Online Development

Mozilla Firefox JS engine Januari 2012

2012-01-31T17:20:00.000+01:00

There are again a lot of improvements in the JavaScript engine in Mozilla Firefox. Here I will list the speed improvements and regressions happened in the month Januari. This time with three benchmarks. They are know as sunspider (a popular benchmark released by WebKit), V8 (released by google) and jslinux (a pc emulator running linux). The improvements will eventually come into Firefox 12 together with the improvements of the last week of December.

Current JS engine (Jaegermonkey + Type Interference)

Benchmark	December 31st	Januari 26th
jslinux	5306.0 ms	4596.0 ms	improvement of 15%
V8	7196.6	6953.4	regression in score of 3.5%
sunspider	165.87 ms	167.445 ms	regression of 0.1%

The biggest difference is the huge improvement on the jslinux benchmark. This is like Bhackett promised due to landing of bug #706914. This compiles scripts in smaller chunks. This way the compilation time gets decreased.

Detailed overview
Note this list just gives an indication what revisions/bugs potentially increased/decreased performance. It could be that I've listed bugs that actually don't give the listed speed-up and there could be revisions that have a huge influence on the speed, but that I failed to list here.

be81e5f7850f -Bug 714218 - Specialize some get* implementations to do property-type-specific handling, with their getGeneric forwarding to the appropriate specific implementation.
sunspider: regression of 0.8%

db8ea6327311 - Bug 607692 - Inline parseInt(, <0|10>) in JM.
sunspider: improvement of 0.5%

23f3b97f655a - Bug 710163: (part 2) fix EXT_context_loss semantics.
sunspider: regressoin of 0.4%

faf5f8842fec - Bug 703157 - Don't modify dictionary shapes in place.
sunspider: improvement of 0.5%

78d17e22a223 - Bug 712714 - Remove JOF_CALLOP.
sunspider: regression of 0.6%

e12b877ae637 - Convert a couple always-true appends to infallibleAppend, since that's what they should have been using
sunspider: improvement of 1%

d0c192e5bd41 - Bug 706914 - Compile large scripts in chunks.
jslinux: improvement of 17.4%
Huge improvement and indeed fixes the regression introduced last month by compiling switch and try blocks.

96a9dffede07 - Bug 717494 - Pass scope chain explicitly to FindProperty
jslinux: improvement of 0.7%

a85cf7f0d235 - Bug 716512 - make sure that gcparam in shell cannot set MAX_GC_BYTES to a value les than the current GC_BYTES.
V8: improvement of 0.8%

7ab4f1ebc7cc - Backout 54cd89b0f1fa (Bug 712714 backout). Talos will probably report fake regressions for this patch, do not back out for this reason.
V8: regression of 2.5%
Note: Like the commit message already states, this could be a fake regression. But I'm not sure. Every timing I do, shows this is a regression ...

Mozilla Firefox JS engine December 2011

2012-01-05T14:44:00.000+01:00

In this post I want to iterate over the performance improvements and regressions of the javascript engine in Mozilla Firefox. I will do this by building the cutting edge JS shell of Mozilla. (I use the branch mozilla-inbound). The improvements will not be visible in Firefox immediatly. The improvements that happened before December 23th will go in Firefox 11. The rest will go into Firefox 12.

Current JS engine (Jaegermonkey + Type Interference)

Currently the JavaScript Engine in Firefox uses JaegerMonkey and Type Interference. While JaegerMonkey is relatively old, Type Interference is rather new. Type Interference got enabled only in the newest version (FF 9).

Benchmark	December 1st	December 31st
jslinux	5298.0 ms	5476.5 ms	regression of 180 ms
V8	6811.7	7113.4	improvement in score of 300

One of the regressions I found was the following one:
eaac85c4c05f - bug #704387: Generate SSA information for scripts containing switch and try blocks
regression of 130ms on jslinux
This increases the compilation time of scripts, with the possibility of creating faster code. In case of jslinux the gained run time doesn't outweight the extra compilation time and therefor runs slower. Bhackett informed me that the increased compilation time will get lowered with help of bug #706914.

F1 2011 with PlayStation 3 controllers

2011-10-11T16:12:00.003+02:00

The F1 2011 game is the sequel of the 2010 version. It puts you in a Formula 1 team throughout a season and it is your objective to become the new Vettel (or Schumacher). It is even adjusted to the current rules of 2011. So this is the game for whoever loves to race and loves Formula 1. I still have to say the game isn't forgiving for small faults, so for starters I would suggest the easy option! But once you get the hang of it, you can challenge yourself by increasing the difficulty level.

So I installed F1 2011 on my computer some days ago. I wasn't totally happy with the steering using the keyboard. I think the game is more made for steering wheels and pedals. The big issue is that on a keyboard you can't give a small amount of gas, or steer a little bit. On the computer you steer or you don't. You accelerate or not. I don't have any steering wheel or pedal and I don't intend to buy one. I love the game, but I don't play it enough to justify the purchase. So I found another way. I connected my PlayStation 3 controllers to my computer and I use those now.

And this is how I did it:
1) Install MotioninJoy
2) Connect your PlayStation 3 controller(s) to the computer through USB (it will get recognized by MotioninJoy)
3) Set the mode to Xbox 360 Controller emulator
4) Press enable
5) Have fun playing F1 2011 with PS3 controllers

Note: it is also possible to use multiple PS3 controllers and play with your friends in split screen mode.

Vala: the future?

2009-10-09T12:26:00.004+02:00

Vala is a new programming language that aims to bring modern programming language features to GNOME developers without imposing any additional runtime requirements and without using a different ABI compared to applications and libraries written in C.

That is the description you will find when searching for Vala. The idea of making Vala started around 2006 and now Vala is getting better and better. The goal of Vala is to bring modern language features to C. The problem Vala solves is that most programmers want to develop in high-level programming languages, but can't use C# or Java due to various reasons. Vala solves this in this way that it actually just produces C code out of the given Vala source.

Pros:
- The generated C code is generly as fast or faster then hand-coded c++
- Using external C libraries aren't difficult
- Making C libraries out of Vala files isn't difficult aswel
- Syntax is almost identical with C#

Cons:
- Vala is relatively young. So still less community support then C++
- Lack of documentation (improving really fast)

If you're interested and want to have a look. This tutorial shows you the basic of the language.

New Firefox Icon, my opinion

2009-05-18T19:42:00.010+02:00

The User Experience Designer Alex Faaborg is taking the community on a ride. The Firefox logo is getting a revamp and Alex Faaborg is posting updates almost every 24 hours. He started with a post about logo's and how they mostly evolve with the product brand. In that post he also explains Firefox 3.5 is a significant release that's worth a revised logo.

There are already several iterations for the new Firefox logo and they are looking better with each iteration. Though this post doesn't handle that.

This post is for giving you my vision on the logo,
but first some background about logos...

Some background

The name of a brand is mostly represented by the logo. So people can better link the logo with a name and vice-versa. There are several ways to achieve that. You can either use the name itself, like you can see in many logo designs.

Or another common way is to use the meaning of the brand name. For example, the Firefox logo has a fox with a tail on fire in it.

The third and last way is to link the philosophy of a brand with the logo. That's also the hardest to do. For example, Windows. The name 'Windows' is chosen because the system could do multitasking and use multiple windows, what wasn't common back then. That idea has become their logo.
Back to the Firefox logo

The Firefox logo can be categorized in the second category. It's uses the meaning of it's name (Firefox) and represent it by a fox with a tail on fire in the icon.

It can also be categorized in the third or final category. I see the Firefox logo as follow. The globe on the icon represent the Internet itself. The Internet is something global (that's why the globe), but it's also something anonymous. Anonymous, because the web does not belong to one person or country, but is for everyone (that's why the globe has generic continents).

My vision on the Firefox logo

One of the aspects planned for change, is integrating the globe with the fox. In the current logo, the fox and the globe look like 2 separate layers that are painted above each other. The integrating will be done by making the tail look more 3D and let it wrap around the globe. You can find more planned changes and there reasoning on the blog of Alex Faaborg. I also agree the globe and the fox should be integrated more.

I also think we can put more of Firefox's philosophy in the logo. Mozilla Firefox wants to promote the open web. In the current logo, you can't find any reference to this mission. For example, there is no interaction between the globe (the internet) and the fox (Firefox). I feel there is an opportunity to improve on that area.

My idea:
As you can see on my mockup, the fox is playing with the globe. It has a connection with the globe (the internet). So the Firefox is online on the internet. The fox is also plopping in the water of the globe. Actually Firefox is playing the internet, hoping to improve and promote it.

Things I'm proud off:
- The rimples are subtle and only visible on high-resolution versions
- The globe and the fox are more integrated into eachother

Things that should be improved
- The arm is to small in proportion to the fox
- This design is based on the current logo, not on the concept renderings

Porting Android: small steps at a time...

2009-02-11T19:17:00.003+01:00

In my previous post, 'How close?', I did say the android was almost ported. It only missed an onscreen keyboard. Not much later, there were images with a working keyboard. Sean McNeal released them in the normal location.

So the android is fully working?
No, we are past the 'alfa' stage. Everything is supposed to work, because all code has landed. Though it doesn't guaranty everything to work. Sean, Bricode and many more (like the freelancer Panicking) are actively solving the remaining issues. So bear with us, while we are heading for a fully working android on the Neo FreeRunner.

Well how far are we?
Koolu started to release beta's of the Android with a lot of functionality a while ago. They did come mostly with an interval of 2 weeks, but that's not a rule.
- beta 1: 15 January
- beta 2: 20 January
- beta 3: 4 February

Please define 'a lot of functionality' for beta3.

Messaging: I will have to disappoint you directly by telling you messaging isn't really stable at the moment. Sending messages was a total fail, because each time you enter a new message, the gsm modem will fail. The only remedy to get the gsm modem again to work is removing the message and restart. So sending messages doesn't work. Also receiving messages doesn't work.
Calling: Calling to the Freerunner works good and receiving a call to the Freerunner is working good (If you know you need the open the onscreen keyboard and push the right button to answer the call). Only one problem, I still have an 'Echo' on both sides of the line.
Wifi: Wifi is working good for me. I can enable wireless, scan the wireless networks in the area and connect to one (Even if it has WPA2 security). The only downside: my gsm modem doesn't work anymore after connecting to a Wifi network.
Bluetooth: I can enable bluetooth and making myself visible, but actively pairing 2 devices didn't work for my. I couldn't hit the Ok button after inserting the pass of the other GSM.
GPS: Working splendid. It starts when necessary. it stops when necessary. And it did get a fix within 3 minutes on my FreeRunner.

More advanced functionality overview

So we can call the android beta3 release not yet fully functional ready, but maybe the next release will contain a working messaging system. And from that moment, We could say the Android has the same working features as the other FreeRunner distributions. Huray!

How to get the images?
You can find the images here. A guide for installing the images and making your Freerunner ready for the Android can be found here.

Porting Android, Phase 5: How close?

2008-12-03T10:29:00.002+01:00

As Koolu has released their source code today, we are more than close to a fully port. Even more, we are close to fully working android, because Sean McNeil has promised to insert an on-screen keyboard in the next images.

Make compatible Linux kernel (done)
Replace ARMv5 specific code (done)
Create images (done)
Replace hardware specific code (done)
Adding additional software, like on-screen keyboard

Koolu, what for beast is that?
Koolu is an organization that is actively distributing open source phones. For the moment it sells only the Neo FreeRunner, because it is the only open source phone (That is still sold). Next to that, Koolu port and installs third party software to the Neo FreeRunner.

They also claimed, they wanted to sell Neo FreeRunner with Android before the end of Novembre. The deadline is already past, but they rescheduled to decembre. Looking at the status, it is really realistic to have a working Android system on the Neo FreeRunner before this year's end.

When getting issues become a help?
The Android images were offline for a couple of days. That's because all the images (Om2008.9, FSO, Qtopia, Android) contained a media codecs where neither Openmoko or Google has license for. So they removed all the images containing this media codecs and are regenerating them without the media codecs. While they are looking at solving the licensing problem, they encountered an advantagement.

Because the media codecs isn't included in the source code, Koolu comes in a situation it is easier to release the source code instead of the binary images. So that's what happened and Koolu has released a git containing all the Android sources and the patches Sean McNeil has produced.

