Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

Besides the over-written passwd file and resolv.conf files... whats the difference? You used his as a basis for your chroot in your initial how-to's and wiki correct?? So I imagine you used his as the basis for your .img???

Did you strip the kernel and stuff from your image? (haven't checked)

I also noticed that your icewm menu looked a lot cleaner than mine from when I did it manually via your wiki on downloading his .tar.gz, unzip it to a partion, create the scripts manually, etc.. I ran an apt-get install icewm and booted it and it was nice.. but the menu system was cluttered.. was a mess of stuff in there that I had to find.. etc.

Your menu looked cleaner - not sure if that was just software I had loaded or you actually modified it from the original menu.. Looks like you may have added a theme or two as well??

The only projects I really have remaining is getting the Bluetooth pairing to work (i've gotten probably half way).. as well as getting a good WPA front-end and getting wireless stuff to work easily like in Maemo.. after that - debian will be pretty much as functional; with more power; than the Maemo base, IMHO.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

Ok, so I haven't read all thirteen pages of comments; I hope this doesn't duplicate them. I installed and everything worked pretty good. I installed WindowMaker and even getting a terminal to come up was way slow. I installed Foxmarks in Gran Paradiso (why not FF 3.0?) and installation was way slow. In fact, everything was way slow.

I know, you say in the beginning that we need to adjust our expectations. Well, I enjoyed a really good circus trick, running Debian on my N800!

Now that the fun is over, though, I don't see this as being a usable alternative environment.

Is anyone out there going to always run this now? I have the impression that some people run PB's kde environment all the time...

But isn't the only reason to run this in preference to the usual Nokia tablet environment to run programs that haven't yet been ported?

Or have I just not optimized my Debian environment yet? (btw, my desktop computer already runs Sidux, one of the cooler versions of Debian).

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

How are you launching WindowMaker?? I installed WM when I did the manual chroot installation and had little-no problem with it.. i configured the whole menu system and made the quick launch boxes just like the guy in the Video that used it. Using a terminal was relatively fast..

This debian I have used icewm (the one qole provides).. apt-get can sometimes take a while to get past the initial point.. then runs fine. Synaptic runs extremely slow for me. Firefox runs manageable.. a very long startup time; but once it's up - with the exception of 2 posts today; the rest of my relatively few posts came from within IceWeasel in IceWM. It all appears manageable to me.. This is running XChat and Pidgin from within IceWM as well.. (Why?? Because I don't like switching >.<).

Somewhere around these forums some dude posted a bunch of services you can stop to make android run faster.. I went and played with that (running it all causes IceWM to die because of how qole has integrated it with OS2008.) Shutting down most of those services causes IceWM to seriously increase on speed .. so I imagine if you do a full boot to debian it'll fly at least as fast as maemo.

Right now you need to keep the expectation that you have a 400mhz processor with 128mb ram .. and running debian within a chroot is almost like running a virtual machine with debian on it. Not quite the overhead.. but comparable IMHO. It'll always run a little slow.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

No. I used a clean root filesystem. See the Debian chroot thread for more technical info, or for posting questions about how to do it yourself.

Yes, I did some manual clean-up to the IceWM menu and stuff. Again, see the Debian chroot thread (the last few pages) for the discussion on that, as I searched high and low for the right files to edit...

Debian certainly has more power, however it is non-optimized for our tablets and so unmodified Debian apps tend to be slow and bloaty on the N8x0...

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

I installed wmaker from synaptic in icewm. I'll try it from tthe chroot terminal, or maybe I'll try Fluxbox first.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

Things are generally slower this way, for sure. Part of the problem is that, in order to keep things simple for newbies and to disturb as little as possible on the tablet, we're running Debian in (1) a "virtual" chroot filesystem that (2) lives in a mounted image file on a (3) flash memory card with fairly slow read/write speed. If you run an alternate window manager like IceWM, then you're also running (4) a nested X-Server (so, TWO X-Servers) and (5) TWO window managers.

The first thing that will really help your Debian speed is to use the alternate window manager only when you need it. Use the Debian chroot terminal and Synaptic from within OS2008.

There is a noticeable speed improvement if you set up your chroot in its own partition or a folder in your rootfs (if you have a big primary partition). There would probably be another big speed improvement if you were willing to shut down the OS2008 system like penguinbait does with KDE (or like fatalsaint suggests above). But one of the big plusses of this system is that you can keep OS2008 open and run another window manager at the same time, and you can switch back and forth.

