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MeeGo Linux for home multimedia use

post #1 of 46
6/4/10 at 4:33pm
Thread Starter 
A few days ago (on May 25th, 2010) version 1.0 of the MeeGo Linux distro was released.


What is MeeGo:

MeeGo is a Linux-based open source mobile operating system project which was announced at Mobile World Congress in February 2010 by Intel and Nokia in a joint press conference. Its aim is to merge the efforts of Intel on Moblin and of Nokia on Maemo into one project. It is hosted by the Linux Foundation.

MeeGo is intended to run on a variety of hardware platforms including handhelds, in-car devices, netbooks and televisions. All platforms share the MeeGo core, with different UX (User eXperience) layers for each type of device.

MeeGo provides support for both ARM and Intel x86 processors and uses btrfs as the default file system.

Description taken from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MeeGo


The MeeGo 1.0 live bootable CD image is available here:
http://meego.com/downloads/releases/...-v1.0-netbooks

To test it download the image and then burn it to CD or dump it onto a USB stick like this:

cat meego-netbook-chromium-ia32-1.0-20100524.1.img > /dev/sdX
(replace sdX with the device name of the USB stick)

After that boot it off the USB stick (make sure the BIOS is configured to boot off USB)


MeeGo source code repositories:
http://meego.gitorious.org/


MeeGo Wiki:
http://wiki.meego.com/Main_Page


MeeGo Forum:
http://forum.meego.com/


MeeGo main package repository:
http://repo.meego.com/MeeGo/


Getting started with the MeeGo SDK for Linux:
http://wiki.meego.com/Getting_starte..._SDK_for_Linux



[more to follow]
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post #2 of 46
6/4/10 at 4:39pm
My biggest technical beef with Meego is the ridiculously limited hardware options currently supported- only Atom and no Nvidia support!?

Meego's currently not meant as a general purpose computing distro like Ubuntu Netbook Editions are...
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post #3 of 46
6/4/10 at 4:52pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rgb View Post

My biggest technical beef with Meego is the ridiculously limited hardware options currently supported- only Atom and no Nvidia support!?

Meego's currently not meant as a general purpose computing distro like Ubuntu Netbook Editions are...

You are right, the hardware support of the 1.0 Live CD is currently limited, but since it's all FOSS I wouldn't be surprised if someone soon releases a modified Live CD that has extended hardware support.
Technically it shouldn't be an issue at all to do that.

Anyway if you happen to have a PC/notebook/netbook with a Intel cpu (Atom or C2D or similar) with Intel IGP I strongly encourage you to try it out, I just tried it earlier on my Shuttle K45 (E5300cpu, 2GB RAM, Intel GMA945 IGP) and my first impression so far is extremely positive.

On the K45 (using a cheap rather slow USB stick) MeeGo boots in 19 seconds from the grub screen to the desktop and the desktop feels very slick and fast.

I wouldn't say that it's not meant as a general purpose computing distro like Ubuntu Netbook Editions are, on an Atom based Netbook it can easly be used instead of Ubuntu Netbook Edition or Mandriva Linux (which by the way doesn't have a netbook edition, since the main Mandriva distro is already netbook optimized if it detects that it's being installed on a netbook!).

I actually would say that it seems a lot more user friendly for a non-techie user compared to a general purpose Linux distro, therefore it seems actually better suited than Ubuntu (for a non-techie user).
I showed it to my wife and she really likes it (even more than the Mandriva she's currently using )...

That said, it includes a terminal among the default apps, so even a techie user shouldn't be put off.
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post #4 of 46
6/4/10 at 4:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tux99 View Post


On the K45 (using a cheap rather slow USB stick) MeeGo boots in 19 seconds from the grub screen to the desktop and the desktop feels very slick and fast.

Can the .img be converted to an .iso for use with VirtualBox?

(Boot the .iso image as a virtual CD)
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post #5 of 46
6/4/10 at 5:03pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rgb View Post

Can the .img be converted to an .iso for use with VirtualBox?

(Boot the .iso image as a virtual CD)

AFAIK it is an iso, just rename it, but I'm not sure it will run in VirtualBox, I read on some forums that people didn't manage to boot it in a VM.
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post #6 of 46
6/4/10 at 5:24pm
Thread Starter 
Just now I'm poking around in Meego from the included terminal app (gnome-terminal) and it looks like it's quite similar to Fedora/Redhat since Meego uses rpm packges and yum, the Fedora/Redhat package manager.

