Frustrated much??

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edictor

12 posts

Geek

#38703 3-Aug-2009 17:39

Darned..
Anyone here also frustrated by the slow progress in distributions for the Freerunner?
I know that it is community driven and all that so cannot complain, but since my phone has arrived in NZ I have been having to hack distributions to death to get them to work. No idea how many hours I have spent behind the darn thing that I could have spent more productively..

I have tried the Android images but all of them have something that makes the brick useless as a phone.
Koolu is doing well and easily installable, but why oh why have they changed the orginal Cupcake keyboard into that ugly tiny keys thing??
Michaels' work is progressing on panicking kicksass. I was using his stable Cupcake version, but for some reason I couldn't select the "answer" button properly anymore and answering calls actually ended the call.
AND!! the sync application for syncing the phone to google contacts and calender isn't included?? That's want I want to do! Sync with my contacts etc!

Now I am back installing 2008.9 as 2008.12 for the love of my doesn't want to boot properly..

Ahhh..

Is anyone (NZidol I am gusseing got pretty far?) able to setup any distribution properly without too many hassles?
Perhaps I could pay someone to setup my phone properly so that I can use it in everyday life??

My friend has bought an HTC and he is away laughing, showing me all the awesome software he can install and use without hassle..
Jealous..!!

NZIdol

17 posts

Geek

#242079 3-Aug-2009 22:47

Well your best bet is to install the latest "unstable" SHR release.... just don't use "opkg update" that is the unstable part.

Essentially there are 3 fundamental problems:

1 Kernel and Drivers

The low level stuff was not very well designed and since the start of the year this is being redeveloped by FreeSmartphone dot Org (FSO) their latest milestone 5.5 was released 10/07/09 and you really want it.... so no OM2008 versions...Rather then a custom design for the Freerunner this is a fundamental architecture for mobile devices to share all phone resources over sort of a SOA services Bus (but without the XML) Android has the opposite problem it sort of has its own expected architecture of a phone and that needs to be moulded on top of the FSO design.... including a different CPU. One day even your HTC mate can use this.... But since they are aiming high and they are only 4 guys is an shed, progress is not as fast as everyone would like... but at least there is some design....

2 X Window managers and widgets

All the graphical fun stuff applications are build on, all the way down to a not graphics chip that has no open source documentation or driver... You have a choice QT, GTK or the fundamental choice for the Freerunner: Enlightenment.... again Enligthenment ( aka Illume) or E17 is a fundamental new architecture under developement for a number of years and not even a beta version being planned yet. Nice piece of design, with some cool features and even very well suited for a mobile device but still a moving target.... Illume is the port of E17 to the nice little mobile device maintained by mr Rasterman when he has some time to spare... and he has some ideas on what he wants to do with the design....

3 Apps

The stuff you really want but what tools to use, which libraries, which versions. Want to get really frustrated try porting something and experience the wonders of "libtool"..... QT and Android are nice app bundles but they don't understand the cool features of the phone or the new desings in FSO and Illume, you can mix and mach with QT but you'll end up with seperate sets of data and apps with a different look and feel. FSO Zhone by their own admission in just a test app, the OM2009 boys want to write apps such that everyone can hack the source code, now that will be real stable.... SHR aims to build illume apps on top of the latest FSO so it is the closest thing to a working Freerunner as it was intended but progress on apps looks to be fairly random...

I might try it as a phone again when I get my free O2 SIM, till then it is just a GPS and on holiday I can get my e-mail through Wifi with it....

edictor

12 posts

Geek

#242250 4-Aug-2009 10:29

Thanks for the detailed background NZidol..
Sigh...
So still the brick is not to be used until some dudes in a shed get some spare time and grace us with the fruit of their genius..
Dissapointed...
Cause once the proper software has been written, all this new neat hardware will have come out and will leave the Freerunner in their dust.
I knew I was getting into a unmapped terrain, but I was at least expecting a road sign here and there!
So I guess that even if I send my phone away to be setup properly by someone, I will have issues with it..
I was reasonably happy with Michaels Android. At least I could make phone calls (kinda) and send txts. But since I'd like to trust the phone to pick up a call properly I cannot risk it..
Is there anyone that wants a second hand Freerunner? ;)

edictor

12 posts

Geek

#242843 5-Aug-2009 09:11

Tis done..
I have put my Freerunner on TradeMe on the count of disappointment.
If any of you are interested:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Mobile-phones/Vodafone-network/Other/auction-234342613.htm
Or just search for Freerunner on TradeMe..
:(

NZIdol

17 posts

Geek

#242939 5-Aug-2009 11:56

Depending on how good your German is, this guy does a good job on publishing the current state of SHR http://flexible.xapient.net/?p=120.

edictor

12 posts

Geek

#243338 6-Aug-2009 07:34

NZidol, flashed SHR to my phone (cannot believe I am spending more time on the thing but just cant help myself) and must say that though I loath the NEO choice of theme the software is running reasonably smoothly..
SMS works, phone works..
Haven't put a lot of effort into getting WIFI to work but Im sure that works in the long run..

