porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

Major Announcement

I've just discovered that the latest version of KDEPIMPI (2.10), compiled for the Open Embedded project, combined with the libqt-mt.so.3 library (for Zaurus qt3 compatibility) produce a working, stable, PIM suite. The menus, icons, and functions are much better, though it isn't Hildonized. The calendar/to-list is much better, the address book is fully functional, and synchronizing works. The mail progam (ompi) and cell-phone data exchange (kammu, based on gammu) each run but are untested.

Many thanks to: Zautrix (the original author of KDEPIMPI), yonggun on OESF for compiling the package, and tz1 for the qt3 library.


Known problems: no Hildonization, the alarm pop-up menu is incorrectly sized, making it easy to suspend an alarm but difficult to cancel one, there aren't desktop launcher (menu) entries, and the installation procedure isn't ready for novices. However, if someone contacts yonggun to get the source code, it shouldn't be hard to rebuild the .deb package with menu entries and the post-install "ldconfig" for the Maemo platform.


Here's a link to the OESF page with a .deb package of kdepimpi.

Here's a link to the libqt-mt.so.3 library which must be installed before kdepimpi.

Note: The installation must be done from the command-line (or possibly via the "red-pill" mode in the application manager). In my case I downloaded the two ".deb" packages and then ran (as root):
The alarms even work if you create a shell script to replace the "playwave" command called by kdepimpi:


------------------------ Original Text -------------------------------
I'm happy to announce some significant progress in getting the KDEPIMPI PIM suite running on the Nokia handhelds. This package is a "pure Qt" calendar/todo-list/contact list/password manager. It also includes a time-tracker and interface to mobile phones. There are Linux & Windows desktop versions, with intelligent bi-directional synchronization. The package has been a popular PIM on the Sharp Zaurus for many years. Despite the package name, there are no KDE dependencies.

The original developer's site for the package is:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/kdepimpi/

With tremendous help from Michael Krelin, there is now a Qt4 port of KDEPIMPI. It compiles cleanly under scratchbox and runs on my N810 (OS2008), but has some problems that need to be fixed by a more experienced programmer than me.

I'm seeking someone to take a look at the package as it is now, and make what are hopefully the small changes needed to be fully functional.

Please contact me directly if you would like a copy of the source code, my compilation notes, installation scripts, and a detailed description of the current problems.

Thanks,

Mark

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

I would love to see this happen.
KDE PIM is a great suite, but KDE on the IT is not the most friendly of environments.
Powerful, yes, endlessly configurable, yes, but stable and friendly, maybe not so much.

You say there are issues. What sort?

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

Um, despite the confusing name, the kdepimpi PIM suite is not dependent on KDE. The name comes from "KDE PIM Platform Independent". This is a Qt application, and runs without KDE libraries.

As far as the "issues"...the contact list app runs, but doesn't load my existing data files. The calendar/to-do app starts, displays on-screen, loads existing data...then segfaults. :(

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

Depends on your hardware, KDE on n800, it runs, KDE on n810, IT SHINES!!!!

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

That's what I'm interested in.

KDE is a lot of fun on my N810, but it'd make me nervous to rely on it.
I'd hope that kdepimpi might be a little more responsive under maemo,
without the rest of KDE hanging about, clamouring for the processor's attention.

That thing were you double click on something,
and then hang about for a bit waiting to see if it took...

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

I should have announced this earlier, but there's now a Maemo Garage project for the KDEPIMPI suite. The source code and a tar file with binaries for testing are available. Please see:

• https://garage.maemo.org/projects/kdepimpi/

The kopi (calendar/datebook/ToDo) program is about 80% functional, and the other elements aren't quite as far along.

I gladly welcome any assistance from developers interested in getting this PIM package into a finished state for the tablet.

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

Is the target of this a standard Hildon desktop with proper integration and looking native (possibly following on from the work on http://qt4.garage.maemo.org/ ?)

Or is it a customisation of it within KDE to better fit the screen etc. and is intended for use of those running KDE on their tablets?

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

Sort of...

