I have a brand new n800. I have managed to find some installable apps and let the n800 download them wirelessly and install them. Here are a few questions I have:

1. What if I were to download an install file for an app on my desktop and transfer it to a place on the external storage card. Can I point the application manager at this file and install from there? I don't see how to do it because everything seems to be pointed at online repositories.

2. I was trying to install sqlite and was pointed on a forum to a .deb file. What do I do with that? If I were on my desktop linux system, I would use synaptic or apt-get. What do I do on the N800?

I found my answer to the .deb file install. I pointed the browser to the .deb file for sqlite and up popped the installer inviting me to install it. Unfortunately, I was told that it was uninstallable (not compatible with what I had or something like that). That's a separate issue but at least I know that you point the broswer to deb file and the n800 reacts appropriately. Isn't there a faq somewhere that explains simple things like this?

It's right there in the program handling tool.. start it as normal, you'll see that semi-graphical screen, then select the menu (the top line, with that little 'down' arrow), select Program, you'll see 'install from file' as the available option.

When there's stuff that needs to be installed from .deb (I prefer using a repository if possible) I usually put them in a specific directory on my memory card, the option I talk about above can install from there - it pops up a file manager.

Keep in mind.. your desktop is probably an x86 system, and the tablet is an ARM processor.. programs compiled for the x86 won't work on an ARM

Thanks for the info. I am new at this and not used to the interface. So the solution is to launch the application manager, click on the top bar that says "Application Manager" and a dropdown menu appears. Click on "Application" and you get "Install from File".

I guess this assumes that the file is installable. Can I assume that any maemo .deb or .install file can be installed this way? Are there ary other extensions?

For those apps that don't have an installer associated with, I guess there are other procedures. I'll read up on that.

Thanks for the help.

Yes, i assumed that. I was just using the desktop to grab the file and move it over.

thanks

how do you install a tar.gz file ? im trying to get "contacts" installed on my n800 IT and it does not have a .deb install file included. any help would be appreciated

A tar.gz file is a compressed 'tar' format archive, it could contain anything. Unless it contains a .deb file it's not installable. .tar.gz files are often used to distribute source code, for example.
If you are in an xterm windown (either on the N800 or a *nix desktop) you can check the content with 'tar ztvf filename.tar.gz' (which lists, but doesn't unpack the content).

Thanks. So theres no way to install the application if a .deb is not included? If its source code can i not compile it and create a .deb to run on my IT? There are many apps on maemo that come only with the compressed source code and i would like to know how to install these (as ive seen others have).

I would be surprised if there are many apps on the maemo website which come only as source.. that sounds strange. If you tell us what you are looking for we may be able to direct you to the right place.