[Debian] UPDATED: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM, etc
UPDATE 12-Oct-08: New TURBO CHARGED version! Go HERE!
The Bundyo-Benson-Build easy-deb-chroot-0.6-2_armel.deb This version uses Bundyo's 'hostwin' app to open the IceWM window (and give it a nice icon). The most important thing about this is that there are no more dependencies on Python packages. You can install the easy chroot package on a stock tablet now. It also includes Benson's much more flexible chroot script, which allows you to change your chroot settings by changing the settings in the /home/user/.chroot file. This update also includes:
PLEASE see this post and this post for more (important) information. Finally, Debian for everyone! :D :) This package, when installed, will give you OpenOffice.org, AbiWord, the IceWM window manager, Firefox 3.0 (called Iceweasel in Debian) with Java support, printing support, and access to thousands of applications that can be easily browsed and downloaded. This package will give you all of these applications without any need for installing dependencies or other applications, and it should work on all of the tablets. What you need: You need 1.3 GB free on one of your memory cards (this includes the built-in 2GB on the N810), although after installing, you will only need 1 GB. You need to keep your expectations reasonable. Big desktop applications like OpenOffice and Firefox run slowly on the tablet. They are designed for big, power-hungry CPUs. The N8x0's processor is comparable to a Pentium II processor. Just imagine running these apps on your computer from the mid-90s (remember Windows 95?), and you'll get the idea. But sometimes, you really need something on the tablet that only these apps can provide, like MS Word compatibility or Java applets. Install instructions: You need to install the easy-deb-chroot package. Install it with the Application Manager. When this package is installed, you have to run the "Debian Image Installer" in your Extras menu. This will download and install the big image to the memory card of your choice. It will take about a half hour to download if you have fast Internet connection, and another 15 minutes to extract it on your tablet. This may take longer... Start the install when you can leave your tablet downloading for a while, maybe just before bed or before going out ;) :D Finally, when you get the "Congratulations!" message, REBOOT. Using the IceWM Window Manager: If it doesn't work: You need Python and PyGTK to open the window in OS2008. Switching to OS2008: Just press the "Home" key (with the house on it) to get back to OS2008. Switching to IceWM: Click on the icon on the left hand side of OS2008, or use the Home key to choose IceWM. Onscreen Keyboard: The button to the left of the "x-terminal" button on the toolbar pops up an on-screen keyboard. Getting this to work can be tricky sometimes. I've found that it helps to check the "Always on top?" on the xvkbd menu (lower left corner of kbd), even though it doesn't actually keep the keyboard on top, then click on the app that you want to type in, then click on a key on the keyboard. This brings the keyboard to the top but lets you type in the app. Exiting IceWM: Log out, don't just close the window. International (non-English speaking) users: Please click on the "Debian chroot" icon and type the following command: Code:
dpkg-reconfigure locales Note that you should choose the language with no period between the language and the iso code (eg. "en_CA ISO-8859-1"), and optionally, the utf-8 version, too (eg. "en_CA.UTF-8"). Want more install space? If you want more space for installing stuff, you can purge all of the language and localization files that you aren't using. Make sure you have configured your locales (as shown above) first. Click on the "Debian chroot" icon and type the following command: Code:
apt-get install localepurge; localepurge Also, remember to frequently use "apt-get clean" to clear out old downloaded packages. That will help with free space. You can also probably safely delete lots of support packages. For example, if you don't plan to print from your applications, you can probably do "apt-get remove --purge cups" Some notes / warnings:
Using This Thread: Please post questions about installing this package, ideas for improving it, and related topics in this thread. For hacker / developer discussion about running Debian using this method, use the Running Debian in a chroot thread. If you wish to discuss the best applications to run on the tablets, and the tweaks and changes needed to get them running well, please use the Debian Applications That Run Well on the Tablets thread. IceWM running AbiWord and xvkbd, with OS2008 menu (invoked by pressing Home key) http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3162/...517973ff_o.png THANKS: Johnx for egging me on about Gimp ;) and getting me interested in Debian on the tablets again penguinbait for the base downloader script from his very cool KDE packages Benson for always knowing the answer qwerty12 for the movable window hack debernardis and the hackers over in the developer thread for figuring stuff out with me (and for wanting openoffice so badly :) ) thp for showing us how cool it would be to have an easy-switching window manager in his video |
Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
Totally awesome! Thank you a ton! Can Ubuntu support be far behind?
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Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
Trust me - ubuntu-mid is nothing to be desired...
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Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
Wow! Thanks quole! This looks very interesting. I can't wait to try it out, but it'll have to be tomorrow, so I will get the benefit of this thread before I get started.;)
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Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
Thank you very much Qole!
You know what's lacking now (I guess)? Mapping for 2nd functions of the N810 keyboard under Xephyr/Icewm. I think that Xmodmap is needed and a fellow with some spare time. |
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Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
Thanks for all the work that went into this. I'm really excited about using this, but can't get it to work. The .deb installed fine, and the image seemed to download fine, but the installer quits before extracting it. When I run Debian chroot I get and error message:
You have no debian.img.ext2 on your memory cards. When I run Debian image installer I get this error: the file is already fully retrieved; noting to do. And then it exits. Any help would be greatly appreciated! |
Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
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Everything works, thank you qole.
It took 31 min for the dl, I think the file is ~288M. It then took 15 min to extract it. and I guess, upon successful, there is a message in a white rectange: "Congratulation......" If you get that far, you made it. Upon loading Iceweasel, it took another 23 seconds, as if the tablet is NOT doing a thing, suddenly, here comes the web page. Load up IceWM is fast. Some difficulty in using the keyboard though, / \ and numerals do not work; even with an ext keyboard. bun |
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/home/user/img-install/installer.sh It should sit for a long time saying nothing but "debian.img.ext2", as it extracts the image, but it sounds like there's something wrong with the extraction process. Funny, there's supposed to be an error window if the extraction fails, I wonder why there isn't... |
Re: ANNOUNCE: Easy Debian For Everyone! OpenOffice, Firefox 3, Java, AbiWord, IceWM,
Try to get into Xterm as root/synaptic pack manager, stuck at the admin password. Try user, rootme, root didnt work. ???
It works with an ext kbd, virtual kbd, but when I slide the N810 kbd out, screen got to be very slow, and when I tapped a few chars, it crashed. Edit: after reboot, all chars worked now. bun |
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