[maemo-developers] [maemo-developers] OS 2007 / 770 hacker edition

[From: Carlos Guerreiro]

Hi,

Some news on OS 2007 for the 770 :-).

We have commissioned Markku Vire (https://garage.maemo.org/users/mavire) 
to have a go at making OS 2007 run on the Nokia 770.
This is the engineering release Ari talked out in this blog:
http://jaaksi.blogspot.com/2007/01/were-getting-some-feedback-and-weve-got.html 


It’s by necessity a hybrid of OS 2007 and OS 2006. Device drivers, 
firmware and some userland packages (notably the Opera browser engine) 
are those in OS 2006. However, most components - including the kernel - 
are the ones in OS 2007 where necessary rebuilt and/or configured 
differently.

As far as the software platform is concerned, this makes this OS 2007 / 
770 hacker edition pretty close to the real thing. We expect most 
applications built with Maemo Bora for the N800 to install and work, 
within the limitations of the hardware and subject to some software gaps 
- more on that below. We also expect applications that do not work on 
the N800 - due to changed APIs - not to work here as well.

That’s great since it should make this release a viable tool for 
checking if your app will work on the N800 - before you have one.

But it’s not the real thing. It’s not a end-user ready release. It’s a 
tool to allow developers to continue working on the 770, moving on to 
the OS 2007 / Bora software platform, bridging the gap between 770 and 
N800. It’s less than alpha. No Q.A. was done on it and who knows what it 
might do. It should not brick your device but then again, we can’t be 
totally sure of that either. I’m running it on my 770 and so far it’s 
doing fine.

TigerT took the nice photo you can see here: 
http://os2007on770.garage.maemo.org/OS2007-770-2.jpg

Markku made a lot of progress. Here’s what we’ve got so far:

- The device boots up, starting X and the Hildon Desktop.
- You can run most applications, including the Browser. You get the OS 
2007 Browser UI but the version of the Opera engine from OS 2006. There 
are two reasons for this. One reason is that the OS 2007 engine will 
simply not run. We suspect it is the way it was compiled specifically 
for the N800 but we don’t have the source code so that’s a guess. The 
other reason is that the license of Opera that goes with the 770 does 
not cover the update. Somebody would have to pay more to ship the 
updated version.
- Connectivity seems to work. Both WLAN and Bluetooth. We haven’t tested 
much though.
- The DSP works at a very minimal level. Some audio media does play but 
there are no touchscreen sounds and no video at all :-(. We are still 
trying to do something about that, Markku is getting help from our 
Multimedia guys. In any case, some of the codecs from OS 2007 are not 
shipped - again due to licensing restrictions.
- Instant messaging works. VOIP didn’t last time I tried, which is 
hardly surprising given the DSP doesn’t work that much ;-).
- The very same OS 2007 theme and graphics are provided.

Have a look at Markku’s notes (http://maemo.org/maemowiki/Os2007On770) 
if you are interested in the gory details. He’ll be updating these notes 
as he continues to work on this.

An image will be available soon for download and flashing, to 770 users 
only.

After that, Maemo developers with a 770 and a bit of time on their hands 
are encouraged to check it out. Problem reports specific to this release 
should go to the Garage project 
(https://garage.maemo.org/projects/os2007on770/). Not to the Maemo 
bugzilla and definitely not to any Nokia support. There is no official 
support for this.

We will work on this still for some time though it is hard to say how 
long. It will also depend on how this is received. It might be that we 
can get more of the DSP and Multimedia to work, or maybe not.

We can’t justify doing much work on this hybrid, our development focus 
is really on the N800. However, if we manage to make further progress we 
will release updated images. We’ll look at any patches that people in 
the Maemo community might turn up and consider applying them and 
releasing new images. We can’t promise we will do a good job there but 
let’s see what we can manage.

This is again, something new for us, and we hope to learn something in 
the process.

Best regards,
Carlos