I followed the instructions given in this blog, and added a swap file on my removable card to try to improve the perfomance of the system.
All the following steps are done in the Nokia 770.
I created a script at /root/addswap with these contents:
#!/bin/sh
mkswap /media/mmc1/swap 24576
swapon /media/mmc1/swap
I am wondering if the often writings due to swapping can damage the removable card (indeed, I asked about that in the maemo-developers mailing list). So, I created also a script /root/delswap, with these contents:
#!/bin/sh
swapoff /media/mmc1/swap
I pretend to execute these scripts as a normal user, creating an entry in the menus. So, I added the scripts to the /etc/sudoers file. I added these lines:
user ALL = NOPASSWD: /root/addswap
user ALL = NOPASSWD: /root/delswap
Now, they can be executed as a non-root user using sudo. For example, sudo /root/addswap. Create two scripts /root/addswap_user and /root/delswap_user containing sudo /root/addswap and sudo /root/delswap. Give execution permissions (with chmod a+x script_name) to all the scripts.
Next step is to add the scripts to the main menu, to add or remove swap with a point and click.
Go to /var/lib/install/etc/others-menu/extra_applications, and create two files. First addswap.desktop containing
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Add swap
Exec=/root/addswap_user
X-HildonDesk-ShowInToolbar=true
X-Osso-Type=application/x-executable
and delswap.desktop containing
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Remove swap
Exec=/root/delswap_user
X-HildonDesk-ShowInToolbar=true
X-Osso-Type=application/x-executable
Now you have the opportunity of turning on and off the swap just clicking in the applications menu.
I made some tests. With these applications open, the perfomance was very good (take a look at the output of the free command).
January 12th, 2006
I am writing from a HP Bluetooth foldable keyboard with my Nokia 770, and it works like a charm!
I only followed the instructions given in this page.
Just download this file, take a loot at the README file, execute hcitool scan to find out the hardware address of your keyboard, fill in the configuration file, execute the script in the package and all is done!
If you manage to get work other keyboards, please leave a comment with your keyboard model.
Take a look at some photos of me writing with the keyboard on the Nokia 770.
January 12th, 2006
GPE have just released a new version of some of their Personal Information Management (PIM) applications for the Nokia 770.
There are new versions for the contacts and calendar applications.
Among other improvements, contacts application can now import several contacts from a vCard (format version 3.0). For example, I managed to import my 321-long address book from Mozilla Thunderbird, exporting it to a single file in format vCard 3.0 (well, I had to use KAdressBook to convert from the format of Thunderbird to vCard 3.0), and then importing it in the Nokia 770.
A new step towards a full featured PIM environment in the Nokia 770.
Find them here.
January 11th, 2006
Blame this man.
January 11th, 2006
Have you felt the temptaion of trying the developer system for your Nokia 770?. It is a full featured GNU/Linux system, with some utilities by default (such as SSH) and more possibilities than the restricted official Nokia release (for example, you can use Python).
The main problem is that if you install it, you will miss all the Nokia applications (including the wonderful web browser), the system will be available only in english, and with poorer fonts.
But don’t worry, you can always switch back to the official filesystem. Let us see how…
First of all, take care of your data. The backup tool of the official system does not store the installed applications, and it only back up the files in the directories that you can see with the File Manager. When you flash any system, everything in your device will be erased. You can later recover some of the files with the backup tool, but remember its limitations.
Download the developer filesystem. You will need the MAC address of your device.
Download the flasher utility.
Download the original filesystem (also from Nokia.com).
Now you are ready to try the dark side 
of your Nokia 770.
Give permissions to execute the flasher utilty
chmod a+x flasher
Unzip (if zipped) the developer rootfilesystem, and flash it. You must turn off your device, plug in the USB cable, execute the next command and the turn on again your device (be sure that your battery is full, and the device is unplugged from the AC):
./flasher -r Maemo_Dev_Platform_rootfs.jffs2 -f -R
You will see a progress bar in the device, and maybe some messages. After finishing, the device will reboot with the new system. As you can see, there are not all those fancy applications, but the system seems to be faster, and you can play with a lot more things
When you get bored with the developer filesystem, you will probably want to come back to the fancy Nokia official system. Don’t worry, it is easy. Again unzip (if zipped) the official Nokia filesystem, and execute
./flasher -F Nokia_770_0.xxxx.xx-xx.bin -f -R
where x can be any number (be sure to download the latest version of the software).
