MeeGo Road Show in Hanoi

Vietsoftware and Intel co-hosting a MeeGo roadshow in Hanoi on December 28, 2010 in Hanoi.

MeeGo Roadshow Event Details

• 9:30 to 10:00 Registration and Welcome guest
• 10:00 to 10:15 Welcome speech
• 10:15 to 10:30 Introduction MeeGo Core
• 10:30 - 10:45 Introduction Asianux distribution on the MeeGo Lite 2.2
• 10:45 to 11:00 Demo Lite Asianux 2.2
• 11:00 to 11:30 Introduction Intel AppUp and development programs.
• 11:30 to 11:50 Gifts!
• 12:00 to 13:30 Lunch

Location: Saigon Hotel - 80 Ly Thuong Kiet, Hanoi

Get in touch with Trang or Hoa for registration
Ms. Trang: trang.nguyen @ metanvietnam.com
Ms. Hoa: hoaptt@asianux.org.vn

Orca on Ubuntu Mobile Internet Device (MID) Edition

After trying various gnu/Linux distributions for mobile devices, I choose Ubuntu MID (8.10 Intrepid Ibex), a keyboard / mouse driven distribution from Ubuntu. It was possible to use a spare PC laptop as my test development platform instead of a MID Development kit. The idea behind this experiment to try running Orca screen reader on devices other than gnu/Linux personal computers.

Ubuntu MID distribution is targeted at new Mobile Internet Device (MID) devices, though it doesn't include gnome-orca package. But don't let that stop you, you can get the packages and its dependencies from main repositories and install it manually with dpkg. Right now not possible to install the gnome-orca packages from the main repositories due to 'lpia' architecture package tag conflict.

The list of needed packages are given below.

• at-spi_1.24.0-0ubuntu3_i386.deb
• gnome-orca_2.24.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb
• libatspi1.0-0_1.24.0-0ubuntu3_i386.deb
• libbrlapi0.5_3.10-0ubuntu2_i386.deb
• libgail-gnome-module_1.20.0-1ubuntu1_i386.deb
• libgnome-speech7_0.4.21-0ubuntu5_i386.deb
• libxevie1_1.0.2-3_i386.deb
• libxevie1-dbg_1.0.2-3_i386.deb
• python-brlapi_3.10-0ubuntu2_i386.deb
• python-gnome2_2.22.3-0ubuntu1_i386.deb
• python-gnome2-desktop_2.24.0-0ubuntu1_i386.deb
• python-gnomecanvas_2.22.3-0ubuntu1_i386.deb
• python-pyatspi_1.24.0-0ubuntu3_all.deb

Once the packages are installed with 'dpkg -i *deb'. The orca can be enabled via the accessibility menu or by setting the gconf settings. Though the interface is not yet accessible, I was able to use midori browser with Orca without any trouble.

Moving over to Hackable:1

Hackable:1 seems to be the most interesting of other openmoko distributions. Here is a quick dekho of rev4 release. There is that old GSM registering bug which is fixed in newer release and also an unexplained blinking?. Perhaps I should go for more functional Hackable:1, rev5rc1 instead.

A quick question before I sign off What is your next phone going to use?

Watch out for Zii Egg

Reading about the Zii unveiling the Zii Egg renewed my craving for this wonderful gadget.

I mentioned this device to my learned friend Rad today. He spent considerable part of the night pouring over the details and gives it a thumbs up. He says "its like apple Ipod touch but completely open , hackable and with development support".

The device supports both Zii's Plaszma OS and Android and comes with full HD support. It also has a TTS engine that makes a potential platform for some of the accessible devices I plan to work on in future. Check out the full technical specifications of Zii Egg.

Running Ubuntu Mobile Internet Device (MID) Edition

A big thanks goes to Rad for poking me to try out Ubuntu MID. Running the Ubuntu MID in virtual environment is pretty straight forward. Have a look at the Installing Ubuntu MID in Virtual Box.

The screenshots below show Ubuntu MID running gnome-terminal and firefox web browsers.

These presentation slides from CELF Embedded Linux Conference 2008 provides a quick overview about Ubuntu MID.

Reliance Netconnect USB card in Ubuntu Jaunty

New version of Ubuntu Linux 9.04 (Jaunty) is due to be released next week. So if you are a Reliance Broadband USB CDMA modem user then you should make these (slight) changes to your configuration .
Thejesh has already posted a detailed Reliance Netconnect USB card on Linux Howto so I don't think I should repeat myself again.

In Jaunty the usbserial module is complied as builtin in the linux kernel. So if you are searching for us usbserial module you won't find it. What you have to do instead is to pass USB vendor ID and Product ID at boot time.

Add this line at the end of default kernel line in your /boot/grub/menu.lst usbserial.vendor=0x19d2 usbserial.product=0xfffd
Happy Browsing !!!

Bash Path Security Gotcha!

The devil they say is in details, even the simple Bash path variable can open some security problems on your box. Every Bash documentation out there warns us not leave '.' in the path (it matches current directory). They however don't seems to mention that leaving a dangling ':' (colon) at the beginning or the end of Bash $PATH does create the same security vulnerability.

# Standard Bash $PATH $ echo $PATH /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games # Let's get evil, append a colon at the end $ export PATH="$PATH:" # Let's check the tainted Bash $PATH $ echo $PATH /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games: # Create Trojan application (of sorts) $ echo "echo foo"> app $ chmod +x app # Run the command and Viola! $ app foo

Snapshots from CES 2008

Its official now Gnu/Linux is making its presence felt in the consumer electronics like UMPCs (Ultra Mobile PCs) , Mobile phones and the newer MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices). Doc Searls of Linux Journal hits the bulls-eye when he poses the question 'What will happen now that the consumer electronics tide is starting to turn toward Linux and its value system?' while covering CES 2008.

Take a look at the photos from the CES 2008 event and see if its for real.

Hyderabad based iChip Technologies to offer @box Linux powered sub-10k Home PC

Today's newspaper mentioned this new product powered by Linux called @box ® from a Hyderabad based company Ichip. The company product page proclaims @Box ® as " a complete entertainment device that plugs into your existing TV - no special skills or knowledge needed - if you can watch TV , then @Box can show you that entire web has to offer".

The product is yet to launched, we can expect it to hit the shelf's next summer (March 2008) but the overall cost of the product is not clear. The report in The Hindu puts it Indian Rs. 10,000 and the add-ons(don't ask me, I don't know) required for running it at home would cost almost an equal amount. Where as the Ciol.com says the product could be priced at about the cost of a mobile phone (say, about Rs 4,000), but it all depends on how the services associated with the box get bundled with the telco

I wonder how both reporters who covered the same press conference provide such conflicting details. We need to wait and see how this device fairs in Indian market.