Openmoko: Om2008.9 status review

There aren't software updates for the Om2008.9, but I had found enough new issues for making a new review. Here it comes:

previous review

Fixed issues:

• None :(
  

New issues found:

• #1906 Once in a while I have new messages. They aren't really new messages, but just copies of messages that I already received. So my inbox is filling with duplicates of certain messages.
  
• #1158 If you put your FreeRunner onto the wall charger, than it starts to charge. Whaoo!! But after the FreeRunner is fully loaded, it stops with charching and is emptying your battery, while it's still connected with the wall charger.
• #1024 If my FreeRunner isn't in suspend, my gsm keeps on reregistering to my phone company. I noticed it by the interference it give by putting my Neo FreeRunner close to a speaker. Because of that, I'm often not available for calls.
  

Still an issue:

• #2015 I installed the game fifteen from the repository and it won't start. Solution: none.
  
• #1684 If I start my openmoko, the Wifi is always on. This adds up to the startup time and is using my power. So I would like it to be off by default.
• #1832 For getting the state on how much money there's left on my prepaid sim card, I have to call #121#. The caller application crashes on these calls.
• #1718 I couldn't run mofi after I had installed it, because there is a problem with the python-pygtk packet. Solution: There is only one character wrong in that packet, so I've manually edited line 82 /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/_init_.py. Replaced 'init()' with '_init()'.
• #1742 If you connect to a wifi network, there appears a wifi icon in the status bar. If you disconnect, it doesn't dissapear. Solution: nothing.
• #1904 I cannot connect to a wifi network with the settings interface. Solution: I've set my wpa_supplicant.conf and interfaces files and using "ifup eth0" on the command line for starting the wifi. more information
  
• #1717 If you connect to a wifi network, you don't get any conformation that it's busy with connecting. You now get a message when connecting fails, but still no marker it's connecting.
• #1945 Suspend is broken, because I sometimes can't call myself if my FreeRunner is in suspend. Solution: I've put Suspend 'off', through the 'Settings' application
• #1158 I leave my FreeRunner charging at night. The following morning, it should by fully charged. But the battery icon shows it's only charged for 75%. Solution: nothing.
  
• #1267 If someone is calling me, he's getting to hear his own voice. It's an echo that comes 2 seconds later and is very annoying for the callers. Solution: Openmoko is already looking into various fixes, but I changed my gsmhandset.state, as descripted on the community list

Color management turned on Firefox 3.1 nightly's

Like a lot of features that were dropped, because of the lack of time before the release of Firefox 3.0, color management was off by default. The big problem was that it was too slow. Now for the Firefox 3.1 release it is stable and fast enough and will be enabled. It is as good as finished and is already available in the nightly's releases and will be available in the next development release (Firefox 3.1 beta 1), currently scheduled for late October.

Like I said it is turned off in Firefox 3.0. That means you can turn it on yourself. To do that you only have to go to 'about:config'. There you need to search after 'gfx.color_management.enabled' and set it to 'true'

To explain where it is really about, you need to know that a RGB value does not represent a color alone. You need to see them as coordinates in a color space that contains the actual colors. Usually a display offer that information through a file, the ICC color profile. Also JPG and PNG images can contain ICC profiles to specify its color space. That way a pixel can get represented on your screen like it really looks. That's how it should be, but before the implementation of color management it just used the standard sRGB to find the color.

The browser (together with Safari the only browser) will look to the profile given by the computer and use the given data in the files to represent colors of images more accurate. Still it is not enabled for all pictures. To hit the performance not to much, it is only active for images tagged with ICC profiles. The performance overhead is then 1%. If activated for everything the overhead is 4%. The implementation for everything is available, but not active because of the performance. Probably in the near future it will get enabled, when it gets faster. To enable it yourself (in the nighlty's) you just need to go too 'about:config' and search after 'gfx.color_management.enabled'. '0' means no color management, '1' is full color management, and '2' (the default) will give color management for tagged-only correction (for technical reasons, you’ll need to restart your browser for this setting to take effect).

For more information about the color management in Firefox you can read:
http://bholley.wordpress.com/2008/09/12/so-many-colors/
Also the following blog gives some more details:
http://www.dria.org/wordpress/archives/2008/04/29/633/

Firefox 3.0.3 hit the streets

Very quickly after the previous point release (FF3.0.2), there is already a new release. Point releases of Firefox are usually security releases. They only contain security fixes found in the browser, after a release of a stable Firefox release. This time it is actually a regression fix first noticed in the 3.0.2 release. That's why there is only one week between the two releases.