If you want, you can also now enable root access in the official filesystem, adding the –enable-rd-mode option:
./flasher -F Nokia_770_0.xxxx.xx-xx.bin -f -R --enable-rd-mode
Again you will see a progress bar, and maybe some messages. When the bar finishes, the device will reboot with the new original filesystem. You can now restore your backup with tool in the control panel.
In the Maemo wiki, there more information about how to flash an official filesystem and a developer filesystem.
January 9th, 2006
As Luis Peralta told in a comment in the previous post, Nokia 770 is being sold in FNAC (althoug it seems it is not available on the web).
But some days ago, I realized that it is being sold on El Corte Inglés; not only on the web, but also in the “real” shops. Actually, last week I saw one in the center in Algeciras (a small city on the south of Spain), so I think it must not be difficult to find it in the rest of centers of El Corte Ingles.
However, it is a little more expensive than in the Nokia web.
December 30th, 2005
This morning I was browsing on Fnac.es, just looking for gifts for these christmas, and I found that there is banner of the Nokia 770 (upper right on the image).
However, Fnac is not selling the device, just showing the banner. It seems that Nokia is beginning to spread out this new device. It is the fisrt time I see a banner, and it is being sold since some months ago.
December 21st, 2005
After some weeks with my Nokia 770, I have discovered that it is awesome to read books. These days I have made some trips, and spent lots of hours in a coach, so I have had enough time to test the gadget with some e-books readers.
First of all, I downloaded some books from these sites:
- Project Gutenberg, a project which is making available online lots of classical books. They have only books whose copyright have expired in the United States, and offer them freely available in several formats (even in audio formats).
- Online library of University of Pennsylvania. It is a repository of books available on the Internet. Their catalogue contains 25000 books.
From the sea of available books, I recommend you these little pearls:
Related to the readers, I have tried two of them: FBReader and Plucker. And I must say that FBReader is much better than Plucker. It can read more formats, you can easily browser your collection, you can read in horizontal and vertical positions, scroll with the hardware buttons, it shows a bar representing the whole book, and how long you have read.
If you choose the right fonts (for me, NewTimes 22 points), reading books is very comfortable, even when there is hardly light (as it is usual in the coach I always take).
So, there is another excuse to buy your Nokia 770 .
December 7th, 2005
Although in the Maemo repository only version 1.1rc5 is available, the Maemo team have just released version 1.1rc6, solving some bugs.
There are detailed instructions about how to install the development environment.
Once you have installed the version 1.1rc5, you can then update to 1.1.rc6; but installing before 1.1rc5 is a requisite.
November 23rd, 2005
The Nokia specifications say the battery to be 3 hours long while browsing, and 7 days while in standby mode.
I noticed that my battery seems to be some longer than that, some yesterday I tested it.
I began at 5 am, just running out of battery; I charged it until 8 am (I got sleep, so it charged for more than the recommended time), and closed it with lid (that is, it was in standby mode).
About 3 pm I started to browse until 7 pm. I was in the University, while my girlfriend was attending her classes, and I started to browse, using the WLAN, in the University’s WPA protected wireless network.
I read my email, some news using the RSS reader, the web, I played some chess games, some marble games as well, and some things more that I don’t remember now. While I was reading the web, my email or the news for some minutes (without connecting to the Internet I mean), the wireless card got disconnected, I suppose for saving battery. So it was not actually four hours of browsing. The brightness was at minimum level, and the sound was off.
About 7 pm battery had lost 50% of energy. I closed the lid again, and the gadget went stand by.
About 10 pm I took a bus and I was listening to MP3 music with the Audio Player. I closed the lid, and the Audio Player still was playing. After three hours listening to music, I played some marble games for about one hour, and finally I closed everything and the device went stand by. In these test, the brightness was minimum, and the volume was maximum.
This morning I checked the news, browsed the web and read my email for about half an hour.
Now (4 1/2 pm), the battery is about 25% remaining.
So I spent about six hours with the device on, using it, browsing some times, other however with WLAN and Bluetooth not working, and about three hours listening to music, at maximum volume, with the lid closed. And there is still battery for I presume about 2 more hours.
So it seems that the Nokia’s specifications are too pessimistic, and that three hours is browsing time (WLAN on all the time), with maximum brightness and sound on.
November 23rd, 2005
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