ASU software - pre-pre-release impressions

[Ivo Anjo]

I second that. Is there a way to test the new software on qemu?

Looking forward to start hacking stuff on my OM...

Ivo

On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 3:51 PM, Mo Abrahams <moabrahams at dashavoo.com>
wrote:

> How does one go about getting the new software version as a qemu image?
> I am intrigued... and since I have (in the last week or so) started
> having doubts about getting a freerunner I would very much like
> something to inspire me again. It is not the freerunners fault, by the
> way, that I am having doubts. Just that I have just got myself a new
> contract and I quite like the phone I am getting with it... while on the
> topic... can freerunner be used without a simcard (obviously not the gsm
> parts,  but everything else?)?
>
> Mo.
>
> On Mon, 2008-05-19 at 10:27 -0400, Ian Darwin wrote:
> > I have been using a FreeRunner for a few days with a pre-pre-alpha
> > snapshot of the ASU software. For those who have been off-list for a
> > while, or who have not been looking at the Wiki much, the April
> > Software Update switches the Window Manager from matchbox to
> > Enlightenment (E17) and the main applications from the GTK-based apps
> > (developed by OpenMoko and OpenedHand) to QTopia (but using X11, of
> course).
> >
> > The new phone is in the same case, so it looks and feels a lot like a
> > GTA01. I think the partition numbers for dfu-util have changed; newer
> > versions of dfu-util allow you to use the partition names instead of the
> > numbers. Beware.
> >
> > The Home Page (aka Launcher) can now be displayed either in an Icon Grid
> > (conventional cell phone style, e.g., Blackberry, and the traditional
> > QTopia format) or a "slider" style (the latter demonstrated by MokoNinja
> > here: http://people.openmoko.org/ninjutsu/freerunner1.4.swf (flash
> > required).
> >
> > The small home/current-apps menu has been replaced by a larger
> > slide-down top panel, listing the current apps, and containing the time,
> > battery panel, GSM on/off, qwerty keyboard on/off, Configuration, and
> > the Enlightenment menu.
> >
> > Neither of the above is, AFAIK, cast in stone.
> >
> > I must admit I have mixed feelings about the switch from OM/GTK apps to
> > QTopia. However, I recognize the need to get something "finished" in a
> > reasonable time and I infer Sean et al felt the need to go this way;
> > in hindsight, building the whole thing from scratch is a daunting task,
> > and something that QTopia has been honing for several years.
> >
> > The QTopia apps do have a somewhat more conventional "cell phone"
> > feel to them (see my screenshot of the Contacts "Overview" page here:
> > http://www.darwinsys.com/tmp/contacts1.png).
> >
> > So, I think we're in good hands here. On to the "experience".
> >
> > Short form: functionally, it works.  Among other things, the phone wakes
> > up reliably on incoming rings (assuming it's booted and suspended, of
> > course), and GSM voice works after a resume.
> >
> > There are still some minor glitches. I hope I'm not out of line
> > reporting these here, given how pre-pre my software is, but Steve has
> > been asking me to report on this list since my FreeRunner arrived. I
> > remind everybody reading this to remember that this is PRE-PRE-RELEASE
> > software. None of this intended as criticism of those who worked under
> > time deadline to make this early release ready for the show I was
> > presenting OM at!  Nonetheless these are things that I would not like to
> > have fall through the cracks.
> >
> > 1) Incoming calls do wake up the phone, but by the time the dialer
> > appears on screen, several rings have gone by, and, by the time you
> > press Answer and get it recognized, the screen hasn't responded, the
> > Answer button changes to Hangup, so if you double-clicked it, you can
> > easily hang up on your caller without intending to.
> >
> > 2) The ASU software features a qwerty-keyboard. It is switchable between
> > alphabetics and numerics; unfortunately the gesture  needed to do this
> > (a triangle drawn counter-clockwise from lower left) is a bit hard to
> > get right; hopefully there will be a  button to switch this. As well,
> > the current version of ASU uses QTopia's input manager, offering what
> > looks like a predictive style but is  actually doing a dictionary
> > lookup; I find this very distracting compared to a plain do-what-I-type
> > keyboard, and would welcome an easy way to turn this off (I thought
> > Lorne Potter posted this once, but I couldn't find it).
> >
> > 3) It's easy to accidentally start an application (thus slowing down
> > what you're trying to really do) while scrolling the home screen in icon
> > grid mode.
> >
> > 4) The Preferences that are in the top slide-down panel's Wrench icon
> > should presumably be merged with the Preferences App.
> >
> > 5) The shutdown dialog does not have a cancel or Back button.
> > And, it often doesn't actually shutdown.
> >
> > All for now. Again, please remember that this is very early access.
> > And don't let my nit-picking distract you from the fact that it's
> > looking good for something that was merged only a few weeks ago!
> >
> > Ian Darwin
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> > http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
>
>
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