[maemo-users] Online Status of Contacts Invisible after OS2008 Update on Week-old N810

[From: Marius Gedminas]

On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 05:34:10PM -0400, Thorsten wrote:
> After updating OS2008 via "apt-get dist-upgrade" (on a week-old N810),
> I no longer see the online status of my contacts. Not in Speed
> Contacts applets and not in Contacts, either.

Ouch.

The reason apt-get work so well in Debian is that they have a single
well-maintained repository.

In Maemo world we still have a little bit of a mess, although there's
push to move all 3rd-party packages into Maemo Extras instead of having
them scattered in a multitude of potentially-conflicting 3rd party
repositories.

Anyway, apt-get upgrade/dist-upgrade is more dangerous on a N8x0 than on
a typical Linux box.  It all depends on what repositories you have
configured and what packages you upgrade.  Upgrading 3rd-party packages
is safe; upgrading core system libraries is not (for example, upgrading
the 'busybox' package with the version from the SDK repository will
render your tablet unable to boot).  Currently it is impossible to
upgrade the base OS via apt-get (although I believe that will become
possible in future OS versions), because many of the OS packages are not
available from any apt repository -- they're only distributed in the
OS image file.

I cannot say if your problem is caused by upgrading a system package
with some incompatible version, or by installing a broken 3rd-party
package.

> My contacts still see MY online status on the N810 just fine—and we
> can chat as before. However, I no longer see the green (online), red
> (offline), or white question mark-on-blue (not authorized) balls next
> to the names of my contacts. I though that perhaps the software update
> (OS and many of the apps pre-installed) compromised the icons used to
> show online status, but the list at "Contacts" -> "Online" remains
> empty, even when some of my contacts definitely are online.
> 
> The problem occurs both with GTalk and (non-Google) Jabber accounts.
> 
> See http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19490
> for some illustrating screenshots.
> 
> Ideas?

The 100% guaranteed way:

  1. Make a backup with the built-in backup app
  2. Reflash the OS image
  3. Restore from backup and reinstall all 3rd party apps you had
     installed

The more interesting way:

  * Try to figure out which package update caused the problem
  * Try to downgrade it, if you can find the older version
  * Actually, I've no idea how to investigate and solve the problem.

Regards,
Marius Gedminas
-- 
Some of the more environmentally aware dinosaurs were worried about the
consequences of an accident with the new Iridium enriched fusion reactor.
"If it goes off only the cockroaches and mammals will survive..." they said.
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