I'm working on a new version that will help with this kind of disappointment. For example, my next version will run Kazehakase (or similar) as the default browser, rather than Firefox. Firefox is really just unacceptably slow, and I really shake my head when I think that the whole point of FF was to strip away all the bloat of Netscape / Mozilla. It has ended up being big and bloated again...

There are some optimization tips in the Debian chroot thread. More are always welcome.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

I'd recommend not launching IceWM at all if you plan to use WMaker and instead modify/copy the debian /usr/bin/xpice script that qole has written.
Change this line:
To something like:
And then from the normal Maemo terminal launch: debwm WindowMaker xpice (or whatever you called your copy.)

Or from a debian root shell I think you can just launch xpice... although this discussion probably ought to move to the "technical" one.. since qole is redirecting me there as well :D

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

I would really recommend making a copy of xpice, call it xpwm or something, so you can run IceWM or WindowMaker as you wish.

Then you can make another menu item for WindowMaker.

But yes, please, further discussion at this level should be in the "techie" thread. I would love to discuss what WM to include in the next version over there, especially if you have strong emotions about why I should ditch IceWM in favour of another... :D

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

Thanks. I have wanted to install Debian since the first day I received my 810. However now I am hold off because I am more productive and depend on the tablet for many things, daily. Although using OpenOffice and FireFox 3 will be worth the load time. Thanks again.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

How can I extend the rootfs ?

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

I successfully modifed xmodmap from .icewm/startup file.

But I still have a problem with stylus and applications running in debian chroot. I can't simulate rightclick.

I installed tslib, libgtkstylus and add export GTK_MODULES=libgtkstylus.so into /usr/bin/xpice

Then I tried to start xephyr with -mouse tslib argument, but I got this error message:

Couldn't find pointer driver tslib

It even does not work in debian, where Xomap runs well.

It seems to me, that Xephyr just can't handle pointer drivers, but Xomap can. Is that right?

If yes, I was able to start second Xomap on screen :1. It should be possible to somehow define exotic combination of characters to switch among xservers. Is that right?

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

Or, another way I found now: When you don't need IceWM and you only need to launch app on maemo desktop, you should run app this way (in chroot)

export DISPLAY=:0
export GTK_MODULES=libgtkstylus.so
abiword

And right click works fine, at least in Xomap

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

Thanks for this neat trick to get right click in gtk apps! Unfortunately, in thoose only it seems.

EDIT: however, quite luckily, new versions of openoffice.org seem to do nicely without the right mouse key, because every menu voice in the right click menu appears to be duplicated in the main menus.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

You are right, I was too busy playing with gtk apps, I forget that are that there are also other widgets :). Anyway, I hope, it will be usefull.

What about the idea with two Xomap servers and switching among then? Does anybody know where this key combinations are defined?

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

The question is not, "how do I switch between X servers," but, "how do I switch between displays?" I was using Xephyr because it puts a virtual display :1 on top of display :0 ... is there another way to get to :1?

The only other way I'm aware of is starting a VNC server in the chroot and then using maemo VNC from the garage. You can then use the + hardware button as right-click. You can also define a desktop that is vertically larger than the tablet's screen using the -geometry parameter. (I like -geometry 770x770 because you get a single vertical scrollbar when you are fullscreen)

Darken, I am going to include your GTK right-click tip in my next version.

As far as I know, there is no way to simulate right click in non-GTK apps without some kind of hack. Somebody suggested using evrouter from the usbmouse package, others have come up with solutions involving a script that toggles right-click when you press a button, but there really is no nice solution for this. It is a problem that is far bigger than which X server you are using...

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

The mention of VNC reminds me that I should thank the mysterious "megami" for getting me into the whole Debian chroot thing in the first place, back in January.

Here is his teaser screenshot post, and then here's his explanation post. He even wrote up a wiki article on the subject.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

Well, when you lauch new Xomap server on :1, displays on tablet are change. So you can do something simular like this

in maemo:

Xomap -mouse tslib (--other params) :1

in debian chroot:

export GTK_MODULES=libgtkstylus.so
export DISPLAY=:1
xsetroot
icewm

And you can enjoy maemo X server without xephyr. After you exit :1 server, you are back in default maemo enviroment.

Problem I found:

2] I tried to enable display switch, using xmodmap and I mapped switch signal to +/- button on top of tablet.
According to xev, action si send, but Xomap ignore it. Maybe it's somehow connected with Xomap paratemer -switchCmd Command to execute on vt switch but I am not able to find more about this argument.