Now I have been trying to get PISI to work, software to sync to Google contacts and Calender.
It doesnt want to install the packages Vobject, Dateutil and Gdata because the 5dsum betweenthe phone and the OPKG site doesn't seem to match as the developer updated the packages to make it work with SHR.
Anyone tried to install this? The packages to be installed as per below.
-----
opkg install http://www.opkg.org/packages/0_python-ldap_2.3.6_armv4t.ipk python-netclient python-netserver python-pycairo python-pygobject python-pygtk python-sqlite3 http://www.opkg.org/packages/1_python-vobject_0.8.1_armv4t.ipk http://www.opkg.org/packages/0_python-webdav_0.1.2_armv4t.ipk http://www.opkg.org/packages/1_python-gdata_1.3.0_armv4t.ipk http://www.opkg.org/packages/1_python-dateutil_1.4.1_armv4t.ipk http://www.opkg.org/packages/openldap_2.3.43_armv4t.ipk http://projects.openmoko.org/frs/download.php/841/pisi_0.3_armv4t.ipk
-----

I have tried OPKG update, against advice from NZidol, but that didn't solve the issue either.

Again, spending way to much time on trying to fix small things..
I hope that someone else is willing to turn this phone into something amazing. I think I have underestimated the effort it takes..

NZIdol

17 posts

Geek

#244394 9-Aug-2009 11:42

Have a look at the SHR DOC http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/SHR_User_Manual for alternate theme(s) and launcher and other useful tips.

Installation of Pisi works on my (slightly older) SHR, there have been some issues on opkg.org so just try again.

Downloading http://www.opkg.org/packages/0_python-ldap_2.3.6_armv4t.ipk
Downloading http://www.opkg.org/packages/1_python-vobject_0.8.1_armv4t.ipk
Downloading http://www.opkg.org/packages/0_python-webdav_0.1.2_armv4t.ipk
Downloading http://www.opkg.org/packages/1_python-gdata_1.3.0_armv4t.ipk
Downloading http://www.opkg.org/packages/1_python-dateutil_1.4.1_armv4t.ipk
Downloading http://www.opkg.org/packages/openldap_2.3.43_armv4t.ipk
Downloading http://projects.openmoko.org/frs/download.php/841/pisi_0.3_armv4t.ipk
Installing python-ldap (2.3.6) to root...
Installing openldap (2.3.43) to root...
Installing python-netclient (2.6.2-ml4.1) to root...
Downloading http://build.shr-project.org/shr-unstable/ipk//armv4t/python-netclient_2.6.2-ml4.1_armv4t.ipk
Installing python-mime (2.6.2-ml4.1) to root...
Downloading http://build.shr-project.org/shr-unstable/ipk//armv4t/python-mime_2.6.2-ml4.1_armv4t.ipk
Installing python-netserver (2.6.2-ml4.1) to root...
Downloading http://build.shr-project.org/shr-unstable/ipk//armv4t/python-netserver_2.6.2-ml4.1_armv4t.ipk
Package python-pycairo (1.4.0-ml3) installed in root is up to date.
Package python-pygobject (1:2.14.2-r3) installed in root is up to date.
Package python-pygtk (2.10.4-ml10) installed in root is up to date.
Package python-sqlite3 (2.6.2-ml4.1) installed in root is up to date.
Installing python-vobject (0.8.1) to root...
Installing python-dateutil (1.4.1) to root...
Installing python-webdav (0.1.2) to root...
Installing python-gdata (1.3.0) to root...
Package python-dateutil (1.4.1) installed in root is up to date.
Package openldap (2.3.43) installed in root is up to date.
Installing pisi (0.3) to root...
Configuring pisi
Configuring python-vobject
Configuring python-gdata
Configuring python-webdav
Configuring python-dateutil
Configuring python-mime
Configuring python-netclient
Configuring python-netserver
Configuring openldap
Configuring python-ldap