedded FS and using kexec for booting the actual OSes (http://guug.org/nit/nitselector/), but there's currently a problem kexecing when r&d serial mode isn't in use. It works when it is in use.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

cool, do you guys have some mailing list or forum or something (except irc) where you discuss these things and real work gets planned and done? Mer looks cool but I am having problem even with watching you. Scanning #maemo archives for mer is not fun. You don't need any permanent place for discussion (list, forum)?

I've seen http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer and https://bugs.launchpad.net/m-r but it did not help much :-)


I was trying kexec sometime ago with chinook kernel when OS2008 came but did not get very far. The kernel part was maybe OK (there were some patches needed for preserving boot time kernel tags) but I failed to load kernel from userspace, it just segfaulted.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

Sorry, fanoush, IRC. ;)

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

Glad to see you're interested!

The current collaborative spaces are:

* http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer_Blueprint (formal planning) - if you have a task you think should be done to accomplish the goal of the sprint, add it, or commit to a task if you'd like to take that. RSS here

If there's discussions needed regarding a task, we'll discuss on mer-development@garage.maemo.org (mailing list in progress of being set up, at http://garage.maemo.org/mailman/list...er-development)

Or, on associated Talk/Task pages like https://wiki.maemo.org/Task:Mer_Repository_Setup. It's the hope that people will add their activities to the activity log (there has been talk of having RSS feed of microblogging included into the wiki).

* https://code.launchpad.net/m-r/ (bazaar branches, we hope to merge this into Garage once some blockers goes through)

* http://jaiku.com/channel/merbuilder (log of builder so you can see what goes into repository :), RSS here

* http://bugs.maemo.org - The Mer product on bugs.maemo.org

* IRC, on #maemo (random discussion and getting to know eachother) - idling there and just participating once in a while when you see an interesting conversation is also perfectly fine, it's not a requirement to be in here to be part of the project :) - a scrollback is often useful just to glance through once in a while.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

Good for quick talk but then it gets lost. List and forums are there for reason, namely to keep archive in some structured form related to discussed topic :-) I don't believe you don't need this.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

The same argument dneary makes against it, but Mer and many other important Maemo projects wouldn't exist if it weren't for IRC.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

I don't want to ban IRC and I'm not saying it is useless. It is just not enough if you need some history and also if you need to discuss something with large enough group so most of them are not online at the same time. At least #maemo-mer would help with keeping the archive relatively clean if people prefer IRC.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

We tried for a while to do microblogging as to fight this problem, maybe it should be considered again. We do also have #mer which is more silent.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

http://bsd.tspre.org/~stskeeps/pymer.png

Mirage on python-hildon, python-gtk2, python-osso :)

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

Just so I'm clear. Did kexec -l segfault? Or did kexec -l not segfault, but the subsequent kexec -e segfaulted? Thanks.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

I think it was already -l but don't remember for sure. I used two patches for kernel 2.6.22, one adding atags support and second one exporting it in two files in /proc/atags directory. Then I used kexec-tools 1.101 maybe with some additional patches.

Now I have tried it with userspace kexec-nit tool from http://guug.org/nit/kexec/ and found it expects /proc/atags to be a file which is how it is done in recent kernels. I combined previous patches with https://dev.openwrt.org/browser/trun...atch?rev=13613 and now the userspace tool compiled by solca loads the kernel fine and when trying to execute it from fully booted Diablo system (not good idea) it turns screen black and hangs. So I guess it tries to run it but hopefully new kernel just doesn't like current state of hardware. I'll try to run it from initfs so less hardware gets initialized.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

What about performance? How fast is Mer?

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

Did you try putting your NIT in R&D mode _and_ enable the serial-console flag? It only works this way but it is not ideal, if we could find the cause why it hangs without it...

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

Well Mer is a combination of Ubuntu and newers Maemo, instead of Ubuntu it could be any other as OpenEmbedded, OpenWRT, etc. I think is easier for Stskeeps base it on Ubuntu because the Debian heritage simpliflyng all Mer package management. IMHO there should be another category for Maemo based alternatives as it doesn't fall in the Debian category...

Too it is important again IMHO a Mer subcategory in alternatives because remember that Freemantle will only work on newer hardware and in the future ppl will like newer releases for N770 and N8x0 devices and _ONLY_ Mer will fill that hole and it could be a mess ppl posting Mer questions in all places /me thinks.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

First, this habitual misspelling is getting annoying:
s/Freemantle/Fremantle/

WRT forum trees, I wonder if Mer, being Maemo-based, shouldn't get its own category on a level with OS200x, not a subcategory of alternatives? (Maybe not now, but certainly with 1.0 release?)

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

About 400 MHz. :rolleyes:

Since you can't do much with Mer yet, I'm not sure how you expect us to measure performance. I think (I've no measurements!) that Mer is somewhat longer in booting, but I really don't boot my tablet very often. I have never successfully dpkg-buildpackaged anything in OS2008, so I can't compare that.

Stare at the home screen faster? Maybe.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

Hi !

I think really that this really a lost of time !!!
Why don't you use your time to do better things for user ? Like better apps ?

:)

I'm joking ! Thanks for the good work !

I ve many hope in this mer project. I see that there is only a few people doing this good work ! And the project is well managed !

Thanks !!!!!!!

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

Did not try. Might be related to power management then. Serial console basically turns any sleep modes off. When it doesn't work, it might help to try something like
- disable dyntick + sleep_while_idle (in linuxrc)
hopefully this might be enough if r&d flags + serial console flags helps but maybe you already tried this?
- do not play with cpufreq governor (also in linuxrc)
- disable unneded drivers in kernel to get as little hardware initialized as possible (cpufreq is not needed at all and messes with various clocks, ...)

Basically we need only stripped down kernel (no matter which version) that could load any main kernel from flash or mmc via kexec (something like LAB (Linux As Bootloader) idea for iPaq). I was thinking about putting such mini kernel before main kernel in kernel partition so it could load the main one transparently as default choice to keep maximum compatibility. The mer/bootmenu install procedure could then read the main one, prepend our small one and put them back. Most probably the small one would need also some initial ramdisk userspace for the menu. But I guess you already though about it too.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

Not quite correct, in older kernels it used to not let trigger sleep modes when serials were enabled per the UART clocks, really recent kernels have some bright UART clock management that sleep when serial inactivity is detected so full PM applies.

The kexec hang problem have to do with initialization delay timings, when serial-console is enabled in the R&D flags the new kernel will boot slightily slower but it does the trick and works, without it won't boot just hang.

FYI I was able to kexec a kernel without serial-console flag when I insert printk delays in the kexeced kernel which could be useful to discover what's wrong but I didn't progress further, obviously this is not a solution as one will have to replace distro kernels with kernels with delay mods which is _wrong_.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

I realize this isn't a solution, but can you document what you did here. This is great progress and there's an outside chance that I could help. Thanks.

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

For that good comment from Khertan, ;) :

http://bsd.tspre.org/~stskeeps/mer-homediskfree.png
http://bsd.tspre.org/~stskeeps/mer-homediskfree2.png

Re: Mer v0.6 released
 

so 2.6.21 from latest Diablo is old or recent regarding this serial code? I guess still the old one. I forgot you run recent kernels so the one doing the kexec for you was not the old one. I'm trying this with 2.6.21.

I see. What about delay just before jumping to new kernel or what about switching to slower CPU clock before?