Ubuntu on the touchpad

[kayphoonstar]

So, assuming that you see a full set of linux directories under /media/ext3fs I think I'd try uninstalling just ubuntu chroot and then reinstalling. I do recall occasionally getting the resolve.conf error but it didn't seem to cause a problem by itself. But not having a fully populated ubuntu-natty-chroot directory is the showstopper. My (mostly unfounded) suspicion is that there is a problem with debsmall.img so starting with a new clean image file and then reinstalling ubuntu chroot might also help. That's all I can think of to do.

[rwhitby]

I'm not sure who put the debsmall.img instructions in the Wiki, but it's completely the wrong way to go about it and should be removed.

Create an *empty* image file of an appropriate size, put an empty filesystem in it, mount it, and then install Ubuntu.

-- Rod

[heth]

Thank you! Can you please explain how to create the empty image file instead of using the debsmall.img file? I´m sorry to ask you this, but it would be of tremendous help.

[kayphoonstar]

Originally Posted by rwhitby

I'm not sure who put the debsmall.img instructions in the Wiki, but it's completely the wrong way to go about it and should be removed.

Create an *empty* image file of an appropriate size, put an empty filesystem in it, mount it, and then install Ubuntu.

-- Rod

Doh! That was me. Sorry. It worked for me - but, well - nevermind. I just tried it again and now it doesn't work. I just wasn't getting how the debsmall.img was already populated.

Rod, if the procedure below sounds better, I'll use it to fix the wiki. I just tried following these instructions and didn't hit any glitches.

Originally Posted by heth

Thank you! Can you please explain how to create the empty image file instead of using the debsmall.img file? I´m sorry to ask you this, but it would be of tremendous help.

From this post in the "X Server on the Pre" thread:

Originally Posted by pcworld

If you do not want to re-doctor your phone, this is how to do it with an image file:
First, open a terminal (everything is done on device).

1048576 (KB) means 1 GB, you can replace that (used in two commands).
Code:

[EDIT: cd /media/cryptofs]
dd if=/dev/zero of=ubuntu.img bs=1024 count=1048576
mkfs.ext3 -F -b 1024 ubuntu.img 1048576
mkdir /media/ext3fs

To mount it (needs to be redone after reboot):
Code:

EDIT: mount -o loop /media/cryptofs/ubuntu.img /media/ext3fs

Then install the Ubuntu chroot package from Preware.

[rwhitby]

Yep, that's the correct procedure. Thanks for updating the wiki.

-- Rod

[heth]

Thank you both for replying. I seem to run into a problem here. I used the suggested commands, but according to Internalz the resulting imagefile created in media/cryptofs is only approx. 400 MB in size and not 1 GB. Also if I understand it correctly the last command should point to "media/cryptofs/ubuntu.img" instead of "media/internal/ubuntu.img", correct? The image file is created in that folder if I get it right.

Anyhow, I di try that using the win7 cmd prompt and now I get the error:

mount -o loop /media/cryptofs/ubuntu.img /media/ext3fs
mount: mounting /dev/loop0 on /media/ext3fs failed: Invalid argument

Any ideas, what went wrong? I´m sorry to be such a noob with linux! XD

EDIT:
I´m sorry, now it´s working, I was interpreting the cmd prompt wrongly, it just wsan´t done doing it´s thing. Now I have the ubuntu prompt up and running!

[jhoff80]

Except I think you mean:

mount -o loop /media/cryptofs/ubuntu.img /media/ext3fs

If you create the file in /media/cryptofs, it'd be tough to mount it from /media/internal

[heth]

I tried today without any knowledge to install kubuntu-desktop on the touchpad, well it failed to start, but I wasn´t really expecting it to work without me knowing anything related to linux in general

Anyways, just wanted to thank webos internals again for making stuff like this possible at all and I finally downloaded the homebrew docs to at least send some love your way

Now back to the topic at hand. Is there any GUI driven distribution knowing to be working on the touchpad apart from "lxde"? I tried that and it worked well. I´m just wondering what else would be able to run on the touchpad, like I said I did not get kubuntu-desktop to run, although the installation seemed to run fine.

