[maemo-developers] Community updates for diablo (specifically Application Manager if nothing else)

[From: Lucas Maneos]

(Warning: resurrecting ancient thread, see
<http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/maemo/developers/47855> for background,
and <http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=30648> is also relevant).

The story so far:
 - mined a bunch of patches from bugs.maemo.org
 - built some updated packages with the above
 - got Nokia's blessing to modify and redistribute osso-software-version-*
 - set up a test repository.

The missing piece: making the updates installable via application
manager so we can invite some brave souls for testing.

The problem (as I understand it) is packages switching domains.  The
updated versions come from a repository signed with a different key to
the "nokia-system" one, which makes the application manager ignore them.

Based on <http://hildon-app-mgr.garage.maemo.org/repos-stable.html>:

> Domains have a 'trust level' associated with them. Domains with a
> higher trust level are considered to dominate other domains and the AM
> will allow a package to silently move from a domain to a dominating
> one.

I had assumed that setting a higher trust-level would allow domain
switches to happen, but this doesn't seem to be the case :-(

For clarity, I'm testing on a freshly-reflashed 5.2008.43-7 N800 with
the following added to /etc/hildon-application-manager/domains:

 <domain>
  <name>community-updates</name>
  <trust-level>600</trust-level>
  <key>[...]</key>
  <default/>
 </domain>

and "<default/>" removed from nokia-system.

The application manager log contains just a series of entry pairs like:

apt-worker: Ignoring version from wrong domain: modest 1.0-2008.43-2
apt-worker:   /var/lib/apt/lists/XXX_Packages

So, first things first, am I doing something wrong here?

If not, and trust-level alone isn't enough but the updates really need
to come from a repository signed with the same key as the originals, are
there any other options?

Every workaround I can come up with is unworkable at best, the only
semi-viable one being to patch the application manager but this has the
obvious chicken-and-egg problem of how to publish the patched version so
users can install it.

I may be missing something obvious, so any ideas welcome.

Thanks,
Lucas