yeah i would like to play with them too, mainly because of the moveable keyboard. Dont worry, ive never touched a linux device in my life untill a few days ago, theres no way you could be less literate then me.

Some good news. OpenOffice.org has been bumped to version 1:2.4.1-3, and it no longer has packaging errors. Iceweasel (Firefox) 3 has been put in the main Debian repositories too, at version 3.0~rc2-2, which is only one revision away from Firefox 3.0 final (they just released rc3 as final).

I'll also be posting a clean Debian image in the next 24 hours with all the right pieces in place to make the chroot script work, but with a very minimal installed application list. This will allow hackers and such to install whatever they want without worrying about running out of space.

That would be great. Also, is there anyway to make the keyboard move around.

About unmounting: I found that killing all chrooted programs like this:


for i in [0-9]* ; do if ls -dl $i/root | grep -q /opt ; then kill $i ; fi ; done


And then unmounting in the correct order (basically reversed order of mounting), works everytime.

Now if there was only a way to prevent apt-get in the chroot from killing external daemons (ssh, hal, etc.), it would be great.

Yes, the Matchbox-Keyboard doesn't move around. I included it because it iis the only Debian virtual keyboard that that I've found that is usable with OS2008.

Your best bet for a little keyboard that you can make disappear when you want it to is the xkbd port. You want the OS2008 version. If you install it, you maybe should use debernardis' method given here.

Ok, here is a minimal Debian image, with locales installed and no hacks ("dpkg-reconfigure locales" still required for non-English locales). I've also installed ssh server so you can use this trick to ssh into your chroot and work on it remotely (even using x forwarding!)

You'll need to untar it and put it in the same place as the app-filled image. Use my instructions here.

Minimal-Install 1GB Debian Image

If you want the apps from the original package, and you are tight on space on your SD card, and you don't want to install anything else, here's a smaller image (730MB instead of 1GB) with all of the applications. It has no spare room for any more apps, however. It is purely an appliance for OpenOffice, AbiWord, and Iceweasel.

730MB Debian Application Image

By the way, for anyone interested in trying out thp's setup (but, sadly, without the polish of his python-script-enhanced version), you'll need the following three packages:

• xserver-xephyr (to put the secondary window manager over OS2008)
• wmaker (the Window Maker desktop)
• xvkbd (the "movable" virtual keyboard shown in the demo)

Write a script similar to the one under "Xephyr Method" in this post, and then have fun.

Will be posting my scripts sometime this week. Currenly busy with maths exam preparation, but then in the course of the week I'll take some time to do it. Please PM me at the end of this week in case I forget

For those who use Johnx's beta3 debian rootfs (like me), please be aware that the last update tries to reinstall the (infamous) mtd - resulting in a malfunctioning apt-get with the practical impossibility to get rid of mtd from your chroot.

So, before updating-upgrading, better put mtd on hold:

Just thought I'd drop into this thread and report that I had complete success with the image files and deb installer and it is working flawlessly on my n800.

Next question - is there a nice way to expand the ext2 file to be larger for more playroom? I suppose ideally, I should just make a ext2 part. on my SD, but I kind of like the ability to store various image states easily on the HD.