iLiad The iLiad OS Project

[jharker]

Me too, I would be very interested to know more about how to create custom firmware images for the iLiad.

Also, Adam, do you know anything about how we could start up a community iDS server? I don't really know how the iDS system works... although I imagine some perusal of the source code would give a few hints....

[ericshliao]

Is it possible to adopt embedded qt or DirectFB in the OS project?
If we can bypass X server to exectue GUI app, it will save many system resource and execute time.

However, adopting DirectFB might make contentlister and ipdf obsolete, at least some modification might needed.

[jharker]

Today I finished uploading the source code and other resources to the iLiad OS svn server, hosted from the MobileRead Dev Hub.

You can browse the SVN repository via the Trac (https://dev.mobileread.com/trac/iliados/browser) or SVN (https://dev.mobileread.com/svn/iliados/) source browsers.

Note that these are very plain ways to browse the code. If you want to browse the code to learn about its structure, use Hansel's web site (http://iliad.hpelbers.org/), which uses dOxygen to provide more information and analysis of classes etc.

I spent quite a while trying to figure out a good structure for the tree. Here's what I finally came up with:

• tags - standard SVN tags folder
• branches - standard SVN branches folder
• upstream - source codes for all externally maintained utilities and libraries (busybox, X, etc.)
• trunk - all iLiad-specific files
  • filesystem - This will always hold a copy of the current development filesystem.
    • /usr
    • /bin
    • /home
    • and so on...
  • src - Source code for all iRex-supplied iLiad-specific programs and libraries
    • connectionMgr
    • contentLister
    • displayMgr
    • etc....
  • kernel - kernel and iRex modules
    • iRex - sources for iRex kernel modules
    • linux-2.4.19 - kernel source for iLiad, with all patches applied including the latest (v2.11)

I would welcome any comments or suggestions about ways to improve this structure.

The entire repository is very large, as it necessarily includes complete kernel source code (>100MB!) and the sources for several very large upstream libraries.

Anyone can check out a copy from the SVN server. You don't need to be registered or anything. I recommend only taking out a specific folder, not the whole trunk. For example, if you want to work on the ContentLister, you can get a copy of the latest source code with the command:

svn co https://dev.mobileread.com:8080/svn/iliados/trunk/src/contentLister

For the moment, I would like all proposed patches to be funneled through either myself or Adam, and we will review and test them before including them in SVN. Please submit patches for any issue or feature! Of course, we'll be giving priority to changes that come early in the roadmap, but you should submit anything you've got working. Please try to submit good patches with clean code and no bugs... you know the drill.

I'll write more later. Tomorrow evening I plan to add the formal roadmap to Trac, along with a number of new tickets covering all the roadmap goals. Then interested folks can take ownership for tickets they're interested in, and can submit patches for specific tickets, etc. I also plan to add some wiki pages covering how to set up the toolchains, how to compile things, guidelines for submissions, and more about how to use (and administer) the SVN server.

That's it for now... Comments, questions, suggestions, critiques?

[jharker]

A few notes about what was (and wasn't) included in the iLiad OS SVN tree...

trunk/filesystem
Some of the filesystem stuff will obviously have to be checked, fixed, or revised before our first release. This is pretty much just a raw dump, to start with.

• Taken from iLiad 2.12 filesystem using a command like

  ssh root@iliad tar --exclude=/proc -p -c -f - /* | tar -x -f - .

• Things left out or changed:
  • Left out /proc, /dev, /tmp
  • Left out /home/intent (i.e. mobipocket reader, proprietary)
  • Left out /mnt/settings/ereaderim (funky permissions).

upstream
Includes pretty much everything from the iRex Developer Base software folder, with these changes:

• Left out minimo. It's really big and we will probably leave it out or replace it with a simpler web browser.
• Changed directory name from "build-arm-linux" to "glibc-2.3.2+cvs20040726".
• iliad-timezones not included, because its contents are already in the filesystem.
• Applied iRex patch to matchbox-panel.
• Included the more recent of the two matchbox-keyboard archives provided by iRex.
• Put poppler library in upstream, where it belongs AFAIK.

toolchains
Toolchains are currently not maintained in SVN.

There are two important toolchains: the standard OpenEmbedded toolchain used for compiling most everything, and the gcc-cross-2.95.3 toolchain used for compiling the kernel. I really don't want to store a couple of gigantic binaries in the SVN repository. So my best idea is to simply host copies of these in the Dev Hub, with links in the Developer Information wiki page. I imagine we'll be updating the OE toolchain periodically as we migrate to newer upstream sources and modify iLiad-specific libraries.

One last note: The ipdf program is located in trunk/src/, along with all the other iLiad-specific programs.

[jharker]

A few notes. I updated the iLiad OS main wiki page. Also, I added a Development Information wiki page. This contains information about how to install and use the toolchains, as well as guidelines for patch submissions.

Still working on updating the Trac roadmap and adding relevant tickets.

[jharker]

Check out the Roadmap and Tickets!

The tickets list is still very incomplete, so please add more!

