Om2009 testing release 4

[Ben Wong]

Thanks for the update.  Unfortunately Om2009 is still not a usable
phone out of the box for me.  I realize that this is probably my fault
for not persevering, but I will be reverting to SHR since this is my
only phone.

Here are my issues, in order of importance:

1) Horrible audio distortion during calls.  People tell me that I
sound like I'm being played back over a blown-out speaker.  I tried
calling +1800GOOG411 (google's speech recognition phone directory) and
it was unable to understand me.  I bet this is something tweakable
with the ALSA settings, but I'm surprised that Om2009t4 gets the
default wrong when SHR-testing works fine.  I don't know if it's
relevant but I have an A6 model of the Freerunner.

2) There should be immediate feedback during all operations.

2a) When searching for a GSM signal, the Paroli interface is presented
but frozen and there is no notification which is quite frustrating.
Even just the simple word "searching..." would have helped.

2b) The suspend button should blink the LED immediately when waking up
or suspending.  Two seconds is too long to wait for feedback that a
button has been pressed.

2c) From the contacts menu, when clicking on a phone number, a call is
made but there is no visual indication of this until the Dialer
program appears.  The number should at least light up when clicked.

2d) There is too much latency between pressing the AUX button during a
call and any indication that the system is working on changing the
volume.  Ideally, what I'd like the GUI to show me is not what the
current volume is, but what it will be once it has finished processing
all the button presses.

2e) When ending a call, pressing END CALL does light up the button,
but then it unlights before the call is actually ended making one
think it needs to be pressed again.  I suggest changing the text to
"ENDING" after the button has been pressed.

3) There is no way to reset Paroli if it gets wedged.  At one point,
it refused to allow me to make a call because it thought there was
already one in progress.  Not only was there not one, but the Dialer
program didn't have the red END CALL button so I had no recourse but
to reboot.


I should mention that there are many things that I rather like about
Om2009t4.  I hope you find my comments constructive.   I look forward
to trying the next release of Om2009.

--Ben Wong
Seattle, WA
FreeRunner A6, T-mobile

P.S. A quick message on interface design from Douglas Adams:  "It's
the wild colour scheme that freaks me," said Zaphod whose love affair
with this ship had lasted almost three minutes into the flight, "Every
time you try to operate one of these weird black controls that are
labelled in black on a black background, a little black light lights
up black to let you know you've done it. What is this? Some kind of
galactic hyperhearse?" The walls of the swaying cabin were also black,
the ceiling was black, the seats -- which were rudimentary since the
only important trip this ship was designed for was supposed to be
unmanned -- were black, the control panel was black, the instruments
were black, the little screws that held them in place were black, the
thin tufted nylon floor covering was black, and when they had lifted
up a corner of it they had discovered that the foam underlay also was
black. "Perhaps whoever designed it had eyes that responded to
different wavelengths," offered Trillian. "Or didn't have much
imagination," muttered Arthur. "Perhaps," said Marvin, "he was feeling
very depressed."



On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 12:34 PM, Angus Ainslie <nytowl at openmoko.org> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> As I think we've fixed more things than we broke it's time for another testing
> release. As usual there are additional instructions here.
>
> http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Om2009
>
> There is also a new page for community involvement. Many of these wishlist
> items need someone to implement them. If you are interested in in owning one
> of the wishlist items come and join #paroli or send me an email
>
> http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Om_2009_get_active
>
> Don't bother trying to do an opkg update opkg upgrade to do the upgrade.
> Chances are you won't get the dependencies right ( I know I didn't ). If you
> want to preserve your settings use the bind-home method and flash the full
> image.
>
> New in feeds
>
> callrec
> claws-mail
> dictator
> dillo
> midori
> mokomaze
> omnewrotate
> pyring
> sms-sentry
> webkit-efl
>
> New features
>
> Improved call handling - should limit races in oeventsd
> Better list handling
> More consistent interface
> New paroli-illume theme
>        - only change so far is to remove desktop switcher
>        - wanted volunteer to change analog clock to digital
>        - wanted different colour scheme ( maybe white on black to
>        match the rest of paroli ? )
> Static MAC addresses for usb devices
>        - usb networking will now show up as ethx on the host side please check dmesg
>        on the host side
> Ability to cut 30 seconds off boot time
>        - DO NOT use this if you use bind-home
>        - install udev-static-devices to get this speed boost
>        - any solutions on using bind-home and static-devices appreciated
> Keyboard goes away after use
> Updated /etc/network/interfaces to give USB0 a metric
> Added readahead to busybox to test speed increase
>
> Known issues
>
> Some oeventsd rules are ignored  ( framework oeventsd problems )
>        - don't suspend while plugged in  http://trac.freesmartphone.org/ticket/381
>        - suspend fails after a call http://trac.freesmartphone.org/ticket/435
>
> Bugs fixed
>
> 1 pixel wide illume exit menu
> UTF chars in SMS's
>        - you must still install a keyboard to be able to write different character
>        sets.
> Keyboard collapses after use
>
> Angus
>
>
>
>
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