My goals for KDEPIMPI, in order of importance, are:

1. Basic functionality fixes (ie., enable scrolling in pop-up configuration windows, display missing icons, enable click-to-zoom on calendar entries, enable audio output from alarm, fix resources issue on kapi)
2. Increased Hildonization (integration with NIT hardware keys (home/full-screen/+ and -/escape), integration with gconf for font selection & changes, moving menu entries into Hildon menus, etc.)
3. Enhancements to KDEPIMI (changes to kopi for improved handling of floating items and "knapsack packing" of tasks into alloted time, generation of Gantt/Pert charts and minimal project management features, improvements in cell phone & SIP integration--cell & SIP dialing & sms from within kapi)
4. Low-level integration with NIT (ie., use of dbus for alarm signalling, integration with Maemo "contacts" shortcut)

KDEPIMPI, despite the name, is not a KDE program--it's a Qt application, with no dependencies on KDE libraries. It does offer integration with KDE programs, just as it can syncronize data with any programs that understand the standard ical/vcal/vcard formats.

I don't run KDE on my tablet, but I do use it on my desktop, with KDEPIMPI. I strongly suspect that the unmodified, X-Windows version of KDEPIMPI, compiled for ARM, would work just fine within KDE on the tablet. (You could use the source code from the KDEPIMPI garage project and compile a version without the minimal Hildon changes and find out for yourself.)

There would probably be issues with font & window sizes, but I'm not sure that those should be solved by changes within the KDEPIMPI source code, since KDEPIMPI is already a mature, stable application under KDE.

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

So do I have to install KDE first?

Just kidding. Does Kdepimpi support synchronization with google calendar at all?

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

Sure...the MacOS version. :)

I don't know. Personally, I don't use the Google calendar. After about 60 seconds of searching the 'net, I believe it's possible, since the Google calendar can produce an ".ics" (ical) file. I'm not sure what's necessary to get this file, whether a 3rd party piece of software is involved, etc.

I strongly recommend trying kdepimpi on a Linux desktop and figuring out the synchronization process there. You can get kdepimpi for Windows XP or Linux (as an RPM) and source code from
http://sourceforge.net/projects/kdepimpi/.

I'll also be updating the source code on the Maemo garage kdepimpi site so that it's easier to build both a tablet and desktop version from the same source tree (and may start distributing the desktop version too).

When you do get synchronization with the Google calendar working, I'd be very grateful for a detailed write-up of the process, to include in the KDEPIMPI distribution & on-line help.

One outstanding bug with kdepimpi on the tablet is that some sub-windows don't resize correctly or have scrollbars. Because of this, it's very difficult to configure synchronization on the tablet, since important fields in the synchronization config window are off the screen. :(

However, if you've configured the synchronization on a desktop machine, it's relatively easy to copy the files to the tablet and make any changes (typically just the hostname) from the command-line.

Of course, any assistance in fixing up the source code would be gratefully appreciated.

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

Any idea when you could add this wonderfull suite to the qt4 repository in:
http://qt4.garage.maemo.org/

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

Thanks for the clarification - sounds good!

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

As a long time user of kdepimpi on zaurus and windows machines, news of the port to maemo is what tipped the scale in favor of buying the N810.

Now with the new N810 in hand, I installed QT4 from qt4.garage.maemo.org and then kdepmi from garage.maemo.org/projects/kdepimpi.

When trying to run the applications, I get the following error, howerever:

/opt/kdepimpi/kopi: error while loading shared libraries: libQt3Support.so.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

How do resolve this dependency?

Keep up the great work on the port!

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

Glad I was able to help!

I do need to warn you...kopi is functional on the N810, but there are a number of cosmetic issues that make it difficult to use. For example, the configuration window to set up synchronizing is larger than the screen...and doesn't scroll. This means that it's very hard to configure a new sync target. My temporary solution was to configure a sync target on my desktop machine as if it was sync'ing to itself, then add that configuration via the Xterm command line window on the tablet. The file to check (on your desktop) and modify (on the tablet) is ~/kdepim/config/ksyncprofilesrc. This is a poor hack, but it shows that the issue with the Maemo port is with the GUI, not with the basic functionality.