The LiveCD includes 690 packages and uses the Linux 2.6.33.3 kernel with SMP support enabled.

Xorg version is 1.8.0.

'vi' is included too (if it wasn't I would have dumped Meego straightaway ).


If I find some time I might write a proper review of MeeGo soon.
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post #7 of 46
6/5/10 at 8:08pm
Thread Starter 
XBMC on Meego how-to:

http://www.madeo.co.uk/?p=546
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post #8 of 46
6/8/10 at 7:06am
Winners and Losers of Computex 2010

http://besttabletreview.com/winners-...computex-2010/

Quote:


Winner: MeeGo
Consider MeeGo officially birthed. While we first learned of the conception in February during Mobile World Congress, Nokia’s Maemo and Intel’s Moblin have a bouncing baby OS that they can be proud of. MeeGo was shown off on three different tablets during Computex — the Quanta Redvale, Winstron W1 and CZC P10T. MeeGo lends itself perfectly to touch input by allowing for grid or panel mode UI. Plus, it’s a type of mobile ecosystem — all interchangeable, but with specific benefits with each version (like netbook, smartphone and tablet). While we won’t begin seeing it on tablets until 2011, it’s certainly a standout from Computex and something we’d like to see more of.

Quote:


Loser: Windows 7 tablets
Computex was bursting at the seems with Windows 7 tablets. It seemed like the floors of the conventions center was paved with them. Some looked nice, others looked bad, but all of them still rely on a very bulky OS for tablets that drains batteries. There were a few standouts, but only because they decided to run an overlaying UI (more about that next). However most of the straight out-of-the-box Windows 7 tablets seemed destined for failure. Couple that with the fact that two of the three slate tablets that Microsoft CEO Ballmer showed off at January’s CES keynote have now decided to dump Windows 7 and you have a lot of losing going on.

For those of you still doubting that Windows 7 on a tablet is a bad idea, do us a favor. Go to your local Best Buy, Office Depot or Staples. Walk up to one of the Touch All-In-One PCs running Windows 7. Play with it. Get a feel for it. Now imagine doing that on a screen less than half the size. Yup, we thought so.
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post #9 of 46
6/9/10 at 8:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tux99 View Post

AFAIK it is an iso, just rename it, but I'm not sure it will run in VirtualBox, I read on some forums that people didn't manage to boot it in a VM.

Looks like Meego might run in Qemu-

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1495756

http://www.neopeek.com/en/stories/me...go-10-gui-qemu
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post #10 of 46
6/9/10 at 3:08pm
I have the Moblin image on a SD card (somewhere, if I can find it in this mess). I see no reason why MeeGo can't be done the same way. Now only if I can find that damn card, I'll try it! My netbooks can both be booted from the SD card.

Of course, it doesn't save anything when you shut down. But you should be able to access your hard drive to do that.
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post #11 of 46
6/21/10 at 7:54am
Thread Starter 
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20100621VL205.html

Quote:


Nokia is currently preparing to launch an ARM-based tablet PC aiming for the fourth quarter of 2010, according to a Digitimes Research senior analyst.

Talking with upstream component makers, the analyst pointed out that Nokia has already completed about 100 engineering samples ready for testing. The tablet PC's panel size will be either 7- or 9-inch and manufactured by Foxconn International Holdings (FIH), the Hong Kong-listed handset subsidiary of Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry), the analyst noted.

The analyst expects Nokia will likely adopt Meego as the operating system and believes the company will work with its telecom carrier partners for sales.
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post #12 of 46
6/21/10 at 2:55pm
So, the Nokia tablet would have 3G/4G capabilities? COOL!

The only problem that I may see with this, is the cell carriers propensity to lock down their devices.
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post #13 of 46
6/21/10 at 10:54pm
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post #14 of 46
6/21/10 at 11:21pm
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post #15 of 46
7/9/10 at 4:48am
Thread Starter 
live images of MeeGo 1.1 and the handset UX running on an Intel-based (Moorestown) phone:

http://carrypad.com/2010/07/02/meego...one-live-pics/
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post #16 of 46
7/13/10 at 5:55am
The Meego UI demo video looks awesome.