How close can you get?
Yestarday, Sean McNeil made a new image for the Neo FreeRunner. This image still hasn't an on-screen keyboard, though there are already several solutions. They only need to be patched into the Android source code. Sean McNeil has promised to include them in the new images, but has forgotten them. So how close can you get...

Firefox 3.1 development state

2008-11-17T11:14:00.000+01:00

Proposed beta 2 shedule

Note: This shedule is subject to change. But shows already when to expect the release.

tree closed / frozen	November 4th
en-US builds generated	November 10th
l10n builds generated	November 11th
results QA tests	November 20th
release targeted	November 21th

Testplans state:

Testplan completion %:	86.30% (last week: 86.30%)
Estimated testcases:	748 (last week: 748)
Testcase completion %:	59.05% (last week: 59.05%)

Various bug fixes and recently added features
Bug 463938 - Fix smooth downscaling for images on Linux

Bug 464329 - Land private browsing icons

Bug 463929 - Support 8-bit WAV streams

Last week WAV support was added, like suggested by the HTML 5 spec. Then 8-bit WAV streams weren't supported. This is now fixed and 8-bit WAV streams should now work.

Bug 463692 - Clear the findbar text when leaving the private browsing mode

Back to basics: Update

2008-11-14T11:59:00.002+01:00

We are now 4 weeks after Openmoko announced the 'back to basics' plan. After one week they had all of us fooled. Most of us thought Openmoko hadn't done a thing. But a day later they gave us a rather long list of things they had done. After 2 weeks they even got a real name, the 'Optimization' team. In the 3th week some nice optimizations were made. And so we are at the 4th week.

What's on the menu?
Openmoko has planned a release before the end of this month. They want to surprise us with the release of Om2008.11. This release will most likely contain all the work done by the 'Optimization' team so far. You can find the list of bugs that they want to smoothen out here.

For that reason the 'Optimization' team will not begin new and huge tasks but will smoothen all the work already done. And do some minor bugs. So the testing team can begin testing the new release. So it's solid when it is released.

At which bugs will the Optimization team look?

#69 speed up system initialization: Olv will merge his improvement into testing repo next week.
#1489 sometimes volume is too low during a call: Tick will implement a volume control in qtopia dialer.
#2031 scroll list implementation: Tick will improve etk_scroll_list to fit our designer's idea.
#2113 suspend time come up right after you change the time: Jeremy will look into this.

Official status report

Mozilla firefox 3.0.4 is available

2008-11-14T11:05:00.003+01:00

The 3.0.4 release is only a security release, so no new features are added. This release is only for fixing security issues and important bugs found after the release of Mozilla Firefox 3.0.

The changelog looks like this:

- Fixed several security issues.
- Fixed several stability issues.
- Official releases for the Icelandic and Thai languages are now available.
- Beta releases for the Bulgarian, Esperanto, Estonian, Latvian, Occitan, and Welsh languages are available for testing.
- Updated the internal Public Suffix list.
- Fixed an issue where the IME input tool used to enter Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Indic characters was covered by the "Add Bookmark" panel. (bug 433340)
- Enabled additional EV root certificates. (bug 451305)
- Fixed an issue where some passwords saved using Firefox 3.0.2 did not work properly. (bug 457358)
- In some cases, Firefox would not properly save proxy settings for protocols other than HTTP. (bug 446536)

download here

Back to basics: Update

2008-11-10T18:36:00.006+01:00

We are now 3 weeks (and a few days) after Openmoko announced the 'back to basics' plan. Let's look at the changes.

After one week they had all of us fooled. Most of us thought Openmoko hadn't done a thing. But a day later they gave us a rather long list of things they had done. After 2 weeks they even got a real name, the 'Optimization' team. Now the third week,

What are the main things they did?

The boot time of a bare image (without any GSM stack) is reduced from 50 to 30 seconds. That was done by replacing the well known U-Boot by Qi. Qi is a boot loader developed by Openmoko with the focus to do just booting. It was developed, because u-boot was getting to big. It wanted to support everything and it began to look more on a kernel. Qi has focused to leave everything (except the booting) to the kernel. Even initializing the screen is considered the duty of the kernel. So a boot menu isn't included. You can do multi-boot by the times you press the power-button. It's not yet advised for replacing U-boot with Qi, because you will not be able to use dfu-util anymore.
They also looked into reducing the network registering time at the Qtopia stack (The GSM stack that is used in Om 2008.9). They have been able to reduce it by 32 seconds. There are no images yet, but it will be merged in the future.
Also the suspend/resume issues still get attention. They looked into various bugs, like #1991, #1347. The first bug is when you try to resume, it will stay a black screen. The later is when you try to resume, it immediate suspends again without any reason. For the first one, they have to do a little more debugging. For the latter, they found a fix, but they are looking into a better fix. Btw. There are patches for #1884. That's the bug, when you push the power-button just after suspending, it will do a double suspend. It will be submitted very soon.
They also worked on their python loader for faster booting python applications. They could already reduce the load time of the pyhon sudoku from 2.59s to 1.38s.

Official status report

Porting Android, Phase 4: Done

2008-11-10T16:52:00.005+01:00

Sean McNeil is still actively porting the Android to the Neo FreeRunner. Today there were new images. For a getting started manual, look in my previous blogpost.

In short

Make compatible Linux kernel (done)
Replace ARMv5 specific code (done)
Create images (done)
Replace hardware specific code (done)
- SMS (done)
- Calling (done)
- Wifi (in progress)
- GPS (done)
- Bluetooth (done)
- Accelerators (done)
Adding additional software, like on-screen keyboard

In depth
Most of the devices are already working in the first image that Sean McNeil has posted. Though Bluetooth wasn't fully patched in the images, because Sean forgot to apply one patch. So it didn't work. With the new images (That you can find on the same location as the previous), Bluetooth works magically. In the new image is Wifi still not working in all situations and can be unstable.

The biggest improvement in the new image is the screen redraws. Sometimes you could see the redraws, for example when you opened the 'Shutdown menu'. That has now been solved by implementing 'Page flipping' for the Glamo.

What's next?
By looking at the porting strategy above, you will see that we just need one thing. W'e need a working on-screen keyboard, before we can fully use the Android. To bad for us, Sean will not start to make something like that. There are 2 reasons for that.

Firstly Google has announced they would make an input device management system with an onscreen keyboard in the first quarter of 2009. Secondly it isn't that easy for making a onscreen keyboard. At the moment there are no java bindings for letting a program insert keystrokes to other programs (Due to security constraints). So if you make an onscreen keyboard, you would have to change every program to work with your onscreen keyboard.

So what's next?
There is still plenty to do:

Optimizing the code and all the patches. (And sending upstream)
Making a way to accept incoming calls. (On the HTC G1, there is a accept call button)
Let suspend work reliable

Firefox 3.1 development state

2008-11-09T11:06:00.002+01:00

The code freeze is active now. That means the code will not be changed in favor of adding features. The developers then start to build the browser for the upcoming developer release. The estimated release date is now one day later too. For the coming week, it will be almost only polishing to get a robust and solid developer release.

Proposed beta 2 shedule

Note: This shedule is subject to change. But shows already when to expect the release.

tree closed / frozen	November 4th
en-US builds generated	November 10th
l10n builds generated	November 11th
results QA tests	November 20th
release targeted	November 21th

Testplans state:

The Testcase completion is already above the level (50%) it had to be for the beta 2 release. Testplan completion is coming a bit behind, because it didn't reached 100% yet. Probably it will not reach it too, before release.

Testplan completion %	86.30% (last week: 76,52%)
Estimated testcases:	748 (last week: 762)
Testcase completion %:	59.05% (last week: 59.05%)

Various bug fixes and recently added features

Bug 453440 - Extend "Clear Private Data" dialog with time period option

Just like in chrome it is now possible to remove Private Data from the last hour, the last 2 hours, the last 4 hours, the last day or just everything.

Bug 428096 - Make clipboard and drag-and-drop import and export HTML on Mac.

This makes it possible to paste HTML into rich text editing widget and to copy HTML from the browser to programs supporting HTML.

Bug 449315 - Support WAV format in <audio> element.

Following the HTML5 spec the <audio>-tag should support WAV-files. This implements this, only 8-bit samples aren't implemented.

Bug 461891 - switch to using v2.2 safebrowsing servers.

The differences between the v2.1 and v2.2 aren't that big. So this bug only adds the ability to have empty add chunk as a way to fill in gaps in the chunk list.

Bug 17612 - view-source link-browsing

This bug adds the functionallity to click on links in the source-code of a page. That way it will be very easy to view the source and follow the stylesheets or javascripts that are in different pages. Normally it should already be in Firefox, but it isn't possible in the last nighlty yet.

Bug 449307 - Support duration attribute on media elements
Bug 462916 - Update liboggplay to pick up ability to compute Ogg duration

This bugs adds properties of duration, bufferedBytes, bufferingRate, and totalBytes for the <video>-tag. The big problem was the duration, because it isn't easable readable in the file. Normally it should be given in the header as X-content-duration, but that is mostly not the cause. Therefor it was needed to peek to the end of the file, to know the end timestamp. Now therefor the server need the ability to get only the last part of the file. As last it is also possible to read the file-size and estimate the length of the video

Getting started with Android on Neo FreeRunner

2008-11-05T00:14:00.002+01:00

Getting ready for Android

The sd-card: The android want a sd card placed into the Neo FreeRunner before it will successful start. The sd card also has to be configured with 2 partitions. The first may be fat32 or ext3, but may not be bigger than 256mb. (Edit: Some people has already stated it work with a bigger partition) The second partition has to be ext3. The first partition will be used for storage for music/pictures/movies/... The second will be used for storing settings and for cache.

These partition should preferable be empty, because the Android can stop booting if he finds certain files in one of the two partitions. (That gave the early people who tried running Android a headache. After hours of trying and chatting on the openmoko channel, we finally figured it out.

If you follow these instruction on the wiki for partitioning and formatting your sd card, Android should boot.
The SIM card: Firstly you will have to disable PIN security on your SIM card. (You will have to disable it with another phone, because there is no distribution for the FreeRunner that allow you to disable PIN security) (Edit: Apparantly you can disable PIN security in Qt extended) If you don't do this, Android will ask you to type your PIN on boot. That's no problem, because you get an onscreen keypad for typing your PIN, but even if you type the correct PIN code, the android will tell you otherwise. So you will not get past that screen.

Also you need a working SIM card in the FreeRunner, before Android will start. On the other hand, there are already people confirming they can start the android without SIM card. Though there are also people confirming they need a SIM card, before the Android will start. So if you want to try Android, you have more chance for letting it work if you insert a working SIM card.
Power: Make sure your battery is not empty. I just say this, because you can't tell the difference between a booting Android and a Neo FreeRunner that has an empty battery. They have both black screens.
U-boot: Normally it should be no problem for booting Android with an older bootloader. Though if you don't get your Android working, maybe try upgrading your u-boot to the newest version.

Installing Android

Download the Android images made by Sean McNeil
Flash them using Dfu-util or the easier Neotool. It is at the moment not possible for putting the Android on a SD card. So you will have to overwrite the distro that's located on your Nand memory.

Now you will be able to boot the Android. Just boot by pressing the power button and wait. First you will have a black screen for a minute or two and then the icon of Android will appear. After another minute, you will see the home screen.

Configuring Android

Disable screen timeout: If you don't disable the screen timeout, Android will go into suspend after a minute. The problem is, you will not get Android out of suspend, so you should better disable it. You can do that by scrolling the main button up, than click on the icon 'settings'. Than click on 'Sound & Display', than scroll down and push 'Screen timeout' and choose 'Never timeout'.

Navigating Android

The aux button is the back button. So if you want to leave some part of the system, you will have to press the aux button.
The power button (if you press it shortly) is the menu button. This will give you extra buttons for doing various things. (like customizing)
The power button (if you hold it for 2 second) will lock the screen. I don't get it out of this state without rebooting.
The power button (if you hold it for 4 second) will give you the closing menu. This will let you shutdown Android or choose silent mode.
The power button (if you hold it for 10 seconds) will shutdown android.

