Install Plasma Active on ARM Systems

Mer Plasma Active

The Mer project creates a Plasma Active MMC Image which is build for the armv7hl target devices like the ARM Tegra 2 tablet. For more details please see the related Mer Wiki.

You can also download the kernel boot image, the external MMC image and some additional helper scripts from basysKom download location here.

Deploying a Plasma Active (MMC) raw Image to a MultiMediaCard

A Installation description for MultiMediaCards could be found in the MeeGo ARM Wiki.

Install Plasma Active on x86 Systems

Live Images

Live-Images of plasma active are provided. Installation sources are mentioned below and how to use them. For plasma active images are provided to run native on the system like ARM-Image or as a boot-stick imaga that can be used to play around an then probably install it on your system. These images are probably the easies and fastest way to get the plasma active user experience, play around, first app development, demos and show cases.

Balsam Professional live image

open-slx creates regularly updated packages of Balsam Professional for Plasma Active. You can try the Live ISO from a USB stick. Download the Balsam Professional live image download.open-slx.com/iso/12.1/plasma-active-2.iso (checksum).

The image plasma-active-2.iso is always the newest one and a link to the plasma-active-<xxx>.iso in the download repo. Please check the changelog and README. The images are also booting WeTabs without flashed BIOS. Remember WeTabs won't start normal usb-sticks. They need a special mbrid-configuration.

The image comes with a live-installer. This is currently availible via Konsole. This works:

- Download the image and put it on a stick. See also README and Changelog on download.open-slx.com/iso/12.1

- connect a usb-keyboard to the system

- Boot the stick and wait until Plasma Active is running

- Open a konsole and change to root via typing: su -

- Enter yast2 live-installer

- Follow the instructions. You can configure dualboot, user and partioning the native system

If this does not work please contact us on the active mailing list or direcly at open-slx to improve this description with an email: [email protected]

MeeGo live image

basysKom creates regularly updated packages of Plasma Active based on MeeGo.

This image is an adaption of the public meego-tablet-ia32-pinetrail variant and it is bootable on x86 based devices like WeTab, ExoPC or the Idea Pad. Login Data: User meego passwd meego; User root passwd meego

You can try the installable Live ISO from a USB stick. Download the latest demo and stable release live image (sha1).

If you want to try new but not yet released versions you can find here the latest testing live image (sha1).

The scope of Plasma Active Contour UX development is for usage on tablet devices. If you want to activate the mouse cursor eg on a netbook, follow these instructions.

After you have downloaded the MeeGo-ISO image it's a good idea to validate the image against transmission errors. A checksum file should be available for every image. If you download other than meego-images be sure this is an hybrid-iso-image that can boot both DVD and usb sticks. Balsam image is in that way.

Mer Plasma Active Live (Installable) Image

basysKom creates updated packages of Plasma Active based on Mer for testing.

This image bootable on x86 based devices like WeTab, ExoPC or the Idea Pad. Login Data: User meego passwd meego; User root passwd meego

You can try the installable Live ISO from a USB stick. Download the devel or testing iso images from latest demo and stable release live image ([1]).

On Linux you can compare the hash between the image and related checksum file using the following command (with both the image and the checksum file in the same directory):

   user@host# sha1sum -c <checksum file>

   user@host# md5sum -c <checksum file>

If the command returns "<image name>: FAILED", please download the image one more time and check again.

After validation feel free to deploy the image to a not mounted USB flashdrive. In the following example we use the tool 'dd' for this:

   root@host# dd if=<image file> of=/dev/<USB flashdrive> bs=1M

Please note, the usage of this tool is potentially dangerous! In case of a mistaken output device, all data on it will be irrecoverably lost.

To get the correct output device for this tool, please follow the steps below:

1. Remove all mobile flashdrives from your host system.

2. Enter the command below and note the output.

   user@host# cat /proc/partitions

   major minor  #blocks  name
     8     0    3000000  sda
     8     1    2999998  sda1

3. Plug the Flashdrive for deploying into the host system.

4. Enter the following command and note the output again.

   user@host# cat /proc/partitions

   major minor  #blocks  name
     8     0    30000000 sda
     8     1    29999998 sda1
     8     16    3872256 sdb
     8     17     594944 sdb1

5. In this example the correct dd parameter is sdb in the position of <USB flashdrive>.

Running Plasma Active in a Virtual Machine

When running Plasma Active in a virtual machine, consider that performance will not be as good as when it runs natively on the devices it has been designed for. For testing, we strongly recommend running Plasma Active on a device. The following limitations need consideration when using a virtual machine instead of a real device:

Performance, especially graphics, boot and application startup might be reduced
Advanced visual effects might not be available or work correctly in the virtual machine. This can lead to degradation of certain features, performance, visual effects and possibly stability
User interfaces designed for touch-screens often work less efficiently for mouse and keyboard based input methods, or feel less natural.

