fidzu : Linux-to-go

With some help of the MythTV people I managed to get it to build in OE and installed it on my beagleboard. Playback is slow because the ARM optimizations in FFmpeg don't get enabled, but that's fixable.

23 Jul 2008 1:27pm GMT

22 Jul 2008 10:20pm GMT

This blog item was done for the sole reason of pissing off some people.

22 Jul 2008 3:06pm GMT

Openmoko dropped Gtk+? I hear a lot of people saying Openmoko dropped Gtk+ or that ASU will forbid to run their favorite Gtk+ or other X11 apps. So let us take a look.

The facts are that the ASU image has gtk+ installed, we even have a GPE application (gpe-scap) in the image, we have the OM2007.2 theme installed, we start the matchbox settings daemon so that Gtk+ application pick up the theme, fonts and sizes as used to from OM2007.2, gconfd is running as well. With our SDK people can write Gtk+ application, we are happy to include them in the community repository. Personally I wouldn't say that we dropped Gtk+. I'm a huge fan of GMAE (eds and various other technologies) and I hope we increase the use in future versions of our software stack(s).


Is everything fine then? Probably not. We have no API for external applications (be it Qt, Gtk+, EFL, FLTK...) to access the GSM functionality. We have some basic ad-hoc dbus interfaces to export some information but no complete API. The good thing is we know and this is where the Platform Initiative jumps in. So the issue will be solved but not for ASU.


In contrast to previous incarnations. We have an installer application. It is called assassin and it is using packagekit (another component from the GNOME universe). We have a community repository and the installer will help you to get your favorite apps installed (whatever language, toolkit or scm they use...). Currently only tangogps is contained but I hope we will offer more community software in the future.


So I'm quite happy with ASU. It will allow you/us to use the Freerunner as primary phone. You will be able to install any 3rd party application, we provide a graphical installer. So even when a lot of things are still missing, we don't have the bling bling we would like to have, we don't have the speed we would like to have. It is an important step for Openmoko. We will work on every single issue that annoys us engineers (boot speed, X performance, device management, bling bling....) and turn it into something we are proud of. Time will tell if we manage to do so.

happy hacking

21 Jul 2008 12:46pm GMT

Another reason why the web fan babies are not getting it is the current price that the vast majority of people today pay for mobile Internet. This is the story of a Belgian who went on vacation for three days in Spain. He bought himself a mobile data formula and I guess he hoped that it wouldn't be very expensive.

A few weeks after he came home he received an invoice of 18888 euros. The price per megabyte was 10 euros.

This poor guy was lucky because Proximus (the phone network company) settled the invoice for 1400 euros. For 1400 euros it would still have been cheaper to take a plane to Belgium, check your mail at home, and take a plane back to Spain. For 18888 euros … I don't think it's possible to schedule as much flights in three days as you could buy with 18888 euros.

I remember I told a few people at GUADEC that it would be cheaper for me to fly home every day to check my mail, than it would be to do this over GPRS in Istanbul. This story seems to verify that.

These are the prices for mobile Internet access in 2008, the year when all the web 2.0 babies started crying that all of the mobile applications should become AJAX websites.

Again the point that I'm trying to make is that instead of completely changing the strategy of products like GNOME Mobile towards webberty web stuff, maybe intelligent people should consider that maybe, just maybe, we just don't have the wireless connections for that yet. In reality, you see, we don't have that at all at this moment.

I'm not convinced that within the next decade we will have anything that comes close to reliable wireless Internet connections at the same coverage as GSM. Which still wouldn't be sufficient. I mean, the connectivity of GSM is really bad if you take into account how often you don't have a good signal.

The reason is simple: the economic model of a free wireless Internet for everybody everywhere on the entire planet, is probably just not profitable. The research to achieve this without needing a few thousand nuclear power plants and without having to hire thousands of people for maintenance of the wireless routers worldwide, is just not happening.

