Tag Archives: Meego

Install Intel AppUp on Meego

Posted on by
Reply

Intel AppUp is the place to go to download any Meego specific applications. This is a more up to date version than Meego’s “garage” applications that hasn’t been updated since the very first release of Meego. Keep in mind that the Intel AppUp is still in very early stages of development but we are seeing more and more applications been submitted to Intel’s AppUp.

To get the AppUp application on your Meego device download the correct version from this page:

http://appdeveloper.intel.com/en-us/meego-sdk-suite

Once you have downloaded your version of the AppUp we will need to install it on our system. Simply open up the Terminal and change to the directory where you downloaded the package for example:

cd /home/meego/Downloads

Then all you need to do is enter in one more command to actually install it on your system:

rpm -i com.intel.appup-netbook-2.5.21637.23-1.1.i586.rpm

(This requires root privileges by entering in the word “su” then enter your root password)

Now you’re all set! You should see the AppUp application installed along with your other applications! Now go have a browse around and see some of the many applications specifically designed for Meego.

Critical changes needed for the next Meego Tablet Releases

Posted on by
Reply

The Tablet Version of Meego is a great concept, even though it’s still in earlier development. There are, however, some very important things that need to change in the upcoming releases of the Tablet Version. Being a tablet user myself, I was more than thrilled to see a Linux Distribution aimed at me, so I gave one of the early development builds of Meego Tablet 1.2 a spin. For a start, the interface is great, it’s nice and big, finger friendly. BUT. Those portrait lock screen and Applications menu need to go. Hear me out on this one, even though it would be nice to see some sort of orientation function working in the Tablet Edition of Meego, but I personally like the idea of having it’s interface designed for landscape mode only. Take the panels for example, it’s great to slide from the starting panel right to the end one in just one swipe of the Finger, would it really be just as good in a portrait resolution?

In order to get a more Tablet PCs compatible with Meego as a whole, then it needs to come with the 2.6.38 for many reasons. The main reason is that version 2.6.38 of the Linux Kernel comes with the ENAC Multitouch drivers included. This means that many more Tablet PC touchscreens would be working out of the box, including my Viewpad 10.

The final change I would love to see in the Tablet edition of Meego is having a competitive boot speed than it’s Netbook partner. I’m not saying it’s a problem as such but it is noticeably slower than the Netbook Version of Meego.

For that’s my personal opinion on what needs to change in the upcoming future releases of Meego  Tablet. It’s going in the right direction, but seeing those improvements implemented, I’m sure it won’t just benefit my User Experience but many other Tablet Users willing to use the OS.

…But for now…

Great work so far Meego!!

Meego on the Viewpad 10

Posted on by
6

With Meego 1.2 right around the corner, I thought it’s best to introduce to you the previous version, Meego 1.1 and how to install it on your Viewpad 10 as well as getting everything working such as the touch screen. So before we begin make sure you download the Netbook Version of Meego from here. Then create a live USB device using a USB device which has a capacity larger than 1GB. Remember to enter the BIOS so you can set your Boot device to the USB (Repeatedly press the Delete key using an external USB keyboard at the Viewsonic splash screen). Once you’ve changed the boot device you should of save changes then rebooted into the Live USB. From here select the second option labelled as “Installation Only” and follow each step.

Good, now we’ve got a fresh install of Meego on the Viewpad 10, we need to do a couple of basic things before you are able to use Meego fully. First thing first is to update the Kernel in Meego since it’s currently running 2.6.35. If you read a blog post I made a couple of weeks ago you would of discovered that the Viewpad 10’s touch screen requires a Linux Kernel version of 2.6.38 or above.

Luckily in Meego there is a team doing a special adaption for the Viewpad 10’s Intel Atom processor, Pinetrail (N450). Downloading this Kernel adaptation is very easy and can be done in a few simple steps, firstly open up the Terminal, then enter in the following commands (With an external keyboard of course):

sudo zypper ar \
http://download.meego.com/live/devel:/kernel/Trunk/ \
obs-devel-kernel

After that refresh your software sources by entering in this command: 

sudo zypper refresh

Once that has finished we can then go onto installing the Kernel Adaption for the Pinetrail processor which also includes version 2.6.38 of the Linux Kernel, to do this, enter in the following command into the terminal: 

sudo zypper install kernel-adaptation-pinetrail

Thanks for the original tip @gabrbedd

Once that has finished you just need to reboot your system and now Meego should be running on an updated kernel, you should notice a little speed improvement when booting too! To double check that version 2.6.38 of the Linux Kernel has installed correctly, simply reopen the terminal and enter in this command: 

uname -a

This should list your Kernel version. Right so the next thing to do now that you have the touchscreen fully working on Meego is to make it a bit more Tablet friendly is to download Meego’s own Virtual Keyboard called Maliit. To do this you simply need to open the terminal once more and enter in these couple of commands: 

sudo zypper addrepo http://repo.meego.com/MeeGo/releases/1.1/handset/repos/ia32/packages/ handset
sudo zypper refresh
sudo zypper install meegotouch-inputmethodbridges
sudo zypper install meegotouch-inputmethodkeyboard

Then edit meego-im-uiserver.desktop by entering in this command: 

sudo gedit /etc/xdg/autostart/meego-im-uiserver.desktop

And replacing the contents with this: 

[Desktop Entry]
Exec=/usr/bin/meego-im-uiserver -target slate -bypass-wm-hint
X-Moblin-Priority=High
OnlyShowIn=X-MEEGO-HS;X-MEEGO-NB

Save and reboot your system once again just to make sure everything is up and running and try clicking in a text field like in Terminal or Gedit. There is one issue when using Maliit in Chrome(ium) it won’t let you press the return key on the virtual keyboard (Shift + Space) so it might be best to download an alternate browser since as the Meego port of Opera Mini which works great on a tablet like the Viewpad 10 since it comes with mouse gestures, virtual keyboards and a load more cool features, you can grab it here. A quick tip on how to make Maliit look a bit better is to make the keyboard itself slightly opaque, this also helps seeing the text which can be blocked by the Virtual Keyboard. To do this, reopen the terminal once more and enter in this command: 

 sudo gedit /usr/share/themes/base/meegotouch/svg/meegotouch-keyboard.svg

Then look for this line:

style="enable-background:new 0 0 500 480;”

And add in this line straight after the 480; but before the closing quotes:

opacity:0.4

So it looks like this:

style="enable-background:new 0 0 500 480; opacity:0.4"

And that’s it! A fast booting, simple Linux Distributions, I think it’s one of the best suiting Operating Systems for the Viewpad 10, it uses very little disk space, works great on 1GB of RAM and uses the screen space effectively since it’s optimized for 1024×600 displays! Also, the Meego team are working on a Tablet Edition for version 1.2 of Meego. It’s still a bit buggy but is worth a try if you feel brave enough to venture out! You still need to install kernel-adaptation-pinetrail for the touchscreen to work, it’s a little bit harder to navigate around since it doesn’t show a cursor, but a good tip is to plug in an external mouse and use your finger to navigate where you want to go then use the external mouse to click on whatever you need. I’ll be reviewing it for the Viewpad 10 once it gets a bit more stable for my needs.