General rant about how hard it is for a non-techie to install apps
 

Hi,

I am getting more and more frustrated by how hard it is to get apps to actually install and work. Take this site for example, put together by Nokia I presume and supposed to attract new users with nice links to all kinds of cool apps.

http://www.nseries.com/770experience...=en&country=US

I am yet to find an app among those listed on that site that would actually install without probs and without telling me that I am missing this or that package. That would be fine if any of the app developers would bother to actually clearly explain what is needed and where to find it and to do it in a way that someone not understanding the ins and outs of Maemo would understand.

Heck, even the instructions on the Tableteer are virtually impossible to follow/understand.

All I want is a button that says "download" and that will ALWAYS inlclude all the packages etc. needed without me having to try to interpret what the heck went wrong this time.

Just needed to vent. Merry Xmas to all. :)

Merry X Mas to u too..
Maybe you need to take a look at maemo.org in there they show you how to install apps correctly and many other things for your nokia 770
https://maemo.org/maemowiki/ApplicationCatalog2006

You mean like this? ;)

Looks like the site is almost complete and fully functional. I would suggest developers make sure their app has a corresponding .install file to get ready for the new maemo site.

This layout will be much easier on the poor 770's CPU than the old Application Catalog too.

Seri..., The link you gave me takes me to a page that has the following text plus a list of applications (links). Where in that text does it clearly explain how to install applications? To me it seems more like instructions to developers. Not very useful for a dum end use like me. Some comments:

1) What is a repository?

2) It is nonsensical for an end user that "other libraries" have to be installed for an app to work.

3) What does "tracking dependencies" mean, manually or otherwise?

4) Example of a download prob: I tried to download Battlegweled. I downloaded the .deb file. Was that my mistake? Or am I supposed to download some "library", whatever that is/means, for it to work?
N770 can never be a succesful product if it does not cater for dummies like me as well.

5) =DC=, yes, something like that :) I hope the "missing install" get filled in soon. And that they get filled in properly. I tried the CGoban one, with then end result of my N770 telling me "Unable to install. Some packages required for the installation are missing" Oh and the descriptions of many (I am about to say most) applications is jibberish and/or greek to me, e.g. "Guile Scheme is the GNU Project's Scheme Interpreter"... que??


Oh and Happy New Year as well :)

"Welcome. Even though maemo.org is a developer forum, this page is dedicated to applications that are mature enough to be made available for end-users. If you find an application here that does not yet work, please move it to ApplicationCatalog2006Wip.

When you are adding your program to this list, please make sure that the program is end-user ready. Also, specify any problems with it, along with precise instructions about any installation tricks, or any other libraries that must be installed to make it work. And please try to use one of the sections listed in UserSections in the Section field of your debian/control file.

For applications that are still in development and not yet end-user ready, please use ApplicationCatalog2006Wip.

For applications that are planned but not yet in development, please use ApplicationCatalog2006Planned.

To add an applications to the wishlist, please use ApplicationCatalog2006Wishlist.

For project hosting use the Garage

Applications listed on these page are Maemo 2.0 compatible and usable for Internet tablet OS Edition 2006 installed devices. These applications WILL NOT WORK on devices with Internet Tablet 2005 Edition. If you have not updated yet, see ApplicationCatalog.

Many of the applications listes here can be installed from one of the repositories listed in ApplicationRepositories. That is often a better way of installing applications, for the following reasons: you will get up-to-date versions (and the system will be able to check for updates), and you will not have to track dependencies manually.

Before adding warnings such as ...about 20 minutes after installing this software my N770 started to make crackle sounds and a few minutes latter it smell of smoke... on this page, please discuss your issue with the software's author, maintainer, porter, provider, or at least on the maemo mailing lists, http://maemo.org/pipermail/maemo-users/ or http://maemo.org/pipermail/maemo-developers/. Or report a bug in https://maemo.org/bugzilla/. "

Ok....
(Repositories are *dumps* of packages for any nix distribution in our case maemo)
When you use the application manager to install apps from the repositories it will install the required dependencies for the application automatically for you.... Word of warning is not the case all the time... Also adding repositories to the application manager can some times render your device unusable due to bad repos.... And to bring it back is going to Require you to hack your maemo...

Ok here is how to add repositories to your 770.

So in IE:
You want to install Maemo Mapper and you got to the application list and in the Maemo Mapper link you see the following information...

In the info it gives you the repo information and is what you will use to install the repo to application manager..

If you where to install packages manually is going to required you to install the missing dependencies manually as well.

I recommend you install osso-xterm (advance) you will use it a lot.
Also Openssh so you can use your desktop to connect to your 770 and use your desktop keyboard...
Also if you want to transfer files to your 770 I would recommend you use SCP instead of the USB cable I found it some what slow...
For Windows - WinSCP
For *nix - gFTP

If you need screen shoot or further help let me know.

Good Luck!

I have to say that I completely agree with Viipottaja. I am completely in favor of installing a series of packages from the developers site instead of having to manually configure the repo to allow 770 to download some of them automatically. I *might* change my stance if nokia had a sort of .repository file format that developers could use that would open from opera and install the repo to users app manager. Or maybe a .application format that would include the repo address (maybe multiple repos if necessary) and the application to be installed. It would simplify things considerably for the end user.

But as it stands now, I liked the 2005 way more than I like the 2006 way. But that's just me. ... or is it?

<rant>
There is a file format which will add a repo - the .install file format is well-documented in the Application Manager documentation and "how to build a deb file for Maemo".

TBH, most of the problems with Maemo application installation is entirely due to packager laziness: all apps should (once stable) go in the "Extras" repo. It's not helped that many apps seem to be depending on libraries in other repositories, without documenting what those are! ("Oh, you mean you don't have repository.maemo.org configured? I do, and I use libxyz from there")

As for preferring to download packages - this is just plain backwards: you end up having to track down all the dependencies yourself, with no real idea if they're already installed or not. Repositories and the Application Manager are the way forward, but authors should stop creating their own repos!
</rant>

I'm sure you're right, but I can't find this, either from http://www.maemo.org/platform/docs/how-to.html or through Google. Would you mind posting the URL?

- Neil

https://stage.maemo.org/svn/maemo/pr...repository.txt

On the front page of Google for ".install maemo format" and ".install maemo application manager".

The .install files are required for the nice usage of the new Midgard-based application catalog; although they can't add multiple repositories if your application has dependencies spread across multiple ones (yet another reason to avoid that silliness).

HTH,

Andrew

Indeed, aflegg, that seems to be an improvement when it eventually is in usable state.
But, indeed, you are correct that there is/will be a better way of installing than having end users enter the repositories themselves.