From the "just for fun!" department: Full version of Mac OS X 10.3 running on the N900! I believe this makes the N900 the first smartphone EVER to run the full version of Mac OS X (at any speed, slow or otherwise). Youtube video below.

Continue reading Mac OS X 10.3 running on the N900! →

I thought to give it a try if one could make a Maemo 5/N900 app from scratch, and publish it on the Maemo.org extras-devel repository, all in just one day. Well, it was possible! The result is the Luxus 0.1 light meter desktop widget, and you can get it from extras-devel today.

Continue reading Luxus light meter desktop widget for N900 →

Randall Arnold has created an excellent Maemo Community outreach flyer, and I am especially happy about it since he has chosen to use my Maemo Summit 2009 pictures in it. Go and check it out at: http://maemo-daemons.org/maemo-org_community-flyer1_Maemo5.pdf !

People are asking me just exactly how does one install ScummVM? Well, the answer has changed. With my version, you pretty much had to know some basic Maemo hacking to get it installed. However, now as the official version of ScummVM is available from the Maemo Extras-devel repository, all you have to is:

• Enable the extras-devel repository. Short version: Go to applications manager, select software catalogues, add a new entry for extras-devel. More detailed: See for example this web page: http://maemocentral.com/2009/12/29/how-to-enable-extras-extras-testing-extras-devel-repositories-on-the-n900-with-one-click/  
• Install scummvm from Application Manager: Select Download, then Games, then scroll until you see ScummVM. Click, follow instructions, and that should do it! 

It was only a matter of time, after I got the Bochs PC emulator working on N900, I just had to try how slow Windows NT 4.0 would be inside it I’ll post further details of how exactly I did it later, but for now, here it is:

I’ve received some questions and would like to post the answers right here in case others are wondering the same things about the N900:

• Yes, the memory on the device is partitioned so that you have around 1.5GB or so for applications, and the rest for data (images, videos, music, maps, software you use with DOSBox, etc.)
• To install Dosbox you have to add one or all of the extras repositories in your device App manager: extras, extras-devel, extras-testing. More instructions about that are available at: https://wiki.maemo.org/Extras
  

I did some tweaking and uploaded a faster Windows 3.11 running on N900-video to Youtube. The most important changes were setting frameskip=6 in dosbox preferences and installing of S3 video drivers in Windows, which had a huge difference in speed. I would have liked to test how well it would have worked with a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, but I still don’t have any to try it with.

For laughs, I just had to try running Windows 3.11 using Dosbox on the N900.. worked ok except for the mouse cursor, which was simply all over the place, so I used X11VNC for controlling the mouse remotely..

UpdateI changed Dosbox settings to use Frameskip=2 and now it’s running faster, though still not fast.

Just a quick note, i have released ScummVM 1.0.0-rc1-fremantle3 containing the following enhancements:

• full-screen mode can be entered and left with ctrl-f.
• Global menu can be entered with ctrl-s
• SCI games have been enabled. A brief test with Larry 6 and Quest for Glory 2 seemed promising!

 Download it here: http://www.tuug.fi/~toni/blogitems/packages/scummvm_1.0.0~rc1-fremantle3_armel.deb

Download the patch against ScummVM 1.0.0rc1 here

Screenshot with Quest for Glory 2:

Things TODO left:

• Come up with new keypresses for the essential features like saving and loading game
• Upload the binary package to maemo.org Downloads and fremantle repositories
• Submit things to the mainstream project in case I actually do any
  production-quality code changes, instead of random hacking around
  (though I’m not hiding anything, all my stuff is available upon request
  if someone really wants.)
• Try to get the screen centered (already happens in fullscreen)
• Display the mouse cursor (actually already seems to happen in AGI games like Larry 1)

I have posted my Maemo Summit 2009 photos on flickr. If someone remembers I’m that guy with the weird old-fashioned film camera.. (click picture to open set.)

Also on my personal homepage if you don’t like flickr: http://www.delphine.org/~toni/photo//maemosummit2009/