Maemo People

A few days ago the Maemo 5.0 Beta SDK was announced. I was more exited then I expected myself. I already played with the Alpha SDK and was able to install the Beta without pain on my amd64 based machine.

The install on amd64

The amd64 bits architecture is not officially supported as host for the SDK and in the past I have had troubles installing the SDK. This time the installer worked pretty well. But before you install the sdk and /or sbox you need to add "vdso32=0" to your kernel command line. this can be done in /boot/grub/menu.lst . I used the “tar.gz” based install on a “not supported” arch to install scratchbox.

root@ijssijs:~# ./maemo-scratchbox-install_5.0beta.sh -F -s /scratchbox

The only drawback of this method is that you have to start and stop scrachbox by hand when you want to use it. The “default” ./maemo-scratchbox-install_5.0beta.sh -F appeared to work at first but the install of the Maemo SDK failed after wards (I guess this is something related to fakeroot) . After that I follow the normal install using

keesj@ijssijs:~/downloads$ ./maemo-sdk-install_5.0beta.sh -y 

The biggest difference compared to the Maemo 4.x SDK in that the Xephyr X-server now requires the composite extension where it used to be disabled explicitly when starting the server

Xephyr :2 -host-cursor -screen 800x480x16 -dpi 96 -ac 

Trying some QT stuff

Trying some qt is really childs play. I always likes qt and apparently it only gets better. the qt4 project on Maemo created packages that by now are in the fremantle extras repository. simply add

http://repository.maemo.org/extras-devel/ fremantle free 

to your /etc/apt/source.list and apt-get install libqtgui4 libqt4-dev and qt4-demos . After that you can go to /usr/lib/qt4/examples and looks at the many demo's. The nice thing about this is that the demos are small get you started very quickly. I really fancy the clock example. it is very easy to create nice apps based on this.

OpenGL ES

Trying out opengl samples should be as easy as downloading the sdk from here
http://www.imgtec.com/powervr/insider/sdk/KhronosOpenGLES2xSGX.asp

and copying the file to the SDK directory.

SDKPackage/Builds/OGLES2$
 cp -r Include/* /scratchbox/users/$USER/targets/FREMANTLE_X86/usr/include/
 cp LinuxPC/Lib/* /scratchbox/users/$USER/targets/FREMANTLE_X86/usr/lib/
 cp -r LinuxPC/Include/* /scratchbox/users/$USER/targets/FREMANTLE_X86/usr/include/

however this doesn't work for me

Next for me will be to create a small app in qt!

(sorry for the edits' a wiki page would have been a better solution)

After a bit of a prod; and a delay; mud-builder's vala recipe has been updated to the latest release 0.5.7 and uploaded to Extras-Devel as "vala" - this can now be used in Build-Depends lines in auto-builder packages.

What is Vala?

Vala is a modern, object-oriented programming language with a syntax inspired by C# and Java. However, it compiles to native code (via C), giving the benefits of modern programming languages and the speed of native development.

From its website:

Vala is a new programming language that aims to bring modern programming language features to GNOME developers without imposing any additional runtime requirements and without using a different ABI compared to applications and libraries written in C.

Example

I've also uploaded another little package - vala-sample (basically, HildonSample) - which demonstrates that a Build-Depends: vala line in a package's debian/control can be built using the auto-builder:

This is only in Extras-devel as it's use to end-users is pretty small, however it demonstrates three things:

• How easy it is to package stuff with mud-builder.
• That the auto-builder can build Vala apps.
• That unlike other modern programming languages on Maemo (such as Python, Ruby, Java or C#) there is no additional start-up lag in a Vala application.

A screenshot all the same:

I've set the ball rolling, and put myself forward as a candidate (the first) in the second Maemo Community Council election.

I'm proud to have been a member of the inaugural Community Council. In the last six months, we've seen a sea-change in the way Maemo is progressing:

• the first Maemo Summit, paid for by Nokia;
• community ownership of maemo.org;
• better use of Bugzilla by both Nokia and the community;
• the realistic vision of a community-led "hacker edition" in Mer;
• a webmaster, docmaster, bugmaster and now debmaster all being paid for for us;
• open communication and - importantly - progress indicators like the Maemo 5/Fremantle pre-release SDKs, which would've been unheard of back in 2006/2007.

The Council has been involved in many of these, but would claim credit for few. I believe we've truly fulfilled our role as facilitators and would like to continue my role there. We've not got everything right, but I think we've proved the idea; and that it can be a cohesive force within the community.

I think there's still work to be done, though. Nokia are being more open, and projects like Tracker and Rygel are being developed openly. Yet, Modest has slipped back into internal development; some patches to Application Manager have been merged, but the community's vision for application management in Diablo - and Fremantle - looks unlikely to have been realised. The system as a whole, and the application environment which so clearly defines the Maemo brand, are architected internally. Design decisions are taken internally.

Slowly, hopefully, we can change Nokia management into utilising the enthusiastic talent at their disposal in a way which is truly ground-breaking in the industry; with a root-to-tip collaboration between us all.

Thanks for reading this, and I'll happily answer any questions anyone has.

In the latest Internet Tablet School editorial, The future of Nokia, Maemo and the Internet Tablets, krisse explains why a Maemo-based netbook makes the most sense for Nokia now.

Respectfully, I've never heard a more crazy idea:

• Maemo is a touch-based OS, which doesn't work well with a larger style keyboard.
• People who don't want Windows would find Mac OS X or Ubuntu Netbook Remix a much more compelling user experience on such a device.
• What on earth is the benefit of Maemo here, vs. an alternative OS?!
• The comments when the 770 was released were "where's the phone?", and although Nokia make lots and lots of non-phone devices (such as one of our DVB-T receivers), the comments about Nokia trying to break in to a crowded market (of laptop makers) would be easily compiled into an hilarious book.

IMNSHO, it's just plain bonkers to go down that line instead of a small, tablet form factor - however unproven that may in the end-consumer mainstream.

The call for nominations for the first maemo.org Community Council elections has been open for a couple of weeks now. But I wonder if the wider maemo.org is aware of just how important this could be for the future of the platform.

So, this post'll be syndicated on planet.maemo.org in the hope that we get more candidates putting themselves forward, and interest drummed up in the wider community in terms of asking the candidates more probing questions. Hopefully we can avoid the nastiness associated with the US presidential election :-)

Of course, I'm biased. I've thrown my hat into the ring: my candidature announcement has been sent to maemo-community. I recommend you subscribe if you're interested in shaping the future of Maemo, rather than "just" developing with it.