Easy Debian Fremantle Beta Testing - Page 310 - maemo.org

Estel | # 3091 | 2014-05-05, 05:48 | Report

Originally Posted by zerox View Post

no laptops just powerful phones connecting to dumb docking stations".

I think he may have had a point ...

This is what I'm going to do with Neo900 *if* it ends up with having some kind of scale-less video output (VGA, DVI, whatever). If not, this is what I'm going to do with Pyra instead of Neo900, as it's going to have this feature for sure

Although, I must say, that I still see powerful, regular-size desktop computers as part of this "idea". Desktop computer with replaceable parts (and better performance/price ratio) for in home entertainment/work, and mobile device for all other (and the same on-the-go) needs (that can connect to big screen, keyboard, mouse etc, if need to emulate desktop arise). Not to mention that this mobile device can still connect to desktop via ssh, vnc, or x-forwarding, if need for max performance of calculating something arise.

/Estel

sulu | # 3092 | 2014-05-05, 09:28 | Report

Originally Posted by zerox View Post

Out of curiosity, I set up an old laptop with a minimal debian system just sufficient to run an X server and usb networking. I created a cloned set of Easy Debian scripts which connect to the laptop's X server over the usb0 connection. The result is totally satisfactory. There is no delay on keyboard or mouse input, and the screen updates smoothly. The N900 continues to use the wi-fi or 3G connection for all other network access.

Can you describe that in more detail please?
As far as I understand you configured ED's X-Server not to run on Maemo's local one but on the remote one of the laptop. So except for the X-output everything is still happening on the N900, right?
I guess the laptop would have to be ancient (early Pentium II) for this procedure to be useful performance-wise.

btw:
Just in case you don't want to move the whole desktop but only single applications/windows to the laptop xpra [1] might be worth a try (assuming it works cross-architecture, which I haven't tested).

[1] https://packages.debian.org/wheezy/xpra

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zerox | # 3093 | 2014-05-08, 23:48 | Report

Originally Posted by sulu View Post

Can you describe that in more detail please?

In Maemo's /usr/bin, I cloned debian-lxde-50 from debian-lxde. I commented out most of the statements, and changed the default value of WMEXEC from startlxde1 to startlxde50.

Code:

#!/bin/sh
##################################
#Change these two variables to the WM of your choice.
WMEXEC="$1"
[ "x$WMEXEC" != x ] ||  WMEXEC="startlxde50"
##################################
export DISPLAY=:0
# export TSLIB_TSDEVICE=/dev/input/event3
debbie-sue 'echo "chroot is now open!"'
## debbie-sue '/usr/bin/Xephyr :1 -screen 800x480 -br -ac' &
## while [ "x$PARWIN" = "x" ] ; do
##   # wait for Xephyr window to appear
##   export PARWIN=`wmctrl -l | grep -i "N/A Xephyr" | awk '{print $1}'`
## done
## echo "Xephyr window ID is ($PARWIN)"
## DISPLAY=:1 ; debbie-sue "habak -mf /usr/share/fonts/truetype/DroidSans-Bold.$
##      -ht 'Ctrl-back to return to dashboard.'"
## DISPLAY=:0 ; wmctrl -i -r $PARWIN -T 'Easy Debian'
## wmctrl -i -r $PARWIN -b toggle,fullscreen
## DISPLAY=:0 ; wmctrl -i -r $PARWIN -T 'Easy Debian'
## wmctrl -i -r $PARWIN -b toggle,fullscreen
## zenity --display=:0 --info --title="Information" --text="Welcome to Easy Deb$
## while [ "x$TWOWIN" = "x" ] ; do
##   # wait for Zenity dialog to pop up...
##   export TWOWIN=`wmctrl -l | grep -i Information | awk '{print $1}'`
## done
## sudo debian /sbin/qobi-wmhint-fix $PARWIN
debbie-sue /usr/bin/$WMEXEC
## killall Xephyr
export DISPLAY=:0

In Easy Debian's /usr/bin, I cloned startlxde50 from startlxde1. I changed the value of DISPLAY from :1 to 192.168.3.14:1.

In Maemo, I configured the usb0 interface to have address 192.168.3.15.

In Debian on the old laptop, I configured the usb0 interface to have address 192.168.3.14, and I started an X server on display :1.

Originally Posted by sulu View Post

As far as I understand you configured ED's X-Server not to run on Maemo's local one but on the remote one of the laptop. So except for the X-output everything is still happening on the N900, right?

Your understanding is correct. By not running the X server on the N900 we offload a significant amount of processing to the laptop. Contrast this with the approach described by leetnoob (http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...postcount=2135), which requires an x11vnc server running on the N900 plus the overhead of tightvnc encoding. I found that the user experience provided by the remote X server was vastly superior to that provided by the tightvnc viewer (I tried both).

I found that the remote X setup benefited from having the usb0 connection solely dedicated to X traffic. For example, mplayer running on the N900 was able to play videos smoothly on the remote X display. This also had the advantage that the N900's wlan0 connection could be dedicated to traffic from the rest of the network.

