[maemo-users] Help with Maemo Virtual Image Install Documentation

[From: R. G. Newbury]

Well I finally got the Maemo SDK Virtual Image installed. A very 
frustrating experience, having been mislead repeatedly by the 
documentation and the install script. More by errors of omission.
Everything actually DID work, and I now have Ubuntu installed in a 
virtualbox, but man it was FRUSTRATING.


<semi-rant begins>
I downloaded 
Maemo_PreFinal_2_Ubuntu_Intrepid_Desktop_SDK_Virtual_Image_Splitted.zip.001 
and ...002. (And then I then had to find, build and install 7zip.....)

I ran 7za x Maemo.....001 and it ran. I tried to do the same for ...002 
and got a 'Not an archive' error. I had no idea if 7za dealt with both 
files serially, or if the file was corrupt.

A little explanation in the documentation would be helpful. How about 
telling us what the proper result will be?

"7Za will serially extract the split numbered zip files, and report:
'Everything is Ok

Files: 5
Size:       8453907228
Compressed: 1572864000'"

Then we run the installer script, which is a fun guessing game. It asks 
for information without the slightest hint as to the expected response 
and uses misleading names for the information. HOW ABOUT A HINT?
"Location of VirtualBox binaries (normally /usr/bin)?"

Then it asks for "The name of your VirtualBox Image." Off the bat, I 
thought that was the name of the image file. But what is wanted is not 
actually the name of the file, but a name under which your virtual 
instance will appear in the Manager. It has nothing to do with the name 
of the vdmk file. A short alias is what is wanted. Of course, I inserted 
the name of the file: maemosdk_desktop_intrepid-10-08.vmdk. Since I had 
already manually created a virtual instance, I now had 3 instances 
(including the pre-existing WinXP), one of which had an unreadable name, 
due to its length.
How about:

"Please provide a (short) name for this virtual instance. This name will 
appear in the list of virtual instances in the VirtualBox Manager 
(Maemosdk-2)"

Finally, it asks for the "location" of the VirtualBox image. But what it 
wants is not actually the location of the image. Generally a 'location' 
for a file is the folder 'where' it is. The script actually wants the 
'what' of the file: the fully qualified pathname of the image file. That 
is: /tmp/downloads/maemosdk_desktop_intrepid-10-08.vmdk or whatever.

So how about:
"Please provide the full pathname of the vmdk file 
(/tmp/downloads/maemo-xxx.vmdk)"

Of course, what is NOT discussed, is that this script will create the 
virtual hard-drive instance *out of the vmdk* and exactly where the vmdk 
presently resides. Yes, of course I wanted to create a virtual in my 
/tmp/downloads folder. Although a different place would be better.....

I had to parse the script, and read 'VBoxManage --help' to understand 
what the script was trying to do. Once I got past being misdirected, I 
was able to install. Only took me about 2 hours, not including download 
time..

</semi-rant>

Now that I do have it installed, I must congratulate those who put this 
together. Despite my frustrations at the installer, it probably took 
less time than I expended each time, when I tried to install scratchbox 
versions 1 or 2. I strongly suspect that the script was run up in short 
order by someone who knew *exactly* what he wanted, and therefor could 
not see the forest for the trees.

Geoff






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