Notices

I am grateful to all of the programmers who have provided the free apps for the 770. I have installed a bunch of the gui ones, and they do what they are supposed to, sometimes amazingly (e.g., vnc, mapper, caledar, gnumeric).

Not being a Linux afficianado, however, I am having trouble with the command-line apps. I have installed osso-xterm fine. I can work within that, looking at directories using the standard commands. My problem, (and it may just be me), is that there is little documentation for the command-line apps - I have no idea in which directory they are installed or what I have to do to invoke them.

example: ntpdate

After successful installation, when I just use the command 'ntpdate -b <servers>' (yes, I found time servers). I get 'command not found'.

So, what am I supposed to do? I read the author's blog (which is fun and I learned stuff, but I did not see anything about how to use the program or where the files were put on the 770). There are even some documentation files installed, but I have no clue how to invoke them.

I am a Windows guy, but I successfully used Ubuntu (with pointers from Forum members) to flash the kernal in OS2006 to use 2mb rs-mm's. So I am not an idiot. But I am spoiled, I guess, by the documentation standards in the Windows world. If the 770 is going to be popular, the available programs need to be readily useable by at least semi-literate adults.

In anycase, can someone help me make ntpdate useable - what do I have to do to invoke it from the command line in xterminal? Obviuosly I could bother the programmer, but I wanted to make the general point about documentation (I would be happy to pay for proper information - free should not always mean incomplete).

In general, the 770 ports don't have any man pages or documentation installed. At least I modify my packages to remove this stuff (since it seems to be the standard).

For things like ntpdate, look at the applications catalog and go to the "home page" if listed. That will have info on running or using the application. It should be the same on the 770 (the differences are documented in the applications catalog or the "port page").

Worst case, try google.

BTW, I think your problem is that ntpdate is in /usr/sbin and that's not typically in your path. You may need to be "root" to run this application.

Hope this helps,

Brad.

Also FWIW... I've got a ntpdate port almost ready that doesn't require you to run anything from the command line.

Thanks for the prompt reply. Having to run around the web (the home page was uninformative, at least to me) just to run a program, or to be root for something this trivial exemplifies what I mean about what is going on here. Are these ports just to impress unix geeks, or are they for making the 770 more useful for those who own it?

I really look forward to using your new ntpdate! I have no objection to command-line programs, just the lack of care for even users willing to learn some new stuff.

Well, I think this is an issue that Nokia needs to tackle - like it or not, the 770 is more of a "geek toy" than anything else. Unless, of course, you're happy with the out of the box experience.

My advice would be to ignore what you can't get to work or isn't well documented. I doubt you'll miss much.

ntp (and ntpdate) can be non-trivial to setup, though I found the quick start documents pretty useful. This was 3 clicks away from the home page (not the port page).

And please don't take this the wrong way, but...

I know what you mean. I have no objection to building packages (for free) to help others (and myself too), just the lack of care for users willing to take the time to learn them.

Sorry, but I'm not going to spend the time doing how-to's for software that's already documented when I could be doing something more useful (such as a chrony and ntpdate ports that don't require root nor any setup).

Brad.