The bug is actually very nasty. It happened that in some occasions passwords couldn't be stored or even got deleted. For the few that had those symptoms. Here are two possible solutions:

Solution 1

1. open notepad.exe
2. look for a file signons3.txt in the folder "documents and settings"
subfolder= nameof user\userdata\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
(Dokumente und Einstellungen\name anwender\Anwendungsdaten\Mozilla\Firefox
\Profiles)
3. open the file signons3.txt in notepad
4. save the file as ! : leave the name and choose the option save as UTF-8
ANSI is the standard
5. restart firefox and afterwards you should have your passwords back :)

Solution 2

1. Downgrade to Firefox 3.0.1 by downloading here and installing
2. Then upgrade to Firefox 3.0.3 directly

Getting started with your om 2008.9

Install om2008.9

• Download the kernel, the file system image, and the new bootscreen.
• Download dfu-util and flash the kernel and file system like described on Flashing the Neo FreeRunner
• Flash the new bootscreen by doing 'dfu-util -a splash -D Om2008.9.splash.gz'
  

Configuring om2008.9

• Suspend off: We will put suspend off, because there are to many bugs. For example, you may not get any phone calls anymore. Also it isn't handy for using automatic suspend if you're ssh into you're phone. The connection gets interrupted and cannot be restored again. We put suspend off by opening settings and clicking on the suspend item until it says 'off'.
• Setting DNS: Also we have to set our dns, because else we can't use the installer on your phone. We can do that by ssh into your Neo FreeRunner (I assume you already have set all your configuration on the host side, else look at Usb networking) and use the editor vi for editing /etc/network/interfaces and add the following under the usb0 section:
  
  up echo nameserver 208.67.222.222 > /etc/resolv.conf
  up echo nameserver 208.67.220.220 >> /etc/resolv.conf
  
  
• Install nano: We will install nano, because it's an easier editor and most people can work with it. You just have to do the following command:
  
  opkg install nano
  
  If you encounter an problem with packagekit, do:
  
  pkill packagekit
  
  
• Install calculator: what is a modern gsm without a calculator. It's like a little computer that is unable to calculate while calculator was the predecessor of a computer. So we open installer (by pressing the bottom bar) and goto Miscellaneous and install qtopia-phone-x11-calculator.
• Install TangoGPS: You have bought a phone with an GPS, so why don't install software for it?
  
  opkg install openmoko-agpsui
  opkg install tangogps
  opkg install gpsd
  
  And now we will set the proper device as the default gps client.
  
  echo "GPS_DEV=\"/dev/ttySAC1\"" > /etc/default/gpsd
  
  Now we will have to start the gps daemon (Normally the daemon start on startup, so it's not required to do this every time.)
  
  /etc/init.d/gpsd start (start de gps daemon)
  



• Changing the language of the keyboard: Because the normal keyboard comes with an predictive keyboard, we have to change it into the language you speak. Else the keyboard isn't handy at all. You can find the instruction in a previous blog post.
  

Now we are ready.
Have a nice FreeRunner time.

Om2008.9 review
See http://onlinedev.blogspot.com/2008/09/openmoko-om20089-status-review.html

Getting Duke Nukem 3D on your Neo FreeRunner

Duke Nukem 3D is a legendary First Person Shooter. It was first a ms-dos game developed by 3D Realms. It has been ported to Linux and now you can run it on your Neo FreeRunner. You have to have the FSO or Om2008.* distribution.

Installation:
- ssh into you FreeRunner
- opkg install http://alasal.be/openmoko/repo/duke3d_0.1.1_armv4t.ipk

How to play:
- You can turn by tilting the FreeRunner to the left or the right
- You can go forward by turn the FreeRunner forward
- You can go backward by turn the FreeRunner backward
- You shoot by pressing in the bottom-right corner
- You can open doors by pressing in the bottom-left corner
- You can jump by pressing in the middle-left corner
- You can choose weapon by pressing in the top-left corner
cheatsheet - demo

How to mute the sound:
- Edit ~/.duke3d/duke3d.cfg
- Change 'FXDevice = 0' into 'FXDevice = 13' in the '[Sound Setup]' category

I thank Rafael Ignacio Zurita for doing the port of Duke3D onto the FreeRunner. He deserves all the fame. I've just packaged the game, so it would be easy to install and remove it. I've also added a startup icon on the application list.

Openmoko: Om2008.9 status review

An Om 2008.9 is equal to an Om 2008.8 updated on 16 September and an updated Om 2008.9 is equal to an updated Om 2008.8. So therefor the reviews I've already written, are still valid.

• Om 2008.9: review
• Updated Om 2008.9: review

ps. You don't have to reflash your Om 2008.8 for getting Om 2008.9. Just updating will bring you to the newest release.

Looking at the big picture: om 2008.9, dev branch, asu branch, updates

Have you lost the picture? Don't panic! I will try to explain the different names and how they fit together.

