Mer for X86, Nokia N8x0, Neo Freerunner, Nokia 770 and SmartQ5/7 version 0.15

Information about Mer can be found at http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer and everything you need to know about the release on http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer/Releases/0.15. It also has an impressive list of known issues so please read them through first before installing and then complaining about them before checking if we already noticed

We have also put up some general installation information and those with clone-to-SD Maemo will find this good to read through.

Please answer in the poll if you consider this Mer release day to day usable on N8x0, after trying it - and tell us what's missing or too broken.

Special highlights
* Kalle Valo is doing a kernel mainlining project - see this - it is very recommended if you have any contributions to make that you make them. It will get us modern kernels on N8x0.
* SmartQ 7 rebate on SmartQ developer programme not possible - but help us get to 10 proposals or above so we can get Q5 rebates!
* How to make your Maemo application compile and run on Mer - developers, please read this and get your applications into shape.

Highlights of this release:
* N8x0: Now uses Xomap instead of Xorg. Should make graphics more smooth.
* N8x0: Open hald-addon-bme (You can enable advanced power and get battery meter)
* N8x0: Mer kernels now have new patches: Japanese FM Radio frequencies for N800, MB2504 fixed, Patch to kernel to allow DSP framebuffer sharing on N8x0 devices) to kernel, nbd in kernel modules, A2DP improvements - thanks to tomaszd for integrating
* 770 support experimental (thanks r2d2rogers, BBB770)
* Faster docpurge (thanks to qwerty12)
* Maemo will be switching to Qt for Harmattan. We'll probably be going same way - but supporting both toolkits. We already have Qt/Maemo running
* glib2.20 now used
* Our USB networking now uses IPs 192.168.2.14 for host, 2.15 for device to match with maemo.org documentation
* New webkit browser: Tear, by Bundyo
* E-mail client: Claws-mail, port by qwerty12
* hildon gconf-editor, port by qwerty12
* lbt will be presenting at UKUUG 09: see http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer/Events/UKUUG_09
* Stskeeps and zenvoid will be doing a BoF on DebConf9, 2009-07-25 13:00 on Mer (thanks to Nokia for sending us.)
* Changed default language to en_US, and added new open source strings by timeless
* Added Chinese translations (dalin)
* Proper localization on Neo Freerunner
* No more cursor blinking in X-Terminal
* First boot wizard is now a /etc/first-boot-wizard.d process, like start-hildon.d - easy to add first boot wizard items to run. (epage)
* Removed marquee plugins which were not working or broken
* Add 'Network Settings' option to menu that appears when networking is disabled for nm-applet
* Locale picker by qwerty12 and timeless
* Disable grab in gksu for n800/non-kbd users
* Input, About control panel (epage)

Next release is 17 August 2009 (0.16). Mer is still a work in progress and as such you should not expect too much of it (note long list of known issues). We are in dire need of hands, both coders, architects/designers, testers, or anyone passionate about mobile development, so if you think you can contribute, you're more than welcome to join us in this community effort.

If you would like to participate, read through http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer/People and http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer/Sprints (this includes a guide on how to participate actively - simple procedures!) and see if there's anything you can help out with. We're on #mer on FreeNode, IRC, if you'd like to hang out and discuss.

Thanks to all the people helping out with testing, development, design, etc. This community project wouldn't move ahead without you (you're far too many to list by now, but see mer-chatter archives for those active on there).

Obligatory screenshots:

Excellent. I'm especially glad to see the experimental 770 support. Is sound or wireless working yet?

Thanks for all of your work. I especially like the poll options

Mark

The sound and tear alone are great improvements. I am downloading as we speak.

Fn key does not work during first boot setup process.

Nice catch! Feel free to add to known issues

And the poll only allows you to vote yes because I shouldn't do late night releases. Notation: Top choice is 'Yes'. Bottom choice is 'No'

nice update
but i still couldnt figure out how to install ubuntu apps.

by the way
no it didnt become longer infact it is not starting
after first start power button didnt turn device off and took battery off
now it stucks at the end of loading bar at mer startup screen

What is the status for the 770 ? Is it really broken ? Or should I take it for a try ?

Thanks for the really good work !

Fred

So it's not an apple sponsored poll then ;-)

Fbreader installs fine with apt-get, but it's a crummy version of Fbreader rather than the good version available for tablets from the Fbreader site. I tried to install the good version but couldn't copy any files to the tablet.