DeforaOS

First, the milestone planned for Q1 2011 can be considered reached [1], with the final touches being applied to the dse2 release of hackable:1, or "DeforaOS Smartphone Environment" [2]. The next steps are not entirely clear now. The plan is still ... [More] to leverage the distributed computing framework at the core of the project. Some early drafts were defined for the (re-)implementation, but the actual development process will not happen as originally planned and hoped together with researchers from the Technische-Universität of Berlin [3] (and no one but myself is really to blame for it). Nevertheless, alternative ways to achieve this same goal are being considered, still concentrating on the current state of the art of "Clean-Slate Internet design" as currently being researched by a number of universities around the world. Meanwhile, some work has been pushed in two main areas: preparing the migration to Gtk+ 3.0, improving the assembly framework. This first item is doing well already, although libDesktop will need a new compatibility layer (for keyboard shortcuts), and some specific parts will have to be re-implemented (X11 messaging and GDK-based picture blits). The assembly framework is undergoing major changes, which were detailed on the development mailing-list already [5]. To put it shortly, the "as" project was renamed to "asm", and features a rewrite of the architecture plug-ins, along with improvements to the language syntax. Support for Windows (PE) and Android applications is being added as well. [1] http://www.defora.org/os/wiki/display/3324/Roadmap [2] http://www.defora.org/os/wiki/3438/DeforaOS-Smartphone [3] http://www.net.t-labs.tu-berlin.de/teaching/thesis/#network_virtu [4] http://www.defora.org/os/wiki/3523/Clean-Slate-Internet-design [5] http://lists.defora.org/devel/2011/04/msg00021.html [Less]

I am glad to announce the arrival of a new developer within the hackable:1 project: Adrien Dorsaz, aka Trim. He has already contributed improvements to the wireless configuration interface (wicd) and calendar application (dates), besides many helpful bug reports! Welcome Trim, with you the imminent dse2 release has gotten only better. Cheers!

I had been thinking about testing the DeforaOS graphical applications [1] on my N900 [2] for a while, but remained concentrated on the Openmoko Freerunner [3] and hackable:1 [4] until it was satisfying enough. With the upcoming dse2 [5] release being ... [More] in a good shape [6], I decided to have a short look anyway. My first reaction was very much like when I checked Maemo [7] back in 2008: you need me to install scratchbox, which only supports i386? [8] the documentation links to external sites (Debian packaging) but doesn't explain how to actually build a package? [9] you prevent me from navigating the repositories freely? [10] But this time, with the lessons learned while re-implementing strap:1 and cross-compiling Debian packages, I figured I could do it another way: with hackable:1 itself. Here is how. First, I determined how to populate the cross-compilation environment with the proper binaries. I added trunk/build/strap1/hostname/n900.nokia.maemo, containing: ENVIRONMENT=GNOME #it's empty at the moment VERBOSE=1 DEBIAN_MIRROR=repository.maemo.org DEBIAN_REPOSITORIES=sdk/free DEBIAN_VERSION=maemo5.0 DEBIAN_SOURCES="deb http://$DEBIAN_MIRROR/ $DEBIAN_VERSION $DEBIAN_REPOSITORIES" VENDOR=Nokia MODEL=N900 PURPOSE=phone This also required handling Nokia-N900-phone as a valid profile, in trunk/build/strap1/profile/Nokia-N900-phone: ARCH="armel" STRIP="arm-linux-gnueabi-strip" #this device is a phone . "strap1/profiles/include/phone.include" #add bluetooth support . "strap1/profiles/include/bluetooth.include" [...] (and so on for the rest of the hardware capabilities) Once this added, this simple command was enough to populate the environment: # ./strap1.sh DESTDIR=/usr/arm-linux-gnueabi HOSTNAME=n900.nokia.maemo install There I was. It was even faster than with a regular Debian target, since there are way less packages available to parse. But did I miss installing the development packages? Totally. Yet it doesn't matter: # ./strap1.sh DESTDIR=/usr/arm-linux-gnueabi HOSTNAME=n900.nokia.maemo \ PACKAGES="libssl-dev libgtk2.0-dev" install And seconds later, I had these two installed as necessary, along with their dependencies of course. Sweet, but we're not done yet. Let's build actual packages: $ cd trunk/packages $ ./packages.sh DEBIAN_ARCH=armel DEBIAN_VERSION=maemo libsystem $ ./packages.sh DEBIAN_ARCH=armel DEBIAN_VERSION=maemo libdesktop $ ./packages.sh DEBIAN_ARCH=armel DEBIAN_VERSION=maemo editor Unfortunately, even with the correct binaries and packages definitions installed in the cross-compilation environment, dh_shlibdeps failed to grab the right dependencies. Disabling it during cross-compilation was enough to do the trick (commenting it out in debian/rules from the diff file). Time to add this new repository into the N900 [11], through "Application manager"->"Catalogs"->"New" [12]: Catalog name: hackable:1 Web address: http://build.hackable1.org/debian Distribution: wip-maemo Components: main Open a terminal, gain root privileges: # apt-get update # apt-get install libsystem0 libdesktop0 editor [...] $ editor And it works. I repeat: sweet. [1] http://www.defora.org/os/wiki/3426/Graphical-environment [2] http://maemo.nokia.com/n900/ [3] http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Neo_FreeRunner [4] http://trac.hackable1.org/ [5] http://trac.hackable1.org/trac/wiki/AvailableVersions/dse2 [6] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3512/dse2-Screenshot-2.png [7] http://www.maemo.org/ [8] http://scratchbox.org/documentation/user/scratchbox-1.0/html/installdoc.html#AEN47 [9] http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/Maemo_5_Developer_Guide/Packaging,_Deploying_and_Distributing [10] http://repository.maemo.org/dists/maemo5.0/ [11] http://people.defora.org/~khorben/share/n900/Screenshot-20110321-000354.png [12] http://people.defora.org/~khorben/share/n900/Screenshot-20110321-000410.png [Less]

