awwaiid: Please, if you get the chance, do some speed tests between the MyDocs image file and the partition on the SD card.

That is, run something big like OpenOffice or Iceweasel from the image and then run the same app from the partition. Tell me how long it takes to run the app from the two locations.

I just created my own 3G image and copied your rootfs to it. Works great! Thanks.

I've just finished playing around with the system for about an hour and here are my first thoughts (I hope I'm not redundant):
- It installs very well on the N900 and it seems stable (I didn't have any crashes). It is somewhat slow but that's to be expected. I personally installed it directly on the N900 internal memory.
- Keyboard issue - Please keep in mind that I have a french azerty keyboard (no up & down arrow keys) so it may be responsible for the problems I've encountered. It was mentioned that the keyboard was one of the main "show stopper" issues currently being worked on and I can confirm. Even though the keyboard seems to function when openoffice is launched directly from the N900 menu, it doesn't work when LXDE is launched. There is a virtual keyboard but that really doesn't work very well especially since the N900 has a physical keyboard.
- The menu fonts are very large compared to the application fonts and often make the menus bleed into the regular application space
- The windows selection - ( _ and X at the top right-hand corner of every window to make it full screen, reduce and close) are very difficult to use because they are very small and the cursor seems to track poorly (when I use the stylus to point, the cursor lands systematically above it just enough to make it difficult to close windows etc.)
- Aesthetics (not very important) - it would be nice to have some pictures for the icons in the launch menu of the N900 to know what each icon does.

Besides that, it seems very stable for an early release and I must say WOW! I got an N900 because I figured it would be close to the linux OS (I've been using linux for 15 years when it was still in beta) and this application really makes me happy I got the device.
Thanks Qole for all your hard work - hats off!
Please let me know if you want us to test specific things.

-=AC=-

I used abiword, running "time abiword" and then closing it as quick as I could once it started (so +/- a second on these). I did this several times in a row. I switched back and forth several times between the two configs, and got relatively consistent results:

MyDocs image -- 45secs first start, then 20secs, then 9secs, and then around 8-9 from then on.

ext3 partition on entire 8gb sandisk -- 17-20secs, then 8secs, then around 7 secs from then on. I just now left it sitting from there for a bit and then did this again and it took 28secs.

So far it seems that for me the sdcard is faster.

--Brock

Thanks so much, Brock!

I mean when i started debian, and then open synaptic, a xterminal opens and asks me for a pw. Not the synaptic on the N900.
Sorry

qole, can you explain how the user accounts work in the image?

I see that there are both root and user (root being the default when you start the app)... with both of them having /home/user as their home directory. Should we just always use root or something?

Also, what are the default passwords for both accounts? How are they tied to the fremantle accounts (same /etc/passwd file?).

Finally, a question for all you users out there... what are you guys using on your n900 (i.e. what made you want to have this)? I personally use keepassx, gimp, hellanzb, screen, and saidar.

twoboxen:

If, from the terminal, you run "debbie" to get a chroot prompt or if you run an app like "debbie appname," you'll run it as "user". If you run "sudo debian" to get a chroot prompt or "sudo debian appname", you'll run it as root.

If you want to set passwords for the chroot accounts, go in as root and set them yourself. The passwords aren't tied to the Maemo accounts' passwords in any way.

Openoffice renders the screen well when started as root, and the ugliness of the interface depends probably only on the settings in /home/user/ for the finger-oriented interface.
Now, since running as root might be a problem, the solution could be creating a new user and running as that with stylus-oriented widgets.
Its slow though, slower than on the N810. And sucks the battery quite quickly even if minimized. Why?

debernardis: the real problem is not the screen you show, but the dialogs. Get a dialog, especially a big complex one, on the screen...

All you do when running as root is set the theme to default.

But since you are playing with theming, look for a nice dark GTK theme and install it to Debian and change ~/.gtkrc-2.0 to match...

Congrats on your N900!