Sorry, you need to install the qt3 compatability libraries as well, since KDEPIMPI is still a QT3 package.

The package is available on the QT Maemo Garage site, at https://garage.maemo.org/plugins/scm...=qt4&pathrev=1

I plan to release a ".deb" package of KDEPIMPI soon (thanks to the excellent pypackager utility!).

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

Thanks for you quick reply!
Went to the qt3 site to install the package, but got the following from the application manager:

Unable to install libqt4-qt3support.
Incompatible application package.

sigh

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

Yup; same error message here!
-Jon

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

RIght.
After months (no joke!) of fooling around with all the instructions on how to get a PIM like korganizer up and running, seems the solution to my mainproblem is:

1st
DO NOT use the LATEST image.
I just installed: RX-44_2008SE_2.2007.50-2
And FINALLY the install prozess worx. Kapi starts up fine, Kopi starts, yet closes after an error msg (when startet in terminal). So still some things to do.

2nd (@ z2n)
Please update your Installation Instructions:
2.a
Wrong:
tar xf kdepimpi-packaged-ARMEL.tar.gz
Right:
tar xf kdepimpi-packaged-ARMEL.tar
2.b
Please explain how/where to get the necessary packages/libs:
-> gainroot (becomeroot) available via package manager - after adding another repository just by klicking on the .install file.
-> 4 libs (all 4 necessary after a fresh flashed tablett): libqt4-core libqt4-gui libqt4-qt3support libqt4-sql all available at maemo garage

Regards!

Adon:
I am working on linux for some years now (ubuntu) i guess that's why i never even thought about using the older image. Of course there are compatibility problems when versions change. Yet in this case i just didn't think about the possibility of a Version change. For me the numbers indicate minor fixes.
That said i'd like to offer my help! I am completly helpless as a programmer - but i can update your instructions (i.e. the stuff i wrote above), correct layout issues and try to find possible sollutions for minor problems.

Oh - and one for NOKIA:
IMO this whole Nokia/maemo thing is one big disaster. Nokia doesn't give a **** on users who want to do anything but watching some websites (of course not the ones using java re). I never expierienced such a lame linux distro ever before (and i include openPMA and Archo's Qtopia here!)

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

Wow! Many thanks for helping debug this and for providing such detailed information. This will be a big help.

Hmmm.... I'm also running 50-2. It would be very difficult for me to debug why kdepimpi doesn't work under the newer version, and at the same time, I'm really horrified at making an older OS version a requirement for the PIM. Clearly, this needs to be resolved.

As you can probably tell, my "development" of kdepimpi (the port) has stalled. There's a good reason for this...the developer of the original package has released some updates (after 3 years!), and I've been trying to work with him about getting the Maemo port in sync with the current release. Overall, I think that's vastly preferable to forking the original project just for Maemo, but it means quite a bit more work for me.


I agreee with a lot of that. While there are development tools, and the Maemo distribution starts from a pretty recent Linux base, the lack of a decent PIM suite supported by Nokia is a huge deficit.

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

KdePIM might just work fine - but there is this incompatibility issue when trying to install libqt4-qt3support under the latest OS image.

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

Progress:
Got it working on latest OS (RX-44_2008SE_2.2007.51-3):
1. Get two new repositories from http://gronmayer.com/it/
-> add "Eko-one" to repositories & install becomeroot from Application manager
-> add "Qt4" to repositories and go to 2.

