Briefly, I'm reporting a number of applications that work well when called from maemo (not from inside lxde):
pdfchain - merge, split, and make other things to pdf files
flpsed - type annotations on pdf files
xournal - everybody knows it
nicotine - while waiting for the maemo5 port
gftp - ftp client
abiword and openoffice, of course, and seem quicker than when called inside lxde.

For all these, the ctrl-up arrow key combo from easy debian is fundamental.
For openoffice, also binding Esc to shift-backspace (Qole, this should go in the next easy debian imho).

I have added two things to http://wiki.maemo.org/Easy_Debian, if somebody wants to cross-check:
"CUPS Installation Instructions" and "Keyboard issues and tips". In the latter I'm recommending xbindkeys+xvkbd for getting some additional key bindings, which I'm now heavily using myself. With regard to the latter, I have the following question @qole: /home/user/.xbindkeysrc is now provided by Easy Debian. How will future upgrades handle the case that users may wish to add to that file? Will there be a /home/user/.xbindkeysrc.dist or something in that case?

qole,

i have a problem reinstalling easy debian. i keep getting error message during my installation telling me that the downloaded image file is damaged. i have done this process almost twenty times now and keep getting the same message. it didn't make any difference if i chose to install it in mydocs or microsd. i have also tried downloading the file manually then place it in mydocs or microsd and then run image installer but this method also didn't work. i have reflashed my n900 to the latest firmware (16 feb) and run the installation process again but still getting the same error message.

asyk: perhaps you should download the big image file on a desktop computer and then copy it to your N900.

Get this file: http://qole.org/files/debian-m5-v2.img.ext2.bz2

(Or, if you can use lzma manually, you can wait a day and get my new image )

I have the following curious problem with German keyboard layout. After starting LXDE with "setxkbmap de" I have an almost perfectly functional hardware keyboard with all special characters in blue accessible by the function key as under Maemo, except that the function and shift keys are not sticky. BUT there is one exception: Fn+Left and Fn+Right on a German keyboard usually give Up and Down, respectively. But on those keys Fn does not have an effect, as "xev" confirms.

I tried to work around by xkeybinds+xvkbd.
With "xev" I indeed see that Up and Down keysymbols can be produced this way, but in none of the applications (be it openoffice or vi) do the work as they did with the us keymap!?
It's really only "Up" and "Down" that gives me this problem, I can for instance bind "Left" to Ctrl+y, and it then has the effect as "Left" always has, but neither "Up" nor "Down" have any effect!?? Anyone any idea what could cause this weird behavior?

qole: thanks it's sorted now. i have to take out my microsd card first before the installer can extract the downloaded img file. i also reinstalled easy-chroot, easy-deb-chroot and deleted .chroot.config file in /home/user.

Hello all,

I have a new image file for you to try out. I think this is The One, so I really want the feedback of my Trusty Beta Testers. Please continue to use "time lzma" and post your results to give me an idea of extraction times.

image file: debian-m5-v3b.img.ext2.lzma
(there's also a rootfs for extracting into a partition, but I'd prefer you to try the image file)

CHANGELOG (from debian-m5-3a):

• apt-get problems should be solved. No more pesky errors and workarounds. pulseaudio won't break every time you install something. Squeeze is still disabled by default, but enabling squeeze won't wreak havok unless it tries to update the gconf packages.
• Evince installed. It is a lot slower than the built-in pdf reader, but sometimes you want a full-featured reader and you're willing to sacrifice some speed.
• The sticky keys hack is automatically enabled in LXDE. It can also be activated from the terminal by running "debbie stickykeys [kblocale]", so English speakers would run "debbie stickykeys us" and German speakers would run "debbie stickykeys de". If you need to tweak the LXDE one for a different locale (tell me if you do!) do "sudo leafpad /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE/autostart" and add your locale after the "setxkbmap" on the first line.

Suggestions for further enhancements for my final image for Maemo 5 are welcome. I want the final image to kick some @ss.

I'm starting work on my Easy Debian package now, with an updated xbindkeysrc (rebhana, could you send me your set of keys?) and new icons for close chroot, and Debian HW Keys. I also hope to make the installer more flexible, allowing the user to download one of several images depending on the contents of a small file downloaded from the server.

It also would be very cool to walk the user through a setup wizard after a successful image download, which synchs the chroot and sets up the locale.

can any one tell me how to call applications installed in Lxde from maemo. I want to start claws mail like this as it is working perfect under lxde.

since i hadn't upgraded to the new firmware yet, i decided to try a little experiment.

this is the time on 2009.51-1 after a few days uptime. i suspect it has to do something with a browserd zombie or trackerd checking MyDocs...
2009.51-1 after a reboot
2010.02-8 right after the over-the-air update.

not to read too much into these numbers, though. firmware revision is probably one of the lesser factors, it's likely there was an access of the storage in the background somewhere, since that seems to significantly hit lzma performance.

Omigosh! (freshly booted n900)

/home/user/MyDocs # time lzma -d debian-m5-v3b.img.ext2.lzma
real 43m 27.66s
user 3m 37.78s
sys 0m 41.21s