World First On-Device Homebrew Installer

[rwhitby]

The WebOS Internals open source development group (which consists of many developers, myself having done the least work on this specific application) is proud to announce the world's first method for installing homebrew applications directly using the Pre and no host computer required.

See Application:Terminal - WebOS Internals for details of how to install the early alpha Terminal application, and then use the Terminal application on the Pre itself to run:

ipkg -o /var list

to see the list of free, libre, open source Pre applications that have already been included in the preware.org ipkg feed.

Then run:

ipkg -o /var install <application>

to install one of the applications from that list.

If you have a public URL for a homebrew application ipkg, run:

ipkg -o /var install <url>

to install an application from anywhere on the Internet.

You can use the normal GUI application management procedures to delete applications installed in this way.

You can also run:

ipkg -o /var upgrade

to upgrade all of your existing homebew applications that have been installed from the preware.org feed (or any other standard ipkg feed that you add to the list of installed feeds in /var/etc/ipkg/).

Note that we are already in discussion with PreCentral to help them publish all the homebrew applications in the forums as a standard ipkg feed which can be used by this method. When they have completed that, we will release instructions on how to add their feed to this process.

Now that the first on-device homebrew installation application is available, courtesy of an open source development team, let's see which of the closed development teams working on dedicated GUI front-ends to on-device homebrew installation will be second ...

-- Rod

[dBsooner]

Good stuff Rod! I look forward to getting more apps into the feed.

[jhoff80]

I might be out of the loop on this sort of thing, but I thought ipkg wasn't recommended for installing things now, and we should instead use ipkg-opt?

Or is that for only the Optware Linux packages use ipkg-opt, and for actual webOS packages to use ipkg -o /var install?

[SDash]

YAY!!

Now for everyone's homebrew stores to open!!

[ipodtouch12345]

Great work. I've been waiting for this for a while. This is a big step forward but we still need a more consumer friendly way of installing this. This is still pretty cool though.

[dhMassacre]

FYI: you can't do the GUI refresh command with luna from the phone because you need to use the "{}" which isnt supported by this terminal... historical things happening though, you are a true genius.

[steb0ne]

Gee willikers batman!!!

[Rennat]

This is by fare the most useful app that's been created! I can tell that this app is in it's alpha stages but I can still run simple commands! I CAN NOT wait until this app is finished and can do as much as putty can! Keep up the GREAT work!!!

[dhMassacre]

I'm so excited for a GUI app installer.

[rwhitby]

Originally Posted by jhoff80

I might be out of the loop on this sort of thing, but I thought ipkg wasn't recommended for installing things now, and we should instead use ipkg-opt?

Or is that for only the Optware Linux packages use ipkg-opt, and for actual webOS packages to use ipkg -o /var install?

ipkg-opt is for Optware Linux packages, and you should continue to use it for Optware packages so that they don't conflict with the built-in Palm Linux utilities and libraries.

For webOS homebrew applications, we recommend using ipkg -o /var, since that simulates pretty much exactly what the Palm-recommend palm-install script does, and what the installer for the App Catalog does already. So we stay compatible with that, and applications installed using ipkg -o /var can be deleted just like any other application.

-- Rod

[rwhitby]

Originally Posted by decibel

Good stuff Rod! I look forward to getting more apps into the feed.

Well, to get more apps in the preware.org feed, more of them need to released as free, libre, open source software (FOSS).

PreWare.org has a policy of only accepting FOSS applications, for the following reasons:

1) Payments of any kind will probably cause Palm to react, since you would be taking the cut of the payment that Palm would have got from their App Catalog.

2) Freely-redistributable open source packages can be hosted by anyone in their own feed, so PreCentral or any individual can host these same packages in their feeds - this makes sure that if preware.org is threatened by Palm then the applications there can simply be hosted by someone else.

3) You don't need to ask anyone's permission to host a freely redistributable open source application. So this removes the problem of sites being jealous of the set of applications at preware.org - everyone can share everything as a community instead of hoarding apps.

4) Open source applications can be easily reviewed for security concerns.

5) FOSS applications are always in a constant state of testing and improvement, so the can appeal to the "testing environment" language in the SDK EULA.

6) Any other GUI installer application can use the preware.org feed directly, without needing to get separate permission from authors, and by simply using the standard ipkg Packages feed format that we provide.


Note that we fully intend for all FOSS applications to be submitted by their authors to the official Palm App Catalog. We are not in competition with Palm. We are a site for testing new FOSS applications before they are accepted and published by Palm.


So go to the authors of the applications in the homebrew forum, and ask them each to make a public statement declaring their application to be released under a FOSS license (like GPL, MIT, BSD, Apache, etc). Any application that is licensed that way can be immediately included.

-- Rod

[rwhitby]

Originally Posted by dhMassacre

I'm so excited for a GUI app installer.

Yes, this post is intended to set a fire under the 5 groups who are all independently, and in secret, creating such applications.

If they had all worked together as a development community instead of trying to keep their work secret and doing it all alone, they would have been finished by now.

The preware.org feed sets the standard for how feeds should be published so that *any* GUI installer or on-line web portal can use it. Let's have an open market and good competition for the best application using standard interoperable package and feed formats. No lock-in by using proprietary feed formats.

I fully expect a site like PreCentral to be able to access the preware.org feed, suck out the information from the Packages file, and put up some sort of portal that allows their users to submit screenshots, reviews and ratings for each of the applications. That's the point of having open and interoperable standards for packages and feeds. I expect them to publish their feeds in the same format.

-- Rod

[PreHero]

thats an interesting idea

[ipodtouch12345]

Are you working on a more consumer friendly app?

[dhMassacre]

lol, okay, those questions need to stop.. of course they are.
i'm guilty of asking too, but give it time, this was just released.. "we need sleep" as i and probably many others were told by the developers.

[ipodtouch12345]

Originally Posted by dhMassacre

lol, okay, those questions need to stop.. of course they are.
i'm guilty of asking too, but give it time, this was just released.. "we need sleep" as i and probably many others were told by the developers.

Lol, I know, but as I always say "you can sleep when your dead". I know it takes time. Great work. And if we could get all the devs to work together on this, it could be an awesome alternative to the app catalog

[rwhitby]

Originally Posted by ipodtouch12345

Are you working on a more consumer friendly app?

There are 5 people or groups of people (some part of webos-internals, some not) that I know of that are doing this.

None of them have a public open development process, so we have no way of knowing where they are up to.

As long as they all support a standard ipkg feed format, then I say let the best app win!

-- Rod

[PreGame]

My GUI application and is done but I was asked to hold of on the release (by PreCentral.net) so that it could be covered by PreCentral.net. I will be releasing the GUI version for on pre install in about 12 hours.

[gollyzila]

I just used the the url install method and it worked perfectly. It dl, upgraded and installed

[forsethc]

I know this probably isn't the correct place, so if there's a better place to ask, please point me there!

I am having trouble installing the terminal app. There doesn't seem to be a source for org.webosinternals.terminal, so I can't install it.

Any ideas?