Originally Posted by sulu View Post

I guess the laptop would have to be ancient (early Pentium II) for this procedure to be useful performance-wise.

I think you are asking why would I go to all this trouble when I could just run programs directly on the laptop. Of course that would be possible, but that was not really the point of the experiment. I was interested in trying out the idea of the Ubuntu Edge project, i.e. to have a mobile device which offers the alternative of a desktop experience when required.

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marmistrz | # 3094 | 2014-06-08, 16:31 | Report

Is this [1] diff the only patch to be applied for directory-based Easy Debian?

[1] http://213.128.137.28/showpost.php?p...postcount=2911

sulu | # 3095 | 2014-06-18, 21:35 | Report

Originally Posted by marmistrz View Post

Is this [1] diff the only patch to be applied for directory-based Easy Debian?

[1] http://213.128.137.28/showpost.php?p...postcount=2911

Basically yes, although my version is even simpler (and therefore probably less elegant):

Code:

pp900-a:/sbin# diff closechroot closechroot.old
--- closechroot
+++ closechroot.old
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
 fi
 
 #Abort if chroot not mounted.
-if [ "$IMGFILE" != "none" ] && [ ! -f "$CHROOT/var/lock/qmount-complete" ] ; then
+if [ ! -f "$CHROOT/var/lock/qmount-complete" ] ; then
   echo "Nothing to do; chroot not mounted!"
-   exit 1
+   #exit 1
 fi

I don't remember the details but when I had some problems with lingering mounts I decided to use steamroller tactics.
All you have to do is make sure everything that was mounted gets unmounted afterwards.

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TomJ | # 3096 | 2014-06-19, 10:20 | Report

Despite having had at least 1 n900 for almost 5 years, I am just getting round to playing with ED. I like it so much I want to get it running as smoothly as possible. Having read the wiki and about 10% of this thread I think I know what I need to do for that, if not all the steps to get there, but I'd appreciate the opinions of those with a bit more experience on my opinions/assumptions before I start working out exactly how to go about achieving it.

1. ED as it comes from the repos downloads, uncompresses and installs an image file in MyDocs or on SD which is then mounted as a pseudo drive. This is a virtual ext2 on FAT32, so has more overheads and causes issues with USB MAss Storage mode.

2. The most efficient use of space is to install the ED image as a directory under opt. This would involve repartitioning the eMMC to give home a couple more gig at the expense of MyDocs.

3. If you're going to the effort of buggering around with partitions and assuming KP52 is installed, you may as well go the whole hog and format home to ext4, which should see marginal performance gains for Maemo as well as ED.

I have a spare device I can experiment upon before trying it on my day-to-day phone, but as I say above I'd appreciate the gurus' confirmation I'm aiming for the right thing before setting off down the path.

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zerox | # 3097 | 2014-06-19, 17:13 | Report

@TomJ

By way of a trial, you might save yourself a lot of work by creating an ext4 partition on your SD card and unpacking the ED image into that. It worked well for me.

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TomJ | # 3098 | 2014-06-19, 17:25 | Report

Originally Posted by zerox View Post

@TomJ

By way of a trial, you might save yourself a lot of work by creating an ext4 partition on your SD card and unpacking the ED image into that. It worked well for me.

That's the sort of thing that's so obvious in hindsight it makes you wonder how you missed it. Thanks!

TomJ | # 3099 | 2014-06-20, 00:34 | Report

Well, no-one's said I'm mad yet, so let's see if I understand what needs doing while I wait for a multi-gig backup over USB1, here's what I think I need to do on my device which has a currently working ED setup...

1. Format media and make directory, (.ED perhaps?)

2. Mount the image file (mount -o loop /home/user/MyDocs/debian-m5-estel.img.ext3 /mnt/ED).

3. Copy all of image file to directory (cp -R /mnt/ED /media/mmc1/.ED)

4. modify /home/user/.chroot, to make it point to include, in the relevant position:
IMGFILE=none
CHROOT=/media/mmc1/.ED

5. Edit closechroot script (where is that located?) as per Sulu's post 3095 above.

6. ...

7. Profit

At the risk of jinxing myself this seems deceptively easy. Are there any (what are the) immediate gotcha's I'm missing?

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Sohil876 | # 3100 | 2014-06-20, 10:06 | Report

Originally Posted by TomJ View Post

Well, no-one's said I'm mad yet, so let's see if I understand what needs doing while I wait for a multi-gig backup over USB1, here's what I think I need to do on my device which has a currently working ED setup...

1. Format media and make directory, (.ED perhaps?)

2. Mount the image file (mount -o loop /home/user/MyDocs/debian-m5-estel.img.ext3 /mnt/ED).

3. Copy all of image file to directory (cp -R /mnt/ED /media/mmc1/.ED)

4. modify /home/user/.chroot, to make it point to include, in the relevant position:
IMGFILE=none
CHROOT=/media/mmc1/.ED

5. Edit closechroot script (where is that located?) as per Sulu's post 3095 above.

6. ...

7. Profit

At the risk of jinxing myself this seems deceptively easy. Are there any (what are the) immediate gotcha's I'm missing?

In /sbin

Code:

/sbin/closechroot

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