Hi,
I started with the VMware SDK image and I'm running into trouble when I'm starting the Application framework.

I'm getting an incomplete (and completely unworkable) screen output, so I can't really work with it.

First trials were just with the VMware preconfigured SDK and scratchbox.
I'm getting a blank screen with ONLY a (perfectly acceptable looking) Twitter widget in the left hand corner. If I click on it, I'm getting some reaction, looking like 'real' things in the bottom 8th part of the screen. Things are a appearing there, seemingly bookmarks from the browser or so, where I can click on and even slightly scroll up and down. But nothing more. Bizarre.

[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] > af-sb-init.sh start &
[1] 7553
[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] > Note: For remote X connections DISPLAY should contain hostname!
Sample files present.
Starting DBUS system bus
Starting D-BUS session bus daemon
Starting Maemo Launcher: maemo-launcher.
maemo-launcher: warning raising the oom shield for pid=7633 status=5632
Starting Sapwood image server
Starting hildon-desktop
maemo-launcher: invoking '/usr/bin/hildon-desktop.launch'
maemo-launcher: invoking '/usr/bin/hildon-status-menu.launch'
maemo-launcher: invoking '/usr/bin/hildon-home.launch'
hildon-desktop[7665]: GLIB WARNING ** GVFS-RemoteVolumeMonitor - remote volume monitor with dbus name org.gtk.Private.HalVolumeMonitor is not supported
hildon-status-menu[7668]: GLIB WARNING ** GVFS-RemoteVolumeMonitor - remote volume monitor with dbus name org.gtk.Private.HalVolumeMonitor is not supported
hildon-home[7671]: GLIB WARNING ** GVFS-RemoteVolumeMonitor - remote volume monitor with dbus name org.gtk.Private.HalVolumeMonitor is not supported
maemo-launcher: opening of /usr/bin/hildon-home.launch took 114266 usec
maemo-launcher: opening of /usr/bin/hildon-status-menu.launch took 126663 usec
Starting Keyboard
maemo-launcher: invoking '/usr/bin/hildon-input-method.launch'
/usr/bin/hildon-status-menu: console is quiet, define DEBUG_OUTPUT to prevent this.
hildon-input-method[7687]: GLIB WARNING ** GVFS-RemoteVolumeMonitor - remote volume monitor with dbus name org.gtk.Private.HalVolumeMonitor is not supported
maemo-launcher: opening of /usr/bin/hildon-desktop.launch took 334107 usec
maemo-launcher: opening of /usr/bin/hildon-input-method.launch took 161960 usec
Starting browser daemon: hildon-home[7671]: GLIB WARNING ** default - /usr/lib/hildon-desktop/connui-cellular-operator-home-item.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
hildon-home[7671]: GLIB WARNING ** default - Could not load operator module /usr/lib/hildon-desktop/connui-cellular-operator-home-item.so.
Initializing trackerd...
trackerd[7692]: GLIB DEBUG Tracker - Checking XDG_DATA_HOME is writable and exists
trackerd[7692]: GLIB MESSAGE Tracker - XDG_DATA_HOME set to '/home/maemo/.local/share'
trackerd[7692]: GLIB DEBUG Tracker - Path is OK
trackerd[7692]: GLIB MESSAGE Tracker - Setting IO priority
matchbox: No composite extension
matchbox-window-manager: *Error* OOM?
maemo-launcher: child (pid=7665) terminated due to exit()=1
OIL: ERROR liboiltest.c 405: oil_test_check_impl(): function mas10_u8_mmx_2 in class mas10_u8_l15 failed check (7475 > 0) || (outside=0)
hildon-input-method[7687]: GLIB MESSAGE default - ui up and running
hildon-home[7671]: GLIB CRITICAL ** Gtk - gtk_widget_set_colormap: assertion `GDK_IS_COLORMAP (colormap)' failed
mafw-dbus-wrapper[7695]: GLIB WARNING ** mafw-gst-renderer - Could not initialize hal
hildon-home[7671]: GLIB CRITICAL ** Gtk - gtk_widget_set_colormap: assertion `GDK_IS_COLORMAP (colormap)' failed
hildon-home[7671]: GLIB CRITICAL ** Gtk - gtk_widget_set_colormap: assertion `GDK_IS_COLORMAP (colormap)' failed
browserd
trackerd[7692]: GLIB MESSAGE Tracker - Setting up stopword list for language code:'en'
hildon-home[7671]: GLIB WARNING ** default - devlock_mode_get_notify. Error calling devlock_mode_get. The name com.nokia.mce was not provided by any .service files
trackerd[7692]: GLIB MESSAGE Tracker - Tracker couldn't read stopword file:'/usr/share/tracker/languages/stopwords.en', Failed to open file '/usr/share/tracker/languages/stopwords.en': open() failed: No such file or directory
trackerd[7692]: GLIB MESSAGE Tracker - Setting up stemmer for language code:'en'
trackerd[7692]: GLIB MESSAGE Tracker - Registering DBus service...
Name:'org.freedesktop.Tracker'
Starting log:
File:'/home/maemo/.local/share/tracker/trackerd.log'
trackerd[7692]: GLIB CRITICAL ** Tracker - Could not initialize the HAL context, no error, is hald running?
Initializing tracker-indexer...
Starting log:
File:'/home/maemo/.local/share/tracker/tracker-indexer.log'
trackerd[7692]: GLIB WARNING ** Tracker - Could not add monitor for path:'/home/maemo/MyDocs/.camera'
trackerd[7692]: GLIB CRITICAL ** Tracker - Could not open directory 'file:///home/maemo/MyDocs/.camera': No such file or directory