I hope the FOSS community takes Meego and makes a general purpose desktop/HTPC distro out of it.
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post #17 of 46
7/13/10 at 5:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tux99 View Post

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20100621VL205.html

Sounds promising, but unless it's at least a 1Ghz+ A8 or preferably a 1Ghz+ dual core A9 with a GPU capable of h264 decoding of at least 720p, I wouldn't be interested.
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post #18 of 46
7/18/10 at 5:07pm
I hope the Nokia tablet comes in at a reasonable price. The MeeGo tablet UX looks really nice.
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post #19 of 46
8/3/10 at 11:31am
Thread Starter 
See full article here:
http://www.h-online.com/open/news/it...d-1049668.html

MeeGo for IVI v1.0 is available to download (direct download) as an ISO image file.
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post #20 of 46
8/13/10 at 1:40am
Thread Starter 
Here is a very good review from a 'techie' point of view of the Nokia N900 which is based on Maemo, the predecessor of MeeGo, this should give a good idea of things to come with the next gen. of MeeGo phones:
http://www.thinkdigit.com/Features/T...y-we_5120.html

Some quotes:

Quote:


This is a Linux distro and Nokia doesn’t do much to hide it. A terminal is one of the installed applications, which gives you you command-line control over the phone.

The phones ships with some default repositories which might suffice for those only using the device as a phone. However most of the magic is in the repositories which don’t come enabled by default.

The extra repositories have thousands of applications. It may be no match for the Apple App Store, or the Android Market, but you will find that the quality of applications that you find is much higher. You won’t find any useless applications, no junk. Almost everything that you can get will be useful to you or to someone else.

Due to the open nature of the platform, the applications you install can have much greater effect on your system. They can participate in file associations, they can extend the applications bundled by Nokia, and they can add system features at a much lower level.

You can, for example, install a codec pack for the media player which improves support for different formats. With this codec pack, the N900 is the first phone to offer support for the WebM video format with the VP8 codec. It can even play back matroska files. With the mplayer package you can play back nearly any video format – some may be unwatchable, but they’ll play – from the command line; and there are a few GUIs for mplayer available as well.

[...]
A geek was even able to run Mac OS X on the N900 with a PearPC emulator – an emulator for the PPC architecture.

With the EasyDebian package available in the extra repositories, you can run Debain applications from a Debian or an Ubuntu image. The small application lets you download and install an image from an easy-to-use GUI.
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post #21 of 46
9/3/10 at 7:39am
Thread Starter 
Quote:


At a press conference held yesterday, Intel and the WeTab developers, 4tiitoo, announced that the upcoming WeTab internet tablet, scheduled to arrive in September, will run the Linux-based MeeGo mobile operating system developed by Nokia and Intel.
[...]
The tablet's app range also remains unchanged: it is said to be able run Android, Adobe Air and Linux applications.

more here:
http://www.h-online.com/open/news/it...o-1071957.html
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post #22 of 46
9/8/10 at 12:09pm
Thread Starter 
A series of screenshots of the upcoming MeeGo phone GUI:

http://www.computerbase.de/bildstrecke/30729/1/

And a video:
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post #23 of 46
9/22/10 at 3:31am
A member of the Planet CCRMA mailing list has reported success using Fedora, RPMfusion and Planet CCRMA repositories with MeeGo. Since MeeGo is essentially Fedora, this should work.

http://ccrma-mail.stanford.edu/piper...er/017212.html

The repositories are disable by default. The Planet CCRMA repositories contain many audio applications, including a very good version of JACK. He did not say if he installed the rt kernel, though.
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post #24 of 46
9/22/10 at 6:39am
It's commendable that there is another alternative out there, even if it's promulgated by two large monopolists.

I'm quite happy with Android on my phone. I've taken special measures to exclude G**gle's surveillance by denying permission to track me, sync my contacts, do my searches, etc. I've also physically removed all closed-source apps from the Greatest Data-Mining Company In The World --including Market-- and use only open-source product from them. Their privacy policies are atrocious and their CEO is a Nazi.

My phone is the Nexus One, one of the only phones not locked down to a carrier, and run the Cyanogenmod flavor of Android, rooted without jailbreaking. I only have two complaints about this phone:
- the speakerphone is terrible, and I use it all the time;
- calls are routed through an ancient analog chip, and are not available to the CPU for recording calls.

