Right, because many people have suggested it, I'm now working on a tutorial telling people how to find and install applications on their N800.

Searching the forums here has helped a lot, but there are still some issues that I just can't find straight down-to-earth answers to, and need help.

1. Why are so many of the applications listed in the Maemo Downloads section missing their "install now" links? Is it very difficult to create one?

2. Can all .deb files be installed on the N800? (apologies if this seems terribly naive, but most of my computing experience is on Symbian, Windows and the ZX Spectrum).

3. Why can't I get Nethack to work on my N800? The game installs without any error messages, and I wanted to use it as an example in the tutorial of downloading direct from a developer's site, but when I click on its name in the extras menu it does absolutely nothing. I'm using the newer firmware by the way, the one that includes Skype.

4. Is an application catalogue in the application manager the same thing as a repository? (I'm guessing it is, but I want to be sure.)

5. If a catalogue goes bad, why doesn't the application manager tell me which one is bad instead of forcing me to try disabling all of the catalogues one by one? Surely the name of any broken links could be displayed on the screen?

6. Is there any danger in adding catalogues to the application manager? Could they be distributing malware?

That's all I can think of for the moment, all answers appreciated.

1) A lot of stuff was moved over from the wiki, + it's extra work to create one, + it relies on the software being in a repository.

2) No. Ones from Debian for x86 machines won't install, for example. *_armel.deb might work, but generally the deb will need to be Maemo-specific. Certainly to show up and be installed in the Application Manager normally, a set of criteria need to be met.

3) No idea. Contact the Nethack port maintainer?

4) yes.


5) See Tools > Log...

6) Yes & yes.

Thanks for the reply aflegg!

Just out of interest, why is a repository compulsory? What's wrong with a direct download of an installation file?


Right, so how do you tell if a .deb file is intended for use on Maemo? Does it always say "maemo", or are there other terms used?


I mentioned it largely because this is the example maemo.org use as well, so I expected it to work. :-) Ah well...


Ah, right, I see now. Does it always say which repository was inaccessible, or is it difficult to interpret?


I presume the repositories included as default on the tablet are screened for malware, but are the repositories listed on maemo.org also screened at all? Or the software listed in the download section?

I just want to get some idea of what's risky and what isn't.

If anyone can answer my follow-up questions, it would really really help me get the tutorial done. This was the most requested topic for a tutorial by people on here, hopefully someone on here can help me with this.

.deb is a file format, nothing more. It originated in the Debian Linux project. Maemo is based on an ARM version of Debian Linux, and takes advantage of the .deb format.

It allows multiple files to be packaged together with metadata such as a list of files, descriptions, and (very importantly) dependencies.

If a .deb file says "in order to install me, you need to also get packages A, B, and C," that allows an installation program to fetch the needed dependencies and install them as well.

Some of those dependencies may be libraries or programs that end users should never see or even know about.

In order for dependency management to work, the related files have to be stored in some standard place and in a standard way. Voila: You have a repository.

The .deb format has been around for a long time, and is used by many different Linux distributions on many different platforms. You can't mix and match files indiscriminately. You're likely to get into trouble if you mix and match different releases, such as Maemo's mistral and bora, or Ubuntu's Feisty Fawn and Gutsy Gibbon, or Debian's sarge and etch.

By convention, there are clues in the filenames, but you don't have to know about that, because the repositories and package managers protect you from those ugly details.

The .install file's format and purpose is documented here:

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

Thank you yelvington!

Ahaa... I see. So repositories are basically a way of packaging everything you need for installation together in one place.

From what you say, would it be fair for the tutorial to state that non-technical people should only install internet tablet software from a repository?

This brings up the other point: I'd want the tutorial to have something about the relative risks of different repositories, but I can't find any information on this subject. I don't want newbies to install software without being aware of the risks of malware.


That text file makes it look extremely easy to create an install file.

Presumably the only real reason for not having an install file is if an app isn't in a repository?

The installation file is just a shorthand way of adding a repository (if it's not already there), doing an 'update' (i.e. downloading the list of applications from the repository), and activating the application manager to install the application you wanted.

Try downloading an installation link from your desktop browser, then look at it with a text editor or something. It's basically just a repository URL.

I got my copy straight from here:

http://n770galaxy.blogspot.com/

No repository, just download and install. You might want to uninstall your current version first and it would probably be a good idea to do a thorough readup on the posts in the blog, but this version works on my N800 and has always worked on i--The quantum mechanic hits!

Thanks for all the further replies!

I did get it from there, and it didn't work.

I actually tried to use that as an example of a non-repo install but obviously there's something preventing it from working.

You could try to have a peek at /home/user/.nethackdir/ ; maybe some .lock file is jamming you up.

I can assure you Nethack works fine on my N800. For obvious reasons, I am not running the latest firmware however.