Maemo 5 Beta 2 Release Notes

The Maemo 5 Beta 2 SDK is an increment to the beta SDK released in April this year.  A clean and fresh install is recommended because the software has evolved since the last release. However, an upgrade from Beta release can be attempted by following the instructions in the Installation page.

This release includes:

  • X86 development environment for compiling and running applications.
  • Armel environment only for compilation.
  • Maemo Scratchbox installer
  • Maemo SDK installer
  • Nokia binaries
  • Source code of open source packages.
  • Content comparison between Beta and Beta 2 SDK releases.

 

Whats new/updated?

  • Status menu area available. Plugins for the status area can be developed and tested.  Note that the process hildon-status-menu needs to be started manually at the moment as it is not yet integrated into the init scripts in scratchbox environment.

  • statusbar-alarm-dbus-api opensourced.
  • esound packages have been removed from the SDK repository. They will not be available on the device either.
  • Scratchbox packages updated:
    • scratchbox-devkit-doctools:
      • tetex: reformat error message about too old sources
      • target_setup: more intelligent copying of files to avoid issues with symlinks
    • Minor changes in toolchains
    • scratchbox-devkit-apt-https:
      • Avoid apt hanging when message block size is multiple of 64000 characters

 

Hardware and software requirements

The recommended hardware setup can be found at scratchbox.org.

Scratchbox Apophis R4 is used as the cross compilation environment. The following scratchbox packages are used in this release:

Component Version Description
scratchbox-core 1.0.14 Core of scratchbox
scratchbox-libs 1.0.14 Scratchbox libraries
scratchbox-devkit-qemu 0.10.0-0sb5 Qemu devkit
scratchbox-devkit-debian 1.0.10 Debian devkit
scratchbox-devkit-doctools 1.0.13 Devkit containing all the tools and utilities for building documentation
scratchbox-devkit-perl 1.0.4 Additional perl modules
scratchbox-devkit-apt-https 1.0.7 https support to apt
scratchbox-devkit-svn 1.0 Subversion devkit for Scratchbox
scratchbox-devkit-git 1.0 Git for Scratchbox
scratchbox-toolchain-host-gcc 1.0.14 host toolchain for Scratchbox
scratchbox-toolchain-cs2007q3-glibc2.5-arm7 1.0.11-8 ARM GCC 4.2.1 + CS2007q3 / glibc toolchain
scratchbox-toolchain-cs2007q3-glibc2.5-i486 1.0.11-6 x86 GCC 4.2.1 + CS2007q3 / glibc toolchain

 

You can install them using the scratchbox installer. Refer installation instructions for more details.

This release has been tested on 32bit Debian Lenny, Ubuntu Intrepid and Jaunty.

SDK content

This SDK contains a large number of headers, libraries and tools needed for writing Maemo 5 applications. They are installed inside the Scratchbox cross compilation environment. It includes two targets for different architectures and purpose:

  • X86 : The X86 target is used during the development phase of the software. Majority of the development work is done inside this target.
  • Armel: The armel target is used for cross compiling the software for the forthcoming device with Fremantle software.

The SDK consists of the following components:

Hildon application framework subsystem

  • UI framework libraries
  • Hildon Desktop
  • Hildon Home
  • Hildon Status Menu*
  • Hildon Application Manager
  • Hildon Input Method Framework
  • Hildon Control Panel
  • Clutter
  • Tracker
  • Matchbox library
  • Games Wrapper library

Multimedia subsystem

  • PulseAudio
  • libcanberra
  • Bellagio OpenMAC IL implementation library
  • Speex audio codec library
  • GUPnP
  • GStreamer
  • Media Application Framework
  • FM Transmitter API*

Connectivity subsystem

  • BlueZ
  • WLAN library
  • GW OBEX library
  • wireless-tools library

Real time communications subsystem

  • Glib Telepathy connection manager library
  • Farsight2 library
  • libnice library
  • AddressBook API*
  • Accounts API*
  • Event Logger API*