First of all there is something like a dev branch where every change goes into. So every little software change goes into that. Some changes require other changes, or making the software unstable. But that's no problem, because it's just a collection of the 'newest' revision of the software.
Next to the dev branch, you have the asu-stable branch. That's the same as the dev branch, but for all the software of the om 2008.* releases. So the main difference between dev and asu-stable is that dev is focused on the base things like installer and settings. The asu-stable branch is focused on the phone part. So the asu-stable is a sidestep from the dev. Once in a while the changes in dev while go into the asu-stable branch.

Also once in a while, Openmoko releases new images. You have om 2008.8 and recently om 2008.9. These images are snapshots of the asu-dev branch. When most of the bugs defined for a milsestone are resolved and the patches are in the asu-stable branch, they bundle the software of the asu-stable branch and make a new image and name it after the month. Like 2008.8 for the release in august 2008.

The final thing I have to discuss, are the 'updates'. On every image of a point release, you can do an update. But what are updates and from which branch does they come? First of all if you start to update your point release, then you're not using the point release anymore. For example, if you update your om 2008.8, it isn't om 2008.8 anymore. Because now you are now following the asu-stable branch. So an updated om 2008.8 is the same as an updated om 2008.9. Because the 2 images are now updated with the newest packages of the asu-stable branch. And that are the same packages for om 2008.8 and om 2008.9. Openmoko doesn't have a name for it yet, but I suggest to call it 'Om next'.

Voila that's the situation of today.

My next post will handle the glorious details for installing and configuring the new om 2008.9 point release. See ya.

Openmoko: Om2008.8 status review

There were new packages waiting on the FreeRunner, when I was busy with testing my Wireless connection. So it took another look at the bugs and here's my report.

previous review - next review

Changelog:

• Installer:
  
• Update the text string 'Update All' to '+ Update all' as William requested
  
• #1982 Adding the support of extra margin
  
• #1980 disable the bouncing effect while scrolling
  
• Locations:
• Improve list scrolling by adding vmargin. For #1982.

New issues found:

• #2015 I installed the game fifteen from the repository and it won't start. Solution: none.
  

Still an issue:

• #1684 If I start my openmoko, the Wifi is always on. This adds up to the startup time and is using my power. So I would like it to be off by default.
• #1832 For getting the state on how much money there's left on my prepaid sim card, I have to call #121#. The caller application crashes on these calls.
• #1718 I couldn't run mofi after I had installed it, because there is a problem with the python-pygtk packet. Solution: There is only one character wrong in that packet, so I've manually edited line 82 /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/_init_.py. Replaced 'init()' with '_init()'.
• #1742 If you connect to a wifi network, there appears a wifi icon in the status bar. If you disconnect, it doesn't dissapear. Solution: nothing.
• #1904 I cannot connect to a wifi network with the settings interface. Solution: I've set my wpa_supplicant.conf and interfaces files and using "ifup eth0" on the command line for starting the wifi. more information
  
• #1717 If you connect to a wifi network, you don't get any conformation that it's busy with connecting. You now get a message when connecting fails, but still no marker it's connecting.
• #1945 Suspend is broken, because I sometimes can't call myself if my FreeRunner is in suspend. Solution: I've put Suspend 'off', through the 'Settings' application
• #1158 I leave my FreeRunner charging at night. The following morning, it should by fully charged. But the battery icon shows it's only charged for 75%. Solution: nothing.
  
• #1267 If someone is calling me, he's getting to hear his own voice. It's an echo that comes 2 seconds later and is very annoying for the callers. Solution: Openmoko is already looking into various fixes, but I changed my gsmhandset.state, as descripted on the community list

Openmoko: Om2008.8 status review

I didn't expect an update so soon, because the previous update was yesterday. But today there were new updates smiling at me.

previous review - next review

Solved issues:

• #1893 I can't update all the packages at the same time, trough the 'installer' interface. Solution: I've used the terminal instead with the commands 'pkill packagekit', 'opkg update' and 'opkg upgrade'. Now there is a package 'Update All', so you can update everything through the interface.
  

New issues found:

• #2009 I leave my FreeRunner charging at night. The following morning, it should by fully charged. But the battery icon shows it's only charged for 75%.
  

