Friday, September 01, 2006

Minimo/Mozilla (maemo port) repository - UPDATE

Note: for 'mistral' distribution has changed :)
Note 2: find BORA setup notes at http://tonikitoo.blogspot.com/2007/03/minimo-maemo-port-0169-1-available.html

Since last maemo port release, Minimo/Mozilla Browser has an arm repository for an easier installation/upgrade on the nokia 770. Follows instruction of how to set it up:
  • from command line:
    • "gainroot"
    • $ echo "deb http://home.ufam.edu.br/~agan/minimo/ mistral/ " >> /etc/apt/source.list
    • $ apt-get update && aptitude minimo
  • from AppManager
    • Add this entry into "new catalogue":
      • web address: http://home.ufam.edu.br/~agan/minimo/
      • Distribution: mistral/
      • Components: n/a
    • "Refresh list"
    • Go to "Install new applications"
      • pick minimo up.
This way, minimo's runtime dependencies (libxt6, libsm6 and libice6) were also up uploaded and are pulled down and installed if needed.

ps: the set up itself is quite easy and I'll maybe blog about it soon.
ps2: the trailing back slash is needed, I believe !!!! :)
--Antonio Gomes

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is the first time I tried Minimo, and I have to say that I was in for quite a shock. I know that it can hardly be called "beta", let alone "finished" in its present state, but Minimo was not only completely unusable, it even almost wrecked my 770.

The HWR input produced weird gobbledeegook that had nothing to do with the letters in the HWR input panel; switching to the virtual keyboard worked, but only once. To fill in a second entry, I had to restart Minimo first (but luckily the app crashes so often that this step is performed automatically most of the time). The last time Minimo crashed, it corrupted my system up to a worrying level: I could only select the top level menu options from the sidebar; trying to go one level deeper made them all go away. A reboot fixed that, which fortunately made it possible to delete Minimo.

Minimo is also the only networking application I have that does not automatically open the Internet connection when started. Compared to the rest of the flaws, it's a very minor point, but maybe worth noting nevertheless.

In short: keep up the good work; you're going to need an awful lot of it. Let me know if I can help (other than by coding, that is).

Anonymous said...

I think as hard as karel's comments sound, they're true in many aspects. especially the vkb changes you made made the port far more crashy ... maybe it's just a bit more work to make it usable but at the current stage it's really a pain to use it.

Antonio said...

yep, we have a long way to run.

maybe you have faced all these problems due to incompability of minimo with other apps, I dont know. (I run it without crash all the time). If you could share which apps you have installed I could try reproducing.

Last post, I included a warning about the use of any other kind of input besides the default virtual keyboard.

thanks for feedbacking.

ps: connectivity integration is in the plans, but first of all I am trying to make it usable.

Anonymous said...

First of all, I would like to make it clear that I am not trying to bash you, merely conveying my experiences. In truth, I am eagerly awaiting a usable version of Minimo, so that I can finally edit my Writely and Thinkfree Office documents from my 770. I just thought that sugarcoating it wouldn't do anyone any good.

As for a list of my installed applications: You are kidding, right?

No? Allrightie then, I'll come back with it, but it's a long one...

Antonio said...

no no, I really appretiate your feedback ;) do not worry, I dont get you wrong.

about the apps, I am not kidding :) Minimo for example depends on some X libs (libICE, libSM ...), and they got downloaded when you install minimo from repository. So if you have installed any other app that also push one of these libs, it may cause an incompability (of course, depending on how the system handle them) and messy your device :s (e.g. maemomaps)

make sense for you ?

Anonymous said...

This is what my list of installed applications looks like from Application Manager (I'm pretty sure there are lots of other libraries that got installed, but Application Manager has been made "user friendly", so...):

battlegweled
fbreader-maemo2
gnumeric
icebreaker
jooleem
leafpad
libenca0
libgpewidget1
maemo-bt-plugin
maemoblocks
maemodrac
maemosweeper
midnightcommander
osso-xterm
sdl_ttf
sqlite
theme6
ttf-bitstream-vera
xournal

(there's some superfluous stuff there; I don't use any GPE applets, so that library could probably go. Still, if it ain't broke,...)

My 770 runs ITOS 2006-final in R&D mode.
I never ran Minimo together with another app.

Hope it helps.


PS: At times like this, I wish Nokia hadn't tried to reinvent the wheel so much. A simple port of Synaptic would have been both easier and have given the user much more useful information. Why is it that all those companies think there are only two options for a Linux UI: Command-Line-Geek and Point-and-Cick-Moron?

Anonymous said...

For what it is worth, it looks like the repository is down right now.

Antonio said...

yep, I really have to find another place to host that stuff ...

this server sucks.

ps: I got a bugfix release and will post it as soon as the server gets up back.

Unknown said...

Antonio, thanks for the port of Minimo... hope you do continue to work on it. Saving preferences and setting bookmarks do not work -- it is trying to write to an inexistent directory, I think.

On an earlier post you warn about the libraries libICE, libSM ... possibly interfering with other apss such as Maemo Mapper -- who coincidentally has stopped working for me (it stopped displaying maps).

Could you elaborate on this?

Antonio said...

denis, I can.

I'll get in touch with maemo mapper contact to check which version of libICE, libSB his it using and start using the same ones.

regards preferences it was really broken, but it is fixed for next bugfix release as well as some improvements on virtual keyboard interaction (which was crashing a lot). Today is holiday in my city, so I am far from my computer now, unfortunatelly.

I am also trying to find a better place to host minimo port files, the current server is always down.

Antonio said...

karel , luis, denis, guys, there is a bugfixing release available, if it might interest you.

feel free to feedback me (tonikitoo at gmail dot com).

ps: I am trying to get in touch with John Costigan , responsible by maemo mapper coding , to check minimo and mapper possible library incompability with no success. I have not found his email, do you ?

Anonymous said...

Excellent !
Crash sometime but if you a lot of memory is free on the 770 (+32 swap, no more app launched) it is the perfect browser
just add hardware button support (full screen, zoom for font or scroll and back key)

Thank you very much
www.xetranet.com

Unknown said...

Hi,

I was using the latest version as of yesterday (September 8th) of the automatically installed Minimo. It looks nice, but I did run into one bug. When I try to pay a bill in netbank.com SSL secured account, when I hit the continue button, the site says that not enough information was sent. Not sure what other info I can give, but let me know if there is something specific info I can give.

Thanks for the work on the port!

Naeem Bari said...

Do you have any idea when the repository will be back up? I would be interested in testing Minimo. I have a fairly complex website that works fine on mozilla, IE, and opera, but does not work via the built in opera browser on the 770... :(

Antonio said...

naeem, it is up, I believe.

you can try either accessing http://home.ufam.edu.br/~agan/minimo/binary-arm/ and installing it manually, or setting up the rep in maemo app manager (my suggestion).

Kevin J Bowman said...

I think on the Application Catalog page instructions you need to remove the trailing back slash from the distribution line

Kevin J Bowman said...

Error Message: E: Malformed line 4 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list (absolute dist)

ttvd said...

Web address: http://home.ufam.edu.br/~agan/minimo
Distribution: mistral/
Components: (leave blank)

That worked for me :)

Thank you!

Unknown said...

seems this repository link is not valid anymore, could you update the link? Thanks!

Antonio said...

> seems this repository link is not valid
> anymore, could you update the link?

i am not support MiniMo since the announcement of Mozilla Fennec. So rep is dead , sorry =/