Teh Encyclopaedia de Tchadwick [archived]

(posted to the las vegas linux users group mailing list)

So my eyes opened wide when I saw my first EEE at the last meeting.
But I was offered a good deal on an n800 by someone who couldn't use
it to its full potential, so I had to get it.

"Linux? Whats linux? I want to play music on my phone ..."


http://linuxdevices.com/articles/AT8033409446.html

I began by playing around with the default install of 2007 for a bit.
My first impulse was to configure video chat and send it to a relative,
but soon I saw that gTalk on the PC didn't support video calls, while
the client on the n800 did ...


http://maemo.org/community/wiki/HOWTO_FlashLatestNokiaImageWithLinux

So I had to update to 2008. The first problem I ran into was the
error "To flash the bootloader, you have to supply the X-Loader..."
after downloading the earlier version of 2008. Using the latest version
worked very well. The interface was nicer, but took up more of the screen.

Overall it was faster as it clocked the CPU to 400mhz instead of the 2007's
speed of 333mhz. I have been using the device a lot since I got it; I charge
it at night and when I am near a plug, and haven't noticed a big difference
in the battery life.

My second task was to get shell access - luckily ossi-xterm was included in
2008. Typing wasn't very fun at first, using the stylus and smaller keyboard,
until I discovered the full-screen keyboard, which you can essentially thumb.

Fully debian underneath, apt-get works and there is even a trick to get root:
"sudo gainroot". After setting a root password sudo will still ask for a
password, but I don't use sudo normally so I haven't gotten to making that work.
I set a user password also; (the default user is "user"). Then I went about
happily installing many, many applications.


http://www.gronmayer.com/it/

This page contains a collection of n800 repositories. Navigable from the
devices built in browser, it is very easy to add them. I am still not sure
as to which are worthy and which cause confusion - my application manager is
full of various similarly named categories, and viewing the entire list is
tedious, as the column for version numbers overrides the column for names ..
making most of the names unreadable. I just ran through it by category.

The first program installed was SSH, and off to my desktop I went, looking
through the filesystem with greater ease..


I have to go, but first I will tell of my experience with video chat. Using
gizmo5 which is linked from the default menu, the compression seems to cause
lots of artifacts. The audio is good, and the incoming video is good, but the
video the n800 produces is sub-par. There may be other possibilities and I
will try them out soon enough.

A word about the camera - it seems to produce lots of staticy artifacts. I have
noticed that when it is turning on, at one point while it is brightening up, it
produces a very good picture. Maybe it allows in too much light? Neither the
supplied camera application or the downloaded Knips allow any tuning of the
camera which is a shame.

I am now in #maemo as well as #lvlug and will share any more information I
gain in due time.


Chad