Still an issue:

• #1267 If someone is calling me, he's getting to hear his own voice. It's an echo that comes 2 seconds later and is very annoying for the callers. Openmoko is already looking into various fixes, but I changed my gsmhandset.state, as descripted on the community list
• #1684 If I start my openmoko, the Wifi is always on. This adds up to the startup time and is using my power. So I would like it to be off by default.
• #1832 For getting the state on how much money there's left on my prepaid sim card, I have to call #121#. The caller application crashes on these calls.
• #1718 I couldn't run mofi after I had installed it, because there is a problem with the python-pygtk packet. Solution: There is only one character wrong in that packet, so I've manually edited line 82 /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/_init_.py. Replaced 'init()' with '_init()'.
• #1742 If you connect to a wifi network, there appears a wifi icon in the status bar. If you disconnect, it doesn't dissapear. Solution: nothing.
• #1904 I can only connect once to a wifi network with the interface. If I want to reconnect to the same network after suspend or after a manual disconnect, I don't get an error, but I don't have internet. I've set my wpa_supplicant.conf and interfaces files and using "ifup eth0" on the command line for starting the wifi. more information And that is working reliable again.
  
• #1717 If you connect to a wifi network, you don't get any conformation that it's busy with connecting. You now get a message when connecting fails, but still no marker it's connecting.
• #1945 Suspend is broken, because I sometimes can't call myself if my FreeRunner is in suspend. Solution: I've put Suspend 'off', through the 'Settings' application

Themes for Google Chrome

Google Chrome, a browse recently released, is still a minimal web browser and doesn't contain that many sophisticated features. A standard and easy way to change the look of the browser isn't included yet. But that didn't stopped guys to make and distribute their themes.

To find the theme you always wanted for your browser you can search here. There are listed a lot. You can take a firefox or internet explorer lookalike, a green theme, a chocolate theme ... Once you found your ideal theme you can download it. Useally there is a .dll file called default.dll. That's the file containing the theme. You only need to copy it to the right place and the theme will be changed.

1. Make sure Google Chrome is closed
2. In Vista goto: C:\Users\[your user name]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\[current version]\Themes\
2. In Windows XP goto: C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application[current version]\Themes\
It will probably be 0.2.149.29
3. Copy default.dll to default.bac (to have a backup of the normal theme)
4. Copy your new default.dll file in the directory

Now if you start Google Chrome it should be dressed in the new theme.

Openmoko: Om2008.8 status review

This morning, I had again some updates. There were many updates, but I don't see any changes. Hopefully some stability patches.

previous review - next review

Solved issues:

• None :(
  

New issues found:

• None :)
  

Still an issue:

• #1267 If someone is calling me, he's getting to hear his own voice. It's an echo that comes 2 seconds later and is very annoying for the callers. Openmoko is already looking into various fixes, but I changed my gsmhandset.state, as descripted on the community list
• #1684 If I start my openmoko, the Wifi is always on. This adds up to the startup time and is using my power. So I would like it to be off by default.
• #1832 For getting the state on how much money there's left on my prepaid sim card, I have to call #121#. The caller application crashes on these calls.
• #1718 I couldn't run mofi after I had installed it, because there is a problem with the python-pygtk packet. Solution: There is only one character wrong in that packet, so I've manually edited line 82 /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/_init_.py. Replaced 'init()' with '_init()'.
• #1742 If you connect to a wifi network, there appears a wifi icon in the status bar. If you disconnect, it doesn't dissapear. Solution: nothing.
• #1904 I can only connect once to a wifi network with the interface. If I want to reconnect to the same network after suspend or after a manual disconnect, I don't get an error, but I don't have internet. Update: I've set my wpa_supplicant.conf and interfaces files and using "ifup eth0" on the command line for starting the wifi. more information And that is working reliable again.
  
• #1717 If you connect to a wifi network, you don't get any conformation that it's busy with connecting. You now get a message when connecting fails, but still no marker it's connecting.
• #1893 I can't update all the packages at the same time, trough the 'installer' interface. Solution: I've used the terminal instead with the commands 'pkill packagekit', 'opkg update' and 'opkg upgrade'.
• #1945 Suspend is broken, because I sometimes can't call myself if my FreeRunner is in suspend. Solution: I've put Suspend 'off', through the 'Settings' application

Nokia N95 crashing on starting gps

Last time I wanted to try to route a map on the Nokia n95 my application crashed when it was at 90%. It gave a black screen and then restarted. I went searching after the problem but didn't found the solution that easy. Somewhere on a forum it was suggested to remove the 'cities' folder on the sd card. It contains some information for the gps and will get calculated again when starting

1. Navigate to Menu
2. Go to Tools
3. Press File mgr.
4. Go to the Memory Card
5. Remove the folder 'cities'

That didn't help with me, but I'm writing it here down, because for some others this helped and the Nokia n95 didn't crash anymore, when using the gps.

