On the N900

Post date: Dec 07, 2010 8:15:49 AM

Finally managed to get it on the N900. To summarize,

1. first problem was that I needed to get the files from the computer to the N900. It would probably be okay to just use the mass storage mode of the N900 to do this but I thought a more efficient method would be better. Setting up an OpenSSH server on the N900 was a snap as this is available from the N900's Application manager.

2. next to install a client on the working system. As my development system is Debian, the one to use would be PuTTY which is also available from the Add/Remove Applications on the Debian System menu.

3. Once Putty is installed, psftp is available on the command line of the Debian system. This is a very simple way of transferring files to and from the N900. And once they are on, the Putty client itself runs the N900 remotely.

4. Up to this point, the Application had been running in the Nokia SDK under the FREMANTLE_X86 target. A FREMANTLE_ARMEL target would have to be generated for it to run on the N900. Just switch the target to FREMANTLE_ARMEL to generate an Armel target.

5. Some problems encountered. There were a few dependency issues but these were overcome using the -d flag on dpkg-buildpackage, so the command to generate the Armel target would be

> dpkg-buildpackage -d -rfakeroot

6. One problem encountered here was a persistent warning that my intltool was too old. Scrolling through the error diagnostics, was a warning that the command intltool-update was not found. Putting the line "export PATH=$(PATH):/usr/share/intltool-debian" at the end of the debian/rules file solved this.

Everything is not done yet. I still need to worry about the dependencies and the blue square icon and I am sure others, but this is a good step forward. Also, it works!