System software subsystem

  • HAL library
  • Battery query interface API*
  • Vibra service API*
  • Device orientation API*

Core subsystem

  • X Window system library
  • Linux Kernel
  • Open GL ES drivers*

Application Interfaces

  • Calendar API*
  • CityInfo API*
  • Location API*
  • Time API*
  • Modest

Full package management, apt support

  • Required tools incuded

[* are provided by Nokia closed binaries ]


Fixed bugs

CORE
General
#4197 opengles-sgx-img-common tries to start service in SDK.
Kernel
#2747 inconsistent mmc device naming at boot time when one card is missing
#3243 g_ether / RNDIS is broken in kernel 2.6.21

DATA MANAGEMENT
Meta Tracker
#4547 Playlists with \r or mixed newline not handled

UI FRAMEWORK
Clutter
#4503 Build of apps depending on libclutter-0.8-dev break when extras-devel repo is used

File System UI
#3646 hildon-fm doesn't build with Gtk+ 2.13
#4538 libhildonfm2-dev .pc file should require gconf-2.0 and gnome-vfs-2.0

Fonts
#3701 DSA-1635-1 freetype -- multiple vulnerabilities

GTK+
#4635 gtk+ headers incompatible to glib version wrt G_DISABLE_SINGLE_INCLUDES

hildon-theme
#2785 status bar should be resizeable.

hildon-widgets
#4528 HildonPickerButton docs should mention how to set the title of its dialog
#4563 Popup menu won't locate at the left side of the screen
#4616 Compiling libhildon requires gtk-doc but does not use gtk-doc support
#4654 Using GtkImageManuItems together with hildon_gtk_menu_new() does not create finger friendly menu items
#4700 HildonFindToolbar documentation lacks Gtk-Doc markup, and needs cleanup

Home
#3325 Status bar gets stuck in the open position
#4320 libhildondesktop's HD_DEFINE_PLUGIN_MODULE() is undocumented / not like G_DEFINE_TYPE()
#4338 Applets are added to config automatically when installed
#4340 No documentation explanation for similarity of libhildon widgets
#4341 Can't use hildon_banner_show_information() in home applet.
#4345 Document how to make applet backgrounds transparent
#4387 hd_status_plugin_item_set_status_area_icon() pixbuf documentation
#4439 No way to remove/configure a Desktop Widget
#4457 HDPluginItem::plugin-id is undocumented

window-manager
#360 HildonWindow needlessly resizes on map
#4581 HildonAppMenu: GtkFontButton doesn't work

DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM
Documentation
#1799 Hildon UI Guide missing from new site
#4515 Error 404 on Hildon Human Interface Guidelines

SDK
#3479 SDK does not work on Debian lenny system
#3909 64 bit (actually manual) install step omission of sbox_ctl
#4582 Tabs missing from HildonFileDetailsDialog

EMAIL
#2571 Signature dialog should just be a tab in the accounts dialog
#2677 "Escape" to close full-screen message un-maximises first
#3004 Modest pops up even when only read messages are in IMAP inbox
#3165 Provide immediate feedback after tapping "Reply" button in message window
#3369 only one mime part of message is shown
#3527 Modest should scroll to the top when new mail arrives
#3662 Blank lines stripped from email body on sending and saving drafts
#3762 Performance is unusable on INBOX with large number of messages
#3941 Signature separator misses trailing space (RFC 3676 violation)
#4071 find/search toolbar misplaced relative to main toolbar
#4184 Password dialog flood

SETTINGS AND MAINTENANCE

Application Manager
#2765 Repository state is not restored by backup
#2831 After restore, Application Manager responds confusingly if no wifi connection is active
#3064 App manager needs some indication that it's doing something when installing debs from the browser
#4043 Application Manager should not depend on "user" account
#4140 "ai_ia_add_catalogue_text" needs to be replaced by a couple of messages
#4149 don't share strings between buttons and tabs