[Tinkerphones] GNOME on Smartphone

[H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Hi,
there is currently a lot of hype around running
Gnome on a smartphone which seems to need new
hardware to be possible.

This made me curious. Therefore I took a fresh µSD
card and did run on some Linux SBC with additional
card reader:

DEV=/dev/sdb ./makesd gta04 -v 20171013-stretch-9.1-armhf -r debian

Next, I patched in the latest 4.14-rc6 kernel. This
step might not be necessary since the 4.13.x installed
by makesd is equally good.

Then I booted the GTA04 with this µSD and after
setting up ethernet over usb (g_ether) so that
the GTA04 has access to the Internet I could do

apt-get update
apt-get install gnome-core

It did take a while (installed ca. 1.5 GB on the µSD)
but did not fail.

After rebooting the GTA04 (I needed a second attempt
for unknown reasons), I didn't see a Gnome desktop,
but at least some Gnome related processes are running:

...
root  2259 1  0 17:17 ?00:00:00 /usr/sbin/iio-sensor-proxy
root  2361 1  0 17:17 ?00:00:00 /usr/sbin/sshd -D
root  2371 1  0 17:17 ttyO200:00:00 /bin/login --
root  2387 1  0 17:17 ?00:00:00 /usr/sbin/gdm3
ntp   2396 1  0 17:17 ?00:00:00 /usr/sbin/ntpd -p 
/var/run/ntpd.pid -g -u 105:109
root  2438 1  0 17:17 ?00:00:00 /lib/systemd/systemd --user
root  2440  2438  0 17:17 ?00:00:00 (sd-pam)
root  2444  2371  0 17:17 ttyO200:00:00 -bash
root  2450 1  0 17:17 ?00:00:00 /usr/lib/upower/upowerd
root  2598 2  0 17:18 ?00:00:00 [kworker/u2:3]
root  2931  2387  3 17:19 ?00:00:00 gdm-session-worker 
[pam/gdm-launch-environment]
Debian-+  2941 1  8 17:19 ?00:00:00 /lib/systemd/systemd --user
Debian-+  2942  2941  0 17:19 ?00:00:00 (sd-pam)
Debian-+  2946  2931  1 17:19 tty1 00:00:00 
/usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-wayland-session gnome-session --autostart 
/usr/share/gdm/greeter/autostart
Debian-+  2948  2941  2 17:19 ?00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --session 
--address=systemd: --nofork --nopidfile --systemd-activation
Debian-+  2950  2946  8 17:19 tty1 00:00:00 
/usr/lib/gnome-session/gnome-session-binary --autostart 
/usr/share/gdm/greeter/autostart
Debian-+  2958  2950 99 17:19 tty1 00:00:03 /usr/bin/gnome-shell
root  2963  2444  0 17:19 ttyO200:00:00 ps -ef
root@letux:~# 

These processes seem to fail after a while and new
ones are respawned (process ID becomes higher).

Maybe this is just a setup issue (missing definition
which display should be used or something alike).

If someone has an idea and is experienced in debugging
Wayland, gnome and systemd, please try and let us know.
Then we can fix the installation and make pictures...

If I had a compatible PAL or NTSC monitor, I could even
try to connect a keyboard in USB mode and have "a full
desktop on the smartphone" without waiting another year.

And if we ever build a Pyra-Phone, this same exercise will
run there (we just have to choose a different MLO & U-Boot
in the makesd command). And we would get HDMI output for
the monitor.

BR,
Nikolaus

___
Community mailing list
Community@tinkerphones.org
http://lists.goldelico.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/community
http://www.tinkerphones.org

Re: [Tinkerphones] [Gta04-owner] QtMoko2 again...

[Jonas Smedegaard]

Quoting H. Nikolaus Schaller (2017-10-26 07:05:10)
>> Am 25.10.2017 um 19:32 schrieb Jonas Smedegaard :
>> Quoting H. Nikolaus Schaller (2017-10-25 17:44:50)
>>> Back to the original problem: I had not expected that there is a 
>>> need for a configure-make-install. Since we are fully Debian.
>> 
>> How do you mean configure-build-install isn't needed? QtMoko is 
>> compiled code, so will need to be compiled.
>
> Indeed.
>
> But you shouldn't have to to type configure & make to start the 
> dpkg-buildpackage wrapped by a makefile.
>
> The dpkg-buildpackage of course must do a configure & make for the 
> source tree, but hide that from the user.
>
> IMHO, something is done here upside down.
>
> My initial mistake was to assume that I can directly call 
> dpkg-buildpackage after unpacking the source tree. It turned out that 
> this does not work. At least not without modifications.

If you expect source to be a Debian source package¹ then I agree it must 
be be buildable by a) simply unpacking it (dpkg-source -x *.dsc), b) cd 
into root of unpacked source tree, and c) build it (dpkg-buildpackage).

But a large project involving embedded (likely multiple interlinked) 
libraries cannot sensibly² be organized as a single(!) Debian source 
package - each library should be a separate source package, built and 
tested and packaged and versioned on its own.

I thought that your labeling it "upside down" meant that you think it 
should be adjusted to be able to compile with a single dpkg-buildpackage 
call.  I disagree with that: I believe that the sensible way to turn 
such a set of essentially multiple sources is to unentangle those into 
multiple Debian source packages and build each of those separately.

If untentangling into multiple Debian source packages was also what you 
talk about I do believe that untentangling into multiple Debian source 
packages is what Joshua intend to (eventually, when better understood) 
reach at.  If that is also what you are talking about above, then I 
simply suggest to not label it as "upside down" which can be 
misunderstood as the _build_ routines_ need fixing when really it is 
more fundamentally the _source organization_ which need fixing (too).

A more descriptive labeling would in my opinion be "a big mess".

¹ Source format "1.0" is upstream tarball + Debian diff + dsc file, and 
source format "3.0 (quilt)" is upstream tarball + Debian tarball + dsc 
file.

² Indeed, Chromium is *not* a sensibly organized source package!

>>> It should even be possible to use apt-source -b - if we have proper 
>>> source packages. So it looks as if the build architecture of QtMoko 
>>> is upside down...
>>> 
>>> Maybe it is historical since this is still Squeeze and Wheezy code 
>>> and multiarch wasn't complete back then. On Jessie or Stretch I 
>>> think it could be much simpler if the debian/rules are updated.
>>
>> I believe the reason QtMoko build routines fit badly with Debian 
>> style of packaging is that it does not use existing shared Qt 
>> libraries but instead embeds its own fork of Qt optimized for 
>> embedded devices: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qt_Extended
>
> It could be a renowned Debian citizen if it would not embed it but 
> just package and provide the special QtE libraries and then just use 
> the -dev version for dpkg-building the launcher, dialer, etc. This is 
> what Josua is working on:
>
> http://git.goldelico.com/?p=qtmoko2-qte.git;a=summary

I guess that this:

   "if it would not embed it"

expands to this:

   "if QtMoko project would not embed QtE libraries"

and then we agree - except for the word "just": Joshua reports that 
there are trouble unentangling them because their interdependency seems 
to form a circular graph.


 - Jonas

-- 
 * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
 * Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/

 [x] quote me freely  [ ] ask before reusing  [ ] keep private
___
Community mailing list
Community@tinkerphones.org
http://lists.goldelico.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/community
http://www.tinkerphones.org