Mer does what?!?!
 

I've installed mer on my nit, and thus far have no idea exactly what it is supposed to be doing (yes, i have searched the forums and read everything on the wiki) and aside from not having a side panel, I cant get much else going on with it. while lots of people like pointing out they have it installed/screenshots what exactly is as a result of mer? is it a base layer on which I can add/run another wm/os? i dont see any progs for it specifically, so what exactly is it supposed to do?

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Mer is a platform under heavy development. In time, it will become the upgrade path from OS2008 on existing tablets. It's still a bit early for that though.

Mer can already run some of the same programs that you may use in Diablo. Again, in time, this number will grow. Mer can also run many Ubuntu programs, though the screen size of the tablets may not let those applications be terribly usable. Additionally, as Mer will be bringing as many Fremantle technologies as possible to existing tablets, Mer will eventually be able run some Maemo 5 apps.

In short, Mer isn't really ready for end-users yet, but will likely be the next everyday-use OS for your tablet--eventually.

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Can we have a rule on this forum that if somebody asks what they can do with Mer, and someone answers that it can run many of the apps that run under Diablo, that that person also state how they go about installing Diablo apps and what the issues are likely to be?

Mer would get a far greater run if everyone who tried it didn't give up after going to application manager after seeing so few apps to install in the only way that general maemo users are used to.

Yes, this should be in the wiki, I know. But it isn't. And I have installed a bunch of mer installs and even tried some ubuntu apps and I still don't know the answer to this.

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

The real power of Mer is having the whole Ubuntu repository available to you. If you enable Red-Pill mode and Show All Applications, you will see what that means. But it slows down the Application Manager immensely.

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

That may be the real power for some, but I think the vast majority of people will want to first do what they can currently do under maemo.

Or at least understand what maemo things are available and what aren't. I think encouraging people to install non-hildon gtk apps that aren't in any way optimised for the mer window manager is just going to leave people with a bad experience and not understand what the benefits of mer are - or will be.

Unless of course that non-hildon apps are the only things available, then set the expectation so that people work within the limitations, understanding that the platform is in development.

My cycle is this: install mer, boot into it, look in application manager, try a couple of ubuntu apps, get frustrated, read the boards and see positive messages and people using mer as their primary platform, not understanding how this can be, booting back into maemo and waiting for the next sprint to complete. Repeat.

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Some things to notice:
* Mer isn't Diablo, it uses Fremantle APIs, hence, many applications will break
* Many Maemo packages suffer from Scratchboxisms (Reliance on being built in Scratchbox - such as symlinks to Scratchbox conf tools) and Maemo-isms (/home/user assumption instead of just using $HOME).

We're hoping to work with maemian to weed those problems out, so you can practically recompile a Fremantle extras application for Mer.

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

It will be so until Mer is ready for day-to-day use on n8x0 :) .

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

And N800 I hope :eek:

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

And please, please, please, the 770...

Mark

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

second that, and third that, fourth that

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Thanks for all the good work on Mer.

I noticed this quoted statement and also that the goals for Mer were recently changed in the Wiki, and also the FAQ stating that it would be necessary to dual boot with Diablo to run Diablo apps.

Just to make sure there is no misunderstanding, Mer does not and will not contain Diablo APIs - correct?

If so, this is disappointing as I was hoping that it would be possible to use Mer to run a Diablo app on a device other than a NIT

edit: who or what is "maemian"?

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Can we have a rule that people aren't so demanding about making an OS that is still in alpha/beta work right?

Jeez.

EDIT: I believe a maemian would be a person / creature that hails from the world of maemo (ie NIT users).

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Ah, that was me trying to make it clearer. How's this:

* Does it run inside Diablo?
No. Mer runs instead of Diablo - but don't panic, you can dual boot from one to the other; so if Mer isn't good enough just yet you can switch back to Diablo. Eventually we hope you won't need Diablo at all :)


Mer does contain maemo APIs and many (most?) Diablo apps should run on Mer.

But not always "out of the box" as it were.

You can.... http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer/Status

It validates packages to make sure they build cleanly on Mer too IIRC.

We are working to get garage to submit applications to the Mer autobuilder (OBS) at the same time as they go to the Fremantle and Diablo builders.

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Re: goals, we just cleaned them up a bit - re Diablo: Right, I can't find that FAQ - and the one I found doesn't say that.

Well. Keep in mind that most Fremantle APIs are backwards compatible to Diablo. So most stuff works, or with little change. The only Diablo API Mer really contains is the old hildon desktop (which we may get rid of).

We actually never had Diablo GTK, Hildon, etc. - they were all Fremantle even before the alpha releases.

In most cases you'll be able to run the app on Mer - but honestly, developers should work on porting their applications to Fremantle APIs. Do you have any particular applications in mind?