2. Red Pill Mode (please dont ask me why Nokia/Maemo does such strange things like making it immense difficult to install some libs...)
a. Open Application manager
b. Menu - Tools - Application catalogue klick new
c. Insert into the field Web address: matrix (leave everything else as it is)
d. Press cancel
e. Choose Red

3. Now you will be able to install the needed QT4 libs via Application manager. libqt4-core libqt4-gui libqt4-qt3support libqt4-sql.
I installed libqt4-sql-mysql - there are others as well - and i am not sure, if my choice was the best. Anyway - when i look in my installed Apps list, i see libqt4-sql installed as well - seems it's a dependeny for one of the packages i installed. I might try the rest as well - not sure when though

Download and install the files provided by z2n
Restart your device (#shutdown -r now)

I startet Calendar via terminal (# kopi) - got some failure msgs:
After this kopi (=Calendar) quits
When i just restarted it again, i get:
Now the calendar starts up.
It's possible to start the calendar via "Extras-KOrganizer" as well.

Final Step:
If you are not familiar with Linux, Package management (like the tabletts Application manager) it might be a good idea to switch to "Blue Pill Mode" again (just the same way as described in pt. 2)


Thoughts:
When started in Terminal, you might get a hint, whats going wrong, if something is going wrong. This is a thing that helped a lot the last years, i am using linux. And i don't understand, why Nokia&Maemo don't give us this opportunity from beginning on.

Installing this "gainroot" thing - i HATE that - it's a hack from somone, as are the extra repos. Everything u install this way can literally do ANYTHING on your device - a virus on windows is just a laugh compared to that.
As of now i see no alternative - i guess it's just a good idea not to store sensitive data - like PW'S - on your tablett, when u use 3rd party repos.

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

Unfortunatley the korganizer is still not usable:
It just loads/doesn't load without any logical reason.
1. I start the calendar - it opens (same faults as in error msg 2 in my post above)
2. I restart the calendar & it auto shutsdown (errormsg 1 from above)
3. If startet it just seg-faults when i press i.e. button A. I restart press button A again & everything is fine. I press Button A again - and segfault (or the other way around...)

Besides - as mentioned there are cosmetic issues - like no visible symbol on the symbol bar (except the "what's this" arrow).
But as it is - it's not just some "cosmetic" stuff - it's just not usable.

I suppose it might be possible to just delete the line in the code that starts that (allready startet) "sharedPainter".
Unfortunatley - i don't know, how to search the code via my PC. Seraching via tablett is not an option
Maybe one with a VM on the desktop can search for the text?

If i can do ANYTHING to help - don't hesitate to page/mail me!!!
I don't care if i have to setup the tablett - atm it's COMPLETLY useless for me.

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

Two things.

1) Sync seems to work one way only for me. I have local_file configed for calendar and address book to write to the tablet regardless of dates or existence. If I make a change on the PC and a different non-conflicting change on my tablet, hook it up via USB and local_file sync the tablet change gets updated on the PC but not PC change onto the tablet. :confused:

2) Is it probable that the calendar and address book main windows will get tweaked to fit the tablet screen size? If I ran linux on my laptop and had the dev environment installed I'd do it myself but the closest I got was trying unsuccessfully to install it in VM. :o

Tank you,
Frank

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

In the meantime, maybe you will be interested in using the screen-rotation. At least that way you can see the whole Kdepimpi window.

Seems to be usable that way, although I haven't used it much because it still doesn't have sound alarms.

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

Huh? It does have an audible alarm, and it works fine for me. Of course, you've got to have the kopi program running (even if it's minimized...not the active application).

This post describes how to set up the alarm...see step #6.

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

Odd....synchronizing works fine for me between kopi and kapi on my desktop machine and my tablet.

I have no experience using the "local_file" sync target, so I'm not sure I can help with this.
Hmmm....I've only synchronized via the network.

Can the tablet see the file that was created as a local file on the PC when the devices are connected via USB?

I know that the tablet's filesystems are visible to the PC, but I didn't think that the reverse was true by default. Perhaps this is why changes only synchronize from the tablet to the PC.

Is it "probable"....I'm guessing "no". Of course, the source code is available, so in theory anyone could update kdepimpi. I know that I'm not the programmer for that job!

However, you don't need to wait for the program to be tweaked...this post describes how you can configure your tablet so that all the pop-up windows are "floating" windows, and can be moved around. This allows you to reposition the window so that buttons at the bottom are visible, etc.