It's taken me a while to learn the ins and outs of Android, but it's a revelation over the clamshell.
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post #25 of 46
9/29/10 at 3:41am
Thread Starter 
Quote:


Various developers have ported the handset variant of MeeGo, a platform mainly sponsored by Intel and Nokia, to a variety of smartphones that ship with Google's Android. A page in the MeeGo wiki provides details about the ports' current state of development and shows a Nexus One and a HTC Desire with the MeeGo handset user interface.[...]

full news article here:
http://www.h-online.com/open/news/it...e-1097889.html
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post #26 of 46
9/29/10 at 4:14am
As I posted in the Tablets thread, we need two things to port Linux to the newer "Android" devices: a kernel patch and a video drover,

It seems that the kernel patch for the Snapdragon QSD8250 processor is available, otherwise porting wouldn't be possible. Also noted in your link, is the unavailability of the video driver. Without a video driver, you are reduced to a terminal!! (or very slow graphics)

I sure hope the video drivers for the various ARM devices are made available. Even in a proprietary format, as nVidia has done, would be acceptable.
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post #27 of 46
9/29/10 at 4:28pm
The upcoming Fedora 14 will offer a MeeGo desktop.

http://www.networkworld.com/communit...nux_2010-09-29

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MeeGo_1.0

This way you can get all of the good support hardware that Fedora offers, and still get the useful Meego style desktop.
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post #28 of 46
9/29/10 at 5:16pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by waterhead View Post

The upcoming Fedora 14 will offer a MeeGo desktop.

http://www.networkworld.com/communit...nux_2010-09-29

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MeeGo_1.0

This way you can get all of the good support hardware that Fedora offers, and still get the useful Meego style desktop.

That's not surprising given that Meego is heavily based on Fedora, many Meego packages are derived from Fedora packages.

I think other distros will do the same too, Mageia (the community fork of Mandriva) is planning to do the same and I think I read Opensuse too.

Furthermore Mageia is also planning to target the ARM architecture, but I don't think that will be before next year at the earliest, setting up a new distro the size of Mageia is a lot of work...
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post #29 of 46
10/6/10 at 4:17pm
Quote:


Andrew Wafaa from the openSUSE's Goblin team has announced the release of Smeegol 1.0, a Linux distribution for netbooks featuring the MeeGo user interface built on top of an openSUSE base system: "The openSUSE Goblin team is pleased to announce the first public release of Smeegol. Smeegol is based on the netbook user interface from the MeeGo project. Smeegol offers the latest Banshee - a powerful music player, a new Evolution Express as mail and agenda client, and several additional social networks. Smeegol is an openSUSE volunteer effort by the Goblin Team to create an openSUSE interpretation of the MeeGo user experience, offering compelling advantages of the openSUSE infrastructure."

http://news.opensuse.org/2010/10/06/...g-smeegol-1-0/

Direct Download ISO
http://download.opensuse.org/reposit...3-Build9.1.iso

64bit
http://download.opensuse.org/reposit...3-Build9.1.iso

Announcement
http://news.opensuse.org/2010/10/06/...g-smeegol-1-0/

Quote:


Key features

Smeegol 1.0 has some unique features to both stock openSUSE & MeeGo(TM)*:

* Media playback is provided by the latest offering from the latest Banshee Project, version 1.8.0. This provides users with the ability to purchase music directly from within the application using Amazon’s MP3 store. The Miro Guide is also available out of the box so you can hunt for the perfect podcast. Besides the latest version of Banshee, we also provide the Community Extensions. These add additional functionality should you desire, like sharing music with friends over IM using Telepathy, stream music from Magnatune, discover internet radio stations with LiveRadio and a nice shuffle-by-similar and fill-by-similar modes, based on your songs’ acoustic similarity using Mirage.
* A full range of social network support including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr and Digg.
* Network connectivity using NetworkManager.
* Choice of web browsers – both FireFox and Chromium are supplied (you can install others if you wish)
* Choice on how to handle your PIM data – using a single application (full Evolution) or compartmentalise it using Evolution Express
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post #30 of 46
10/29/10 at 4:21am
Thread Starter 
http://www.h-online.com/open/news/it...e-1127032.html

Quote:


MeeGo 1.1 for Core, Netbooks, IVI and Handsets arrives
Intel and Nokia have quietly released the first major update to the open source MeeGo mobile operating system, version 1.1. While an official announcement has yet to be made, MeeGo 1.1 is available in four versions, the Core Software Platform, the Netbook User Experience (UX), MeeGo for In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) and the Handset User Experience, which the developers call a "technology snapshot".[...]
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