[maemo-developers] Methods for developping on the device itself

[From: Cedric Cellier]

Hello !

Back to the time when I developed on the n810, I managed to install all
required package to build my hildon C programs onto the n810 itself (I
had to move things around to fit all required packages).

I'm now trying to develop for the n900, and want to compile on the
device itself.

Here are the three methods that I imagined :

1) Make place on the rootfs by moving things like var on the internal SD
partition.

Pro: very easy
Cons: may slow down the device, may break things (as packaging in
general seams very weak despite the use of .deb format).

2) Install a Debian on the device and chroot to it

Pro: quite easy, true coding environment and robust packages
Cons: where do I find hildon/openglES include files and libs in a stock Debian ?

3) Install the SDK on the device and chroot to it

Pro: all include files and libs are present
Cons: more complex, fragile packaging, unavailable packages

I have more or less implemented the third alternative, up to a point
where I managed to compile the sample widget of the maemo documentation,
but I'm unsatisfied by the result and wondering if something simplier
exist.

What are you using ?