Advantage is, you can use your window manager with stylus support (at least in apps which support them. XFCE and other gtk2 managers should be fine. Who will try to install gnome? ;))

It's quite dirty solution now, I will try to wrap it into some nice script :)

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

Then don't forget add libgtkstylus package to default image :o

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

I did a lot of research (at 3am) on this, maybe you're not using the right format? There are a lot of multi-seat tutorials that have a script that can use the -mouse parameter in Xephyr... Everything I've seen suggests that the -mouse parameter doesn't enable any new features (except enabling extra mouse buttons), it just selects between inputs listed here:
On the other hand, lots of people seem to be complaining, as you do, of missing support for mouse features, so maybe you're right, Xephyr just won't be able to do it without patches...

Has anyone tried setting up libgtkstylus.so and then running xfce4 on Xephyr? Maybe the problem is the WM?


Anyway, this is definitely a conversation for the advanced thread. :)

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

Thank you for your help. It seems that mouse parameter for Xephyr mean something different that mouse parameterThe parameter -mouse tslib works fine for Xomap.

In xomap, the argument port mouse parameter, is mouse driver (touch screen in our case). The xephyr help screen says also:

But in tutorials you sent, they uset input device file instead of driver

WM is not the problem, because I was able to use stylus in gtk2 apps in icewm under Xomap :)

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

@Darken: I'm taking this (very interesting) discussion over here.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

Woot! I brought up OpenOffice! Took slightly less than forever, but it worked! I created a test document, with multiple fonts and an inserted graphic, and i had OpenOffice rescale it. Text wrap around the graphic. Way cool.

I'm in Iceweasel typing this.

I have an igo bt keyboard for my n800. Works as usual.

To get localtime copied, i went to OS2008 xterm, copied /etc/localtime to /tmp,
brought up a text window in Debian, ran su, which let me be root, and coped /tmp/localtime to /etc. These two don't see the same /etc, but do see a common /tmp. Maybe these instructions were on something other than the first page... But anyway, the displayed time jumped to correct time right away. I should mention that /debian did not show up in OS2008. No idea why not.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

For a clean unistall, does it suffice to unistall the "easy-Deb-Chroot" package via the Application manager - does it remove all the various 'chroot' bits?

-- Denis

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

openoffice.org 2.4.1-6 migrated to lenny (testing today). It features added java support (for reports, jdbc connectivity etc). Effectively Openoffice for armel is now featurewise identical to x86/amd64 versions. If this new version is significantly slower than the previous version, please note and we can revert this change.

Also, if you want to reach more debian/armel users, you should use debian-arm@lists.debian.org mailing list, this forum will only reach a small subset of users ;)

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

HI I have a problem. Everything works fine except iceweasel, abiword, and synaptics package manager. Iceweasel and abiword won't startup. Not even after waiting more then 15 minutes. And when i open synaptics package manager all is see is blocks instead of text. So i believe something is not ok. Anyone know how to fix this? I am a bit of a newbe on linux.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

In trying to convert a 248 KB .doc file to .pdf using OpenOffice, I end up with the following error message "Error saving the document xxxxxxx / Resource Exhausted / No more space on device."

Would this shortage of temporary storage be within the Debian image file being used for chroot?

-- Denis

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

My guess would be memory or img/hard drive space.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

Yes, this is because your /tmp is too small. I'm fixing this in the next release, but you can fix it with this command.

Updated Package: Bundyo-benson-build
 

Hey all,

I've updated the easy chroot package today to version 0.6.

EDIT: DOWNLOAD FIXED NOW

easy-deb-chroot-0.6-2_armel.deb


This version uses Bundyo's 'hostwin' app to open the IceWM window (and give it a nice icon). The most important thing about this is that there are no more dependencies on Python packages. You can install the easy chroot package on a stock tablet now. It also includes Benson's much more flexible chroot script, which allows you to change your chroot settings by changing the settings in the /home/user/.chroot file.

This update also includes:

• Kilian's clock fix: the clock now reads correctly in IceWM
• fatalsaint's xmodmap: N810 keys now work correctly in IceWM
• debernardis' /tmp resize: PDF creation and complex doc printing now work
• Darken's GTK stylus fix: once the correct packages are installed (see below*), tap-and-hold in AbiWord and other GTK apps will act as a right-click.
• IceWM preference tweaks: network activity now shows, matchbox-keyboard now starts from toolbar button (instead of xvkbd), kazehakase* starts from toolbar button (instead of iceweasel)

This package does NOT update the big Debian image file. Don't re-download the big package if you've already done so.