I removed scratchbox completely from my VMware image and I reinstalled it (together with the SDK and the Nokia binaries) via the shell scripts. After doing it all, I got more or less the same problem. Only the Twitter widget in the upperleft corner, otherwise empty screen.
Identical initial behaviour as the preinstalled software in the VMware image. But I can't provoke any response by clicking anywhere and the 'bottom part' repaint and 'seemingly' working is not present in this.

I'm giving up, I tried all I could, I need to hand-over to the community now for help. For completeness, I included the log for the 2nd case as well, the manually installed Scratchbox and SDK.

[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] > af-sb-init.sh start
Note: For remote X connections DISPLAY should contain hostname!
Sample files present.
Starting DBUS system bus
Starting D-BUS session bus daemon
Starting Maemo Launcher: maemo-launcher.
maemo-launcher: warning raising the oom shield for pid=7436 status=5632
Starting Sapwood image server
Starting hildon-desktop
maemo-launcher: invoking '/usr/bin/hildon-desktop.launch'
maemo-launcher: invoking '/usr/bin/hildon-home.launch'
maemo-launcher: invoking '/usr/bin/hildon-status-menu.launch'
hildon-desktop[7466]: GLIB WARNING ** GVFS-RemoteVolumeMonitor - remote volume monitor with dbus name org.gtk.Private.HalVolumeMonitor is not supported
hildon-home[7467]: GLIB WARNING ** GVFS-RemoteVolumeMonitor - remote volume monitor with dbus name org.gtk.Private.HalVolumeMonitor is not supported
hildon-status-menu[7468]: GLIB WARNING ** GVFS-RemoteVolumeMonitor - remote volume monitor with dbus name org.gtk.Private.HalVolumeMonitor is not supported
Starting Keyboard
maemo-launcher: invoking '/usr/bin/hildon-input-method.launch'
hildon-input-method[7483]: GLIB WARNING ** GVFS-RemoteVolumeMonitor - remote volume monitor with dbus name org.gtk.Private.HalVolumeMonitor is not supported
maemo-launcher: opening of /usr/bin/hildon-status-menu.launch took 101203 usec
maemo-launcher: opening of /usr/bin/hildon-home.launch took 170756 usec
maemo-launcher: opening of /usr/bin/hildon-input-method.launch took 317589 usec
/usr/bin/hildon-status-menu: console is quiet, define DEBUG_OUTPUT to prevent this.
[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] > Initializing trackerd...
trackerd[7485]: GLIB DEBUG Tracker - Checking XDG_DATA_HOME is writable and exists
trackerd[7485]: GLIB MESSAGE Tracker - XDG_DATA_HOME set to '/home/maemo/.local/share'
trackerd[7485]: GLIB DEBUG Tracker - Path is OK
trackerd[7485]: GLIB MESSAGE Tracker - Setting IO priority
hildon-home[7467]: GLIB WARNING ** default - /usr/lib/hildon-desktop/connui-cellular-operator-home-item.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
hildon-home[7467]: GLIB WARNING ** default - Could not load operator module /usr/lib/hildon-desktop/connui-cellular-operator-home-item.so.
maemo-launcher: opening of /usr/bin/hildon-desktop.launch took 2913469 usec
trackerd[7485]: GLIB MESSAGE Tracker - Setting up stopword list for language code:'en'
trackerd[7485]: GLIB MESSAGE Tracker - Tracker couldn't read stopword file:'/usr/share/tracker/languages/stopwords.en', Failed to open file '/usr/share/tracker/languages/stopwords.en': open() failed: No such file or directory
trackerd[7485]: GLIB MESSAGE Tracker - Setting up stemmer for language code:'en'
matchbox: No composite extension
matchbox-window-manager: *Error* OOM?
trackerd[7485]: GLIB MESSAGE Tracker - Registering DBus service...
Name:'org.freedesktop.Tracker'
maemo-launcher: child (pid=7466) terminated due to exit()=1
OIL: ERROR liboiltest.c 405: oil_test_check_impl(): function mas10_u8_mmx_2 in class mas10_u8_l15 failed check (7629 > 0) || (outside=0)
Starting log:
File:'/home/maemo/.local/share/tracker/trackerd.log'
trackerd[7485]: GLIB CRITICAL ** Tracker - Could not initialize the HAL context, no error, is hald running?
mafw-dbus-wrapper[7488]: GLIB WARNING ** mafw-gst-renderer - Could not initialize hal
hildon-home[7467]: GLIB CRITICAL ** Gtk - gtk_widget_set_colormap: assertion `GDK_IS_COLORMAP (colormap)' failed
hildon-input-method[7483]: GLIB MESSAGE default - ui up and running
hildon-home[7467]: GLIB CRITICAL ** Gtk - gtk_widget_set_colormap: assertion `GDK_IS_COLORMAP (colormap)' failed
hildon-home[7467]: GLIB CRITICAL ** Gtk - gtk_widget_set_colormap: assertion `GDK_IS_COLORMAP (colormap)' failed
hildon-home[7467]: GLIB WARNING ** default - devlock_mode_get_notify. Error calling devlock_mode_get. The name com.nokia.mce was not provided by any .service files
hildon-home[7467]: GLIB WARNING ** default - hd_plugin_configuration_configuration_loaded. Couldn't read plugin_paths in dir /usr/share/applications/hildon-home. Error: Error opening directory '/usr/share/applications/hildon-home': No such file or directory
Initializing tracker-indexer...
Starting log:
File:'/home/maemo/.local/share/tracker/tracker-indexer.log'
trackerd[7485]: GLIB WARNING ** Tracker - Could not add monitor for path:'/home/maemo/MyDocs/.camera'
trackerd[7485]: GLIB CRITICAL ** Tracker - Could not open directory 'file:///home/maemo/MyDocs/.camera': No such file or directory

