I'm continuing my push to get a working replacement Mer desktop in a Maemo chroot (in the same way I got the replacement LXDE desktop working). To this end, I stole wholesale modded daperl's donated code (see this thread) to give me a battery status applet and a wlan status applet. I got the wlan stuff working by copying and pasting giant portions of using the python-conic tests.

Some notes:

• Yes, I switched the marquee around. Putting the system tray/status bar before the application list makes more sense.
• Audio works by leaving multimediad enabled.
• The nm-applet is useless in the chroot.
• The theme doesn't properly load the first time; the marquee is "flat". I have to open Themes and choose Liberty for the marquee to become 3D.
• I had to unbind the /home/user directory because the Maemo .osso/hildon-desktop directory was wreaking havok on the Mer desktop.
• None of the built-in maemo apps work from the maemo command line, unlike LXDE. So I can't invoke chat, Internet call, or MicroB browser using the "maemo menu".
• The wlan applet can request a connection, however, and that will trigger the Select Connection dialog. So maybe I have to invoke all of these apps via dbus? Ugh. I have no idea how to do this.

Screenshots:



Tear again, with my new applets above. The red X beside the white dot means the Internet is not connected (I took some of these screenshots while in the car, being driven through the mountains).



mYTube open. It works fine, including audio. In this screenshot, audio is muted to keep from annoying my wife, who was driving, and from waking up my daughter, who was sleeping. But it does work. Promise.



When you are disconnected from the Internet, clicking on the wlan applet icon displays this dialogue.



When you press the connect button, the wlan will either connect automatically, or, if you were in Flight Mode (like I was) or there are no saved APs nearby, you'll get the familiar Select Connection list.



Finally, I am connected. The "signal strength" obtained from connection statistics is a giant, meaningless number. I got 100% by holding my tablet beside my inlaws' AP, but when I'm at home, the signal strength seems to be a somewhat different number. Whatever. It is close enough. Note that my applet icon displays the correct number of "bars" for the signal strength (in this case, 4/5).