Jarmo,
Thanks for the constructive reply.
My further comments in-line, with lots of extraneous stuff deleted.
Geoff
jarmo.ti...@nokia.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> And thanks a lot about Maemo SDK Virtual Image feedback. I added also another
> mailing list into this response (people constructing our images read more
> that list).
>
> Some comments below.
>
>
>> in a virtualbox, but man it was FRUSTRATING.
>
> Great that you actually explained below why you were frustrated :) so that we
> can comment and even fix issues.
>
That was the exact point. It DID work, but I spent a couple of hours
trying various combinations of stuff, including creating virtuals in
VirtualBox because what I was trying did not work (This, despite the
fact that the documentation strongly implied that I did not have to do
that. It was correct, but I was doing the wrong things.
>>
>> <semi-rant begins>
>> I downloaded
>> Maemo_PreFinal_2_Ubuntu_Intrepid_Desktop_SDK_Virtual_Image_Spli
> tted.zip.001
>> and ...002. (And then I then had to find, build and install 7zip.....)
>>
>> I ran 7za x Maemo.....001 and it ran. I tried to do the same
>> for ...002 and got a 'Not an archive' error. I had no idea if
>> 7za dealt with both files serially, or if the file was corrupt.
>>
>> A little explanation in the documentation would be helpful.
>> How about telling us what the proper result will be?
>>
>> "7Za will serially extract the split numbered zip files, and report:
>> 'Everything is Ok
>>
>> Files: 5
>> Size: 8453907228
>> Compressed: 1572864000'"
>
> We have a problem that most standard compression tools have restriction about
> 2GB max file size. Compression tools I know which are commonly available and
> cabable of handling > 2GB archives are 7-Zip and WinZip. Because 7-Zip is
> free and available also for Linux we decided to use it for compression. 7-Zip
> is cabable of creating compatible zip format with other tools (like WinZip)
> but splitted archives are not compatible.
>
> Why we then use splited archives :). Well our download page for image
> distribution archive files has been implemented with PHP and PHP seems to
> have that same max file size limit. Actually PHP limit sems to be for some
> odd reason smaller than 2 GB.
I thought that that might be the reason for splitting the files. I
didn't particularly mind finding and installing 7zip. What bothered me
was that I had no idea of what the process was, or what the result
*should* be. And you already know that, so you could have told me!
>> Then we run the installer script, which is a fun guessing
>> game. It asks for information without the slightest hint as to
>> the expected response and uses misleading names for the
>> information. HOW ABOUT A HINT?
>> "Location of VirtualBox binaries (normally /usr/bin)?"
>>
>> Then it asks for "The name of your VirtualBox Image." Off the
>> bat, I thought that was the name of the image file. But what
>> is wanted is not actually the name of the file, but a name
>> under which your virtual instance will appear in the Manager.
>> It has nothing to do with the name of the vdmk file. A short
>> alias is what is wanted. Of course, I inserted the name of the
>> file: maemosdk_desktop_intrepid-10-08.vmdk. Since I had
>> already manually created a virtual instance, I now had 3
>> instances (including the pre-existing WinXP), one of which had
>> an unreadable name, due to its length.
>> How about:
>>
>> "Please provide a (short) name for this virtual instance. This
>> name will appear in the list of virtual instances in the
>> VirtualBox Manager (Maemosdk-2)"
>>
>> Finally, it asks for the "location" of the VirtualBox image.
>> But what it wants is not actually the location of the image.
>> Generally a 'location'
>> for a file is the folder 'where' it is. The script actually
>> wants the 'what' of the file: the fully qualified pathname of
>> the image file. That
>> is: /tmp/downloads/maemosdk_desktop_intrepid-10-08.vmdk or whatever.
>>
>> So how about:
>> "Please provide the full pathname of the vmdk file
>> (/tmp/downloads/maemo-xxx.vmdk)"
>>
>> Of course, what is NOT discussed, is that this script will
>> create the virtual hard-drive instance *out of the vmdk* and
>> exactly where the vmdk presently resides. Yes, of course I
>> wanted to create a virtual in my /tmp/downloads folder.
>> Although a different place would be better.....
>>
>> I had to parse the script, and read 'VBoxManage --help' to
>> understand what the script was trying to do. Once I got past
>> being misdirected, I was able to install. Only took me about 2
>> hours, not including download time..
>>
>> </semi-rant>
>
> These are just usability problems with our instalaltion script. I think we
> can fix all these issues for our final image.
>
> Raul can you confirm that we really can fix these?
>
> We have not had so much time for usability and instalaltion issues as we have
> concentrated on functionality.
>
> For the final version we can check what can be done to even more simplify
> installation process.
>
> Thanks a lot about comments.
Fixing this is easy. I will revise the script, including adding a stanza
to allow installation in another spot and e-mail you.
I'm glad to know that someone is listening, and I am glad to help where
I can. I had a hard time installing scratchbox-1 and a I cannot being to
figure out how you were able to encapsulate an entire ubuntu install
with scratchbox etc into one installable virtual image. That's about 5
or 6 magic spells in a row!
Geoff
--
Please let me know if anything I say offends you.
I may wish to offend you again in the future.
Tux says: "Be regular. Eat cron flakes."
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