What's working?

The GUI: The graphical interface of Android is totally working. There are some glitches with transparency, but it's still very usable. Also the GUI seems to respond very fast.
Calling: Some people are saying they can place outgoing calls, but that's not the majority of the people trying the Android. (And the sound isn't loud enough for understanding eachother) With my Neo FreeRunner I always get 'No SIM card' and can't call other people. Also nobody has already archieved to attend incoming calls.
SMS: You will not be able to send SMS, because there is no onscreen keyboard and that will probably not change very soon. Although Google has already announced they would make one in the first quarter of 2009, maybe somebody of the community can make an onscreen keyboard in the meanwhile. I also don't have read about someone receiving SMS. (Edit: Some people have claimed they can receive SMS)
WIFI/GPS/...: The hardware specific code isn't fully ported yet, so these services will not work now. But Sean McNeil and other people are still busy with porting the Android. So maybe soon.
Batterly life: Because the Android can't go out of suspend, we have configured Android to not to suspend. So battery life will suck. I had a battery life of 6 hours yesterday. But this will most lickely become better.

Edit: I've added some remarks that were in the comments of this blogpost. Thanks Ceci and Tobias, I appreciate it.

Porting Android, Phase 3: Done

2008-11-04T17:02:00.000+01:00

Many blog are now celebrating the successful port of Android. I want to warn everybody, the port isn't done. But today we have images to test android on our Neo FreeRunner.

In short

Make compatible Linux kernel (done)
Replace ARMv5 specific code (done)
Create images (done)
Replace hardware specific code
Adding additional software, like on-screen keyboard

Getting the images

download the images
flash the images with neotool to nand (You cannot boot from sdcard)
make sure you have an fat32 and ext3 partition on you sdcard (Important, else it will not boot)
make sure the sdcard and the simcard are properly installed
boot the images

ps. The android isn't usable for daily usage. SMS + calling doesn't work and it suspends after a while. Also wifi doesn't work.

Back to basics: Update

2008-11-02T20:59:00.000+01:00

We are now 2 weeks (and a few days) after Openmoko announced the 'back to basics' plan. Let's look at the changes.

After one week they had all of us fooled. Most of us thought Openmoko hadn't done a thing. But a day later they gave us a rather long list of things they had done. Also this week, they have worked on the plan and they even got a real name, the 'Optimization' team.

What are the main things they did?

The main problem with the touchscreen is when you try to scroll through a list. It's hard to keep your finger on the screen the whole time. Sometimes you lift your finger of the touchscreen and the FreeRunner things you clicked somewhere. That's now solved in 'testing' image, because those finger presses are filtered if they happen withing 0.3 sec of each other.
Secondly they fixed the testing images. It wouldn't start because of some Wifi trouble. After that, they still have some trouble with the newest release of illume. (Some applications will not launch.)
The echo when someone is calling to the FreeRunner should be solved, but a part of the people are still complaining of the echo. So Openmoko is looking into making a new firmware of the calypso gsm modem. They got green light of TI for letting the users upgrade their calypso modem themselves. (Thank you TI) Plus they have hired someone new for diving into that chip in particularly. Also they are still experimenting with alsa state file for better audio quality, but it's hard to find an alsa state file that works for everyone.
Also there's made an image with the speedup's from previous week.
The Optimization team is also looking into the suspend/resume issues. Nothing earthshaking is happened on these issues, except they are analyzing the issues.

Official status report

Firefox 3.1 development state

2008-10-31T14:50:00.008+01:00

Again a week passed by since the previous development state post. This week there not that much interesting bug fixes and no added features. This is also normal, because now it's time to iron every bug out. Notable is that JIT is finally on by default for content. That means is getting more and more stable for daily use. There was also several fixes for the <video> tag. For the testplans, there is an enormous progres. The number of existing testcases almost doubled. To bad there were added some testplans, leaving minor progression in the testplan completion. The passed testcases increased too and is almost at the 50%. (That is the number it should get before release of Firefox 3.1 beta 2).

Proposed beta 2 shedule

Note: This shedule is subject to change. But shows already when to expect the release.

code freeze	November 4th
builds start	November 7th
qa starts	November 10th
release targeted	November 20th

Testplans state:

Testplan completion %:	76.52% (last week: 70,45%)
Estimated testcases:	762 (last week: 469)
Testcase completion %:	44.05% (last week: 28,33%)

Various bug fixes and recently added features

Bug 456439	add about:rights and a "Know Your Rights" infobar to Firefox.
Bug 462378	Cache video/audio downloads to file
Bug 462294	Add "View Video" to context menu for >video> elements.
Bug 459567	reuse the Session Restore page's window for restoring the session;
Bug 459950	Polish about:sessionrestore;
Bug 459546	Make about:sessionrestore look good on all platforms, Mac part. Also fixes Bug 459740.
Bug 448909	Need more controls WHATWG Video tag (followup patch)
Bug 448680	Starting <video> playback causes master volume to jump to max
...	Enable JIT by default for content
Bug 461281	CPU usage goes to 100% after playing some Ogg files

Android status update

2008-10-29T22:59:00.005+01:00

We are now 9 days after Google brought Android into the opensource community and many people are eager to see the Android on a Neo FreeRunner. There are also many people busy with making this wish reality. Let's look at what's already done.

In short

Make compatible Linux kernel (done)
Replace ARMv5 specific code (almost)
Replace hardware specific code
Adding additional software, like on-screen keyboard

In depth
The Linux kernel was almost directly made compatible by McNeil, because he had early access to the Android source code and could start (in complete silence) with porting it onto the Neo FreeRunner. So most of this work was already done when the Android became open source.

After that Leslie and McNeil started the second phase. They had to find all ARMv5 code and replace it by other. Luckely for them, there exists tools like grep. So they could easily locate the files that had to be changed and they made a nice spreadsheet about their progress. That phase is almost done, only 2 files need to be changed.

So now we are balancing between phase 2 and phase 3. In theorie the whole android can now be compile and thrown into an image. And that's what Benno is trying to do. He started and verly early he noticed he had to change the default filesystem (YAFFS) of android and turn it into jffs2. That was because the YAFFS filesystem doesn't want to mount. After he had more trouble with the filesystems, he was forced to put a part of the system into a YAFFS partition and a part into a jffs2 partition.

After that horror was done, he could make some images and throw it onto his Neo FreeRunner and test if all the theory and coding has paid off. He could let the system boot and go trough the init. It started most of the system services, but failed at some graphics code with an out-of-memory error.

So we have almost a working android. In the next phase, they will try to replace the hardware specific code. So they will for example replace the specific gsm modem code by code that the Neo FreeRunner modem understands.

For really in-depth story about what benno did, look here

FDOM and it's FDOMizer

2008-10-27T16:25:00.008+01:00

Some history
FDOM was announced a little while ago and had a specific main purpose. It wanted to be a distribution image with many applications applied to it. Just to make the Om 2008.8 more than just a mobile phone image. It fulfills that role very good and it's name was chosen for accentuating that purpose. FDOM stands for 'Fat and Dirty' distribution.

It was created by David-Reyes Samblas Martinez. He just picked the om2008.8 distribution and applied some patches and installed almost all applications, he could find on the wiki. After that he made an backup of the image and FDOM was born.

What's the problem?
FDOM was called a distribution by many people, while it doesn't want to be a separate distribution. FDOM was a default Om 2008.9 installation with many addons. Because FDOM was a separate image, people got confused and begun to thing that FDOM was another distribution.

There were also people that knew FDOM was based on Om 2008.9 and were asking how to upgrade their Om 2008.9 to FDOM. Solely for having the applications of FDOM and don't have to lose their contact or messages. (Or don't want to go reflashing). They would plough trough the wiki without finding a cure.

Introducing FDOMizer
With the new release of FDOM on 13 okt, the team behind FDOM has introduced a script named FDOMizer. It's a script that will turn your Om 2008.9 into FDOM. So it will install all the applications and fixes that are default installed in a fresh FDOM installation.

Turn your Om2008.9 into FDOM

ssh into your Om2008.9
wget http://files.tdobson.net/openmoko/freerunner/fdom/FDOMizer20081023.tar.gz
tar -xzvf FDOMizer20081023.tar.gz
FDOMizer/FDOMizer
follow the script

And now you are owner of FDOM.

Openmoko: 'Base' image status review

2008-10-27T12:04:00.003+01:00

Because yesterday was a theoretic review, just by watching the trac bugs that are in testing mode, today I found the time for doing a practical review.

Base image: info - install instructions

previous review

Solved issues

#2071 The base image cannot be started and stops when the WIFI driver is initialized.
#2082 There are no icons on the home screen, so you could not launch anything.
#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.
#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()'.

Newly found issues

I couldn't connect to a Wifi spot with the Settings interface. It said only 'unknown' next to the Wifi. Solution: Connect with the terminal, more information.
Connecting through Mofi was not doable, because Mofi doesn't call the keyboard. Also the qwerty symbol on top of the page is gone and cannot be installed. Solution: Connect with the terminal, more information.
The standard theme of Gtk programs is really ugly. It's just white and the text is to big. Solution: Copy http://alasal.be/openmoko/gtkrc into /usr/share/themes/Raleigh/gtk-2.0

Still an issue

#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.
#1267 The people calling a Neo FreeRunner hear an echo of their own voice.

Getting started with the 'Base' image

2008-10-27T11:54:00.006+01:00

What is the 'Base' image?
The 'Base' image is a distribution that isn't meant to be released. It's a really basic distribution that Openmoko uses for testing the fixes. Because the Openmoko team is now putting their effort into the low-level issues, most likely you will find here the new fixes of these issues.

Install the 'Base' image

Download the kernel, the file system image.
Flash your images with NeoTool

Configuring the 'Base' image

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'.
Restarting device: The first time I started my 'Base' image, I was unable to ssh into it. After I restarted my Neo FreeRunner, I could ssh into it.
Updating opkg: Because the list of applications that opkg can install is outdated, we will have to update opkg by doing:

opkg update
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 the 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 phone software: Now we have our base system. But we want to use our base system for calling and sending sms's. So we need to install some phone software. I will go for the phone software that's are also in the 'Om 2008.8' image and is Qtopia based.

opkg install task-openmoko-qtopia-x11

Now we are ready.
Have a nice FreeRunner time.

Edit: The last step will probably fail with the warning he could not satisfy a dependency. You can overrule that by doing 'opkg install task-openmoko-qtopia-x11 -force-depends'.

Openmoko: 'Base' image status review

2008-10-26T11:28:00.008+01:00

Today I wake up and saw bug #2071 was solved by Openmoko. A couple of minutes later, the newest 'base' images was on my Neo FreeRunner. Here is my review.

Base image: info - install instructions

previous review - next review

Solved issues

#2071 The base image cannot be started and stops when the WIFI driver is initialized.
#2082 There are no icons on the home screen, so you could not launch anything.
#1267 The people calling a Neo FreeRunner hear an echo of their own voice.
#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.

Nice enhancements

You can now switch between the Illume and Qtopia keyboard by going into the Illume settings and changing the keyboard settings.
The new Illume is installed with the new beautifull theme.

New issues found

#2087 The icons and Illume top bar are to small for finger usage.
#2088 Settings application cannot be started

Back to basics: Update

2008-10-24T11:12:00.005+02:00

In my previous blogpost, I was saying nothing was done last week and I'm very glad to announce I was wrong. Because nobody of Openmoko had released any details of what happened, I though nothing was done. Apparently wrong conclusion.

What are the main things they did?

The boottime of Om2008.9 is reduced by 55 seconds. From 2:35 to 1:40. So it's interesting, that the boot time is reduced by a minute in a week. The changes aren't in any image, but will be merged in the future.
#1267: The qtopia echo problem was already solved, but now it's included in testing. Hopefully the base image will boot fully again after they smashed bug #2071, So we can test it. But they already have confirmed to be working on it.
Openmoko has started to look into the touchscreen of the FreeRunner, So they can optimize it for finger usage. They created a program to analyse the finger touches. Analyses were posted to the mailing list. Also a video made it to youtube.

And they did many more and you can read it in a post of John Lee on the mailling list.