Also, feel free to take a ticket to work on, if you're interested.

I have tentatively set a target date for release of 2.13 for December 15. What do you think-- is this do-able?

Recent changes:

• Set up a detailed roadmap with milestones.
• Assigned existing tickets to appropriate milestones.
• Added more components and ticket types.
• Added many new tickets.

Enjoy!

[Adam B.]

I think 2.13 should definitely be possible before then.

Here's an untested beta (iliad is at home, won't be able to test until tomorrow night):
http://projects.mobileread.com/iliad....beta1.ext2.gz
http://projects.mobileread.com/iliad...a1.ext2.gz.md5

It includes:

• Integrated FBReader
• Registry support for FBReader and Shell scripts
• Matchbox keyboard
• Dropbear

Some thoughts:

• I'm not sure if you'll need to connect to the IDS (or attempt to) for the registry changes to take effect. I had to put the scripts in post_download, since you can't modify the /etc/registry directory itself.
• We should include some scripts to start a network connection and dropbear. Dropbear isn't started on boot now because of power usage.
• There's no Mobipocket reader. We still need to work with iRex on finding a way to get that. Or we need to include some "pre firmware installation" scripts. We could even have that script automatically download the custom firmware and set the reflash flag. This would mean very little user interaction necessary.

[jharker]

Wow, great work!

Is the matchbox keyboard really just a drop-in replacement? I would have thought it was a little more complicated than that.

I think we should put network scripts in 2.14. One thing I'd like 2.14 to include is a "Programs" folder accessible from the system menu. (We might move it elsewhere during the 2.15 UI redesign; this is just to start.) We can use this as a location for non-file-related programs (calendar? sudoku?) as well as scripts. I'm not wild about this concept, but I can't think of a better implementation, unless EVERY program has an associated file type...?

Of course, dropbear and networking should never be started at boot because of the power drain, and because the vast majority of users don't need them.

I'm in favor of trying some pre-install/post-install scripts to simply move/restore the existing mobipocket installation. A solution like that could hold us until we can find a better alternative. It would be great if iRex could provide a just-Mobipocket package via iDS.

Alternately, it would be great if they could make the whole community OS available through official iDS, effectively adopting the community development as the new official version. But I doubt they'd be willing to do that.

Sadly, my iLiad is on loan to my fiancee in another city at the moment. I won't have access to it for two more weeks. So I can't test anything right now either. Anyone want to volunteer to test?

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by Adam B.

I think 2.13 should definitely be possible before then.

Here's an untested beta...

I am getting my new Book edition tomorrow and will be happy to test.

Is the installation process of the beta reasonably self-explanatory (with the help of the Wiki) and would I be able to read EPUB files?

[Mr. Goodbar]

I'm sitting on a 3 hour conference call so will give it a try shortly. Is the installation process just to extract to the compact flash card and then follow the normal reflash process?

[CommanderROR]

OK, thanks for posting beta1...

how does one go about flashing it? Is it a simple copy and rename job or is it more complex than that?

Thanks.

[Adam B.]

Originally Posted by CommanderROR

OK, thanks for posting beta1...

how does one go about flashing it? Is it a simple copy and rename job or is it more complex than that?

Thanks.

You should be able to reflash it like the normal reflash image. You'll have to rename it to app.image.gz.

[Adam B.]

Originally Posted by jharker

Wow, great work!

Is the matchbox keyboard really just a drop-in replacement? I would have thought it was a little more complicated than that.

iRex originally used the matchbox keyboard in firmware 2.7. When they switched to the vision objects keyboard, they symlinked matchbox-keyboard to ereaderim. A drop in matchbox-keyboard from the 2.7 firmware should work without a problem.

I think we should put network scripts in 2.14. One thing I'd like 2.14 to include is a "Programs" folder accessible from the system menu. (We might move it elsewhere during the 2.15 UI redesign; this is just to start.) We can use this as a location for non-file-related programs (calendar? sudoku?) as well as scripts. I'm not wild about this concept, but I can't think of a better implementation, unless EVERY program has an associated file type...?

Agreed. A "Programs" folder in the system menu seems like a good solution for now.

Of course, dropbear and networking should never be started at boot because of the power drain, and because the vast majority of users don't need them.

I'm in favor of trying some pre-install/post-install scripts to simply move/restore the existing mobipocket installation. A solution like that could hold us until we can find a better alternative. It would be great if iRex could provide a just-Mobipocket package via iDS.

Alternately, it would be great if they could make the whole community OS available through official iDS, effectively adopting the community development as the new official version. But I doubt they'd be willing to do that.

Agreed. I doubt they'll ever do that, but we can work around that problem.

[CommanderROR]

Thank you Adam.

I'm reflashing now, at least I think I am...it's showing a white screen with the green light on constantly just now...^^

[Adam B.]

Originally Posted by CommanderROR

Thank you Adam.

I'm reflashing now, at least I think I am...it's showing a white screen with the green light on constantly just now...^^

It should show the same thing as it does when reflashing with the iRex supplied image.