Preware Alpha

[rwhitby]

Originally Posted by xtn

This is because of my donation, right? You just felt so happy about it that you wanted to do start another awesome project, right? Just for me, right?

Donations are a good incentive to do stuff like this, yes. Donations show that people are still interested and care enough about the application to put their money where their mouth is. Notice how a $100 donation got things rolling again on fixing Terminal. It's not that the developers haven't been working hard trying to fix it, but a donation crystallises the focus on which apps are most important to the users and therefore deserve the biggest share of the tiny amount of free time that developers have for these things.

I've always said that open source developers donate massive amounts of their time, so the users of open source software should either also donate their time (e.g. by creating documentation, or FAQs, or Troubleshooting Guides, or even just helping to answer questions on the forums), or if they can't find a way to donate their time and have the means to do so, they should donate cash.

Note that in WebOS Internals, all the donations go back into things that benefit the community, like our new server, or hosting fees, or development devices for core developers so they don't need to use their main phone for testing, or for buying apps required for testing (e.g. for Save/Restore application support). So the developers actually never really get reimbursed for the massive amounts of time that they spend on this stuff, but at least they have top-class infrastructure for use in development (and the same top-class infrastructure drives the package feeds that benefit all the users too). This policy also avoids developers arguing over what share each person should get of the donations, cause the donations all go into common things that benefit all the developers equally.

-- Rod

[maxima2k53]

wuts the url for the preware alpha testing feed?

[rwhitby]

Originally Posted by maxima2k53

wuts the url for the preware alpha testing feed?

This is the first test to qualify yourself as an alpha tester. There are at least 10 different places on the internet where this is documented.

-- Rod

[maxima2k53]

Originally Posted by rwhitby

This is the first test to qualify yourself as an alpha tester. There are at least 10 different places on the internet where this is documented.

-- Rod

alright got it

[sbromwich]

I just installed the alpha (0.9.53), and when I go to update the feeds I'm getting:

Preware
Failed to execute program
/var/usr/sbin/org.webosintenals.ipkgservice: Success

ln -s org.webosinternals.ipkgservice org.webosintenals.ipkgservice fixes it but it looks like there might be a typo in there somewhere?

Cheers, Steve

[rwhitby]

Originally Posted by sbromwich

I just installed the alpha (0.9.53), and when I go to update the feeds I'm getting:

Preware
Failed to execute program
/var/usr/sbin/org.webosintenals.ipkgservice: Success

ln -s org.webosinternals.ipkgservice org.webosintenals.ipkgservice fixes it but it looks like there might be a typo in there somewhere?

Cheers, Steve

Fixed in 0.9.54 - thanks for the precise bug report.

-- Rod

[sbromwich]

Thanks again for the quick fix!

Cheers, Steve

[Jason Robitaille]

Originally Posted by neoncorey

Is Jason R. on board with this, I know he works closely with you guys, since WOSQI will be "obsolete"? Also what are the true advantages of having the newer version, besides the service being merged and easier roll outs of updates?

I am not currently working with WebOS-Internals on Preware Alpha, nor have I ever worked with them on Preware. Rod's opinion of WOSQI being "obsolete" is definitely not mine.

The main goal of wosqi since day 1 has been a cross-platform user-friendly alternative to palm-install, for the average user who doesn't use the SDK, nor need the SDK. In that sense, WOSQI remains successful.

This will be my final post on Rod's poor choice of words as I've said my piece to him over IRC. I will conclude this post reminding people I've had a long history of cooperation with WebOS-Internals and I doubt either of us are going away anytime soon.



On the topic of Preware Alpha, I do admit this is a nice step forward. Best of luck in its future

[rwhitby]

Originally Posted by Jason Robitaille

I am not currently working with WebOS-Internals on Preware Alpha, nor have I ever worked with them on Preware. Rod's opinion of WOSQI being "obsolete" is definitely not mine.

The main goal of wosqi since day 1 has been a cross-platform user-friendly alternative to palm-install, for the average user who doesn't use the SDK, nor need the SDK. In that sense, WOSQI remains successful.

This will be my final post on Rod's choice of words as I've said my piece to him over IRC. I will conclude this post reminding people I've had a long history of cooperation with WebOS-Internals and I doubt either of us are going away anytime soon.



On the topic of Preware Alpha, I do admit this is a nice step forward. Best of luck in its future

Of course both tools will exist far into the future as both tools are best-in-class for the two non-overlapping areas of off-device and on-device installers.