The political power that you'd get out of having control over this giant wireless network can much more easy be achieved by simply owning all news papers, television networks, schools, etc. What that means is that politicians wont do it either.

21 Jul 2008 12:27pm GMT

An innocent developer will now not only be addicted to girly drinks, like Malibu, he and his girlfriend will also become addicted to drinking the same Whisky as one of the SMASHED members brought to GUADEC this year.

18 Jul 2008 5:03pm GMT

Planet viewers: visit this entry outside of the aggregator to view the youtube vid or click

18 Jul 2008 4:57pm GMT

Poky Linux distribution provides SDK for quite long time. From time to time I hear persons which complain about lack of libX or libY in toolchain tarballs. But there is a solution for them - Poky SDK can be expanded with packages.

Installation

This is described in Poky Handbook already:

The meta-toolchain and meta-toolchain-sdk targets (see the images section) build tarballs which contain toolchains and libraries suitable for application development outside Poky. These unpack into the /usr/local/poky directory and contain a setup script, e.g. /usr/local/poky/eabi-glibc/arm/environment-setup which can be sourced to initialise a suitable environment. After sourcing this, the compiler, QEMU scripts, QEMU binary, a special version of pkgconfig and other useful utilities are added to the PATH. Variables to assist pkgconfig and autotools are also set so that, for example, configure can find pre-generated test results for tests which need target hardware to run.

Using the toolchain with autotool enabled packages is straightforward, just pass the appropriate host option to configure e.g. "./configure -host=arm-poky-linux-gnueabi". For other projects it is usually a case of ensuring the cross tools are used e.g. CC=arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-gcc and LD=arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-ld.

Extending SDK

So you want to build GTK+ based application but "configure" tells you that you miss GTK+ headers? In normal systems you would install development packages. Same is with Poky SDK, but due to fact that there are no repositories for Poky a bit more work is needed.

You will need contents of "tmp/deploy/ipk/" from other developer or from local Poky build. I have them from local build and they are stored in "/home/hrw/devel/OH/poky/trunk/build/tmp/deploy/ipk" directory.

Next step is editing opkg configuration file (stored in /usr/local/poky/eabi-glibc/arm/arm-poky-linux-gnueabi/etc/opkg.conf) to add feeds locations. With my packages it looks like this:

arch all 1
arch any 6
arch noarch 11
arch arm 16
arch armv4 21
arch armv4t 26
arch armv5te 31
arch qemuarm 36
src oe-all file:/home/hrw/devel/OH/poky/trunk/build/tmp/deploy/ipk/all
src oe-armv5te file:/home/hrw/devel/OH/poky/trunk/build/tmp/deploy/ipk/armv5te

Now it is time to install those missing headers: opkg-target update will update list of available packages and opkg-target install gtk+-dev install required headers.

Building software

Hello world

First something really simple: helloworld.c. Run arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-gcc hello.c -o hello. Result will be ARM binary:

14:14 hrw@home:$ file hello hello: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, ARM, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.6.14, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), not stripped 

Autoconf based application

I took Tasks 0.13 as an example as it use some libraries not present in standard toolchain. After unpacking and starting ./configure --host=arm-poky-linux-gnueabi I got message that GTK+ headers are missing so I installed them with opkg-target install gtk+-dev (like it is described).

After next "configure" call there was message about missing "libecal" which is part of "eds-dbus" so opkg-target install eds-dbus-dev solved problem.

Finally "configure" does not give any errors and make call built application:

14:19 hrw@home:tasks-0.13$ file src/gtk/tasks
src/gtk/tasks: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, ARM, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.6.14, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), not stripped

Summary

As you see Poky SDK is not limited to default set of packages but can be extended with additional ones. OK, someone needs to build them first but imagine situation when company has 10 developers - one has Poky build tree which he use to generate packages which can be used by rest of team without spending precious time on building.

BTW - It is not limited to Poky SDK. Other OpenEmbedded based systems should be more or less capable of doing such things.