[kayphoonstar]

Originally Posted by heth

I tried today without any knowledge to install kubuntu-desktop on the touchpad, well it failed to start, but I wasn´t really expecting it to work without me knowing anything related to linux in general

Anyways, just wanted to thank webos internals again for making stuff like this possible at all and I finally downloaded the homebrew docs to at least send some love your way

Now back to the topic at hand. Is there any GUI driven distribution knowing to be working on the touchpad apart from "lxde"? I tried that and it worked well. I´m just wondering what else would be able to run on the touchpad, like I said I did not get kubuntu-desktop to run, although the installation seemed to run fine.

'icewm' has some advantages over lxde, like the ability to run a terminal window. But not much in the way of network support like lxde. There is also Xfce.

Another one, much simpler but often used for netbooks is lxlauncher which is, I think, a variant of lxde, and uses larger icons and looks more like the launcher screen.

[pezman726]

I can run a terminal in lxde. Run gnome terminal and you're all set!

[kayphoonstar]

Originally Posted by pezman726

I can run a terminal in lxde. Run gnome terminal and you're all set!

Nice! Thanks! That is very helpful.

So, maybe you have a solution to another issue I'm having? I'm trying to open files over the lan. I can copy, e.g., a *.doc file to the Ubuntu desktop and open it w/swriter but if I try to open it from the file manager, nothing happens. Any ideas?

[christcentric]

not sure if i've overseen a small detail. but after editing the fstab file, I still have to manually mount /media/ext3fs each time before i fire up ubuntu. if that's the way it's supposed then it's cool. but if not, er some help please?

[pezman726]

Originally Posted by kayphoonstar

Nice! Thanks! That is very helpful.

So, maybe you have a solution to another issue I'm having? I'm trying to open files over the lan. I can copy, e.g., a *.doc file to the Ubuntu desktop and open it w/swriter but if I try to open it from the file manager, nothing happens. Any ideas?

That I'm not sure about. I changed a text document to a .doc file (mv file file.doc) and when it prompted me to open it, i selected "Leafpad" to open it, and it seemed to do fine, but i'm not sure of one created by msoffice.

[geekpeter]

out of interest has anyone tried EasyPeasy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia / Netbook OS | EasyPeasy - Operating System for Netbooks instead of raw ubuntu, its targeted at notebook/netbook types, perhaps it suits a touchpad as well?

or maybe something similar to this thats again more suited to the TPad.

also i find it quite funny that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joli_OS

looks exactly like the touchpad using webOS.

[cthetford]

Well even as an IT professional and former unix programmer, the instructions for this were pretty intimidating, but I got through them and everything seems to be working. Now I have a few dumb newbie questions.

1) I got libre office and freemind installed and can run them from /usr/bin. Is there a way to add them to xecutah so I can run them with a button?
2) Once I have a window opened for an application in the xerver, is there a key mapping for switching between windows?
3) Is there a way to maximize / move / resize windows? Libre office and freemind would be awesome if I can get it full screen, but right now it's a rather small window.

[peterlemonjello]

I installed LXDE which allowed me to resize the windows. It won't go full screen since the VKB is open but it will maximize to fill in the rest of the screen.

[geekpeter]

2 or 3 nublet questiosn now, i used the mounted image approach, ive managed to install everything up to lxde, now when i run xserver then chroot i just get the shell, is it meant ot be started manually all the time via startlxde or is there an autostart option ability.

also when installing packages as suggested here via sudo apt-get install blah-etc they do idd install, but they dotn appear anywhere inside lxde in the menus, where do they end up in a launchable form?

also how do i umount the image correctly, i made a 1gb image to test with, and woudl like a just under 2gb one now i know it works however umount just stated the device is still in use and wont unmount.

cheers.

[geekpeter]

hmm ok luckily?!? my imaged partition self detonated somehow and required a reinstall of chroot from scratch, i took this time to make a 2gb file instead, and tried installing xfce4 instead of lxde, worked fine, also tried out xtightvncviewer for some remote happyness and it works well fast after a custom script to make it a tad faster, my only issue with it is when i "press" the window scrollbars, every time i touch them anywhere they just creep in 1 direction and wont go "back".

find a solution sometime but heres a snippet of something mad i tried, all the apps/desktop stuff were silly fast so i tried a game to slow it down, it was choppy but ran fine.

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/762/testsnap4.png

im already drooling at how well a native tightvnc webos app could perform.

[craftsman]

Ok, got Ubuntu installed and running. LXDE running with LibreOffice.

So what additional software is needed to set up printing to my networked HP printer.

[antijingoist]

CUPS