Application manager Easter Egg...
 

An obscure Maemo Wiki page came into the spotlight today by way of a side note in the Application Catalog entry for OpenSSH :

http://maemo.org/maemowiki/Applicati...gerRedPillMode

The so-called "Red Pill Mode" lets you see (and install) all the "hidden" (ie not tagged "user") packages in the application manager.

It is very easy to enable, and will probably let the unwary hose their systems just as easily. At the very least it is very informative, and also allows regular users install packages that used to require a manual "apt-get" from xterm because they had unresolved dependencies (like OpenSSH, which is why it was mentioned in the first place).

Chalk down one more geeky Matrix reference :-)

c00l!
Thanks!
After this tweak I now see more updates!?!
Are they safe to apply?

Thank You again!

The simple equation is: if you're not sure, or you're not following maemo-developers, don't.

It seems to be safe for installing OpenSSH, and probably other "user" packages with hidden dependencies (like maybe Gnumeric and Abiword). I wouldn't touch the rest with a long pole, except if I'd just decided it was time to flash my tablet clean :-)

fpp,

Agreed. For installing OpenSSH and a few other simple items, Red Pill Mode is probably suitable for end-users.

Upgrading system packages (as we've seen on maemo-developers) can cause headaches if you're not careful...

Cheers,

Andrew

Yep, people have run into trouble using "apt-get" on the command line, and this seems to be the GUI equivalent, so there's probably a reason for it being hidden :-)

I agree. This is for advanced users/developers only.

And on that note, let me be the first to say I've broken my application manager.

I went to the list of installed apps to see what non-visible packages were installed. Then I closed application manager.

Now, whenever I go to list installed applications, update, etc, I get "Operation Failed" and all lists are blank.

It does however appear that I can enable matrix-mode (tm) and still install from file (haven't confirmed), so I'm not completely screwed. Just mostly.

Yeah, I accidentally hit OK instead of Cancel when trying to go back to normal which put a repo with a URL of matrix in the list.
I was able to delete the entry, though.

Actually, I mean application mgr is screwed. It can't find installed packages, nor will it update. 'operation failed'

Here's the app mgr log:

osso-application-installer 4.22, UI version 1
E: Problem parsing dependency Depends
E: Error occurred while processing Descent2 (NewVersion1)
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/www.fulminati.org_maemo_Packages
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

*** EDIT: Removing the offending rep (fulminati) fixed the issue!