Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

fresh news from [MeeGo-dev]@meego.com
:D

Hello MeeGos !

This is brief status update of "MeeGo to N900" project. This project is currently running as Nokia project, and I am Nokia project lead for it. The current closed mode of development is not the target for us at all, but rather transitional condition. As already discussed by Valtteri in TSG meeting, we are looking into going more open mode shortly. One reason why we have done this on this way is that at the same time we have been trying to handle opening of many currenly closed components that are needed in MeeGo and to build feasible MeeGo images for N900.

However, a lot of related work is already done completely open, you can find more info from places like ofono.org, connman.net and meego.gitorious.org . So if you are eager to contribute or want to closely follow whats happening, please work on those.

As you know, we have delivered working MeeGo images for N900 as part of first code drop in the end of March. At that state we were using older kernel version on N900 than on Atom side, as we used the same kernel (.28) than what is used in Maemo 5 based products today. We ended up doing that simply because lack of time to contribute and port all the drivers to the newer kernels.

Now, for the upcoming May release of MeeGo, we are going to use the same kernel version (.33) than Atom based devices are using. For that we need to submit number of ARM-architecture patches to MeeGo as well, because many of the required ones have just been contibuted upstream kernel and were not available in .33 version originally.

We have already enabled most of the main drivers, like LCD, GFX, Wlan and BT. Still, there is a lot to do in order to enable .33 on N900, like audio drivers, and modem subsystem including SSI buss driver, modem data and audio drivers etc. Our adaptation guys are in fact contributing those modem subsystem related drivers as we speak, and if you are following kernel mailing lists you can see how that goes on.

Besides of enabling the new kernel, we are working with number of smaller and bigger issues for N900. Starting from the beginning, we are now based on ARMv7 combiled code, so the code should be better optimised for N900 now. ARMv5 compilation that was in use for code drop will still be there, and it also seems to be used at least by community project that is planning to release MeeGo for good old N810 tablets ;)

Also, we are planning to enable dual booting of Maemo 5 and MeeGo for the upcoming release. So that will be offered as 3rd way to setup MeeGo to N900, including the existing "native" MeeGo only on N900 and chroot based MeeGo on Maemo 5 setups. Taking the dual boot mode into use likely includes upgrade to Maemo5 kernel as well, but that should not be big issue in the process of enabling that.

As I don't want to go ahead of others working on MeeGo architecture and other issues I will stop now, but I will report again when we have more to tell about the subject.

Br,
// Harri

---------------------
copied from the [MeeGo-dev] list

Max

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

Thanks for posting Harri's email here Max!

corrected ;)

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

I saw this on the mailing list too. Great information from Nokia.

I gave them a standing ovation on the list.

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

Sorry for not making it clear:
I just copied that from the meego developer mailing list.

Max

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

So, this is the end of the FUD about the MeeGo on the N900 scheme, then? :)

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

Great news! I just hope this team survives any layoffs that might occur because of the stock being hammered today.

At the end of the day, the share holders own Nokia and they will demand blood today's stock drop!

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

I was unable to attend this week's meeting. Will this project eventually bring Nokia's own (Harmattan) MeeGo UX and applications (Ovi Maps, etc.) to the N900 or is this project for the reference MeeGo handheld UX?

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

I think it's closer to the definition of a hardware adaptation team. You need that to work before you bring in the fun things. I have no idea if Nokia will do that.

What is happening is that Nokia's actively upstreaming the patches for the N900 and maintaining a hardware adaptation. Isn't this great?

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

Is there any way that this can be done and still allow custom kernels (e.g. titan's)??

Thanks for the update, too. Actively engaging your community early and often will definitely benefit both your users and your team. (see any PR1.2 thread for a counter-example).

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

Undoubtedly, since the source for the kernel will be available.

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

Part of the patches that was published was kexec patches, which is already in titan's kernel. That'd be the sanest method for dual-booting other kernels.

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

Wasn't this week's meeting postponed anyway?

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

No, that was last week's, due to LFcollab.

Minutes at http://trac.tspre.org/meetbot/meego-...-21-18.58.html - check the logs too, a quite interesting discussion about openness.

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

As an addition to this: I just really hope the "new" kernels contain the necessary NAT support for things like WiFi Hotspotting. (unless that's already been worked around and my information is outdated... I still have a lot of unread stuff over the past month or so.)

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

Understood, and I do not want to give the impression that I'm anything but thrilled by this announcement and the work that is underway. Thank you, Nokia! Thank you, everyone working on this project!

Yes!

I simply foresee this news being read by many as "Harmattan is coming to the N900". Then, later, if Nokia doesn't provide the Harmattan UX and proprietary applications for MeeGo on the N900, I can see angry cries of "Nokia lied to us!"

I just wanted to know if Nokia has as yet clarified their intentions as to the UX layer and applications. If they haven't, that's understandable. If they have, then I'd like to know so I'm able to supply the correct information when questions arise.

Either way, I'm very, very happy about this project.

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

That was an interesting read. Thank you!

Sounds like there are plans to enable MeeGo for Maemo5 after all, and with double boot and everything! I'm impressed!

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

What does Harri mean by the "atom", .28 and .33 kernel references ? How are these related to the PC based kernels ?

What is the full version number and name of these kernels ?

Do they build the same ? Can one enable the same kernel options ?