Result on screen in the 2nd case is the same as in the preinstalled case but the behaviour when clicking on screen is different. In the preinstalled case, I could provoke some action, I saw part of a screen appear in the bottom 8th part of the screen. the rest was blank. And I could click on things in that 'visible' part. And I did sometimes get in the top part a message say "opening up new window". But after that, again blank top part of screen and and only little bit 'real' stuff in small band at the bottom. This doesn't even happen any more in the 2nd case.

Anyone has seen this before ? Got it working somehow ?

I really want to get this working and get the most out of my pre-ordered N900 when I ever get it

Thanks.

Problem solved:
The starting command for Xephyr should not have had the "-extension Composite" on the end ... It actively disabled the composition functionality and it seems the Matchbox WM is actually needing a composition framework

I can start 'playing' and learning programming in gtk/Empathy now ... And maybe try the same with Qt as well when I'm feeling really courageous, somewhere down the line.

Lots of work ahead to keep me busy till my N900 arrives ...

Cheers.

Hi, I had this too.

What VMware SDK image is this can you provide link?

What are your arguments for running Xephyr?

When I ran Xephyr as suggested by SDK howto:
$ Xephyr :2 -kb -host-cursor -screen 800x480x16 -dpi 96 -ac -extension Composite
I had same effect as you.

I read Xephyr(1) and figured it may be related to my window manager Compiz. When running
$ Xephyr :2 -kb -host-cursor -screen 800x480x16 -dpi 96 -ac +extension Composite
It worked. So try to add argument +extension Composite and see if solves your problem.

[edit]Else, try to execute metacity --replace this disables Compiz and enables Metacity however comes with the price of lack of hardware 2D/3D rendering.I see your 2nd post now. Oops.

Did some tests. Apparently not related to window manager, and Composite extension is enabled by default so argument +extension Composite is not required. I assume inherited from whether enabled by X.org yes/no. I think we can assume Composite is enabled on all host platforms, but with a VM I'm not sure.[/edit]

Just a shot in the dark, the
message doesn't look good to me. I think the compositing is needed for fancy UI to work. How do you start Xephyr?
I am starting it like
It works almost fine, only colors in ScummVM are mostly wrong.

They are right for a little while when switching between fullscreen mode but then blue and red gets switched.

EDIT: too late :-)

great to see people helping that fast. I guess I could have posted the issue earlier instead of wasting all my time last night, trying to reload Scrtachbox & SDK over a crappy hotel internet connection.

I'll certainly post here again when I'm stuck ... and of course keep investigating. I normally don't give up easily

Hi guys.. I have a somewhat weird problem. I don't know what the screen should show but I've the following:

workspace 1: nothing
workspace 2: twitter and facebook shortcuts
workspace 3: nothing
workspace 4: ovi store and maemo select shortcuts

is this all?

now the more interesting part is the menu screen.. the text for the icons seems to be the development strings without any language being applied to it..
(see attached)

now when I try to open the language settings, it gets killed and the log says

maemo-launcher: opening of /usr/bin/controlpanel.launch took 945 usec
hildon-desktop[22788]: GLIB WARNING ** default - mb_wm_client_window_sync_properties: X error 3
maemo-launcher: child (pid=23344) terminated due to signal=11

any help is appreciated..

(running it on debian lenny x86_64)