Originally Posted by dav7

A new question:

If I quit X, will I be presented with a text console just like on an x86 PC? Or is the hardware designed such that the displays requires an appropriate X video driver to "go"? Alternatively, is there a framebuffer driver I can use to get console output? If none of those methods work, I'm happy with a fullscreen terminal in X, if I need to get an interface like that - that works fine.

Originally Posted by dav7

Is this SDK you speak of called Scratchbox? If it is, please help me find a way to install it on Arch Linux. I don't want to install or switch distros just to make developing for a device which I'll note I don't even have one of yet a bit easier.

I've already tried to install it but that was a while ago... some issue about an XML parser not existing in the kernel ()

Alternatively, if precompiled binaries that produce the Maemo/Hildon "desktop"/UI can simply be lifted from some package, I'd be happy to download such a package and try it out.

Originally Posted by dav7

I finally had another go installing Scratchbox, and it failed again, just like last time.

First up, it all *installed* fine...

...then...

1. sb-menu - or more specifically, "import sb_menu" in Python - hangs and eats 100% CPU.
2. sb-conf complains at each and every point I do *anything* at the shell because it's in the prompt string and sb-menu doesn't work.
3. Xephyr won't compile on my system.

So I've given up again, likely for good. I like Arch and don't want to have to switch distros; I'll unlikely use Debian anytime soon, so doubt my chances of developing for the Maemo platform until it supports non-Debian-like systems.

When I do get an N810, I'll likely either install uArch and work with that, or build an ARM-targeted copy of LFS or something.

But thanks for your help!

-dav7

Originally Posted by dav7

So I've given up again, likely for good. I like Arch and don't want to have to switch distros; I'll unlikely use Debian anytime soon, so doubt my chances of developing for the Maemo platform until it supports non-Debian-like systems.

Originally Posted by dav7

Nice to know... and wow, USB->VGA! That's nice to know too


That's fine, I don't plan to write stuff for Hildon, although I *might* use it... although I might not.

How does Hildon "run"? Like a session manager? Can I killall the right processes to have apps, sidebar thingy, task manager, panel, etc, quit? Then, assuming that method works, with my N810 just running the terminal I used to killall everything, I can just run openbox from there.

Also, I might do a little porting, but mostly plan to develop my own apps. Whether they'll run for Hildon (my programming strengths are generally with PHP and bash, which have almost no working desktop frameworks available - there is PHP-GTK, but that breaks PHP's apache module here, and PHP-QT, but that won't compile here) would remain to be seen.



New tactic. Can I stuff Arch Linux inside the ROM which I'm assuming is an EEPROM, and put OS2008 on an SD? Or do you really think I should just leave it all on SD cards? If I do, how do I get stuff in and out of the N810 if I can't/don't want to use Wifi or Bluetooth?

Also, how does booting from the SD card work? Is the SD card akin to a PC's hard disks, in that the N810 will first poke its internal ROM for a valid boot block, then the SD card, etc?

Or does it just jump straight to ROM, in which is a script that picks up from there and loads from the SD card?



NDAs make sense and I won't knock those.

The GPS. Thanks for mentioning that. I was wondering if I could access that myself, thanks for clearing that up :P

But... *you don't have graphics drivers?* You mean you don't have the *sourcecode*, or are you using the VESA driver with this thing?!