Diablo API is a dead end. Unless of course you want to be hired by Marvell who's reference design of a MP4 player is MediaBox on top of a Diablo SDK that has been made to actually run..

Maemian is a script like linitian that checks if a debian (source) package is correct and sane. One of the ideas of Fremantle extras (do note i mean extras, not -testing, -devel), correct me if I'm wrong - packages will have to pass a number of tests including maemian tests to be included in the main extras repository.

The hope is that we can through that process incite developers to have cleaner and more portable packages (read: will build on Mer, Fremantle, even within OpenEmbedded without problems).

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Just for reference:

http://lintian.debian.org/

Maemian is the Maemoesque version of Lintian.

Tim

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Any chance that Mer will have mouse support for the NIT?

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Well, currently we just hide the cursor. Should be fairly easy to enable it again. Except if Xomap screws it up?

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

If someone really needs the mouse support but Xomap won't allow it, there's also Xorg :)

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Ever bought a piece of hardware and the software got EOLed? A Nokia phone perhaps? The Nokia Internet Tablets (Nokia 770, Nokia N800, Nokia N810, Nokia N810WME) are now legacy devices.

Because Maemo is open source there is a independent project based on Maemo, called Mer. This project aims to be more hardware agnostic (including support for mentioned Nokia Internet Tablets). It provides an up2date OS where Maemo is officially EOL by Nokia, but it is currently in heavy development therefore not production quality; it is aimed for developers and curious users.

So, where other Nokia products (S40 phones and S60 smartphones) become EOL and you're SOL you now have a choice to install a 3rd party firmware.

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Right, my donated 770 just WSOD'ed itself. Turns out turning it on while USB is connected is a bad idea. So there won't be more development from me personally in that direction.

But, it did so while I was trying to make a screenshot of 0.15testing9 running on 770 for you peeps. BBB-770 did a kernel package, I fixed some things in our scripts and we need people to test it.

Anyone want to try http://stskeeps.subnetmask.net/mer/0...esting9.tar.gz for me (and Mer) on a 770 so we can give you a Mer 0.15 for 770?

Instructions here still apply.

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Maemo has hacked mouse support, so it should be possible.

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Not so fast :), go here and put in your WLAN MAC address and check for waranty.

bun

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Yeah, donated, so I doubt it. Also, not US based :)

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Excuse, excuse, excuse,........, just put the numbers in and give it a shot. If not US, then find another Nokia site. Dont take no for an answer without trying. And I may have someother tricks lying for you. Try this 1st.

bun

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

I had 0.14 installed on my Nokia 770. I extracted and overwrote it with the tar.gz file in the link. It now hangs in the mer bootup screen with the status bar(the status bar reaches its end). Any log files in particular that could help me troubleshoot?

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

You need to re-make the FS.

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

If you want it, you can have my 770.

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

I'll give it a shot.

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Thanks - I think it's more worth sending to someone who can give the platform more justice, though. N8x0 & SmartQ is a bit of a mouthful for me still. Mind if I poke you if someone worthy comes up?

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Nope, looks like I won't give it a shot again... The same place - at the end of the progress bar just hangs... :(

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Can you see if you can kick into rescue menu? Hold down home when it boots. Should help us diagnose - it's a completely fresh port and I didn't manage to test it yet so :P

Does it hang before or after the first boot wizard?

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

maemian is a tool to do 'policy checking'. That is to say, it will look at your packaged software and try to make sure everything is installable and according to the policy that mer sets out. This allows for higher quality.

maemian is based on debian's lintian and is still in development. You can join the development on garage if you are interested. It is written in perl.

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Sure thing. PM me anytime if you find somebody that's worth sending it to.

I have everything in the original box, it was lightly used. If that's my only way to give back to the community, then I'm looking forward to it.

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

After, just before the progress end.

The boot menu freezes after clicking on an icon, doesn't matter which... Hmm, should I turn some R&D switches on/off?

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

You can actually move in the items? Well, that's a improvement over 0.12 :P Home key bringing up rescue menu, and none of the items do anything? Thanks for trying, btw - wish I could make a more ready-for-testing image :)

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

I installed latest 770 testing version (0.15). I can not get any of my wireless networks shown on the list and creating a profile does not help either. Any ideas? At least normal mer boot from rescue menu works. Can not wait to try included Tear.
I'm using he2008 kernel, is this the right one?

Network manager says there are no network devices available

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Thanks for your efforts for N770 users.

Same for me, I can't manage the wi-fi to work. I had success with the wi-fi and mer 0.12 but I have "no network devices available " with mer 0.15

Seb

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Hey, I'm just happy it boots :)

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

so this is something that can easily been fixed?

Re: Mer does what?!?!
 

Just out of curiosity; when exactly - as a guess - would you say Mer would be ready for primetime?