Firefox 3.1 development state

2008-10-24T00:02:00.007+02:00

When the previous development state post got posted Firefox 3.1 beta 1 was just released. Now we are again a week further, so it is time to look to the changes. The eye catcher this time is that the work on the video-tag that has landed. Context menu should now be available. Seeker will not take to long to be available. When it happens I will inform you. Most of the backend of private browsing landed too. Thought it will still not work in the nightly releases. The progress on the testplans are going forward too. It needs to, because when beta 2 comes out the testplan completion should be 100% and the testcase completion should be 50%. So some extra work is needed here.

Testplans state:

Testplan completion %:	70.45% (last week: 66,43%)
Estimated testcases:	469 (last week: 424)
Testcase completion %:	28.33% (last week: 27,37%)

Various bug fixes and recently added features

Bug 364315	Speculatively load referenced files while "real" parsing is blocked on a <script src=> load
Bug 449159	Refactor Ogg backend and implement seeking
Bug 426629	"table-layout: fixed" is not invoked if width changes from auto to fixed dynamically
Bug 248970	(PrivateBrowsing) Private Browsing mode (global toggle for saving/caching everything
Bug 324121	(EM Patch) Extensions with available updates for the next version of the app should not be listed in app update extension will be disabled warning.
Bug 456002	Dragging and dropping a tab from a window with 1 tab is broken.
Bug 460751	Progress events should use long long, not long for .total and .loaded
Bug 449522	Context menu for HTML5 <video> elements
Bug 396816	Location bar should be self-describing: "Search Bookmarks and History"

Changes of XMLHttpRequest in Firefox 3.1

2008-10-23T23:54:00.001+02:00

The XMLHttpRequest has undergone an enormous change in Firefox 3.1 (atm not released, the release is for begin 2009) and I would like to let you know what the differences are. Actually XMLHttpRequest has undergone two major changes. One is the support for cross-site XMLHttpRequest. The other new feature is the ability to add progress events to the XMLHttpRequest.

Cross-site XMLHttpRequest

Let's start with Cross-site requests. Until now it was prohibited to get content from other sites then the site it was on. That was because of security raisons. In development that was sometimes a pain in the ass. It happened that you wanted to get data from a server you own yourself, but didn't had the same domainname. Therefor implemented Firefox 3.1 a special way to make it possible to have XMLHttpRequest across different domains.
On the coding part nothing changes for JavaScript. You just change the url to the webpage you want to fetch. On the webpage itself you need to change some bits. You need to let to know that it is alright that the page can be fetched with an cross-site XMLHttpRequest. You need to add an access-control header to the page. There you can specify if it is possible to fetch the page and which domains can fetch it. I will list here some examples of acces-control headers:

// Anyone is allowed to access this resource - no restrictions
Access-Control: allow <*>

// Everyone is denied access to this resource - no exceptions
Access-Control: deny <*>

// Only sites that are hosted on 'mozilla.org' may access this resource
// (this includes sub-domains as well)
Access-Control: allow <mozilla.org>

// All sub-domains but developer.mozilla.org, of mozilla.org, can access this resource
Access-Control: allow <mozilla.org> exclude <developer.mozilla.org>

// Only this domain, on this port, with this request method can access the resource
Access-Control: allow <developer.mozilla.org:80> method GET, POST

more examples can be found in the W3C Acces Control working draft

Progress events

As of now it is much easier to monitor the state of an XMLHttpRequest. You are now easily able to monitor the percentage that is done. You can run an function when the transfer is complete. The same for when the download is canceled or failed. All that is with the use of eventListener on the XMLHttpRequest. This demands some example code that is coming now...

var req = new XMLHttpRequest();

req.addEventListener("progress", updateProgress, false);
req.addEventListener("load", transferComplete, false);
req.addEventListener("error", transferFailed, false);
req.addEventListener("abort", transferCanceled, false);

req.open();

...

function updateProgress(evt) {
  if (evt.lengthComputable) {
    var percentComplete = evt.loaded / evt.total;
    ...
  } else {
    // Unable to compute progress information since the total size is unknown
  }}
}

function transferComplete(evt) {
  alert("The transfer is complete.");
}

function transferFailed(evt) {
  alert("An error occurred while transferring the file.");
}

function transferCanceled(evt) {
  alert("The transfer has been canceled by the user.");
}

And now hopefully the other browser will adapt this soon, so it gets very easy to monitor the state of XMLRequests.

Is Openmoko working on their 'back to basics' plan?

2008-10-23T22:33:00.009+02:00

Openmoko has announced their 'Back to basics' plan a week ago. It's time to review. Has they stick to their plan to reduce boot time and started to fix the suspend/resume problems?

I've followed the Git branches, mailing lists and trac changelogs closely and I can only say I'm deeply disappointed. There was a hooray of almost 98 messages, when Openmoko announced they would work on the low-level issues. It's sad that they will have to dissapoint them. This week Openmoko has worked on Qi (A replacement of u-boot) and Gta03 (The next openmoko cell phone)

At Openmoko: Please explain me. Am I overlooking things or are you forgotten your own plan? We (the community) hoped, you heard us clear. We want you to handle the lowlevel things. That's our main concern right now: Getting you to handle the things most of us can't.

Answer of Openmoko (John Lee): We are working on multiple issues including the two subjects you mentioned. There will be public update to the mailing list, wiki page update (Improving user experience), etc. Please just be patient.

ps. There is an update of openmoko on their progress with the 'back to basics' strategy, please read.

Phase one of porting Android: Done

2008-10-23T14:50:00.003+02:00

You probably know already that the android platform has become opensource 2 days ago. Else check my previous blog post. Now there are 4 big phases in porting the android to our beloved Neo FreeRunners.

First there has to be made a compatible linux kernel. This is kernel with all the necessary modules for letting the android platform work.
Secondly all the platform specific ARMv5 code has to be replaced by ARMv4 code. That's just because our Neo FreeRunner runs another processor and isn't fully compatible with a newer ARMv5 processor. So basicly Android is written for talking in ARMv5 code to the processor, while our ARMv4 processor in the Neo FreeRunner doesn't understand that.
Thirdly all the hardware-specific code has to be replaced by function for calling the Neo FreeRunner hardware. Because the code in Android thinks he's talking to a HTC G1.
Fourthly we will have to make additional software or change software, before we can fully use the Android. For example an on screen keyboard isn't included in the default stack of the Android.

How far is the port?
Phase 1 (Done): Now 2 days after the release of the sources, phase 1 is almost finished. There is a working kernel with the extras modules necessary located at Koolu (You will have to register). The patches against the Openmoko kernel are already submitted and are ready to be included in the stable kernel branch. Maybe some patches will be rewritten for making the integration into the Openmoko kernel a little easier.

Phase2 (Busy): There are already some people busy with looking into porting the special ARMv5 commands to ARMv4, but nobody has yet reported their result.

So keep up the good working. I want to thank Bricode from koolu.org and Sean McNeil for the patches and work they already have done. It's very appreciated. If anyone wants to help with porting, these are the guys to contact.

Headup on the Android platform

2008-10-22T00:18:00.003+02:00

For the people living in a shelf: Android is an platform including operating system (Linux), middleware (Similar to what the framework of FSO will become eventually) and applications almost all made by Google. So basically an all in one software solution for a mobile phone.

Why doesn't it run on my FreeRunner yet?
The main problem was that Android wasn't opensource. (Although Google had promised it would be opensource) Another problem was that the Neo FreeRunner runs on another architecture (an older one) than where Android was compiled for. Thought this would not be a problem, if Android was opensource. Because then people could start changing on the source and make it work for the FreeRunner. Luckely for us, Google has kept it's promise.

And where can I find the images for flashing it onto my FreeRunner?
You will not find them (yet). But many persons in the community are earerly hacking there way into the Android code, mainly to get it ported onto the FreeRunner. So has Sean McNeil already reported on the mailling list, that he some patches for letting Android work on the Neo FreeRunner.

Whaoooo, finnaly a fully working distribution!
I would say don't exargerate. Most likely, the core bugs like the one when the FreeRunner keeps reregistring will also be in the android. Just because the android will use the same drivers as all other distributions. Luckely for us, Openmoko has decided to target these basic bugs. (more information). Also the android is programmed with in mind that the phone has a reel keyboard. So I expect problems with typing with the android on the FreeRunner. But for every problem, there is a right solution. So we will see, if the android becomes just another distribution or can lift the FreeRunner to a new level.

Fennec Alpha Walkthrough

2008-10-20T21:10:00.001+02:00

Fennec Alpha Walkthrough from Madhava Enros on Vimeo.

First impression of private browsing in Firefox 3.1 nightly's

2008-10-20T10:29:00.002+02:00

One big relief, as of now it is visible that private browsing will probably make it in Firefox 3.1. This feature already suggested for Firefox 3.0 didn't made it because the lack of time and for Firefox 3.1 it almost happened again. Normally should every new feature already be in the browser before the beta 1 is released. After that only bug fixes are allowed anymore to get a solid and stable version. Luckily private browsing was one of the features that was agreed to come later. Yesterday the first bits of private browsing were checked in. Still you won't see a change on the nightly builds. That's because the changed parts are getting ignored in absence of the Private Browsing service.

So what should be possible with private browsing? The idea is to have a state where the browser doesn't record data and doesn't store anything local on where you have been. So something like surfing off record. History, passwords, cookies, favorites ... will not get saved. The implementation that is chosen for now in Firefox 3.1 is that when you put private browsing on it will never write something to the disk (to update DB containing all the information) and all the rest will happen in the RAM. When going back to your normal state, it will just get everything back from the disk. So the information saved in the RAM are lost, like intended.

To start private browsing you need to go to Tools and just under 'Clear Private Data' you will find 'Private Browsing'. On click you will get a prompt which mode you want. At the moment it is implemented in two modes. Or you can choose that the private browsing mode starts with your current tabs open or you can choose that a new instance need to start. Your current tabs get saved and hided. Whenever you stop with private browsing the browser will restore the tabs you were busy with.

Like I told you it is still not possible to test this feature in the nightly releases, but there are build made where it is available. You can try the builds of the try server, where I can confirm the private browsing is already working.

link to the tryserver

note: this is still considered as non-stable

Community Updates: 04-19 October 2008

2008-10-20T10:17:00.000+02:00

There's another fantastic unofficial community update from MinhHaDuong. Enjoy!

Getting Pingus on your Neo FreeRunner

2008-10-19T18:49:00.001+02:00

Pingus is an open-source clone of the Lemmings game. Basically you have to guide as many creatures as you can to the finish point, by letting them dig, jump, build brigdes,... So fun guarantied. Luckily for us, it's now ported to the FreeRunner.

Installation:

ssh into your FreeRunner
opkg install http://downloads.openmoko.org/repository/testing/armv4t/libsdl-1.2-0_1.2.11-r6_armv4t.opk
opkg install libpng3
opkg install http://alasal.be/openmoko/repo/pingus_0.7.2-r0_armv4t_DolfFix2.ipk

How to play:

You can move around the place by hitting map-overview.
For the rest: point and click.

Thanks to Sander Van Grieken to port and package Pingus for the Neo FreeRunner. I've just changed his package a bit. Now the screen rotates automaticly, it starts with the right screen resolution and it uses the slowmode, so it should work a little faster. Also i've muted the sound, because it was regurarly hanging. And it starts in fullscreen, so you can enjoy it fully.

First mobile version of Firefox is here

2008-10-18T22:31:00.001+02:00

Fennec alpha 1 just released. This will be the mobile version of Firefox that will get released around 2010 for mobile phones. It is still a very early developer release, but it shows already where the mobile version is going too. The focus for now was implementing a new intuitive and user friendly interface. Later releases will focus on security and performance, like implementing Tracemonkey and speculative parsing.

So important in this release is the user interface. It is quite different then normal browsers, even quite different then mobile browsers. The user interface is heavenly based on use with touchscreen. The buttons are rather big so they are easy hittable and there is made an ingenious system to have as much as possible screen available for the site itself. That's why the back and forward buttons are invisible by default. You need to swipe to the left to show the buttons. The same to the right to view the different tabs. If you scroll down the urlbar goes up, like it is on top off the page. So most of the time, the page covers the whole screen.