My problems still wasn't solved, I know it was something about the new 8gb sd card I bought. I copied the data right from my standard 1gb card. If I just put the standard 1gb in my n95 everything is again fine, without crashes. On the 8gb card it crashes. I couldn't isolate the problem and say which file is the problem, but still I found a solution. 0ne way to solve it is to format your 8gb card and put the data manually again on the sd card. That way the file causing the crashes is away. The other solution (the one I used) is to update your firmware. I was lucky, because there was a new firmware update. I updated my firmware from 20.0.0.15 to 30.0.0.15 and everything was solved.

Firefox 3.1 will contain 'Private browsing'

Private browsing, similar like incognito mode in Google Chrome or InPrivate security mode of Internet Explorer 8.0 is a mode in which history, download history, new made cookies ... get deleted after stopping your private session. That way it is possible to visit sites, without having to worry someone can track the sites. An example is that you as men are searching for a ring to propose. It could be that you search it on the internet. In that mode it will not get recorded and that way the wife can not suspect it, even by viewing the history ... Of course there are other ways to (ab)use this mode.

This feature didn't made it into Firefox 3.0 and it looked like Firefox 3.1 would ship without it too. But because it is really popular and probably because Google Chrome shipped with it too, it got back on the features list of Firefox 3.1. The status is currently rapidly evolving and will probably already in the 1st beta of Firefox 3.1, that will get released for developers around October.
You can read the specifications on how it will work here.

If you can't wait you can patch a recent version of the browser, but I will not explain how. There is a more straightforward and easy way to do it. Because the patch isn't yet done it isn't applied yet to the nightly builds. Good news there is also a try server. There you can find the binaries for Windows/Mac and Linux: link. I still need to warn you. The private mode didn't work with me. It can be that I'm doing something wrong, but it is also possible that it can't work yet. It is still not finished yet ;-). For a good working version I would recommend you to wait till the beta release.

I still have a little addition. A lot of guys are wonder why it wasn't released in the Firefox 3.0 version and find it rather stupid. I don't have any problems with that. It wasn't finished and actually Firefox 2.0 already contained 'private browsing'. What I want to say is that you can add the functionality of 'private browsing' to your browser with the plugin 'distrust', a very handy and good working plugin. You can find it here

Openmoko: Om2008.8 status review

After a 4-day trip to the beach, I can upgrade my phone again. Here's my 2 cents. (Everybody is saying that, so why not monkeying them)

previous review - next review

Solved issues:

• None :(
  

New issues found:

• #1267 If someone is calling me, he's getting to hear his own voice. It's an echo that comes 2 seconds later and is very annoying for the callers. Openmoko is already looking into various fixes, but I changed my gsmhandset.state, as descripted on the community list
  

Still an issue:

• #1684 If I start my openmoko, the Wifi is always on. This adds up to the startup time and is using my power. So I would like it to be off by default.
• #1832 For getting the state on how much money there's left on my prepaid sim card, I have to call #121#. The caller application crashes on these calls.
• #1945 Suspend is broken, because I sometimes can't call myself if my FreeRunner is in suspend. Solution: I've put Suspend 'off', through the 'Settings' application
• #1718 I couldn't run mofi after I had installed it, because there is a problem with the python-pygtk packet. Solution: There is only one character wrong in that packet, so I've manually edited line 82 /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/_init_.py. Replaced 'init()' with '_init()'.
• #1742 If you connect to a wifi network, there appears a wifi icon in the status bar. If you disconnect, it doesn't dissapear. Solution: nothing.
• #1904 I can only connect once to a wifi network with the interface. If I want to reconnect to the same network after suspend or after a manual disconnect, I don't get an error, but I don't have internet. Both my workarounds (manual connecting or mofi) don't work anymore. I will need to investigate a new one. I also now get a 'cannot connect' error, when I start the wifi with the settings interface.
• #1717 If you connect to a wifi network, you don't get any conformation that it's busy with connecting. You now get a message when connecting fails, but still no marker it's connecting.
• #1893 I can't update all the packages at the same time, trough the 'installer' interface. Solution: I've used the terminal instead with the commands 'pkill packagekit', 'opkg update' and 'opkg upgrade'.

Openmoko: Howto change your Qtopia keyboard into your language

The Om 2008.8 distribution comes with a nice predictive keyboard. If you type a word and you're not that accurate, the keyboard will try to predict the word you wanted to spell. This is very nice, but only if your language is English. The keyboard doesn't understand other languages, so when you type a dutch word, he will try to find an English word that looks like it. So you get English sentences instead. Not that nice.

Luckily there is a way to change the language of your predictive keyboard and I will tell you how (works only on linux).