I just announced the availability of the first beta version for dse2, the DeforaOS Smartphone Environment [1] as found in hackable:1 [2]: http://lists.hackable1.org/pipermail/hackable1-dev/2011-March/001686.html I don't think I have much to add ... [More] to this; except on a personal level maybe, which would be appropriate here I guess. When I was first offered an Openmoko Neo1973 in summer of 2007 [3], I think I was both excited and disappointed about the device. It was a very promising opportunity for Open Source and telephony, at a time where only few devices were known to be usable with alternate and free environments. But I really did not like the look & feel of the device, or the state of the software running on it. Little did I suspect that I would spend so much time and energy with its successor, the Freerunner [4]. This happened first while I was working with Bearstech [5] on the promotion of hackable devices [6]. There, we focused on supporting what seemed to be the most viable solution at the time: the Om2007.2 stack. This part was a very frustrating experience, which I have mentioned already [7]. And now, I begin to feel much better about the whole thing. First, the Openmoko platform is still alive: thanks to Nikolaus Schaller of Golden Delicious [8], and of course thanks to the openness of the platform, a third-party hardware upgrade is available. Then, well, Google happened, Android is everywhere, and many more devices are usable with Open Source software. But what's more, I am beginning to feel better and better about the DeforaOS project as a whole. This was a painful yet fantastic motivation to bring it where it is today. I had even decided to mostly give it up about a month ago, at least for a while. But the deadline [9] I set for the project on improving the user environment is almost matched now [10]. Better, I have great plans for the following one [11]. I may even go to University again [12]! This is not without reminding me about my own description of myself :) [13] So yeah, four years later and much to my own surprise, I am getting increasingly comfortable and curious about using the dse2 release as a daily phone. It can only inspire me to push it to the next level :) [14] To conclude: special thanks to the Neo1973-gift-maker! all of this is completely futile, and most of my thoughts are going to people of Japan, Ivory Coast, France and Libya right now. [1] http://www.defora.org/os/wiki/3438/DeforaOS-Smartphone [2] http://trac.hackable1.org/ [3] http://events.ccc.de/camp/2007/Intro/ [4] http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Neo_FreeRunner [5] http://www.bearstech.com/ [6] http://hackable-devices.org/ [7] http://people.defora.org/~khorben/place/blog/88/The-DeforaOS-smartphone-environment [8] http://www.goldelico.com/ [9] http://www.defora.org/os/wiki/display/3324/Roadmap [10] http://www.defora.org/os/wiki/3426/Graphical-environment [11] http://www.defora.org/os/wiki/3427/Distributed-environment [12] http://www.net.t-labs.tu-berlin.de/teaching/thesis/#network_virtu [13] http://people.defora.org/~khorben/place/wiki/12/About [14] http://www.defora.org/os/wiki/display/3323/Planned-developments [Less]

According to Ohloh [1], I just went over 10,000 commits [2]: DeforaOS 8173 hackable:1 1350 RunningBear 483 Whitix 13 for a total of 10,019. Now let's see if it was worth the effort... [1] http://www.ohloh.net/ [2] http://www.ohloh.net/accounts/khorben/widgets

As was just mentioned in the project's Wiki [1], there is now an official IRC channel for the project: #DeforaOS on the OFTC network [2]. Everyone is welcome to join and have a chat over there, even though of course it is primarily meant for ... [More] discussions and support around the DeforaOS project. [1] http://www.defora.org/os/wiki/1172/Support [2] http://www.oftc.net/ [Less]