---

Copyright © 2008 by Marcin Juszkiewicz
This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only.
The use of content from that feed on other websites may breach copyright.
Digital Fingerprint: 8948aa451b1a77986507ce4a5ee3c2ed (66.150.96.121)

17 Jul 2008 2:17pm GMT

LugRadio Live 2008 is taking place this weekend and I'll be manning the TI booth together with Måns Rullgård of ffmpeg fame. We'll be showing off some demos on the Beagle Board like HD resolution MPEG4 playback, 3D demos and desktop like software (e17, abiword, etc).

The Neuros people will have a table next to us showing of their OSD2 HD platform.

16 Jul 2008 11:56am GMT

Mira's reaction - priceless…

---

Copyright © 2008 by Marcin Juszkiewicz
This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only.
The use of content from that feed on other websites may breach copyright.
Digital Fingerprint: 8948aa451b1a77986507ce4a5ee3c2ed (66.150.96.121)

16 Jul 2008 11:34am GMT

I finally found what I was looking for at the Istanbul Spice Bazaar (Misir Çarsisi): mint crystals.

For the Nokians and other Finnish sauna freaks reading this, this is the stuff that you want to mix with a little bit of water (else your sauna is way to dry, of course) and then put the mixture on the hot stones. Crystalised mint is a very pure form of mint. Mint in a sauna gives a very cold and cool feeling on your body. Meanwhile your sauna is obviously very hot. You basically think that it's cold, yet it's very hot.

Well, with crystlized mint you maximize this. Eucalyptus is nothing compared to mint crystals. Chinese mint comes close, though. But not quite.

The aftermath is that you probably don't want to jump in ice water after your sauna anymore. Not before adapting to normal temperatures for ten minutes. You wouldn't be the first who passes out. I mean, your body is in a very confused state: it behaves as if it's cold, but it sweats as if it's very hot. The one thing you don't want to do is to make it very cold suddenly. Unless you are a big dangerous looking Finnish dude, maybe.

I mean, I'm not underestimating the Finnish sauna people. I've been to a public one in Helsinki. Woah.

Anyway. The store can send the crystals to your home with DHL, the owner told me.

If any of the Nokians or other Finnish sauna pussies want to know what a real sauna experience is, you can mail them at ucuzcular@gmail.com, and try it.

14 Jul 2008 11:26am GMT

Just like how GNOME developers are only good at serving themselves, development communities and hackers, so do web application developers only make solutions that serve the group of people that act like little crying babies whenever there's no Internet connection. (well, not really. Both serve other groups too. Of course.)

Truth is, and I'll take any of those Web fan babies on a trip to reality in any city at any time for at least the next 15 years, that the vast majority of people during the vast majority of their time don't have something that you could call an Internet connection.

Surprisingly those people also often have sex in the evening. Meanwhile the people crying for Internet connections usually don't.

Choosing between real sex and an Internet connection is an interesting question for me, being a workaholic software developer. But in the end, my Tinne's charms always wins the fight against my computer's shiny Internet connection. Seriously.

I mean that listening music in my car using Last.fm is not an option. Consider this: With good music in my car and my girlfriend sitting next to me, I'm far more likely to please her than I would be in case I'd frustrate her with this "Buffering…" and "Connection lost" crap that would inevitably be the result of a Last.fm player in my car.

Guess what will get us at a cocktail bar leaving us with the right atmosphere? A car with a Last.fm player, or a car with a USB stick? (usually we use bicycles, because we are responsible young drivers, but anyway). A car that 90% of the times has this "Buffering…" thing would make her laugh about her funny nerdy boy the first time. But after ten times, I'm pretty sure my investment in her cocktails will be ruined by that piece of shit music player, in my car.

People who are not into computers don't even get that first time for free from their female partners. A piece of shit music player is an instant failure. Meaning: they won't buy it. That's why you are not seeing Last.fm players for cars.

