First steps with a 770...
 

Hey, I just got an N770 a few days ago. I know, I know, a 770? Well, I found one online for about $150 and figured what the hell, i'll give it a shot. Well, here it is a week later and i'm eager to get started. I've been browsing these forums, but i'm yet to encounter a good newbie guide. As expected, I have a few questions.

I managed to install IT OS 2007 HE, and I feel that it is a major improvement on the standard OS 2006. I was wondering if there was any way to get those missing codecs back (for MPEG4, internet radio) .

Which repositories are the best? I've managed to find a few, but I was just curious to know if there was one really good all-encompassing repository that I was missing.

Also, i'm having some issues getting my cing. 8125 to pair correctly. I'm getting the standard "no services found" message. Just wondering if anyone has any pointers there.

I really do apologize if any of the answers to these questions are staring me right in the face. I am more than familiar with the intricacies of internet forums and am aware of the frustration I am probably causing. :)

Thanks

Re: First steps with a 770...
 

You are not alone! :) I am in the same boat. Thanks for posting exactly what I was thinking! I love my 770 and I love hacker edition.

Re: First steps with a 770...
 

Hey, what's the deal with the 2007 OS for the 770? I haven't checked in for a while but I thought the 2006 was the latest for the 770 and the newer ones were just for the 800?

If the 2007 is the way to go, what are the advantages/disadvantages? I'm a little worried about the talk of losing codecs for the MP4s and internet radio.:confused:

Re: First steps with a 770...
 

Well, basically, Nokia first refused to continue developing for the 770 when the N800 came out. As a result, a group of developers set out to port ITOS 2007 to the 770, but the port was pretty half-baked. They couldn't really get that far without Nokia's help. Then, Nokia kinda took back their last statement. I'm not sure if they actually helped or not, but now this version of IT OS 2007 HE (Hacker's Edition) is much better, very usable actually. Flash actually works now and everything is much faster. Unfortunately, some components of IT OS 2007 were licensed specifically for the N800, namely the Opera rendering engine and a few audio/video codecs, so they could not be included by law. Overall, I would recommend IT OS 2007 to any 770 user. The only issue I have run into is that I cannot play the internet radio stations (you get a format not supported error). MP3's play fine, as do most videos (well, the sample ones anyway ;D). I would sacrifice that any day though for the amazing improvement you get in Flash. I downloaded The Impossible Quiz .swf and it plays pretty good, actually. Of course, you will not be hopping on youtube any time soon, unless you only care about the audio.

Re: First steps with a 770...
 

Thank you thecompkid, that was exactly what I wanted to know. :)

Re: First steps with a 770...
 

so....does this mean one has to choose between seeing flash (using 2007 he) or seeing youtube vids (using 2006)?

i'm thinking of buying a 770 and this board kicks arse.

Re: First steps with a 770...
 

No, youtube vids will simply not even play under 2006. You will get the typical flash error message. Under 2007 HE, you can get some audio. I don't honestly know how well youtube plays under HE because I didn't do much testing. The 2006 OS gives you Flash 6 while the 2007 OS gives you Flash 7. The HE page says that the rendering engine doesn't change, but I think they forgot about the flash version upgrade.

Anyway, power management under hacker edition is terrible. It's sometimes hard to tell right away because it's so intermittent. I guarantee you will not be using HE for any extended period of time unless you don't take the thing off the charger. You literally won't get 3 hours of suspend time, let alone usage. It's really aggravating because it seems so small a problem to make HE so unusable. I'm hoping for further development in the mean time.

Re: First steps with a 770...
 

the internet radio bug can be fixed, see garage tracker of http://os2007on770.garage.maemo.org/ project. Also the power management in HE is great for me (days even when connected to WLAN over night) so either it is some application you installed or something in system got stuck and is eating your CPU cycles (metalayer-crawler?), try to run top in xterm and see.

Overall HE is great, the only remaining bug that bothers me is browser crash on invalid https certificate.

Re: First steps with a 770...
 

Well, you just have to install uktube to get fullscreen smooth youtube playback.

Re: First steps with a 770...
 

so i guess my real question is...what is the optimal 770 environment for surfing the web (heavy flash based sites like espn, etc)? if web pages that use heavy flash dont render correctly on a 770, then that's a consideration i'd ponder when weighing my options for a portable internet device.

thanks again for replying to my questions.

Re: First steps with a 770...
 

I've put together a Getting Started Guide, that might be of use to some of the 770 newbies here, including how to install Xterm and SSH, how tether to EDGE phones, how to install mapper, how to install gizmo, and I've also come up with a non-technical way to connect USB devices.

http://www.dealminded.com/viewtopic.php?id=140

Let me know what you think. I'll be adding more as the night progresses or as people ask me for instructions on how to do something.

Re: First steps with a 770...
 

hi jeffus - i'l check out your guide and let you know my thoughts.

thanks for posting it.

Re: First steps with a 770...
 

That's a great getting started guide, but you're a little too late for me ;) .

Either way, back to OS 2007 HE. I really don't understand why i'm having problems with the power management. From what I recall, I had no programs installed, yet I still got less then like 3 hours batt life.

*Sigh*, it makes you want to just throw the towel in an buy an iPhone sometimes. :)

Re: First steps with a 770...
 

Great tutorial, an essential for the newbies. I got my 770 a week ago, and, following your tutorial, I am now booting from flash, in one trial. Thanks Jeffus.

Some minor suggestions to make life even more easy for the newbies, i.e. me :)

re 7.Booting from MMC
2. Go XTerm then type sudo gainroot
pay attention to letter l vs numeral 1, and letter o vs numeral zero
you need to know how to input special characters, underscore ("&!e" + Common), vertical stroke ("&!e" + Symbols) or you can handwritten after pressing Abc1 (this is for special symbols).

8. There is a question before backup? no, I forget what it is

12. Now.......At least 15+ minutes:.....; mine is 8.5 minutes and I missed reading the last statement when I return after 15 min. At the end of the copying, it exits XTerm; so one has to go XTerm/gainroot again in order to unmount.

Finally, I think this is going to be a very good beginners guide and would be also educational for the newbie, if you could put comments next to the command, that would make the exercise much more a learning guide to linux,

mkdir create dir
cd change dir etc



thanks again

I still failed to use my Treo650 as modem for my 770. I was able to pair with the Treo650, but failed to make the call "Connection to phone failed. Try again?". I also dl pdanet and installed in a laptop with USB, and still failed to use my Treo650 as modem. Any suggestion?:(

TIA




bun

Re: First steps with a 770...
 

well, it turns out I was NOT booting from the MMC, I has been booting all along from the flash. I am NOT that linux fluent and does not know how to re-do the whole thing. Any suggestions? I tried to repeat the whole procedure, but now I have some dirs/files that has already been created. Should I kill everything and return to the factory default status and retry? How do I return to the factory default? I think I can afford to wipe out my MMC card and redo the procedure?! any help? Now the 770 is running fine. except when attempt to boot from MMC, it gives "failed to boot from MMC2. boot from flash..."
TIA

bun

Re: First steps with a 770...
 

Problem solved, pls refer to post, http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...?t=7611&page=2


Cheers,

bun