Fennec will eventually available for the Maemo software platforms. So not for Iphone or other devices for now. So if you have a N810 you can install it and see how it shapes up. If you don't have that and are eager to try it, there are also builds made for Windows, Linux and Mac to try it.

So for the ones interested: download link

Openmoko: 'Base' image status review

2008-10-18T22:14:00.002+02:00

After installing and configuring my 'Base' image this week, I did opkg update && opkg upgrade today. Here's my status review.

next review

New issues found:

#2071 After doing upgrade, the base image will not start anymore. Apparently Wifi initializing is blocking a proper startup.

ps. So my advice is: don't upgrade your base image (except if you want to help with fixing the bug), because it makes that image unusable. I will report when the issue is solved.

Edit: Sorry, I had written 'Stable' image instead of 'Base' image. Thanks to the replies that has put me to thinking. Sorry for my mistake.

Howto install VirtualBox 2.0.2 Guest Additions in Ubuntu 8.04 and 8.10

2008-10-17T17:42:00.007+02:00

EDIT: I noticed a lot of people using the newly Ubuntu 8.10 are visiting this page to get their VirtualBox working properly. These instructions should still work.

If you use VirtualBox you probably are very curious to use the Guest additions, because they make it possible to have seamless windows, auto-resize screen, mouse pointer integration, better display drivers ... If your guest OS is Ubuntu, you probably had some trouble with installing them. Normally you only need to go to devices and press 'Install Guest Additions' (when the OS is up an running) and it should get installed without problems.

Now with Ubuntu it doesn't work like that. A cdrom get's attached, but it doesn't run automatic. So first I will explain it for Ubuntu 8.04 how to run it.
1. Open a terminal (goto 2 if you know your own way)
1.1. Press Alt-F2
1.2. Type 'gnome-terminal' and hit enter
2. Type 'cd /media/cdrom/' and hit enter
3. Type 'sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run'
4. Now you need to type your password (the install needs root-rights)
5. Like the message says, afterwards you need to restart the computer to let the changes take effect

For Ubuntu 8.10 beta 1 it is almost the same. But first you need to be sure you're working with VirtualBox 2.0.2. Prior versions will not work with Ubuntu 8.10. If you got that you need to do the same as above. After the restart you will still need to do some things, because the screen driver isn't activated by default.

1. Open a terminal (look above if you don't know how)
2. Type 'sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf'
3. Type your password (needs root-rights again and afterwards a text editor should appear )
3. Find:

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

4. Change to:

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
 Driver  "vboxvideo"
EndSection

5. Save (press ctrl+s)
6. log out and log back in (restarting also works)

The road ahead: Even more basic

2008-10-17T17:04:00.001+02:00

In a previous blog post, I explained Openmoko was trying to focus on a stable 'Base' image. An image that contains only the linux stack, a settings application and an install application. But last week the FSO team were gathering at the main site at Taipei. They have talked about the framework and how some new services should work. But that was not the only thing they talked about...

Did they have a chat about cows?
No, they talked about the future of Openmoko and how they would obtain the goal of a working phone that is totally opensource. We, the community has complained enough that there were to many 'basic' problems. Like suspend not working. Wrong coordinates on a rotated screen. Echo when someone called us. So they wanted to solve that by going 'back to basics'. And that was the slogan that emerged from that meeting.

But what is 'Basic'?
'Going back to basics' means something different to many people. That can be seen on the posts that came on the mailing lists. For some people 'Basic' is making all phone functionality work reliable. Others sees it as making new phone software. Others don't want the basics blablabla, but want the framework in the basic image as soon as possible and go further from there. What Openmoko sees as 'Basic' can found on different places, like the 41th weekly engineering news. They think 'base' as something that isn't GUI. So the settings and install application from the 'Base' image will be de-prioritized. They want to optimize Linux for the openmoko and improve the user experience without making or introducing new functionality.

So much blabla, what exactly are they focusing on?
At the moment, they are focusing on the following things:

They want to reduce boot time, so the phone is also handy in emergency cases. Because an cell phone that's off and is only useble after 5 minutes booting, isn't very handy when you want to call an ambulance.
Optimize the touch screen driver on the Neo FreeRunner. The driver was written without thinking about finger usage and could have some improvement in that area.
An generic python loader. So will Openmoko optimize the startup time of python applications. Python is commonly used for small applications, so it should be handy to optimize this. Also the next-generation application (like tichy and paroli) will be using python.
They also want to improve the suspend and resume system, because many bugs are related to some suspend or resume failure.

But now they want to hear from the community, which 'Basic' problems should be solved. (Apparently Openmoko has heard our complaints about not involving the community in the process and want to improve on that issue. Big bravo for Openmoko)

So they are stopping to work on FSO?
No, The people working on the framework will still be working on the framework. For openmoko the framework is one of the most important things. It will eventually give developers/hackers the opportunity for talking to the phone's hardware, with nice and easy dbus messages. Almost all other people involved with the kernel will be executing the 'back to basics' thought. Openmoko has also hired some new people. So together with the community they will try to get the next milestone.

Firefox 3.1 development state

2008-10-17T15:50:00.002+02:00

Firefox 3.1 beta 1 is released a couple of days back. Still development keeps going. The next development release 'beta 2' is coming approximately mid November (conducted out the fact the code freeze is the 4th November). Nexto the handful features that may land then, stability fixes and bug fixes are extremely important in this state of the development, especially for new features.
Therefor there are made features testplans to check if the features behave like they were mend to do. Afterwards they get checked and all the testplans should pass. Now for 'beta 2' it is stated that 100% of the testplans should be ready and the development release should pass at least for 50%. (For the Release Candidate 90% should pass).

Testplans state:

Testplan completion %:	66,43% (last week: 58%)
Estimated testcases:	424 (last week: 382)
Testcase completion %:	27,37% (last week: 18%)

Various bug fixes and recently added features

Bug 450939	- Add -moz-window-shadow CSS property
Bug 450944	- Implement -moz-window-shadow functionality on Mac OS X
Bug 377439	- Make scrollbars live to scrollbar style changes in the system prefs
Bug 237592	- Bookmarks/RSS items should always show tooltip when hovering with mouse
Bug 414728	- statusbar not using cool new embossed text-shadow-effect-thing for statusbar text
Bug 394611	- Always prompt the user before changing a stored password
Bug 459300	- JSON should use internal JS functions where it makes sense.
Bug 457906	- browser.cache.disk.capacity MBs are calculated incorrectly.
Bug 448976	- turn the Session Restore prompt into an error page

Some usefull tools

2008-10-17T14:32:00.003+02:00

This are some of the tools I use daily to manage all different distribution and the applications that are already ready for the FreeRunner.

Neotool: A great tool for flashing to your Neo FreeRunner or backup the adapted images. It's handy because you don't have to remember all the different command line utilities.

Opgk: A website that's trying to list all the different applications that can be installed on the different distro's.

Weekly Engineering News 41/2008

2008-10-15T13:23:00.005+02:00

Weekly Engineering News: Index, Source

everybody,
back to the basics!

That's the main news from Taipei last week. We decided to focus our
engineering on just the basics, even less eye candy: Robust kernel,
fast boot time, basic telephony with great audio quality, powerful
configuration from the command line, hardware quality. That's it.
We will stop working on our Installer, Locations, Diversity and
Settings applications. We will get back to all this when the rest is
rock solid, but now is not the time. Feel free to pickup any of these
projects in the meantime, it's a great way to get affiliated with
Openmoko as we will surely get back to them later - hardware features
of GTA03 remain as currently planned.
To support the new strategy, we have made some organizational changes.
The way we are funding freesmartphone.org and Mickey's framework team
has been changed (http://www.vanille-media.de/site/index.php/2008/10/14/ci61-0650-fra/
), John Lee will form a group of Taiwanese software engineers whose
focus will be on optimizing various parts of the software stack. We
are working on a new way to empower Andy and have him build and lead a
kernel team.

Some lighter news from the office: Sean found an article about Pixar's
"Collective Creativity" and we are now creatively interpreting the
article for our Taipei office life :-)
See the article: http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp?articleID=R0809D&ml_action=get-article&print=true
Somewhere it mentions "inadvertent encounters", so we randomly
shuffled everyone's seats! A lot of fun! There are indeed lots of new
inadvertent encounters in the office now, as everybody is scrambling
to find their colleagues...

The head of our testing team, Regina Kim, moved to Australia and will
continue to work from there.
We hired a new IT person, Ray Chao, to work full-time in Taipei. He
will co-work with roh + gismo in Berlin. One of his first big tasks
will be to take over responsibility to keep our automated daily builds
running.
We hired Christopher Hall, a very experienced engineer who will start
in production testing software and may later help us a lot on bigger
tasks.

More next week, everybody here stays focused on GTA02 bug fixing and
GTA03 development...
Best Regards,
Wolfgang & Marek

Firefox 3.1 beta 1 is out

2008-10-15T08:47:00.004+02:00

Firefox 3.1 beta1 is released. I will not bug you with an enormeous post about what is new. I provide you the download link so you can play with it and find the new features yourself. If you need some help with finding the new features. I found an excellent post describing the new things.

download: link
information: link

Openmoko: SHR status review

2008-10-14T16:42:00.001+02:00

Not long ago, the first images of the SHR were hitting the road. They still say it's in alpha, but I was curious enough for taking the risk. And here is my report.

New issues found:

#7 The top bar and the icons in the home application are to small. You need a stylus to handle it.
#5 Some application listed in the home application are missing icons.
#1 The application for sending sms's is in place, but can't send sms's. It will never complain that something failed, but the receiver will never get the sms.
#27 I couldn't put SHR into some sort of silent mode, so it only vibrates when there is a sms or phone call.
#28 SHR doesn't include fixes for the echo that people are experiencing when calling to a FreeRunner.
#29 It always suspend 1 second after screen blank, even when you change the settings.

Improved session restore manager for Firefox 3.1 beta 2

2008-10-14T14:35:00.010+02:00

Session restore manager just got an update to fix a whole bunch of bugs. It will be included in the release of Firefox 3.1 and is already in the nightly releases. Instead of showing a popup message to restore the tabs when you crashed, you will get redirected to a page where you can choose if you want to restore the tabs and which tabs you want to restore. One note, this is only if the browser crashes, else it will show the normal session restore popup.

One of the major bugs that get fixed due to this is that if a web-page let the browser crash it will restart asking you to restore the tabs. If you choose yes the web-page will let the browser crash again, because the page get opened again. So actually you can only choose between: Yes, I want to restore my tabs and let my browser crash again or No, I want a clean session. With the improved restore manager you can restore every page, except the buggy web-page. That way Firefox doesn't crash again, but do you have your tabs back.

bug: #448976

Getting started with the 'Base' image

2008-10-13T17:17:00.004+02:00

There is a new getting started, please read.

What is the 'Base' image?
The 'Base' image is a distribution that isn't meant to be released. It's a really basic distribution that is targetting for getting linux, illume (user interface), an installer application and a settings application very stable. And that basic image will be used for making new releases of 'FSO' or 'Om 2008.*'. It will also be the basic for whenever the framework of FSO will be merged into the 'Om 2008.*' distribution (But now we are speaking in the far feature).

The 'Base' image is where the developers of Openmoko are putting their effort. Almost every day you can update your base system. That's an advantage, but also an disadvantage, because fixes can break other stuff. So if you are willing to use this image, you will have the bleeding edge (and also the newest bugs).

You can find a more in depth explanation in my previous blogpost.

Install the 'Base' image

Download the kernel, the file system image.
Flash your images with NeoTool

Configuring the 'Base' image

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'.
Restarting device: The first time I started my 'Base' image, I was unable to ssh into it. After I restarted my Neo FreeRunner, I could ssh into it.
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

And now we have to restart our Neo FreeRunner, so it sees the new DNS settings. But a restart takes to long, so we are doing a shortcut. Doing the following commands, will set the dns until you reboot.

echo nameserver 208.67.222.222 > /etc/resolv.conf
echo nameserver 208.67.220.220 >> /etc/resolv.conf
Updating opkg: Because the list of applications that opkg can install is outdated, we will have to update opkg by doing:

opkg update
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 the 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.
Changing illume theme: Now we are using the default 'Om 2008.8' theme, but we want the standard illume theme. This include the 'qwerty' toggle button and will add a new configuration icon.

sed -i -e s,asu,illume, /etc/enlightenment/default_profile

You will have to restart your x before the changes are visible.