But a good public stoush may well help remove the confusion between the two separate and independent organisations that are WebOS Internals and Canuck Software

-- Rod

[DJeremyC]

Well I must say....kudos to both you guys for putting together a much needed advancement in the the WebOS development. Without both Rod and Jason, which do provide means for totally different areas and types of users to get a complete WebOS experience. I have to say I have probably used both softwares equally from each developer. Here is my breakdown just for clarification:

WebOS QI: Install of Preware, certain ipk packages not in Preware, kernal installs, Repair Utility saved my butt lots of times.

Preware: on the go App installs, Themes, and ota patches.

again...THANKS to ALL you developers (aka the unpaid Palm should have been employees)

[rwhitby]

Preware Alpha 0.9.56 now has a new feature: "Saved Package List".

This is the holy grail of homebrew.

Update: The Saved Package List is now in the public release of Preware 0.9.35 as well.

A means to automatically restore all your homebrew applications, patches and data after your device is accidentally (or purposefully) wiped. Equivalent to the Palm Profile, but under your complete control and equally available for anyone in the world to use without restriction.

Here's now it works:

1) Install Preware Alpha 0.9.56 (from the testing feed) and Save/Restore 0.6.3 (from the main feed)



2) Install some extra homebrew apps (it doesn't matter which ones, as long as you're happy to remove and install them a couple of time)

I chose the new X Window System Server package and XTerm package from the WebOS Internals testing feed.

3) Go to the Saved Package List screen in Preware Alpha and hit "Update"



4) Your list of installed packages has now been stored in a persistent database.

But that persistent database is still at risk from a webOS Doctoring, so ..

5) Go into Save/Restore and save the application data for Preware Alpha



Note that at this point, you could plug your device into your computer as a USB drive (no additional desktop software required), and backup the 'saverestore' directory from the USB drive to a save place to archive your saved package list (and the application databases and cookies and saved games from any other applications supported by Save/Restore) for posterity ...

6) Go back into Preware Alpha, and remove the extra apps you installed previously

Note that removing apps removes any application data and cookies associated with those apps - you can use Save/Restore to save that too if that application is supported.

7) Go to the Saved Package List screen in Preware Alpha and hit "Update" again (so that the persistent database no longer includes those apps that you just removed)



8) Restart the Save/Restore app, and restore the application data for Preware Alpha



9) Restart Preware Alpha, then go back into the Saved Package List and hit "Install All"

It will ignore packages that are already installed.

10) The apps that you removed will be automatically reinstalled

Extrapolate this to your complete list of homebrew applications and patches after you've wiped your device clean (apart from the USB drive) with a webOS Doctor or Erase Apps&Data, and you'll see where we're heading ...

11) Note that you don't need WOSQI for any of this - sorry Jason, I just had to say it

Preware Alpha can be installed on a completely new device using palm-install from the Palm SDK or PDK, and may even be installable using fileCoaster or PreLoad in the future ...

12) Remember that Preware Alpha will eventually become version 1.0 of Preware, so it's in your interest to start testing it out now

Anyone can be an alpha tester for Preware Alpha - you just need to have a bit of bravado and know how to install a custom feed in Preware ...

13) Update: Preware 0.9.35 now contains the Saved Package List functionality, so the Holy Grail of Homebrew is now available to everyone!

-- Rod

[Pulp]

Amazing, thanks alot!

[ToddK]

This changes everything. rod is god.

...happy zombie jesus day, everyone! ;-)

(...stole that line from a Rob Benson "tweet")

[rwhitby]

Originally Posted by ToddK

This changes everything. rod is god.

Believe me, there's no way I'd want that job.

Just leading the WebOS Internals crew is hard enough

-- Rod

[laelipoo]

This is amazing. Thank you so much.

[GregandTink]

Rod, you and your team, and all those other developers out there have truly made this a great phone. You guys have done more for this OS then Palm ever has or will! If it wasn't for y'all I'm sure this one would have gone the way of the Instinct.

Thanks for all y'alls hard work.

Greg

[cook_scott]

I cannot find the Save/Restore anywhere. Can someone please point me in the right direction?
Thanks!

[cook_scott]

Forget it! I'm an idiot.

[davidtm]

Originally Posted by vza33

I'm gonna wait for the Beta, but this is an amazing development. Kudos to Rod and the webOS Internals team, webOS will become the premiere OS on the market. Thanks!

+1!!!

[mikeh20]

WOW from my post asking about this yesterday to a cunning idea in your head that youv'e had...that was quick!

Awesome work Rod, thanks!