So, not surprisingly, Java and GConf errors were both solved by downgrading all associated packages to their Lenny versions. This new image is shaping up nicely.

Ok, so now that Java is working in the browsers again, what should I keep? Firefox/Iceweasel 3.5? Heavier but all the latest features... Or just Epiphany (gecko), lighter-weight, simple, useful for running Java applets, not much else...?

Should I include printing support (cups) and windows network support (samba)? What about a full-featured e-mail program? Thunderbird/Icedove 3 works in Easy Debian, although it suffers the same problems as many desktop apps on the N900; too cramped and a bit slow. Are there other, even more powerful e-mail apps available in Debian?

I am going to try LZMA compression for the next image. It seems that it is speedier to decompress than bzip2 while giving good compression. There used to be a post about this somewhere, but I can't find it!

Personally Im using only Iceweasel. Samba yes, it would be very useful.

Hi All,

I had been hesitant about installing Easy Debian until yesterday, when VNC'ing into my N900 at 800x480 just wasn't cutting it any more. I now have Easy Debian up and running, and I'm now looking at a beautifully snappy 1920x1080 Blackbox through VNC.

Everything is working great, except audio. I've tried everything from mpg321 to Audacious (which is seg-faulting on startup ) to Amarok (what a beast).

mpg321's output is as follows:

ALSA lib pcm.c:2162snd_pcm_open_conf) Cannot open shared library /usr/lib/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_alsa_dsp.so
ALSA snd_pcm_open error: No such file or directory
Can't find a suitable libao driver. (Is device in use?)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Yes for Cups please. As for the browsers, I guess Ice Weasel (Firefox) would be my preference.

having both gecko- and webkit-based browsers could be useful at times.

For me Easy Debian is for doing things that are not yet possible in Maemo 5, i.e. using OpenOffice & the Gimp. So (pdf) printing would definitely fit there, and I prefer Iceweasel. If possible with Flash, Windows media & Silverlight playback enabled. Although I think the last is not yet available for ARM is it?
Maybe a media player, if that is realistic...

debernardis: I have the gecko version of epiphany installed, since for some reason, webkit can't do Java.

PDF printing capabilities sounds like a good idea too. But you can already do that from OpenOffice without cups. Is there strong support for printing to something other than PDF? And is there something smaller than cups that will allow apps other than OpenOffice to produce PDF docs?

For those asking for Iceweasel: what specifically are you looking for? I'm just curious because I've found the built-in MicroB browser to be superior to Firefox on the N900 for most tasks...

I will be including lxmusic, a small music player that uses the xmms2 backend. It works fine.

Please stick with Ice Weasel browser, as you get support for the main Firefox plugins. Support for Ice Dove would be good as well. If LZMA seems to be faster then it's always worth a go! SAMBA support would be very helpful as well as a good FTP client like FileZIlla

pdf printing is useful for printing webpages, such as e-tickets or order confirmations.
I would like cups support as well, but mainly for making the N900 more feature-complete, i don't think I'd acually use it. There is an enhancement request for adding print support to M5, the thread lists some reasons users have for wanting it. I believe it's a wontfix.