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

Interesting. I wonder if that's the reason. Yes, I can see the tablet as a USB drive from the PC but not vice versa. The syncing, I would think would be done by the PC side; that's where I initiate it. I figured it would read the tablet data, compare it to it's own, and then write it back. I approve the write back.

I'll play with network syncing.

Yes - I kind of don't like that behavior on allof my pop up windows so I prefer not to use that setting. The kdepimpi pop up windows are controllable via the Return and Escape keys to save abd cancel changes.

My concern is more the bottom of the main window where I cannot ever see the last few rows of data or slide the scroll slider past the physical boundary of my tablet. The window is simply too large and seems like the bottom ought to be able to be moved up a few 10's of pixels. That's ignorant optimism on my part though. :)

Thank you,
Frank

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

Does the Maemo port support Kolab?

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

Perhaps if you had included a URL or some description of what "Kolab" is, I might be able to give a definitive answer.

I'm pretty sure that you're referring to some kind of KDE package, perhaps for collaboration... In that case, the answer is absolutely "NO".

As it states earlier in this topic, despite the name, KDEPIMPI has almost no relationship with KDE...it doesn't provide or depend on any KDE components.

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

I just followed z2n's instructions (first posting of this thread) and it indeed does work. Here are some glitches I found:

• These seems to be no way to run it fullscreen
• As a consequence you don't have enough space for some dialogs. If you edit an agenda item, the ok button is not visible.
• You can work around this by either pressing "return" or by rotating the screen (search maemo.org for instructions how to do this)
• It does not activate the on-screen keyboard when you klick on a text field, but it works with the hardware keyboard.
• This limits the usefulness of portrait mode quite a bit.
• I could not install it on the internal mmc card (by creating a symlink for /opt), because the installation wants to do a chown which does not seem to work on fat filesystems.

Kdepimpi seems to be the only calendar for the n810 which allows dragging agenda items around. This is one of the feature I need the most (I change plans frequently), even more than syncing (I gave up on syncing altogether). So this work is really much appreciated.

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

I'm really glad to hear that someone else is using kdepimpi.

It's not clear to me what you mean about syncing...I regularly sync kdepimpi (calendar & contact list) between my N810 and my Linux desktop. It's even possible to sync between kdepimpi and other calendar systems that can read/write "ical" format files. The gcaldaemon program can be used to convert an ical file to/from the Google calendar format, allowing sync from kdepimpi to the Google calendar. (I haven't gotten gcaldaemon running on my N810, but it works find on my desktop: (Google calendar) <==> (desktop KDEPIMPI) <==> (N810 KDEPIMPI)

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

I found that apt-get -f install always wants to uninstall kdepimpi because libqt3-mt is not installed. This is because the libqt3-3.3.deb installs itself as just libqt3 (without the "-mt") and kdepimpi_2.2.10_armel.deb depends on libqt3-mt. I believe this is also the reason why you need to use --force-depends. I found this quite annoying.

So I took the kdepimpi .deb and extracted it on my desktop with dpkg-deb, hacked the control file so it depends on libqt3 and rebuilt the .deb with "dpkg-deb -b".

Now it installs without problems and apt-get -f no longer complains.
----------------------
Another thing I did, was to disable to full menu in kopi. This gives you a little more screen real-estate and makes the ok/cancel buttons visible in some cases.

Re: porting Kdepimpi PIM suite to N8*0 (status, help needed)
 

For some reason this does not work for me. While I can drag dialog boxes around that stupid matchbox window manager cripples the bottom edges of the dialog boxes. This is especially annoying when editing a todo-list item. It seems like my matchbox never gives dialog boxes more room than from the bottom of the screen to the bottom of the titlebar. If I could change this all would be fine.

I tried the following:

• Launch easyDebian and set DISPLAY=:1.0. Kopi is then displayed in the lxde window and dialogs are fully painted (but still too large)
• Set TITLEBAR=no in /etc/osso-af-inits/matchbox.defs. This given the dialog boxes more room and they become usable. But loosing the titlebar is a high price to pay.