Instructions for the Om 2008.8:

• Goto http://alasal.be/openmoko/keyboard and search your language.
• Go into the folder of your language and download the file 'words.dawg'
• Open a terminal on your host operating system
• scp words.dawg root@192.168.0.202:/opt/Qtopia/etc/dict/en_US/words.dawg
  (This will copy the words.dawg dictionary to your phone)

Instruction for Qtopia:

• Goto http://alasal.be/openmoko/keyboard and search your language.
• Go into the folder of your language and download the file 'words.dawg'
• Open a terminal on your host operating system
• scp words.dawg root@192.168.0.202:/opt/Nokia/Qtopia/etc/dict/en_US/words.dawg
  (This will copy the words.dawg dictionary to your phone)

Before this will work:
- Make sure the ipaddress of the Neo FreeRunner is 192.168.0.202.
- Make sure you can ssh into the phone without any trouble.
- Make sure you're in the same folder where you downloaded the words.dawg file.

Openmoko: Om2008.8 status review

And there are new packages to update, so here is my fresh and new summary.

previous review - next review

Nice updates:

• When you are succesfully connected to your provider, it's name will show up on illume.
  

Issues solved:

• #1957 I opened the installer without having internet on it and it gave a nice error. The installer was crashed. So you need internet, before you can open the installer.

New issues found:

• #1684 If I start my openmoko, the Wifi is always on. This adds up to the startup time and is using my power. So I would like it to be off by default.
• #1832 For getting the state on how much money there's left on my prepaid sim card, I have to call #121#. The caller application crashes on these calls.
  

Still an issue:

• #1945 Suspend is broken, because I sometimes can't call myself if my FreeRunner is in suspend. Solution: I've put Suspend 'off', through the 'Settings' application
• #1718 I couldn't run mofi after I had installed it, because there is a problem with the python-pygtk packet. Solution: There is only one character wrong in that packet, so I've manually edited line 82 /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/_init_.py. Replaced 'init()' with '_init()'.
• #1742 If you connect to a wifi network, there appears a wifi icon in the status bar. If you disconnect, it doesn't dissapear. Solution: nothing.
  
• #1904 I can only connect once to a wifi network with the interface. If I want to reconnect to the same network after suspend or after a manual disconnect, I don't get an error, but I don't have internet. Update: Both my workarounds (manual connecting or mofi) don't work anymore. I will need to investigate a new one. I also now get a 'cannot connect' error, when I start the wifi with the settings interface.
• #1717 If you connect to a wifi network, you don't get any conformation that it's busy with connecting. Update: You now get a message when connecting fails, but still no marker it's connecting.
• #1893 I can't update all the packages at the same time, trough the 'installer' interface. Solution: I've used the terminal instead with the commands 'pkill packagekit', 'opkg update' and 'opkg upgrade'.
  

Mozilla just released Firefox 3.1 alpha 2

Mozilla Firefox 3.1 is the next version of the web browser. It aims to solve the problems noted in the 3.0 version and to implement the features that didn't made in into Firefox 3.0, cause of the lack of time. The Places team has improved the awesomebar, the tagging and the performance of the backend. There is now also a visual tab switcher and many more.

Specific Shiretoko (the codename of Firefox 3.1) alpha 2 will start with support for HTML5. One feature for example is the <video> en <audio> tags. Similar to the <img> tag in HTML for images, should the <video> and <audio> tag let some standard videos and songs play out of the box without the need of plugins. Now Firefox 3.1 A2 already contains codecs for Ogg Vorbis audio and Ogg Theora video. This release also implements the HTML 5 specification for text rendering on Canvas. It covers the attributes font, textAlign, and textBaseline and the functions fillText, strokeText, and measureText.

Also is CSS3 good represented in the alpha release. A lot of new selectors and properties have landed. It's now possible to give text a shadow, without the need of hacks/images/... Now you can use text-shadow for that. And now you can also give an object an image as border instead of only color with the 'border-image' property.

In this release there is also initial support to make use of Aero "Glass" in XUL for windows Vista. You know the blurry transparent used a lot in windows Vista. That way theme developers can integrate the theme more into windows Vista. For more information about this issue you can read further on the blog of Rob Arnold's

This Alpha has initial support the so called for Web Workers. That way complicated and intensive computations can be instructed to go to the background thread to not interupt or lock up the other javascript. The user interfeac (that is made with JavaScript) will stay responsive despite a heavy computation.

Last but not least another great improvement is that tabs now not only can change position inside a window. It is now also possible to exchange your tabs between different firefox windows.