/etc/init.d/xserver-nodm restart

Now we will have to turn Suspend off (yet again). You can change it by clicking at the new settings icon on the top bar. Then you will find power and in the second section you will find 'Suspend After Blank' and there you will choose 'Off'.
Install phone software: Now we have our base system. But we want to use our base system for calling and sending sms's. So we need to install some phone software. I will go for the phone software that's are also in the 'Om 2008.8' image and is Qtopia based.

opkg install task-openmoko-qtopia-x11

Because there is a small problem with starting the command necessary for qtopia applications to work, we will have to do a quickfix. Add the following command at the last but one line in the file /etc/X11/Xsession.d/89qtopia, between the modem power on and the qpe startup.

ldconfig

After a restart, you can now use the 'Base' image for mobile phone purposes, like calling and sms's.

Now we are ready.
Have a nice FreeRunner time.

What needs still to be done for Firefox 3.1 beta 2

2008-10-12T21:19:00.004+02:00

Now the developer release of Firefox 3.1 beta 1 is almost hitting the road, it's time to look what's coming next. Together with the release of beta 1 code freeze is active now. New features may not land in beta 2, because they can bring new bugs and instability. Still some important new features hasn't landed yet. Of most features the backend is already ready, but there is stil need for UI changes or minor code changes. Therefor there is made a list of features that may land in beta 2. Some highlighted in this post.
First of the features that will get finalysed is the <video> tag. The backend is as good as done. Now it is time to get neutral default controls cross platform and they need to be themeable aswell. Beta 2 should also contain the possibility to seek/scrub.
Another feature that still needs to get some UI design is the private browsing mode. The backend is also as good as done, UI design still didn't started yet.
A lot of changes in the field of plugins is also allowed to get a little bit later. There is already a way to 'prevent users from running out of date plugins that represent security risks ' and 'prohibit users from using plugins known to be vulnerable ', but there should come a nice warning on startup of the browser. Also the developers want to bring back the expierence of plugins discovered and installed for the user like in Firefox 2.0 back.
So there is still alot of work before the release of Firefox 3.1, but it will be an enormous improvement and completion of Firefox 3.0.

The first images of SHR are hitting the road

2008-10-11T11:59:00.000+02:00

SHR stands for 'Stable Hybrid Release' and is a community based distribution. It was created because the community liked 'Om 2007.2' more than 'Om 2008.2'. The 'Om 2007.2' had stable software, that did not crash that often. In the same period, FSO was hitting the road. It tripled the available distribution from 1 to 3. So some of the community wanted to build a hybrid release. They wanted the base of 'Om 2008.8', add the stable software of 'Om 2007.2' and port it to the handy framework of FSO. So a hybrid release that would combine the best of three.

But things has changed. Porting the 'Om 2007.2' applications to the framework is harder than just writing new applications. Also supporting absolute software, isn't that easy. And thirdly it's always more fun to write your own applications. So SHR will now combine the best of two. They will release images based on 'Om 2008.*' with the handy framework of FSO and make their own application that will be using the framework.

That's all history, what's new?
SHR has made his first image. Now you can taste what SHR will be. You can flash it onto your Neo FreeRunner. Also good news for the Neo 1973 holders, because there are also images for them. You can find all the images here

Install SHR

Download the kernel and the file system image.
Download Neotool and use it for flashing kernel and file system

SHR review
General

The icons of the home-screen are to small
The top bar is to small and almost not accessible without a stylus
Nice background copy from the FSO distribution

Sms

I can receive sms's, they will popup on front of everything
The messages that I get don't appear in the inbox of the 'Messages' application
I can't send sms's. That's because there's no application for sending sms's.

Phone

Cannot call someone, because the 'Dialer' applications fails.
Other people can call me and I can choose to answer, but the sound isn't working. So other people don't hear me and I don't hear them.

Conclusion
So the first images are hitting the road, but there are still many things to do. But for the first image, I'm even surprised it even starts. (And It feels like it starts faster than all the other images) So if you're interested into diving into the FSO framework and want to help the community in making a frontend, this is your chance.

The road ahead. From om 2008.8 to a working phone!

2008-10-10T13:18:00.006+02:00

As many people already know, Openmoko has stopped (or at least reduced) their updates for the om 2008.9. That's because om 2008.9 is considered pretty usable. Don't get me or Openmoko wrong. They don't say om 2008.9 is stable.

Are they in hibernation now?
No, Openmoko is now putting effort into the 'base' image. That's an image only containing the settings and installer application. They want to build a rock solid base for om 2008.* and FSO. Because up till now, the changes that were made on the installer/settings or other lowlevel stuff had to be imported into the 2 stacks. They had to check if everything still worked and not all updates that went into om 2008.9 was available on FSO. So they ended up with 2 images and had to do almost everything twice.

There is another reason why the 'base' image was born. Because the FSO stack contains an framework for handling the gsm/bluetooth/audio/gps/network/..., it is meant to be merged into the om2008.* distribution. At that point all (or almost all) the qtopia stuff will be replaced with the backends of FSO. So that step is easier when the two (om 2008.* and FSO) already have the same base.

The road ahead...
In far dreams, Openmoko is trying to mix the framework of FSO into the 'om 2008.*' (That will be 'om 2009.*' at the time). So anyone who wants to make an application for the Neo FreeRunner, will have an easy library to speak to the underlying hardware. Then they will also remove all the qtopia stuff (because FSO and Qtopia would fight over the ownership of the hardware) and mix another frontend into it, that will be called Paroli.

ps. This post is an mix of everything I've read on the mailling lists, the chat and the wiki. So this is no opinion of Openmoko and Openmoko hasn't correct or helped with this post. So if you find any wrong assuptioms (What I doubt), please post a comment.

Openmoko: Compiling on your om 2008.9

2008-10-09T20:04:00.000+02:00

Sometimes it can be handy to compile your applications directly on your Neo FreeRunner. A great advantage is that you don't have to copy the files back and forth anymore. Also you don't have to use the Toolchain that can be cumbersome. Also setting you're development environment with MokoMakefile can take very long. At last compiling directly on the Neo FreeRunner is an easy step for beginning to develop your own applications or change other applications.

But when you try to compile your first c-file, you will notice something. You will be stuck without the utilities needed for compiling. The following command will install these basic utilities you need for successful compiling on the FreeRunner.

opkg install coreutils binutils gcc make cpp python-devel python-setuptools cpp-symlinks gcc-symlinks libc6-dev

Now you will have the necessary utilities to use 'make' into the directory you want to compile.

Web-based protocol handlers in FF3.0

2008-10-06T09:36:00.001+02:00

Still a feature more or less unknown for most persons is the Web-based protocol handlers. Available since Firefox 3.0 it integrates Web 2.0 applications more in the browser. So what is it about. Normally if you use a protocol handler (like mailto: or irc: ...) you usually will get asked if you want to start the appropriate program or to select the appropriate program. Now it is possible to use a Web 2.0 application as protocol handler. So for example now is it possible to open gmail, whenever you click a 'mailto:' link.

As example I will show you how to set gmail as your default email client.
1. You go to tools
2. Click on options
3. Navigate to the 'Applications' tab
4. There you search for 'mailto'
5. In the second column you can select 'gmail'
Now every time you click on a 'mailto' link, gmail will get opened.

For Web Application developers I would recommend to read the following link, because there is some more information to let your web application being used by protocol handlers. Be careful by default it isn't allowed to register your application using JavaScript. So you will need to add the instruction to do it by hand.

Firefox 3.1 will have native JSON support

2008-10-01T19:51:00.001+02:00

For those unaware of what JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is. JSON is a method to exchange data (think more about the content of variables) across multiple programming languages. At first it was only available for JavaScript, but now almost every language has its parser. It started as way to improve the use of 'eval' in JavaScript to parse data obtained through Ajax or other ways. The big problem with 'eval' was it is very easy to create a security hole. JSON eliminates that and it is possible to exchange data without fear.

So what's the buzz? Firefox 3.0 already contained native JSON support! Yes it did, but it was only available for code with elevated privileges. So only add-on developers could use it. Also it isn't too easy to remeber the code.

<script>
// encode to string using native implementation
var Ci = Components.interfaces;
var Cc = Components.classes;

var nativeJSON = Cc["@mozilla.org/dom/json;1"].createInstance(Ci.nsIJSON);
var testNative = nativeJSON.encode(testObj);
</script>

So you could without problems say the native JSON support was limited and only for testing it for further releases. Normally the developer release of Firefox 3.1 beta 1 will give native support for JSON available for web developers. Just like Internet Explorer 8.0 beta 2 already supports JSON natively. Also Webkit is already looking to implement JSON natively.

So it will not take to long, before you just can parse and serialize data natively. Here is also the code that would do the job.

<script>
var jsObjString = "{\"memberNull\" : null, \"memberNum\" : 3"};
var jsObjStringParsed = JSON.parse(jsObjString);
var jsObjStringBack = JSON.stringify(jsObjStringParsed);
</script>

Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 Testday

2008-10-01T08:37:00.003+02:00

In preparation of the developer release of Firefox 3.1 Beta 1, there will held a testday on Friday the 3th. I would request everyone to test it, to get a solid beta 1 release or to know where the problems are before the Firefox browser get released offically.

Hey Everyone!

It's time to test the Firefox Nightly Trunk Build in preparation of the
Firefox 3.1 Beta 1!

Join us Friday, October 3, 2008 in #testday on IRC from 7am - 5pm PDT.
Here is how you can help us:

We are on the road to Firefox 3.1 Beta 1, so there is plenty to test! If
you want to test your your
favorite Firefox Feature,great! But you can also run some more tests in
Litmus (http://litmus.mozilla.org)
and try out the Nightly Build and the other great new Firefox
improvements ! For the Firefox 3.1 Feature List
please see https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox3.1/Features.

How to prepare for Test Day:

* Download a Firefox Nightly Build from
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/
* Save your profile data! You should either back up your profile or use
the profile manager to
create a new profile for testing.

Getting started on Test Day:

First join us in #testday on irc.mozilla.org so you can chat with the
Mozilla QA team and community.
There are always people in the channel to meet, work with, and get help
from.

Then choose one or more of the following things to do:

* Run various test cases on Litmus! Ask for help in the #testday channel
if you're not familiar with Litmus.
If a testcase is terribly unclear, mark it as such. When you have
questions about using Litmus, please ask the
moderators in the testday channel or see the Litmus tutorial .

For more general information about Test Days, visit
http://quality.mozilla.org/events/test-days

* If you want to help us test various pre-releases early and often
(alphas, betas, release candidates), join our betatesters mailing list!
* If you are interesting in specific Testing on Mac (10.4 and also
Leopard) and Vista please see http://quality.mozilla.org/node/287.

Hope to see you on Friday !

Thanks,

Tomcat
Team Mozilla QA

Openmoko: Om2008.9 status review

2008-09-29T22:05:00.000+02:00

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

2008-09-28T23:09:00.002+02:00

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

2008-09-28T20:51:00.003+02:00

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

2008-09-26T23:52:00.002+02:00

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

2008-09-23T18:46:00.003+02:00

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

2008-09-21T12:06:00.002+02:00

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

2008-09-21T00:00:00.000+02:00

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

2008-09-18T18:29:00.006+02:00

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

2008-09-16T13:38:00.003+02:00

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

2008-09-15T22:22:00.005+02:00

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

2008-09-15T11:10:00.004+02:00

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

2008-09-15T01:06:00.001+02:00

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'

2008-09-14T18:08:00.004+02:00

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

2008-09-12T23:44:00.004+02:00

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

2008-09-09T22:19:00.003+02:00

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

2008-09-09T00:00:00.005+02:00

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

2008-09-06T08:42:00.005+02:00

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

Openmoko: Some news on the echo front

2008-09-05T21:49:00.004+02:00

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

2008-09-05T17:47:00.004+02:00

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

2008-09-04T12:43:00.007+02:00

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

2008-09-03T11:29:00.003+02:00

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

2008-09-02T20:33:00.009+02:00

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

2008-09-02T16:22:00.016+02:00

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

2008-09-01T23:23:00.009+02:00

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

TraceMonkey will drasticly increase speed of Javascript in FF3.1

2008-08-31T20:16:00.006+02:00

Firefox 3.1 will be the next major Firefox release. There is still no release date known, but it will probably be end of 2008, start of 2009. The last official (development) release is Alpha 2 released on 19 August. The developers are still hard busy with working and a lot has already changed between then and now.

