Sunday, November 17, 2013

N9 Developer Mode

First thing you wanna do after getting the N9 is enable developer mode (found under Settings > Security menu). Once activated, the phone downloads a 1.2MB developer mode bundle package, and restarts. After reboot, you'll now have a Terminal app and an SDK Connectivity app.

It's a bit difficult to type on the Terminal's on-screen keyboard. Good thing the SDK Connectivity app comes with a VNC server for you to remote access in.

You can also download more developer tools. For me, all I need are Networking (tcpdump) and Utilities (wget, nano, and x11-utils).

Getting root
Run the Terminal app.
Type devel-su
Default password is rootme

Enabling VNC
Can be enabled on the SDK Connectivity app.
Or download Nokia's NetView app. Does the same thing.

Enabling ssh/scp
Log in to root account
passwd user
Give a new password to user user
ssh user@localhost
Enter password
Run SDK Connectivity to get the WLAN IP address
Connect to phone via WinSCP/putty

Where to get MeeGo apps
n9-apps.com
store.ovi.com
my-meego.com

Installation files have the *.deb file extension.

Generic install instructions:
 - copy deb file to N9
 - install using "dpkg -i *.deb" command
 - most often than not, you'll get some warnings
 - to fix, run the ff. commands:
apt-get update
apt-get -f install
 - if it specifically mentions some missing package(s), download using apt-get and install:
apt-get install
apt-get -f install

Built-in video player is very picky about the files it plays. For the record, the phone came with these video files:

Dolby Soundscapes
2:35 71.3MB
864x486 h264 @3486k
E-AC3 @ 384k

Nokia Pure
2:53 76.8M
854x480 h264 @ 3349k
E-AC3 @ 384k

Couple of alternative players out there are VLC and the kmplayer/mplayer combo.

Get the VLC installer here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dyd7mp6os9fm0ty
A few website will mention http://www.irunvlc.me/, but that domain's already obsolete.
An older version of the VLC packages can be found here:
http://maemo-archive.wedrop.it/download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/maemo/vlc/
If the installation process spews out some error messages, run these additional commands:
apt-get update
apt-get -f install
Running the VLC app gave me a desktop UI. Hangs a lot and didn't play any of the videos.

Get the kmplayer and mplayer installer here:
https://garage.maemo.org/frs/?group_id=42
A little bit better than VLC, but not much.

Installing Firefox
Installer files here:
http://romaxa.info/fennec/mozilla-central/
Browser doesn't work at all (for me). 20MB download, too.

Awesome little phone, but the lack of proper working apps is killing it. Personally, I doubt if Sailfish or a fully-working Android port will ever come and save Lankku.

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