* Extra Debian Packages You'll Want To Install Manually:

In order to get tap-and-hold right-click in IceWM AbiWord, you need to run the "Debian chroot" menu item in OS2008 and enter the following:

To use kazehakase (a faster, lighter-weight browser with Java support) as your browser, you need to run the "Debian chroot" menu item in OS2008 and enter the following:

If you have errors about not finding things when trying to do either of the above installs, you need to do this first, then try again:

IceWM config files:
The /home/user/.icewm/ folder now contains some IceWM config files. the "toolbar" file lets you change the "quick launch" buttons, and the "prefoverride" file has a few settings changed so you can learn by example.

For the future:

These things will be automatically in place (along with the updated full OpenOffice, working sound, etc) in the next big Debian file download, but I want to see if we can get some other aspects ironed out before doing that big update and forcing everyone to download the big package again. I'm hoping we'll be able to make a "Debian patch" package that will update and install any needed packages in your existing image so you won't have to download again...

EXTRA NOTE:

Please see this post for more important information!

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

I didn't have to download the big image file. However, when I chroot now it asks me for password. I tried "rootme" but it didn't work. Is there a way to rest the password?

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

Why not? This package will not work unless you either download the big image file or you change the settings in /home/user/.chroot to point to another file system that you can chroot to.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

This sounds like you may have a language / locale problem. Please see the first post about running "dpkg-reconfigure locales" to set your language correctly.

I wonder what does work. Anyway, try this: click on the "Debian chroot" menu item, and when you get to the prompt, type "hilda abiword" and see what happens. Report any errors you receive.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

Ok tried it when ik run hilda abiword I get a whole lot of gtk-critical** errors.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

I need more information than that. What was the error that caused abiword to fail? Usually that's the last error.

Bundyo Benson Build 0.6 - Attempt #2
 

Hey all,

Here's the fixed Easy Debian install file.

The Bundyo Benson Build 0.6-2:

easy-deb-chroot-0.6-2_armel.deb

Please see my earlier post for the details.

This version has two small extras.

It now ensures that all GTK-compliant apps (including AbiWord and IceWeasel, but sadly, not OpenOffice) will use tap-and-hold as right-click if you execute (once) the following in the Debian Chroot prompt:

I have also included a configuration file for powerlaunch, so if you install the powerlaunch .deb and then reboot, you can press the power button and then another hardware button to do a couple of useful Debian-related things:

• power-fullscreen: toggles ANY app between fullscreen and window, including all Debian apps (even the IceWM window).
• power-menu: pops up / hides the matchbox keyboard, useful for typing into non-Debian apps (or the maemo AbiWord beta version ;) )

(Those who already have a ~/.powerlaunch/powerlaunch.conf file can rest easy; I copy your file to powerlaunch.conf.orig so you can either combine the two files or replace my file with your one.)

Re: Bundyo Benson Build 0.6 - Attempt #2
 

Great. But what's the chroot password?

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

That's the wrong question. ;) There's no such thing as a chroot password.

Are you looking for the root password or the user password of the Debian system?

Re: Bundyo Benson Build 0.6 - Attempt #2
 

Just curious. When "Easy Debian" is installed, [Hildon] 'transient windows' are displayed always anchored on the upper left corner of the screen... instead of appearing "centered" on the screen. What causes this?

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

Not anchored, they just start there. There's one setting for dragability, but turning it on disables all automatic positioning, even on initial placement; hence all dialogs start at 0,0.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
 

upgraded to the latest Bundyo/Benson build and everything loaded properly. Then I tried to add openoffice.calc and the libraries for openoffice.core are off. I keep getting errors for the library. I've tried to reload, fix broken packages and reboot. No luck. Anyone get the same problem?

Edit: FYI, started getting 'configure -a' messages in synatic manager and knew it was time to redo so I removed and reloaded Debian.
If you install a dual boot with a swap file keep Debian off that card. Causes major conflicts.

This is the way Nokia should go. Start with a small bundle and let users build on that. I wonder if KDE can be done like this. I enjoy going between Debian and Hildon. I created a large swap file and I can now run several apps at once without choking memory of N800. I need to learn more about swap.

P.S. Anyone know where the hidden Debian files reside? Also can the 1gb downloaded file be removed once Debian is installed? I'm showing 2gb on my card after download and install. TIA