TraceMonkey is one of those things. It started as an adaption to the JavaScript Engine to increase the speed of JavaScript and has now landed in the nightly releases. Still not enabled by default cause of some regressions, but if you want you can enable it yourself and see what the speed improvements really are.

Step 1: Download the latest release
Step 2: Type 'about:config' in the urlbar
Step 3: Search for javascript.options.jit.content
Step 4: Enable it

It is still buggy, so webpages that use advanced javascript will probably break (ex. google docs)

You could now ask why the speed of JavaScript is so important. First you need to know that FireFox uses his own technologie of Javascript to render the layout of his browser. So actually almost every button is made out of Javascript and CSS. So if JavaScript get faster, the browser gets faster to. To let TraceMonkey increase the speed of Javascript in the browser to, you need to enable another thing:

Step 1: Type 'about:config' in the urlbar
Step 2: Search for javascript.options.jit.chrome
Step 3: Enable it

Now Firefox itself will be responsiver and faster. (Also still buggy)

But sites can also use this boost. It makes existing websites faster and opens a way to more complicated and advanced sites, without having to worry about the performance.

To see some numbers about the speed up, I would recommer you to read: Brendan's blog
More information about the used technology: trace trees (PDF)

Gnometris again acting like tetris

2008-04-09T22:59:00.003+02:00

Gnometris is a game provided by gnome. It is in the distribution standard and is just a copy of the well-known game tetris. If you tried to play it recently (in gnome 2.20) you will have notice the speed or the lack of it. I used to play tetris a lot (not on the computer), but when I was a child I played it a lot. Instead of having a PSP or a gameboy (didn't exist then) I had a small toy where I played tetris on. Now the problem with gnometris is that it didn't react fast enough on key strokes especially when the screen was filled.

Now not that long ago after reading an article about the performance in gnometris and how they will improve it in the next+1 version (Not the version that is coming right now). I noticed a reply that let me having fun again in gnometetris. So if you have some performance issues with gnometris and don't want to wait before they are addressed in the next version of gnome, please listen carefully.

The problem is the tango look that requires more resources then the normal look. It consist out of gradients/scalable images/... So a lot to redraw each time the block is going down. Especially if you know that the whole screen is updated each time.

Solution: Change the look of Gnometris to the old fashioned plain look:
1) Open Gnometris
2) Goto Settings
3) Click on Preferences
4) Goto the theme tab
5) Change the dropdown box to Plain

Ain't that cool

The shape of things to come?

2008-02-25T22:52:00.003+01:00

Internet is one of the most used things nowadays. Even in Ubuntu it is fully integrated with the nm-applet (network manager applet). It takes care of everything, thought it hasn't a proper GUI (graphic user interface). Every time I have to look after my IP-adress, I ask myself if I have to click left or right for getting the menu 'connection information'. Also the current connection speed isn't showed at all.

So what do you do when you have time left? You make a mockup.
My idea: Every way to connect to the internet is another interface (wireless connection, vpn connection,...) and each interface has it's own box. The several interfaces show their common information in that box and you can get additional information by clicking the box. Also the main operation stands in the box (namely connect and disconnect). Every interface is grouped in his main category (VPN, Wireless, Modem...) and if the interface is connected, it is shown above the group categories.

Features:
- The profile manager is better integrated. You can switch by clicking the current profile name en selecting the new one. The profile manager stores if you shutdown a group (for example if you shutdown the wireless). It memmorize wich connection is the default one. It stores every vpn connection. And with a simple click you can export/import these information.
- Every interface has it own preference dialog where you can change/add/see the information.
- You can easily see wich connection are live and if there is transfer.
- ...

This is just a mockup that I want to share with you. If you have remarks/features you may always ask them, but I will not make this mockup reality. (Althoug I want to) This is because I have to little time. But I give everybody the permission to implement it (And I would be happy to see it in the next nm-applet)

Some trouble with samples from ogre that uses Cegui

2008-02-24T22:03:00.005+01:00

Since two days I'm trying Ogre3d (an Open source graphics engine). I came across an error. I could run the normal samples provided by Ogre3d, but I couldn't run the samples that require Cegui. Every time I tried to compiled those I received the following error:

terminate called after throwing an instance of 'CEGUI::FileIOException'

Now I don't have any problems with errors :-). I know how to google and useally I find some satisfying answer (read: the solution), but this time it took quite long and it was hard to find. That's why I'm creating this post. Just to make it easier for others getting the same error to get the solution ...

So it occurs if you're using Ogre 1.4.* and Cegui 0.5.0 together. It seems that TaharezLook.looknfeel (an xml file) can't get parsed right by Cegui (I thought it was Cegui). But the problem isn't Cegui itself. Cegui uses an external xml parser. By default it uses XercesParser and it is XercesParser that can't get that file parsed.

A workaround is really simple. Just use another XML parser to parse your xml files. So when you start building Cegui from source you have to specify you want another xml parser than the default one. And guess how easy that goes on linux :-D:

./configure --with-default-xml-parser=TinyXMLParser

Now you only have to make and install it (and recompile ogre, it will than automatically compile the cegui samples to).

Teaser: AWN + compiz fusion

2008-02-17T13:10:00.005+01:00

After reading some bugs in launchpad about AWN I came across a bug report that suggested that it should be possible to remove gnome-panel when AWN starts. So that the bar under AWN isn't visible. So that AWN truly replaces gnome-panel, upon launch.

Now first time I read that, I thought it would never be possible. It isn't that easy. But I tried anyway and I could make a working (but very hacky) version of awn that could do that. I think I will let a lot of guys down to say that I just set an opacity of 0% on gnome-panel, but it works :-D and it is even beautifull :-).
(only working for compiz fusion using gconf)

Just to let show you what I'm talking about,
here a screencast:

I first need to sort some things out, before it is possible to get into awn itself. We don't want to have a hacky and instable awn ;-)
* only hide the bottom bar
* more stable
* remove the panel totally (now only opacity=0%)
* find a way to let awn set the opacity back even awn crash (don't want that anyone haves problems, because the gnome-panel isn't visible anymore)

If someone knows a way to remove panels from gnome-panel or some more information about gnome-panel that can help. Just comment :-D.

Edit

Like you probably already know, this will not get into AWN. It wasn't working that well, I was only a fool to think it would work good. But probably there will come a plugin that allows to do things like this. First I will wait till AWN has got a total rewrite from NJPatel.

refocus images

2008-01-19T11:24:00.000+01:00

I came accross some interesting technology. I don't know the technical details about it, but there is already a lot of information on the web about it. It's about an image taken with a special camera with multiple lenses. Afterwards it's possible to change the focus of it. The idea and concept are already from 1903, but only now our computers are getting strong enough to compute it.

If you want to know more about it, here's a list of sites describing it:

http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/lfcamera/
http://audioblog.fr/archives/2007/10/02/adobe-dave-story-future/
http://www.time4.com/time4/microsites/popsci/howitworks/lightfield_camera.html

Linux: Start an application in a specific language

2008-01-14T23:08:00.000+01:00

Another hidden but very interesting and helpful trick is how to start programs in your own language. I think everyone that is into computers and helps others a lot with computer problems has had this problem. You're helping someone that has set his computer on another language. You are trying to find the right places to click, but it's a lot harder in another language.

Now in linux it is very easy to help yourself out. Just start the terminal (gnome-terminal in gnome and konsole in kde) and type:

LANG=en_US application

or (for kde)
KDE_LANG=en_US application

This will start the application in the English language (Given that this language is installed for that program).

Run multiple versions of Firefox simultaneous

2008-01-14T22:49:00.000+01:00

Now Firefox 3.0 is shaping and finally getting better than the Firefox 2.0 use to be. I start using Firefox 3.0 the whole time. Now sometime I need to go to Firefox 2.0. (Plugin issues, Extensions that aren't working yet or to compare what's the difference between them.) Now I used to close Firefox, because if a specific version of Firefox is running and you open a new instance (even if you try to start the other version) you will get the version that is already running. So I thought it wasn't possible to run multiple versions of Firefox.

Not a long time ago I learned I was wrong. That is possible and it isn't that hard. You only need to start your second version of firefox like that:

firefox -no-remote -ProfileManager

One side note is that each version you want to run needs his own profile. So if you start Firefox 3.0 with the default profile. You need another profile to start Firefox 2.0. This command also starts the Profile Manager where you can make a new profile and start right away with Firefox 3.0 and Firefox 2.0 next to each other.

Ubuntu: Getting faster internet

2007-10-12T23:37:00.000+02:00

All computers on the internet have a unique IP-address. That address we use for connecting to other computers, reading the files they put in there shared map. Yes, I'm talking about surfing. Each time we visit a website there are several things that are done automatically. For example you want to surf to the domain name google.com, your computer sends a request to a dns-server and ask what the IP-address is of google.com. The dns-server replies friendly with that IP-address and your computer knows where to find the google-server. Now your computer can access the google-server.

So every time you look for a website, you automatically go to a dns-server and ask him the IP-adress you need. Globally you're just accessing 2 servers before you are at the right place. How can we make that faster? If we can make a dsn-cache on your own computer. Then every time you look after an domain name, it would first look if the domain name isn't listed on your computer. If not, it would search the IP in a real dns-server and put the lookup into the locally cache. If it is listed in your computer cache, he just skip the dns-server and uses the local cache for knowing the IP-address of the site you search.

But how can we accomplish that on a ubuntu computer?
Open your synaptic manager:
- system -> administration -> synaptic package manager
Install DNS-cache (dnsmasq)
- search after dnsmasq
- mark dnsmasq for installation
- press 'Apply' for install the new program
Configuring Ubuntu
- system -> administration -> network (or networking)
- goto the DNS tab
- add a new DNS Server with adress 127.0.0.1
- drag the 127.0.0.1 to the top of the list
- close

Voila your computer will make a locally DNS cache and skip the domain lookup.

Nice algorithm: Content-Based Image Retargeting

2007-10-07T21:02:00.000+02:00

Recently I discovered there is a very useful algorithm to resize images. It can be very handy if you want to shrink or resize the image. It's called Content-Based Image Retargeting or short retargeting, others calls it also Seam carving. So what is it? If you want to resize a picture you always need to be sure that the ratio is good or else the image will look stretched. Now this new algorithm is able to scale an image out of ratio and still deliver a nice looking picture. Now if you don't believe me or if you think that's not possible or you just don't understand what I'm talking about, look to this video about it. It's a presentation that Dr Shai Avidan and Dr Ariel Shamir put online in support of their paper on Seam Carving for Content-Aware Image Resizing

Now, if you don't believe in videos, you can always try it yourself:

- There is already a plugin for GIMP to use it. It's called Liquid Rescale GIMP plug-in. It isn't advanced and you can only choose the width and the height you want. After installation you can find the rescale dialog in Layer -> Liquid rescale.
site: http://liquidrescale.wikidot.com/
download: http://liquidrescale.wikidot.com/download-page

- There is already an AS-class to use this in your own Flash movie and even a Java implentation.
More information: http://www.zeropointnine.com/blog/seam-carving-in-as3-with-source

- Liquid Resize is a program dedicating to do this job. It's nothing more or less than a resizing program even with advanced options using this algorithm.

site: http://www.thegedanken.com/retarget/

BUG: soft lockup detected on CPU#0!

2007-09-25T21:09:00.000+02:00

Today my computer with Ubuntu didn't wanted to startup. Now I know a little bit about linux and I'm very good at messing around. Now I know that normally you don't see the real fault if you look to the screen and wait till it stops responding. I know I need to go to the first 'screen' to see the actually errors. (Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 on when you see the graphical bar expanding and you will see Ubuntu starting with the textual output.)

