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Yet another tutorial to install the Maemo development environment

January 19th, 2007

In research group, I am collaborating in a project that intends to test some libraries on the Nokia 770/N880. As a first step, I wrote a little tutorial to install the Maemo development environment, based on the official tutorial.

I can not link to the wiki page because it is internal to the group, and the tool that we are using does not allow to grant access only to one page. So I reproduce here the tutorial.

How to install the Maemo development environment

Maemo is the same sytem that the Nokia 770 runs, but intended to be executed in an usual computer. With this environment, you may test your programs before compiling them to the ARM architecture. It is exactly the same system that the Nokia 770 (except propietary applications such as the web browser), but compiled for i386.

• Download the installer.
• Execute it with root permissions (as root or with sudo)
• If you are lucky enough, it will work under your system. I am not, so I switched to the alternative method..
• The Debian packages seem not to work under Ubuntu Edgy, so I used the tar.gz files.
• Obtain the following files
  • scratchbox-core-0.9.8.8.tar.gz
  • scratchbox-devkit-debian-0.9.8.8.tar.gz
  • scratchbox-libs-0.9.8.8.tar.gz
  • scratchbox-toolchain-cs2005q3.2-glibc-arm-0.9.8.5-6.tar.gz
  • scratchbox-toolchain-cs2005q3.2-glibc-i386-0.9.8.5-6.tar.gz
• Untar all the files in ‘/’, in the above order
• Execute as root /scratchbox/run_me_first.sh, and then add your user with /scratchbox/sbin/sbox_adduser. Choose the same username than in your system, and reply to all the questions with the default answers.
• Restart your session, or execute su your_username
• Now you are able to login in the scratchbox environment with /scratchbox/login
• Create a .bash_profile with the following contents. You can use vi if you want.
  • unalias ls
  • export LANGUAGE=en_GB
  • export PAGER=less
  • export DISPLAY=:2
• Now that the scratchbox is set up, download the Maemo SDK
  • Maemo_Dev_Platform_v2.1_i386-rootstrap.tgz
• Follow the rest of instructions
• Now you have the environment set up to compile applications for the Nokia 770, but they will not run on the actual Nokia 770, because the architecture of the binaries will be i386. Let us set up also the environment to compile applications for the ARMEL architecture.
• Download the following file:
  • Maemo_Dev_Platform_v2.1_armel-rootstrap.tgz
• Follow these instructions
• Now you should have two different configurations in your scratchbox environment: SDK_PC and SDK_ARMEL
• To test an application in your computer, you should use the environment SDK_C. Select it with the following command:
  • sbox-config -st SDK_PC
• Once you are sure that your application is ready to be run on the Nokia 770, switch to the SDK_ARMEL configuration, and recompile
  • sbox-config -st SDK_ARMEL
• Thanks to QEMU, you may execute the ARMEL binaries in your computer before uploading them to the Nokia 770. Some features may not behave as in the actual 770 though.

Installing a X server for the Maemo environment

• There is a X server preinstalled with the Maemo development environment. To use it, create, outside the scratchbox, a file with the following contents
  
#!/bin/sh -e
prefix=/scratchbox/users/${LOGNAME}/targets/SDK_PC/usr
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${prefix}/lib; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
exec ${prefix}/bin/Xephyr :2 -host-cursor -screen 800x480x16 -dpi 96 -ac

• You may call it start-xephyr.sh
• To use this X server with the Maemo development environment, run the file, outside the scratchbox. The X server will be up and running, on the display number 2. This display appears as a window in your desktop.
• To launch the Maemo desktop environment, inside the scratchbox, execute the following:
  • af-sb-init.sh start
• The Maemo desktop should appear in the window corresponding to the Xephyr X server.
• Only a small set of applications is installed in the Maemo environment, and it lacks all the propietary applications from Nokia (such as the web browser). It is intended to test your applications rather than to be used as a substitute of the Nokia 770.
• Once you get bored with the Maemo desktop, stop it with the following command
  • af-sb-init.sh stop

sources.list for the Maemo environment

The scratchbox is like just another system within your Linux system. The two configurations (SDK_PC and SDK_ARMEL) are based on Debian, and so they use APT to manage software packages. You must set up the proper repositories to be used inside the scratchbox environment. Be careful and do not use the following repositories in your computer, only within the strachbox environment.

Go and edit /etc/apt/sources.list, and the following repositories. Remove any repository already included in the file. Remember, edit the file once you have login in the scratchbox. Do not edit the sources.list in your system.

deb http://catalogue.tableteer.nokia.com/certified/ mistral user
deb http://catalogue.tableteer.nokia.com/non-certified/ mistral user
deb http://repository.maemo.org/extras/ mistral free non-free
deb-src http://repository.maemo.org/extras/ mistral free non-free
deb http://repository.maemo.org/ scirocco free non-free
deb-src http://repository.maemo.org/ scirocco free non-free


Execute apt-get update after editing the file.