Non Linux techy N900 users
 

Im interested to hear from people that are not Linux geeks or the non target audience as it may be. people who wouldnt know how to access root straight away or how to flash the device.

there was a post form a user explaining how he logged in to work while away via VNC i believe. AWESOME by the way and his thread highlighted how cool the device can be if you know what your doing. Stuff like this i am sure is pretty easy but you no what i mean. like he said the device is all he ever wanted and was perfect for him.

As this is meant to be sold as a mobile computer and not a phone and the phone functionalities are very limited. I have some quesitons

- what exactly do you use the little beast for?
- how easy was it to adapt to Maemo?
- how far down the rabbit whole have you gone. Have you tried Extras or other repositories (im learning) etc etc

Not many people have the phone yet but thought i would ask as this is exactly what i would be if/when i purchase the device. A complete novice who was/is willing to give it a try

Re: Non Linux techy N900 users
 

Right.

I know nothing about Linux lol but loveee the device.

So far I've adapted to Maemo quite quickly and enabled extras & extras-testing.

I've also configured homescreens etc synced my ovi & msn & facebook & twitter contacts & use the device heavily for web, social networking & emailling.

Also just installed vnc to use that and see how good it is.

Absolutely love it. Period.

Re: Non Linux techy N900 users
 

cool seems like u have adapted quickly and are trying to get the most out of your device. this does bring back some hope :) sweet. the connections really interests me as i always have stuff on my laptop i want to show people but cant when at work or out and about.

Re: Non Linux techy N900 users
 

I just posted a long blog item about My First 24-hours With the Nokia N900

Comments/questions welcome...

Re: Non Linux techy N900 users
 

That is waaaaaaaaaay to long for this time of night but will no doubt give it a read 2mos

Re: Non Linux techy N900 users
 

I have to say, the lack of photos of teddy bears surrounding the N900 at unpacking is disappointing ... . :p

Re: Non Linux techy N900 users
 

im having my first day with mine, she arrived this morning. i havnt had long to play and mess around yet due to being very busy at the min.... i am however loving it.

at the minute i dont know how to add repositories and definitely not up with doing anything remotely geeky, but im damn sure gonna learn, this thing is too excellent not to

Re: Non Linux techy N900 users
 

To this date, i still don't know how to make emulator work...i am sure there are a lot of peeps out there know how to run it and what to type in xterminal to make it work....but i ttrry all and nothing happened.

The sad part?? Nobody is able to help out...
I ask a simple question...what the hell do you type in order to get the file running?? They mentioned some bullshyt like dpkg -i <file name>

But i type that and doesn't work...for example...dpkg -i appinstaller.deb or dpkg -i /Nokia N900/appinstaller.deb

The problem is it is not able to locate the file...i don't even fking know what specific address is...trying to figure this damm thing out ..just the address and location of the damm file. LIke some people mentioned...home/user/....and i am like where the heck did you get that?? It's pretty annoying. They're like go read the linux commands...but i did and i have no clue what the hell they're talking about.

Re: Non Linux techy N900 users
 

i dont know nothing about linux, only experience i have is playing with android (G1 for 1 year), felt really nice to have maemo... not bad for a young device.. a lot of potential.

Re: Non Linux techy N900 users
 

Did you already download the .deb onto the tablet? If you can find it in the file manager, you can probably click on it there to run the installer.
To use dpkg -i you have to be in the directory where you have the .deb file or specify the complete path, but unfortunately I'm not sure where the n900 stores downloads by default (I'm still waiting on Dell to ship me mine). If it stored in /home/user, you could type 'sudo dpkg -i /home/user/filename.deb', for example (I'm assuming you need sudo to install, but could be mistaken). Googling dpkg should turn up any syntax help that you need, but without knowing where you downloaded the package I can't be of much more help. :/

Re: Non Linux techy N900 users
 

that is very good sign not to do it unless you are ready to bear the risk that your device becomes a brick (and after that it is necessary that you have the skills to reflash it. NSU @ windows could be incapable to do it, so: http://wiki.maemo.org/Flasher )

but after this intro:

open terminal (ctrl + shift + x)
write
find / -name appinstaller.deb
press enter
this should return something like
/home/user/MyDocs/appinstaller.deb

then write exactly the line find returned behind dpkg -i, like this:
dpkg -i /home/user/MyDocs/appinstaller.deb

and in the future: RTFM

http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=linux+terminal+howto
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Text-Terminal-HOWTO.html

youre requesting total spoonfeeding.

if you aren't a linux geek, you just have to wait for stable apps. the road to terminal commands isn't so rosy, it could render your device easily useless. and installing unstable apps can do almost anything to your device (delete everything ever existed in your device for example), without QA no-one will be responsible for anything. that is good reason imo to stick with extras. the apps will go fairly quickly to extras in the end so couple weeks waiting could save ones life when unstable app creates a worst case scenario.

Re: Non Linux techy N900 users
 

Indeed, I was just thinking this sort of thing. I'm wondering how we can best address this sort of question? Maybe a wiki page (with lots of disclaimers) explaining a few very basic topics (like installing via dpkg), or a linux usage subforum that this sort of thing could be moved to? Given the current influx of *nix neophytes we really should try and figure something out...unfortunately TMO isn't really geared toward training users on the cli.
I'm happy to help people out when I can, but I'm afraid that the n900 is going to result in a ton of linux support questions.

Re: Non Linux techy N900 users
 

Unfortunately that doesn't work on Maemo 5/N900, so you have to use dpkg -i.

Re: Non Linux techy N900 users
 

No, the problem is that you are vague wherever possible by writing stuff like "i ttrry all and nothing happened" or by not posting the exact error you run into nor the command you used.
Hence you run into problems because you're probably doing something wrong, but you blame the people in this forum for it.