There I found the error 'BUG: soft lockup detected on CPU#0!' right after I my manual drivers getting loaded. I know I added 'ndiswrapper' to load automatically on startup, so I guessed that was the problem. Now the big problem is how to get Ubuntu to start again, because now I can't start Ubuntu and can't change anything to prevent 'ndiswrapper' to load.

It is actually very simple, if you find the module or the time it hangs. You only need to restart the computer and press Ctrl+Alt+F1 again, to see what the computer is doing and press on the moment that the module gets loaded or at the line that you know ubuntu is going to hang (So that's just before you get the error, but there could be 1-3 lines, between the initialization and the error coming on the screen) and you just have to press Ctrl+X to stop the module to get loaded. If you're on the right time the module won't get loaded and ubuntu will start normal. If it doesn't work the first time, you just have to retry it to be on the right time.

Now you're back in ubuntu and you can solve the problem. If you have the same problem as me, just remove ndiswrapper from the module list that get initialized on startup:
$ gksudo gedit /etc/modules
and remove ndiswrapper from that file

Compiz fusion slow on nvidia

2007-09-20T20:53:00.000+02:00

I used compiz fusion on a old laptop. There it seemed to work very fast and good. Now recently I bought a new laptop. Normally it should be much faster, because I now have dualcore and a Nvidia 8600 GT. After installing compiz fusion it was just slower than my previous computer. I thought it were problems with the driver, so I kept waiting for new drivers. Yesterday actually there were new nvidia drivers that should improve performance with a lot of nvidia 8*** cards. Now I didn't saw compiz fusion go any faster. That's when I started to look for another solution.

Now I ran 'compiz fusion' through 'compiz --replace'. That way I didn't enabled "indirect rendering". That was silly, I have a fast graphic card and I don't use it. Also it seems that for nvidia cards you need to enable 'loose binding'. I don't know what it does, but I get an enormous performance boost when I enable it.

So if you run compiz like me, you have to run: 'compiz --replace --indirect-rendering --loose-binding'. Or if you're using the compiz-icon. Right-click on the icon and in compiz-options you need to check 'Loose binding' and 'indirect rendering'.

Note: I have read a lot of posts before posting this. It could be that 'indirect rendering' doesn't help performance. So try to run compiz without it and look to the performance to be sure.

Calibrating the openmoko v2007.2

2007-08-30T20:03:00.000+02:00

The openmoko-crew has rewritten the GUI of the phone, so it should be more intuitive. So I thought, I should try the new interface. The MokoMakefile supports already the new version, so I installed it (just follow the steps of my previous post). A new problem raised when I started the emulated phone. I didn't get the calibration screen, like I got with the 2007.1 version. After committing a bug, they said that it was already calibrated for using it with the reel phone. So if you put the software on the neo1973, you didn't need to calibrate the screen because it was done previously. If you just want to use the phone on an emulated Qemu environment, you couldn't use your mouse for using the phone, because the screen is turned. If you click on the top, you actually click on the left.

Now I have searched the easiest way to calibrate the screen and I have found it. We will just call the calibration script from the terminal in the emulated phone.

You click on the middle left of your screen and you will get the applications list. Then we will use our keyboard, because we can't locate easily the buttons we need. You click on the tab-button (if the first application isn't selected). Then you click on the down array till the terminal application is selected. Then hit enter. Now the terminal should start. There you enter the following command and you can calibrate the screen.
/usr/bin/ts_calibrate

Voila, now we can use our mouse for using the emulated phone.
If you have problems or questions, ask them.

Run openmoko on your Ubuntu installation

2007-08-30T16:53:00.000+02:00

The strength of openmoko is also their weakness. For the past month I have followed the openmoko project closely and I tried to help with changing the wiki at http://openmoko.org. Of course I wanted to run an emulated openmoko on my own computer and so I've dived into the wiki explanations for running it with qemu. If you look into the wiki, you will see, there are not several, but numerous ways to get it done. The one for development, the next has other advances. You get easily lost and use the wrong method to get your openmoko on your pc. Therefor I wanted to write a solid and easy way to get it onto your ubuntu (my favorite linux distribution) working.

You have to known that there is a great tool to get it running on a linux system,namely the MokoMakefile. This is a sort of wrapper round several instructions, so it is easy to set up and maintain a development environment. If you build the whole MokoMakefile, you will need approximately 12GB, a swap+ram memory of about 1GB and minimum 5 hours time. But we will only build it for Qemu (the emulator that I will use) and that needs (on my system) only 890mb and a 15 min of your time. Enought blabla.

To get it running, you will have to tweak your ubuntu a little bit (This will not damage other programs, everything will work as before). For more information see http://www.openembedded.org/wiki/OEandYourDistro

sudo dpkg-reconfigure dash

and select NO if it ask to install dash as /bin/sh.
Install the needed stuff:

sudo apt-get install monotone git-core cogito python-dev ccache m4 sed bison make cvs gawk libc6-dev g++ subversion sharutils docbook openjade quilt libmpfr-dev libpcre3-dev texinfo texi2html libboost-date-time-dev libboost-filesystem-dev libboost-regex-dev libboost-test-dev libboost-dev zlib1g-dev build-essential dh-make debhelper devscripts gcc-3.4 lynx netpbm libsdl1.2-dev dosfstools

Voila your system is ready to get the install the openmoko.
First we will create a directory and download the MokoMakefile in it:

mkdir openmoko
cd openmoko
wget http://www.rwhitby.net/files/openmoko/Makefile

Now we will tell to build it for using it with Qemu:

make qemu

This will download the necessarily files of the lastest release and build them following the MokoMakefile. After that it will start into the emulator for the first time. Voila your have now successfully installed openmoko onto your ubuntu system. If you want to start it, you will have to go into the folder and run the following command:

cd openmoko
make run-qemu

If you run openmoko, the bootloader will load, there you can choose different options. For select an option you have to press enter (=aux) and to execute it, hit space (=power). Thus if the bootloader shows, you just have to hit the space bar and the phone software will load.

So far the tutorial for getting openmoko on an ubuntu system,
If you have any problems, just leave a comment. I will try to fix it.

Windows Live Mail nu toch al wat sneller

2006-11-14T22:12:00.000+01:00

Onlangs is een een onderzoek van Akamai Technologies en Jupiter Research verschenen dat meldt dat een online shopper gemiddeld 4 seconden wil wachten voordat een site geladen is. Volgens een ander onderzoek wil een gewone surfer tot 10 seconden wachten. Als aanbieder van online content is het dan ook interessant om binnen die tijdspanne effectief hun online content te tonen, om geen potentiele klanten te verliezen.
Microsoft is hier ook geen uitzondering op met Windows Live Mail (beta). Binnen de 10 seconden was je mail zichtbaar tot voor kort. Tegenwoordig hebben ze zelf de tijdspanne nog meer verlaagt en bieden ze de content al binnen 4 seconden aan. Dit hebben ze geklaard door een heel team in te zetten om de preformance te verbeteren, weet de blog van Windows Live Mail te melden. De vraag is dan ook of ze daarvoor een héél team nodig hebben. Zou het niet kunnen dat de programmeurs die WLM schrijven omslachtig hun werk doen? Dus dat ze in plaats van een heel nieuw team hiervoor op te zetten, dat ze beter hun programmeurs een cursus "performance gericht programmeren" geven en daarna één of twee mensen inzetten specifiek voor de performance. Om het cru te zeggen denk ik ook dat ze hetzelfde probleem hebben met Windows Vista. Ik ben er bijna overtuigd van dat Microsoft Vista niet zo'n hoge eisen voor je computer zou stellen, mochten ze meer rekening houden met performance.
Niettegenstaand is het een mooie vooruitgang dat we nu niet meer zo lang hoeven te wachten voordat we onze mail willen lezen.

Google past kleine veranderingen toe aan GMail

2006-11-10T23:26:00.000+01:00

Google heeft zijn online emailclient GMail weer een oppoetsbeurt gegeven. Zo heeft hij welgeteld 5 veranderingen toegepast.
De eerste is direct merkbaar als je email binnenkrijgt. Zo is het dat de layout van het bekijken van een email verandert is. Nu is er voor gezorgd dat er zo weinig mogelijk plaats wordt ingenomen door allerlij randinformatie (zoals onvanger-email, preciese datum e.d.) en meer plaats is voor de inhoud van de mail. Ook zijn er nog maar drie knoppen overgehouden. "Show details", waarmee je dan toch de alle randinformatie kan bekijken. "Reply", waarmee je nu d.m.v. één keer te klikken kan antwoorden. Dit is een enorme verbetering, aangezien voordien het niet altijd duidelijk was hoe je kan antwoorden. "V", een dropdownbox waar dan alle andere opties in staan (zoals: Forward, Print, Delete ...)
De andere zijn iets minder ingrijpend. Zo is er nu voor gezorgd dat tijdens dat je aan het antwoorden bent op een email, gewaarschuwd wordt als de andere persoon nog een email stuurt. Dan is het ook mogelijk om de email direct in te laden, zonder je al geschreven antwoord te verliezen. "Forward All" zorgt daarnaast ook dat je direct lijsten emails kan forwarden. Ook zijn er aanpassingen aangebracht voor de chatters. Als een chatvriend offline gaat, kan je toch nog verdertypen, waarna die chatvriend bij zijn volgend bezoek aan GMail dit bericht zien.
Ook is er nu een een programmaatje voor gsm's gemaakt, waardoor het gemakkelijker wordt om je mails op je gsm te lezen.

(K)Ubuntu Edgy Eft RC

2006-10-21T16:06:00.000+02:00

De scripters van Ubuntu hebben weer deftig doorgewerkt en zullen op 26 oktober een nieuwe versie van Ubuntu uitbrengen. Wij konden natuurlijk niet wachten en probeerden de net uitgekomen RC van Kubuntu. Deze versie zal minder stabiel zijn als Kubuntu dapper, omdat ze in deze versie alle nieuwigheden willen uittesten. Hiertoe behoren Firefox 2.0 RC, Gaim 2.0 3.1beta, upstart, OpenOffice.org 2.0.4 RC2 en nog veel meer. (Op deze pagina's staan eveneens de links waar je de nieuwe distributie kan downloaden.)

Als je al Ubuntu 6.06 hebt, kan je redelijk gemakkelijk upgraden naar deze versie. Hou er wel rekening mee dat dit onomkeerbaar is. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EdgyUpgrades

Deze Blog

2006-10-21T15:28:00.000+02:00

Iedereen is wel benieuwd naar de evolutie van de computer. Eerst het onstaan van computers om het werk lichter maken, daarna om data uit te wisselen en nu om met elkaar in contact te komen. Nu doordat er zoveel kennis over de hele wereld te vinden is, wordt het eens tijd dat er een selectie gemaakt wordt van wat mooi, tof en interessant is.Het is dan ook de bedoeling om met deze blog iedereen op nieuwe interessante zaken te wijzen en niet hetgeen te zeggen wat je op alle sites kan vinden.

Ikzelf ben vaak bezig met PHP, JavaScript, CSS en Linux. Deze blog zal dan ook vaak daarover gaan. Toch ga ik niet alleen daarover vertellen. Er bestaat namelijk meer dat het vertellen waard is. Ik ben bv. ook bezig met het maken van sites e.d. Die zal ik dan ook met veel plezier hier met jullie bespreken. Dit zal dus vooral een pagina worden die mijn belevenissen op het internet beschrijven.

Het zal ook niet over mijn persoonlijk leven gaan. Ik ben maar persoon zoals iedereen en ik heb net zoals iedereen een leven die interessant is (of juist niet) en ik kan net zoals iedereen daarover vertellen, zodat er nog meer sites onstaan die eigenlijk geen nut hebben, behalve voor de mensen die je kennen (of je leren kennen). Ik heb liever een persoonlijke babbel over mijn leven en daar sta ik ook altijd voor open.

Nu ben ik waarschijnlijk niet de enigste die interessante zaken over PHP, JavaScript, CSS, Linux en alles daarrond heeft te vertellen. Daarom zou ik het tof vinden mochten andere mensen beslissen om me mee te helpen. Alleen is maar alleen, met meerdere mensen kan je meer toffe en interessante zaken vinden en vertellen. Je hoeft me maar te contacteren hierover.

grtz h4writer