Note: This is only a development release and for testing purposes only

• Winows: Shiretoko Alpha 2 Setup.exe
• Mac OS X: Shiretoko Alpha 2.dmg
• Linux: shiretoko-alpha2.tar.bz2

Openmoko: Some news on the echo front

There is a problem with the sound system of the FreeRunner. If someone is calling your phone, they will hear a time-delayed echo of their voice. This is probably a hardware problem of the Neo Freerunner. This may also be a problem that other mobile phones suffer. So I know someone who had a mobile phone with the same symptoms. (though it was a cheap phone)

But for (almost) every hardware problem, there is a software fix. Openmoko has already looked into better sound volumes settings. So the voice of the caller isn't to loud, so the microphone doesn't hear it and send it back to the caller. It was with mixed result, as the sound volume settings didn't reduce the voice echo for everyone. They also have examined a software solution that would actively remove the voice of the caller, that was redirected into the microphone. But that would be very CPU-intensive and catastrophic with a suspend in the middle of a phone call.

But some days ago, there came a guy who calls himself 'Freerunner_User' with some Calypso commands. These commands trigger some hardware noise reduction. The gsm modem of the Freerunner is a Calypso chipset. The gsm modem is also one of the parts that isn't open source. (Partly for security reasons. Phones calling with other phone numbers than defined in the SIM isn't nice, but possible if you have the documentation). So those commands tells the gsm modem to do some noice reduction. And so far the testing has gone, it looks like a possible solution.

However don't expect these fixes very soon. They will first be examined and tested very thoroughly. But the guy (Lorn Potter) of Qtopia has already announced, it will be in Qtopia 4.4 and there is already a patch for om2008.8. So stay tuned.

Howto change the language of the game Spore

Spore is a game by Maxis and designed by Will Wright. In the game you start with a small creature, a microscopic organism and you need to evolve into a complex animal. At the moment it should be in the stores around the whole world to let anyone play with it.

One annoying issue is the language. Even if you specify a specific language for the installer, the game itself will be in the language of your computer. If you don't want that here's a small work around to get the right language ingame.

If you don't have a shortcut on your desktop you can make on with the following steps. If you have already a shortcut you can skip this and go to the following steps.

1. Navigate to the path where Spore is installed (usually: C:/Program File/Electronic Arts/SPORE)
2. Goto ./Sporebin/
3. Right click on sporeapp.exe
4. Navigate to Send To
5. Click on Desktop (create shortcut)

Now you go to the desktop (or to another place where you have put the shortcut)

1. Right click on the Spore shortcut
2. Choose Properties (you should be on the shortcut tab)
3. Locate Target
4. Add -L:language at the end

As language you can choose between:

* Chinese
* Czech
* Danish
* Dutch
* English
* Finnish
* French
* German
* Greek
* Hungarian
* Italian
* Japanese
* Korean
* Norwegian
* Polish
* Portuguese
* Russian
* Spanish
* Swedish
* Thai

Now the target link should be like:
"C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\SPORE\Sporebin\sporeapp.exe" –L:Chinese

Openmoko: Om2008.8 status review

And we continue to review our om 2008.8 distribution. I have updated today and here is my scientific (Uhm) report.

previous review - next review

Issues solved:

• #1947 Also the bluetooth icon isn't appearing on the status bar. Apparently you have two places where icons be found. The non-important icons will not be put into the status bar, but on top of the task manager.
  

New issues found:

• #1957 I opened the installer without having internet on it and it gave a nice error. The installer was crashed. So you need internet, before you can open the installer.
  

Still an issue:

• #1945 Suspend is broken, because I sometimes can't call myself if my FreeRunner is in suspend. Solution: I've put Suspend 'off', through the 'Settings' application
• #1718 I couldn't run mofi after I had installed it, because there is a problem with the python-pygtk packet. Solution: There is only one character wrong in that packet, so I've manually edited line 82 /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/_init_.py. Replaced 'init()' with '_init()'
• #1742 If you connect to a wifi network, there appears a wifi icon in the status bar. If you disconnect, it doesn't dissapear.
• #1904 I can only connect once to a wifi network with the interface. If I want to reconnect to the same network after suspend or after a manual disconnect, I don't get an error, but I don't have internet. Solution: I've set my wpa_supplicant.conf file and using "ifup eth0" on the command line for starting the wifi. more information
• #1717 If you connect to a wifi network, you don't get any conformation that it's busy with connecting.
• #1893 I can't update all the packages at the same time, trough the 'installer' interface. Solution: I've used the terminal instead with the commands 'pkill packagekit', 'opkg update' and 'opkg upgrade'.
  

Google Chrome: first exploit

Yesterday was the first release of the Google Chrome browser. Today there is already an exploit that let the whole browser crash. Google has promised that a crash normally only should affect a single tab, but the exploit is showing something else.

It is actually quiet easy to reproduce the exploit. You only need an url in format of 'something:%'. It is the % that let the whole browser crash. It is that nasty that the bug is already triggered by hovering an url in that format.

