Thank you for the great newsletter. Great job
Brenda Minh Ha Duong ??: > Hi everybody, > > This is Openmoko community community newsletter #8, year's end issue. This > couple of weeks were packed with lots of action. Openmoko released the > 2008.12 distribution upgrade and Koolu released its first Android beta. Both > these were very expected and, actually contained no surprise at all, since > the developpement process is completely open. Administration for > projects.openmoko.org was transferred to knowledgeable community member > Armin Ranjbar (nickname: zoup), and opkg.org got a complete overhaul. > > Contents > > * 1 Distributions > * 2 New applications > * 3 Applications updates > * 4 Community > * 5 Hardware > * 6 Tips and tricks > > This is retrieved from > http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Community_Updates/December_29th%2C_2008 > which has all the good links in > > Distributions > > * Om 2008.12 Update is out ! This is the fastest, latest and probably > last > of the ASU familly line of distributions. Officially upgrades 2008.9, > optimized with faster boot, volume control during phonecall, and much more. > Read the announcement, then go to the download dir. > * Android. Koolu announced their first beta release. Based on Sean's > image, Wendy from Openmoko produced test reports (PDF) concluding that > Android Image On Freerunner really looks good, but [...] not ready to be a > daily phone yet. Interesting applications waiting to be fixed to work on > Freerunner include bluetooth, wifi, GPS, browser... > * hackable:1 announced (documentation). Led by Marcus Bauer of TangoGPS > fame, this project aims to implement the GNOME Mobile stack on top of Debian > on FreeRunner. Its installation is specially simple: download the tarball, > unpack the files on a 2 GB SD card, put the card in the FreeRunner. > * Telefoninux 0.01 is out. First alpha release for this Debian-optimized > distro. > * Bytestore points out an augmented 2008.12 image with russian keyboard, > GPRS and other goodies. > > New applications > > * Carlo released OpenVibe, the first opensource vibrator :) Pander also > offers an open source MIDlet in a JAR to control the vibrator function. We > are still waiting for test reports tought. > * Yann released meooem 0.0.1, a realtime weather notifier opkg page. > Setup > the displayed city in /etc/meooem.conf. > * Ilja pushed out version 0.1.0 of om-manager, a python Freerunner > manager: flash, backup, get logs, manage packages, VNC (if x11vnc is > installed on the phone). > * Valéry released Neon, a simple Python/EFL image viewer, designed to be > lightweight, fast, and easy to use. > * Nathan shared his GPRS launcher script and the ipk for Gtkdialog it > uses. The script can be used to start the connection, stop the connection, or > to simply find out the current GPRS status. > * Openmoko's next generation telephony, messaging and addressbook > application paroli was merged with tichy, the application starter. So opkg > install tichy, setup according to Mirko's email, and enjoy. > * Angus offers a "where are you now" daemon that can SMS back its > location > upon request. > * Chris submits for testing the prototype for a fullscreen keyboard. > * A dutch keyboard for illume. > * Daniel MT released Bright Player 0.1, a lightweight, quick and easy > random music player for OM2008.X based distributions. > * Last but not least, Josh shares an IMAP Mail reader and a collection of > scripts to manage launching applications, control wifi, power, screen etc. > Initially developped on 2007.2, most ported to Debian. > > Applications updates > > * OpenMoocow 0.3 released. Changes include: better graphics from > openclipart.org by "bsantos", more responsive, kernel 2.6.28 new sysfs paths > ready, thinkpad HDAPS merged in. > * ZOMG!, an opkg frontend, updated. Faster, cacao and jamvm compatible > (jamvm still recommended). > * navit, a drivers' GPS navigation system (trac) is being optimized for > the FreeRunner by Christian Anke and others. > * Damian A. Spriggs started working on a MAME port. The Multimedia Arcade > Machine Emulator is a must for all retro-gamers out there. I can't wait to > play P*c-M*n and G*l*xi*n again on my subway commute ! > * Angus updated pymixer.py to use the FSO framework. It should > automatically detect scenario changes and update the mixers now. Put > fsomixer.py into /usr bin and chmod +x it. volume_fso.desktop goes > into /usr/share/applications. > * The Zedlock screen locker rewritten and re-released as 0.1 functional > prototype. > * siglaunchd, a daemon which listens to dbus signals and runs > applications > accordingly, got regular expressions (string patterns) matching, and was > ported to C. For example, one can set the aux button to launch the dialer and > the other can set a sound when screen is dimmed with as little as no effort. > * Homezoneapplet 0.2. An applet and daemon to display the O2 (german > mobile provider) Homezone icon. Now works on FSO and SHR. > * omnewrotate 0.5.3. Updated for 2008.12 compatibility. > > Community > > * Recognizing that they have never been able to get the projects gforge > running well, Openmoko decided to throw the towel and terminate the project. > Sean said: "If somebody wants to step up and own this responsibility -- you > bet -- we'll pay the bill." Luckily Armin Ranjbar (a.k.a. zoup from FDOM), > stepped forward (among others) to lead the newly formed, community-led gforge > administration team on the Openmoko server. He is creating an admin mailing > list were interested people can join him (link here). > * opkg.org relaunched ! New look, same API. Now if Openmoko wants to > terminate useless projects, how about the "community repository" ? Is there > any community project to feed opkg from the gforge ? > * The documentation team discussed on how to write the missing Neo's > reference handbook. > * OpenJDK integration into Jalimo was finished, including packaging. > Cacao+OpenJDK runs on the FreeRunner. A step towards better Java support in > all OpenEmbedded devices. > > Hardware > > * The technical feasibility of fixing the "buzz" at a reasonable price > was > confirmed by several hardware repair shops. Steve is still working on the > program to bring that "big capacitor" rework to users worldwide. The > technical draft is still being worked on: how to open the case, how to test, > possibility of using alternative capacitor types (although these will be > provided for free by OM), possibility of applying other A6 -> A7 hardware > upgrades like the GPS/uSD fix at the same time... Do not expect resolution > before CES (jan 8-11). Meanwhile, DIYers will be supported. > * The level of lust for 3G on GTA03 reached astounding highs on the > community mailing list. For a reality check before dreaming further, read > Carsten explanations on the costs of a 3G module. For insights about > schedules, read Steve's explanations on production in real life. > > Tips and tricks > > * No audio on 2008.9 after suspend/resume ? If you installed navit, it > pulled speech-dispacher as a dependency. Try killing and uninstalling > speech-dispatcher. See ticket 1599. > * Terminal-based applications slow to startup on FDOM ? Try opkg remove > termcap, processing /etc/termcap each time takes like 10 seconds. > * Media player so sloooow it's unusable ? Try running it with a -15 nice > priority value (For users of pythm+mplayer, set it up in /etc/pythm.conf). > * A cooler theme in 2008.12 ? Try replacing "asu" > with "illume" /etc/enlightenment/default_profile. > * Enlightenment eating 20% CPU ? Disable drop shadows by > deleting /usr/lib/enlightenment/modules/dropshadow. > * Enlightenment crashing with the illume theme in 2008.12 ? Try disabling > drop shadows. Otherwise, change the "Engine" in the enlightenment config from > SOFTWARE_16 to SOFTWARE (to access the config, disable qtopia > under /etc/X11/Xsession.d first, restart X, do the config, then move qtopia > back). > > Yours, > Minh > > _______________________________________________ > documentation mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/documentation > _______________________________________________ devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/devel
