X Server on the Pre

[Major Payne]

Question

So did our "App Catalog" get bigger?

[Major Payne]

Double post but i never hit the button twice sorry folks
maybe it was a PEBKEC error

[gmoj1]

I just trying doing this but when i try step 6. typing xterm in the shell it shows the following error
could not find ':' in DISPLAY:0.0
xterm xt Error:cannot open display: localhost:10.0

[rwhitby]

Originally Posted by spotter

don't understand why you guys think a whole new FUSE file system would have to be written?

I assume its because you want to store the linux environment needed for X on the fat formatted file system?

you do realize this problem has been solved many times in the past? (i.e. going way back, there was umsdos (FAT filesystem and Linux - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), but even today I think there are solutions to make it work).

With that said, the easiest way would be

dd if=/dev/zero of=/media/internal/new-fs.img bs=1M size=<how many MB you want it to be>
mke2fs /media/internal/new-fs.img
mount -o loop /media/internal/new-fs.img /<where you want it to be mounted>

We're after a solution that lives on the vfat on /media/internal, grows and shrinks instead of being a fixed size limit, can be triggered by SIGUSR2 and SIGUSR2 from /usr/sbin/storaged for USB mode, and understands symlinks.

A simple loopfs is a fixed size and chokes when usb drive mode is entered.

But umsdos is interesting - thanks for the pointer.

-- Rod

[uiucryan]

Originally Posted by gmoj1

I just trying doing this but when i try step 6. typing xterm in the shell it shows the following error
could not find ':' in DISPLAY:0.0
xterm xt Error:cannot open display: localhost:10.0

Please close the xserver and try again from step 3. In step 4, be very careful to type exactly "export DISPLAY=:0.0" (without the quotes, and note those are zeros). If the problem persists, please ensure that your *nix box is configured to do xforwarding. If you are still having issues, please PM me - I will try to get back to you.

[gmoj1]

Originally Posted by uiucryan

Please close the xserver and try again from step 3. In step 4, be very careful to type exactly "export DISPLAY=:0.0" (without the quotes, and note those are zeros). If the problem persists, please ensure that your *nix box is configured to do xforwarding. If you are still having issues, please PM me - I will try to get back to you.

it worked fine on linux. but still having problem with my mac. Also ,are there are shortcuts for page ups and downs, copy paste etc ? I couldnt find them. I tested firefox and it was a pain in the *** with no horizontal scroller.

[dbtrade]

Originally Posted by gmoj1

....... Also ,are there are shortcuts for page ups and downs, copy paste etc ? I couldnt find them. I tested firefox and it was a pain in the *** with no horizontal scroller.

Application:X - WebOS Internals

[dtzWill]

Originally Posted by gmoj1

it worked fine on linux. but still having problem with my mac. Also ,are there are shortcuts for page ups and downs, copy paste etc ? I couldnt find them. I tested firefox and it was a pain in the *** with no horizontal scroller.

There are a few touchscreen add-ons for firefox that make using it significantly easier. If you're serious about trying it, I would recommend looking into those.

Those extra keybindings do not exist--but mostly due to lack of time to sit down and think about what makes sense. This is a pretty big project, with many pieces, so unfortunately the answer to why things are the way they are is "because we haven't had time to make them better yet" .

So if you have suggestions let me know--although I'm not sure what the current status is of us accessing/writing to the copy/paste buffer so not sure about that one.

[angiest]

Originally Posted by dbtrade

Application:X - WebOS Internals

I've never gotten control to work in xterm.

[dtzWill]

Originally Posted by angiest

I've never gotten control to work in xterm.

Okay so I'm looking at it now--looks like control-c for some reason doesn't work anymore? Try control-l or control-z ...both of those work here, and I'd imagine you just tried control-c since that's... the most common .

If I fix it I'll push an update to the related packages. Sorry (it USED to work!), and thanks for letting us know.

[BoraWare]

As far as navigating on a smal screen goes I hope to really sort those issues out with some hot keys and gestures to quickly navigate the screen and perform basic tasks. The window manager (fvwm) is als going to make a world of difference when I adjust everything to be used with fingers instead of a cursor.