I mean that using Google Maps for car and truck driving navigation is only something the kind of architect that you want to ban from your software development company would propose. You need to focus on the road while driving. Please don't focus on the millions of irrelevant accessibility and usability problems a web application like Google Maps introduces.

On top of that, there's no way all of the highways and cities in Belgium would have reliable Wifi coverage for at least another decade. And Belgium is a wealthy Western country.

We 'rich boys' are not the only ones with cellphones. We are probably the only ones with super Internet backbones sticking in our arse, though.

I mean, without any of that Web 2.0 stuff are car GPS devices working just fine the way they work today.

Seriously … to say that all the future of computing belongs to the web, while neglecting the real problems mobile solutions are solving today already, is something only the worst kinds of wannabe architects and morons would say. In my opinion.

You really think I would accept that I can only listen to music with your iLast.fmPod device in the most crowded places of planet earth? Places like inner New York City are probably the only ones where, if you are extremely lucky, you could have a Wifi Internet connection. Even with that connection, Last.fm would still take minutes of buffering per song.

That's why iPod is a success, and your iLast.fmPod wont be. Well, that's not the only reason. The other reason is that people buy iPods for the same reasons why grown up people buy swimming pools: to make other people jealous.

Usually, they don't download a free desktop for the same reason as why they invest in swimming pools. They download it because it's the only way to make the piece of shit computer perform the things that help them achieve their personal goals.

The point that I'm trying to make is: most Web 2.0 applications suck. They solve one problem (deployment) and they introduce fifty clearly identifiable new ones. On top of that, they are not 'free' as in free beer either, right?!

They are the monopolist's best friends! Microsoft's monopoly will look like a baby compared to Google's in a few years.

But don't confront the Web 2.0 fan babies with those 'problems'! They'll just go "la la la", "not listening", "Youtube rocks", "la la la".

That's fine, but then go out of the way for the people who will solve the real problems in the next decade.

Web apps work and will work where they work. They might even work great, sometimes. But they wont where they wont.

13 Jul 2008 12:27pm GMT

GUADEC is going to end for me today - I am going back home tomorrow. Was it worth going here? Yes, it was. I met interesting guys, spoke about nice projects which I will probably work on soon etc.

Talks

There was lot of interesting talks during this year GUADEC:

• "Bob the Builder: How can he fix it?" by Rob Bradfort from OpenedHand - it was about Poky, developing for embedded targets, which tools are available and how to use them.
• "Clutter guts" by Tomas Frydrych, Emmanuele Bassi and Øyvind Kolås from OpenedHand. This was was about Clutter - what it is, how to use, what it gives. For me it was interesting as I did not knew what exactly it is.
• "Location-aware applications with GeoClue and Gypsy" by Henri Bergius (Nemein), Iain Holmes (OpenedHand), Jussi Kukkonen (also OH) - from clock applet which automatically change your timezone for shopping lists which reminds you about milk when you are near store. I wonder how those projects will change the way of writing applications. For those who does not know what Gypsy is - it is GPS multiplex daemon which does not have gpsd bugs.
• "Breaking the Silence: Making Applications Talk with Telepathy" by Robert McQueen from Collabora. I think it was a bit too technical but otherwise it shown what Telepathy is and how cool can it be.

I see that some of Lighting Talks can be also interesting.

Parties

O yes… parties… Monday and Tuesday were easy days - we got some Turkish coffee somewhere (it was really good) and Turkish beer (was not good) but next days were different.