Thanks

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

All the clues indicates that Nokia has made a decision whether to support Meego on N900 officially or not. @qgil even told that users could decide to stay on Maemo or upgrade to Meego, but I agree with you that there should be a clear statement since the information now is all spread through this forum and Meego mailing lists. A couple of days ago I checked the wiki about "What we can realistic expect from Meego on N900" and there was no update regarding this Meego to N900 project.

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

This is great news and thanks for posting the status here.

Just one question. When you talk about opening closed components are we talking about stuff like functionality of the phone app and battery management?

With this kind of commitment hopefully we will be rewarded with an open and active platform.

I think Nokia have earned major brownie points with this.

Now I am excited.

Definitely time for cake.

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

Looks like I should have been little bit more specific. I did not announce any new activity, we are still talking about the same project that we announced way back, see

http://wiki.maemo.org/What_can_we_re...or_my_N900_.3F

Please remember that MeeGo is about open source os, and product decisions for Nokia will be made by another people / scope.

Personally I feel that it is too early now to talk about MeeGo as productized platform for N900.

Br,
//Harri

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

Exactly. I didn't read into this that there was any decisions or commitments made beyond what's been said before. Still, it's nice to get an update that lets us know that work is progressing and just what that work is. Thanks!

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

you made my day :D

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

This is fantastic news.

I don't see why everyone is concerned about a "productized" version of meego on the N900. We don't have any sort of OVI services that work with the n900, and if the reference apps that are provided by the base meego distribution are any less functional than the ones we have now they would be unusable. I don't see how a vanilla smartphone OS could do any less and expect to compete with the likes of Android and iPhone.

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

I was just thinking yesterday "i wonder when nokia are gonna speak up about MeeGo" it's been intel with most of the, well, intel recently.

Thanks Nokia.

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

Great news but for me its still not 100% clear if the official N900 MeeGo release will be Nokia branded. Meaning that will include all the Nokia services and Ovi ecosystem.

For example is great to have MeeGo officially on the N900 but for a true Nokia user it will be a pain to have it without Ovi Maps, Ovi Contacts, Ovi Sync and the rest of the Nokia services.

But even if thats the case we will finally get portrait mode for the whole thing, MMS hopefully a decent call log and more other goodies :)

I guess time will tell how this will turned out to be.

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

I wonder if Nokia will seperate the Ovi store and Ovi Maps from the Meego OS (or if they will only bundle it with their Meego provided devices). It would be a great tool to leverage users if they had a QT based version of Ovi Maps running on any Meego device.

Especially since Nokia seems like they want to join in on what Apple and Google are doing now (ads and location based services).

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

It seems unlikely to me that Nokia would bundle any Ovi services with MeeGo as manufacturers other than Nokia will be deploying it. It's more likely that each manufacturer will need to implement their own replacements.

I wouldn't be suprised if MeeGo had it's own maps, and Intel has it's own store. I would be suprised if these vanilla meego apps didn't measure up to the current Nokia ones.

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

MeeGo is open to all. Various manufacturers would be able to put their own suite/software bundle on top of MeeGo and distribute it through their plethora of devices.

For instance, Nokia's brand of MeeGo which might include the Ovi suite and stuff could be possibly called the Harmattan.

It is definitely likely and very much possible that Nokia would include their Ovi softwares on top of MeeGo for IT'S devices. The real question is "but what and when"?

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

I'm pretty sure that people will NOT remember this, and every announcement that doesn't reiterate this &/or make it clear that we're not exactly talking about Nokia's Harmattan will get confused responses. The nature of MeeGo and the MeeGo brand is still pretty confusing.

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

Hey, this was news to me! This is very exciting!

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

I think we might have a new Nokia motto:

Speak rarely and carry a big stick.

Or if that's too boring, how about:

Speak rarely and swing a big...

Great news.

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

:D this one is timeless.

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

Like I said in the other thread. This is awesome news.

I'm liking my N900 even more and more every day.

Thank you!

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

DAMN! and i thought i could switch to the dell lightning in Q4 2010!

great news, the n900 is becoming less of a faceless device and more of a passion each and every day!

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

I hope they slap a desktop environment on there as a placeholder until the official UIs are finished. I suggest LXDE; it is the one we use from Debian and it is lightweight enough for handhelds, and it also works nicely on netbooks.

Is there a lightweight QT-based desktop environment out there? Or is there only KDE?

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

I just found this (main site).. maybe that could work?

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

The MeeGo project is putting every single minute in the trunk tasks e.g. releasing the Handset UX.

However, there is probably nothing stopping you from going for an unofficial MeeGo UX category "Netbook in Handset UX" ;)

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

I am just noob but seems future may become more interesting:

http://maemoarena.com/2010/03/meego-...or-nokia-n900/

Probably sages here know all about this and I apologize for posting in advance.

Doc

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

@ above - I think that the download is mostly just a promt (CLI) with not much more.
I remember people here flashing then flashing back.


Edit: If we (N900 users) get a working release, will it be just a working OS or a fully working OS with support for our GPS, GSM, 3G, Fm Transmitter and all other goodies?

Re: Brief status of "MeeGo to N900" project
 

The idea to remember is that the N900 has been selected by the MeeGo project as a hardware platform to test the ARM support for MeeGo. In order to test you need the hardware enabled, and this is why the goal of Harri's project is to make MeeGo fully working in the N900.