Today (or tonight) I have finally managed to import most of the fixes pushed into DeforaOS since the last meaningful commits to the RunningBear project (around December 2008 I guess). This was motivated by a few reasons: a bug report on memchr() in ... [More] the DeforaOS libc [1] NetBSD booting on N900 [2] good progress on DeforaOS [3] [4] same on hackable:1 [5] Unfortunately, it still isn't good enough to support Xynth's user interface on the system [6]. But it's getting close enough, and I think the missing parts are: support for setjmp() and longjmp() in the libc; same for signal(), checking alarm() too; for NetBSD, importing and adapting Linux' to match the wscons API. These are three hairy issues to tackle, but nothing's too hairy for a RunningBear (hey it's 3 am I'm allowed). With luck RunningBear could actually begin its career running on both the Openmoko Freerunner and Neo1973, HTC TouchPro and Nokia N900 smartphones, based on either Linux or NetBSD kernels. I'll try to do it with hackable:1 first though :) Last but not least: RunningBear is on Ohloh now! [7] The links: [1] http://www.defora.org/os/project/bug_display/3474?bug_id=40 [2] http://www.netbsdfr.org/?p=1993 [3] http://www.defora.org/os/news/3478/Summary-of-latest-releases [4] http://www.defora.org/os/news/3484/Release-party-for-RunningBear [5] http://www.hackable1.org/ [6] http://xynth.sf.net/ [7] http://www.ohloh.net/p/RunningBear [Less]

Another series of releases just made it to their respective download pages, so that the RunningBear [1] project can download them directly to build images, instead of duplicating the code there. Among them, please welcome: sh 0.1.1 [2] utils ... [More] 0.0.3 [3] others 0.0.1 [4] This goes without mentioning the libc, which was just released as 0.0.5 [5]. [1] http://runningbear.org/ [2] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3479/sh-0.1.1.tar.gz [3] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3481/utils-0.0.3.tar.gz [4] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3483/others-0.0.1.tar.gz [5] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3477/libc-0.0.5.tar.gz [Less]

Code is currently being pushed for a new release of the DeforaOS Smartphone Environment [1], or "dse2" in hackable:1 speak [2]. New features were added, some annoying bugs fixed, and most notably, the Phone project [3] was branched to support more ... [More] backends than just GSM. This refers to, in particular: libDesktop 0.0.4 [4] Browser 0.3.3 [5] Editor 0.2.0 [6] Phone 0.2.6 [7] Panel 0.2.1 [8] Locker 0.0.1 [9] Packaging all of these is mostly done already, either in pkgsrc [10] (via wip [11]) or hackable:1. Also on the desktop, the Mailer project was re-designed [12], and even supports POP3 to some extent. There will be no formal release before the codebase is satisfying enough though. Last but not least, the libc just hit 0.0.5 [13], and already made its way into the RunningBear project [14]. It has been dormant for a while, but bootable images can still be built, hopefully with a graphical interface soon. [1] http://www.defora.org/os/wiki/3438/DeforaOS-Smartphone [2] http://www.hackable1.org/ [3] http://www.defora.org/os/project/3343/Phone [4] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3465/libDesktop-0.0.4.tar.gz [5] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3453/Browser-0.3.3.tar.gz [6] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3457/Editor-0.2.0.tar.gz [7] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3463/Phone-0.2.6.tar.gz [8] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3466/Panel-0.2.1.tar.gz [9] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3469/Locker-0.0.1.tar.gz [10] http://www.pkgsrc.org/ [11] http://pkgsrc-wip.sf.net/ [12] http://www.defora.org/os/project/268/Mailer [13] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3477/libc-0.0.5.tar.gz [14] http://runningbear.org/ [Less]

The project has been using pkg-config [1] for a long while, but only when using libraries external from the project. But from now on, individual sub-projects from DeforaOS are providing their own resource file for pkg-config. The first project to ... [More] be released, reflecting this new trend, is naturally the libSystem [2], with version 0.1.5 [3]. It has already been packaged for NetBSD [4]. Hopefully, this will also help cross-compilation of the next releases to come. Another welcome improvement is found within the configure project itself [5], where the behavior of compilation scripts had to be changed. As mentioned already on the development mailing-list [6], all of the scripts in use were updated to reflect this already. [1] http://pkg-config.freedesktop.org/ [2] http://www.defora.org/os/project/27/libSystem [3] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3450/libSystem-0.1.5.tar.gz [4] http://pkgsrc-wip.cvs.sourceforge.net/pkgsrc-wip/wip/deforaos-libsystem/ [5] http://www.defora.org/os/project/16/configure [6] http://lists.defora.org/devel/2010/12/msg00042.html [Less]