Testcase: http://evilfingers.com/advisory/google_chrome_poc.php

Google Chrome: first impression

Google has just launched there new browser. After an in-depth explanation presentation about Google Chrome (their new browser), now you are able to download it and try it yourself. The download location is http://www.google.com/chrome and I encourage you to download it, so you can try it out yourself.

Some key-features are threaded tabs, an omnibar, a privacy mode, a special mode for web-applications, an advanced 'home' page.

Let's start with the threaded tabs. The idea behind this technique is to treat tabs more like applications. If an application crash, the whole OS shouldn't crash. Same for tabs. If one tab crashes it should leave the other tabs alone. Nobody wants to lose the email you are writing, while you are searching for some more information in another tab. Also there is now a sort of list with active processing with all the needed data, like CPU use, Memory use, Network use and a way to kill a process. Similar to the task manager in Windows.

Like Firefox Google Chrome has also an advanced location bar. It remembers which pages you visited and the keywords you used to open the webpage. Also it tries to give the top page, instead of a specific page. To explain it better. If you search after google in the location bar, it will give you the url to 'http://www.google.be' and try to avoid you getting a url like 'http://www.google.be/search?hl=nl&q=an+keyword&btnG=Google+zoeken&meta='. Google is into search and has figured out that most users search a lot in a browser. Therefor it's made very easy to search sites. Instead of typing enter, you tab and you search.

Firefox and Internet Explorer already said they will implement an privacy mode. Google Chrome is the first one that has it by default. When you enable it nothing will be saved on your computer. So it will not be traceable which pages you searched when it's enabled.

One of the other key features is an impressive home page. It contains the most used pages to directly start surfing to your daily visited pages. It contains the last closed tabs. That way you can open accidentally closed tabs more easily. Also a search box for searching your history and also your own favorites.

A new browser: Google Chrome

The market of web browsers are very active at the moment. Just a couple of years ago there was only one major browser, called Internet Explorer. Recent years that changed. Internet Explorer is still the most used browser, but now there are a lot of alternatives. I put Firefox as example almost used by 20% of the surfing guys and still gaining popularity. Google is thinking there is still room and comes also with a browser, Google Chrome.

Still you can't call Google Chrome a normal browser. It's build from scratch (only for the html engine they used webkit). 'Therefor they could design it on the needs of today's applications and today's user'. And indeed they take the browser a step further. Google Chrome threats web page's more like applications. Therefor every tabs has it's own process. That way one tab can't cause the whole browser to crash. Only one tab will crash. Also Google Chrome takes the speed of JavaScript (the main language to make web applications) very seriously. Called the V8 engine, it will optimize the JavaScript and compile it so it can be run directly on the CPU of the user. This browser differs on more sides, but you can read it all in a comic on http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/

Like Firefox is Google Chrome also open source. You adjust it, improve and even make a browser for yourself based on chrome. Google says it is because they want it to evolve quickly and I think they are also referring to IE6 that existed too long, without any change. My point on view on this all is that Google don't make this browser to get popular. Google just want to make the computer more internet-based (the place they practically own). That way an Operating System will become less important and dominant and will the internet be more important.
That's a way to beat Microsoft ...

Google opened already a website to read all about google Chrome, but the browser itself isn't downloadable yet. Tonight (Tuesday 2 September 2008) it will get announced official and tonight or tomorrow it will be downloadable. I will inform you when that happens, along with my first opinion on the browser itself.

Openmoko: Om2008.8 status review

My FreeRunner is delivered and I've installed Om2008.8. I will list the problems I encounter here. If there is any update of the distribution, I will make a report of the changes.

next review

I've installed the images that were available on 29-08-08 in the Om2008.8 update folder.

• #1945 Suspend is broken, because I sometimes can't call myself if my FreeRunner is in suspend. Solution: I've put Suspend 'off', through the 'Settings' application
• #1904 I can only connect once to a wifi network with the interface. If I want to reconnect to the same network after suspend or after a manual disconnect, I don't get an error, but I don't have internet. Solution: I've installed Mofi and if I try to connect with the normal interface and afterwards with Mofi, I always get wireless internet.
• #1718 I couldn't run mofi after I had installed it, because there is a problem with the python-pygtk packet. Solution: There is only one character wrong in that packet, so I've manually edited line 82 /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/_init_.py. Replaced 'init()' with '_init()'
• #1893 I can't update all the packages at the same time, trough the 'installer' interface. Solution: I've used the terminal instead with the commands 'pkill packagekit', 'opkg update' and 'opkg upgrade'.
  

Very small issues, I also encounter:

• #1717 If you connect to a wifi network, you don't get any conformation that it's busy with connecting.
• #1742 If you connect to a wifi network, there appears a wifi icon in the status bar. If you disconnect, it doesn't dissapear.
• #1947 Also the bluetooth icon isn't appearing on the status bar