So here it is. Midgard2 installed and working with maemo . It's midgard-core actually , but one doesn't need midgard-apache or midgard-php modules on N770 or N800. Building midgard-core packages ( midgard-common and libmidgard10 ) has been easy and smooth , however getting it working with libgda arm packages has been very difficult. Simply, debian packages for gda missed few files. I started with "editing" unified configuration file . Well "edit" is a good word here as I have no any text editor installed. But with few tricks I managed to do this. I switched TableCreate to true and ran midgard-schema midgard. Nasty surprise here ... I created database about 15 minutes re running midgard-schema few times after every terminal's crash. I expect tablet's CPU and memory is not just enough to do it fast. Memory storage speed might be also huge bottleneck. Creating tables is I/O very expensive operation. However once database is created, midgard-schema runs "at normal speed" informing you that tables are already created. Now I need some user interface to see SQLite and Midgard in action. Probably I could also use TestUnit configuration option to perform database tests. Few notes from me for libgda debian maintainer :

libgda-dev

libgda-dev.install file should contain such entries:

/usr/lib/pkgconfig/*.pc
/usr/lib/*.a
/usr/lib/*.la

gda-sqlite

gda-sqlite.install file should contain:

/usr/share/libgda-3.0/sqlite_specs_*.xml

Other issues

I have no idea why all sqlite spec xml files seems to be missed. Normally ( when compiled for i386 architecture ) gda library looks for spec files in lib directory and then in share one. When packages are compiled for armel architecture , gda looks for spec files only in lib directory.
To make libs working correctly I did this trick:

rules file

cp $(CURDIR)/debian/tmp/usr/share/libgda-3.0/sqlite_specs_*.xml $(CURDIR)/debian/tmp/usr/lib/libgda-3.0/providers/

gda-sqlite.install file

usr/lib/libgda-3.0/providers/*.xml

There are other xml and dtd files which should be correctly copied for debian packages, but there are only warnings thrown without them.

 

Last week I found Johannes Schmid blog entry about new libgda3 packages. I downloaded package's sources and recompiled it for gregale on N770. Well , I tried to recompile. These libgda3 package have some major issues:

• Can not use debian files with gda 3.0
• Sections in control files are incorrect

The latter case seems to be the most common issue I can found in debian package built for armel architecture. But maybe this is my fault. Anyway , I can not install package from file using AM. It always complain "Incompatible package" when package's section is for example lib, while it should be user/lib.

I have no idea how packages can be installed via AM directly from repositories as AM always is getting and refreshing packages list and then throws a warning "Can not refresh packages list".

Anyway , I need libreadline4 to install gda packages ( those ones I had to recompile myself ). Unfortunatelly, it seems that only bora supports libreadline4 and I need to build another packages for myself. I hope this one will be the last one. In any other case I am afraid I will have to compile plenty of packages for myself.

My big wishlist ( one wish to be exact ) is to have usable AM on N770. I have at least 4 or 5 repositories added. AM doesn't complain that repos' locaions are invalid, and I have no idea if those are good or do not trigger conflicts. Well... I should be happy anyway, as I have about 5 applications listed in AM that can be installed. None of these is the one I want.

Just two days ago I wrote about being confused when I tried to follow Maemo documentation. I looked at other websites addressed for end users and developers and noticed that Maemo is not the only one which provides unlogic navigation. Also Midgard ( the one I write docs for ) project website needs more love.

This would be cool IMO:

"Get started" section with:

• What would you like to do.

  • I have device XXX and I want to install new applications
  • Where...

  • How ...

  • I have device XXX and I want to update OS I have installed

  • Where ...

  • How ...

  • I am a developer and I want to write new application

  • How to start ?
  • What should I install on my device?
  • When and why do I need SDK on my device ?

• Features

  • What is ...
  • How ...
  • Why ...

The main point here ( and everywhere ) must be to treat everyone as a user. Even a developer. A developer is only a human and should have a good place where can start. It's not funny anyway when you prepare for hacking but first you must hack docs and notes.

A cool feature for any website with documentation would be possibility to bookmark resources the same way how you can add products to cart in any online shop. Once you like the website you can customize your start page and limit information only to this you are really interested in.

Probably I could contribute and write some simple howtos for maemo. But the real problem is the fact that the more I read docs the more I am confused. There are plenty of "how to ..." but at the same time there is almost nothing about why and when.

Example. There is quite long and "almost with details" how to create custom rootfs for device doc. But there's nothing about why do I need custom rootfs and why should I use it instead of downloadable and installable, ready to use SDK rootfs. What is more , I couldn't find any info why do I have to install rootfs SDK on my device :)

...sucks a lot.

Consider this real scenario:

1. You want to develope new application for OS2006
2. You need to update OS2006
3. You need to update maemo2.1 to maemo2.2

Maybe I am stupid , but clever guy do:

1. Open maemo.org
2. Follow "Maemo 2.2 'gregale' is released" link from frontpage
3. Follow one of these two links:

• The latest OS 2006 Software Edition is available here.
• For more info please see the releases page

1. Download latest OS2006 ( you completely hae no idea what to do with this OS )
2. Follow release page
3. Follow Maemo 2.2 'gregale' Release
4. Follow any link in 2.2 release section
5. Try to figure out what to do.
6. Count from 1 to 10 to calm down....
7. Imagine "I feel lucky"
8. Follow "wiki" link in main navigation
9. Dada! There's howto for developers!

There's 'Developers' link in main navigation. Why thi showto is not linked directly from developers section?

What does 'Wiki' means in main navigation? A Page that uses wiki? A tool? What? I wonder if I should create 'PHP' link on my website because website uses PHP...

Almost full quote from Vabank:

Q: Do you always keep money in a bathroom with your dirt panties? A: Yeah , sure! And I keep my toothpaste in my socks!

A good lesson for me being also a developer and release manager. Always use links and titles which describes what is the content they provide. Never use links with names which describe what is the tool they use.

I remember I lost quite some time few weeks ago when I wanted to find applications' catalog on maemo.org. Wiki page was the last one I selected.

A similiar scenario can be repeated on http://gnome.org website. This is impossible for end user to find anything. In the same time, my wife is trying to find some gnome application. Obviously, not being gnome developer, she has no idea that http://gnomefiles.org can be found at gnome.org > community > software map.