On Wednesday evening there was roof party at the University. Lot of people and red wine in plastic/paper cups. Get to sleep at ~02:00…

Thursday… Collabora boat party with "unlimited" beer… That was great event. At 21 we get on board and the party started. Carlsberg is quite good beer and after 3rd can you do not notice taste :) There were few places with stronger alcohols - 15 years old whiskey for example. We went under Europe<>Asia bridges - the first one has animated lights which looks very nice. I spoke a lot with Ken Gilmer from Bug Labs company and it was good spent time. Later from party to came to "bar" near the Golden Horn hotel and from there I walked to our hotel. Final bed time: 03:30…

Today there will be Google sponsored party but I do not plan to go there. I prefer to have some time for packing and rest before traveling home (Istanbul -> Berlin -> Szczecin) and going to the party would makes me look like zombie on Saturday… And I have family event on Sunday so I should look like normal person rather :)

BTW - after boat party I thought that conference could be named GUADEP as sometimes it looks like parties takes more time and attention then conferences :D

Summary

I will not write that it was worth going to GUADEC because it is widely known fact. I met interesting people (also few not interesting ones), discussed some projects with their managers (as talking is always better then exchanging emails).

Next year should be even more interesting as it will be merged with Akademy which is KDE conference (and I use KDE3/4 rather then GNOME on my machines).

---

Copyright © 2008 by Marcin Juszkiewicz
This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only.
The use of content from that feed on other websites may breach copyright.
Digital Fingerprint: 8948aa451b1a77986507ce4a5ee3c2ed (66.150.96.121)

11 Jul 2008 11:29am GMT

I am at GUADEC now and typing from my Dell D400 laptop. The fun part is in battery - it is more or less dead but in interesting way…

For last few minutes it say that I have 3% of battery left which will give me 1 second of work. It is quite long second :)

After all the battery has enough juice to give me about 30-40 minutes of usage (with removed everything not needed like USB, Ethernet) with WiFi enabled (on Broadcom 4306 chipset). And to avoid data loss I have all partitions mounted read-only now.

UPDATE: some more facts:

11:08 - 3% battery left, 00:00:01 remaining
11:31 - 0% battery left
12:02 - still working…
12:08 - started dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/null to give some work for CPU. Machine stopped working

1 hour with unknown status of battery… It was enough for reading Google Reader over WiFi.

---

Copyright © 2008 by Marcin Juszkiewicz
This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only.
The use of content from that feed on other websites may breach copyright.
Digital Fingerprint: 8948aa451b1a77986507ce4a5ee3c2ed (66.150.96.121)

08 Jul 2008 9:15am GMT

Obviously, European Youtube users didn't ask for their youtube usage to be handed over to Viacom Inc.. Who knows what Viacom will do with this highly private data (which contains highly detailed information about people's interests such as the videos they watch, the various topics they are interested in, and so on)?

I only hope that enough Europeans will formally protest at their country's privacy agencies and/or at the European institutions. Although, I fear it won't matter anymore as privacy nowadays has become far less important than Britney Spears or Paris Hilton.

Anyway, please find the contact details for Belgium here.

03 Jul 2008 2:30pm GMT

Tickets bought, insurance bought, maps of Istanbul loaded into Maemo Mapper on N810 o I am nearly ready for GUADEC 2008. This year it will take place in Istanbul, Turkey but it is still European conference :)

Trip starts on Monday morning - bus from Szczecin to Berlin Texel, then flight (Turkish Airlines) to Istanbul. Short trip to hotel Senator and I will be ready to wait for rest of OH gang to arrive. I do not plan to get lost like I did year ago :)

List of talks to attend is generated and stored in GPE Calendar (when Maemo will get good PIM…) and this year I plan to attend most of this list. Too bad that Quim Gil talk is on Monday - I will not attend his talk. I hope that some familiar people from Maemo community will attend so we will be able to talk a bit.

But conference is not everything - I plan to take a walk though city to show something as I do not know when I will be there next time.

Ah - and I have to remember about N810 headset - GSM calls to/from Turkey are expensive so VoIP calls will be my only way to contact rather.

---

Copyright © 2008 by Marcin Juszkiewicz
This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only.
The use of content from that feed on other websites may breach copyright.
Digital Fingerprint: 8948aa451b1a77986507ce4a5ee3c2ed (66.150.96.121)

03 Jul 2008 1:13pm GMT