- phil_bw -

[angiest]

Originally Posted by dtzWill

Okay so I'm looking at it now--looks like control-c for some reason doesn't work anymore? Try control-l or control-z ...both of those work here, and I'd imagine you just tried control-c since that's... the most common .

If I fix it I'll push an update to the related packages. Sorry (it USED to work!), and thanks for letting us know.

Thanks! Yeah, I've only ever tried control C. Just did a control d and, as expected, xterm exited.

[amateurhack]

Originally Posted by rwhitby

Thanks for your interest. This presents a serious question.

Should the developers here spend many hours creating a tutorial, and then spend many more hours supporting people trying to use that tutorial, and then spend many more hours helping people who didn't read the tutorial properly fix their mistakes?

or

Should the developers focus on getting this into a state where it can simply be installed from Preware?


I personally think there are many experienced people in the community who are not the developers working directly on getting this stuff to work in the first place, but have enough knowledge, skills and experience to understand how it all works, and have the inclination and community spirit to write the tutorial and support other users.

I would like to see other people step up to the plate and do their part for the community in this way, rather than take time away from dtzWill and phil_bw (and others) creating the underlying technologies that are being used here.

-- Rod

Thanks Rod. That answers a lot of my questions.

I have been pushing for a document editing solution all along. I will look forward to seeing the results of webosinternal's and boraware's work. If I can find a way (and time) to contribute to a tutorial, I will.

[amateurhack]

one question: Will this work on the emulator for testing purposes?

[MrMicroChip]

A lot of potential here...

[TimmyTheLarge]

This is fantastic. My wife and I have been really missing doc software since switching from the treo. You guys rock, keep up the good work!

[dtzWill]

Originally Posted by amateurhack

one question: Will this work on the emulator for testing purposes?

There's no reason it wouldn't AFAIK. It does need SDL, and the current implementation also uses GLES which I think is a deal-breaker for the emulator.

That said, I actually do have two branches--one that uses GLES for it's faster blitting, and one that doesn't. So to that end, the emulator (i686, no GLES) could be supported, but a bit slower (but since it's not running on a 500mhz machine it's probably okay ).

Not using the emulator myself this hasn't been (and for now, isn't) a priority, but I'd be happy to assist someone in making a build for the emulator. Should be able to integrate it with the build system such that it's a one-time effort and all future builds will be built for all supported platforms.

[Remote User]

Will, Shivaram & Jacques;

I want to personally thank you guys and anyone for your work on this.

I have been waiting for X on a handheld for a LONG time because I have had a touchscreen application that I have been developing and selling for 25 years which cries out for an xServer on a handheld touchscreen device. You can see a picture of the gui on a mobile xterminal at Mobile POS (Point of Sale)

The app is designed to run in the conventional X fashion; it sends the display and input session out to the X server. With this app on WebOS and with X on WebOS then a pre can be used by anyone anywhere to order food & drink items from any restaurant anywhere.

The GUI is written in Xlib primitives and supports large numbers of concurrent users. The GUI is actually an X Window manager. The app can run and handle storage on any computer anywhere, of course, and users are all members of a collaborative workgroup. So, I want to also welcome any developers or people with restaurants, or people who know people who have restaurants, to get in touch with me and let's see if we can really take the Pre to town because of this great new breakthrough with X on the Pre.

Gene Mosher
gene@viewtouch.com
541-485-9235
Skype: ViewTouch_POS

[dtzWill]

Originally Posted by angiest

Thanks! Yeah, I've only ever tried control C. Just did a control d and, as expected, xterm exited.

So more investigating looks like:

gesture+c, gesture+v, gesture+x... all don't work. (control+{c,v,x})

Oh look those are reserved by the device for copy/paste/cut. .

So we might need to change what the control sticky is--not sure if it's possible to get them passed through anyway.

Just thought I'd post a quick update... even if I don't have good news yet.

Offhand, it might make sense to just swap sym and gesture . I'll poke at it and post back.

[amateurhack]

How well does the spreadsheet program work? That's my main use.