We have found VirtualBox to basically work, albeit in some cases the above problems have been noted. Read on for instructions on how to have a first look at Plasma Active, even without suitable hardware.

Virtual Box

Before you can start the image via VirtualBox, please configure the virtual device as below.

VirtualBox OSE Manager

  Settings
  ├── General
  │   └── Basic
  │       ├── Name --> e.g. Plasma-contour
  │       ├── Operating System --> Linux
  │       └── Version --> Linux 2.6
  ├── System
  │   ├── Motherboard
  │   │   ├── Boot Order
  │   │   │   ├── CD/DVD-ROM
  │   │   │   └── Hard Disk
  │   │   └── Base Memory --> 1024MB
  │   └── Processor
  │       └── Enable PAE/NX
  ├── Display
  │   └── Video
  │       ├── Video Memory --> 128 MB
  │       └── Enable 3D Acceleration
  └── Storage
      ├── IDE Controller
      │   └── IDE Secondary Master
      │       └── Set up the virtual CD/DVD drive
      │           └── <ISO image>
      └── SATA Controller
          └── Hard Disk
              └── Set up the virtual hard disk
                  ├── Dynamically expanding storage
                  └── Virtual Size --> 8.00 GB

Please note, only live images since 2011-07-20-10-50-meego-plasma-contour-in-progress-USB-live.iso are runnable via VirtualBox.

Please note, if you'd like to install our live image to an VirtualBox hard drive, you have to remove the live image from the virtual CD/DVD-ROM after installation. This will be done after Power off the machine via VirtualBox OSE Manager.

  Settings
  └── System
      └── Motherboard
          └── Boot Order
              ├── CD/DVD-ROM --> disable
              └── Hard Disk

Once MeeGo/Plasma Active is installed, you may want to enable the mouse cursor.

Booting the Live Image on a WeTab/ExoPC

1. Plug the flashdrive into the WeTab/ExoPC (WeTab only works with special flashed BIOS from ExoPC).

2. Get the WeTab/ExoPC running.

3. Press the power (top left underside) + softtouch (top left upperside) buttons until it reboots.

4. When it reboots, press "BBS" to display a boot menu.

5. Choose the flash drive in the boot menu (press the softtouch button briefly to move to the next selection; press the softtouch button longer to emulate Enter).

6. Choose in the boot menu using the softtouch button

Installation on Balsam Professional (openSUSE Linux fork/clone)

In order to install the latest development snapshots on Balsam Professional. You have to add two repositories to your system. These update kdelibs and kde-runtime to a patched 4.7 which contains additions in QML bindings and improvements needed to run the development version for Plasma Active. If you would like to try it in a virtual machine, we recommend Virtualbox, which provides accelerated graphics capable of "desktop effects" (see above).

Important: Since openSUSE version 12.1 no special KDE updates are needed. Just use the plasma active repo from open-slx.

Installation Recipe

You can also install plasma active in fist installing a standard desktop environment, add plasma active to the installation and then change the starting UX. We explain this here with a KDE4 live-image that is later changed to plasma active ux.

Preparation

For initial installation, a mouse is helpful and an external keyboard is essential.

Install openSUSE 12.1 Live KDE via USB stick from the openSUSE download page. Direct download link.

When the Live Image has loaded completely, pull the top bar down to expose App Launch. In the search box, type "install" (you may need to touch in the search box to expose a keyboard). Select Live Installer to launch the installation process. Several user interactions are required to complete the process. There is more detailed information (section 4.3) available on the 4.3 Live CD/USB installation.

As you are going to install packages from a different source, or so-called "vendor", you can make your life easier by telling zypper to automatically resolve packages across vendors. In /etc/zypp/zypp.conf, change the following line

solver.allowVendorChange = false

to

solver.allowVendorChange = true

(You don't need to perform the step above if you follow the YaST-based alternatives offered below.)

Due to the defaults of openSUSE the DVD installation installs with no network manager. You may be using static network configuration using YaST instead of NetworkManager. To change it to use NetworkManager, launch YAST, select "Network Settings" and under "Global Options" change the setting to "User Controlled with NetworkManager". You can then enable wireless and configure it as normal. (Note: this seems to be fixed with the OpenSUSE 12.1 iso, at least the 64-bit version.)

Repository Setup

Register KDE:Active repositories:

zypper addrepo --refresh \
    http://download.open-slx.com/balsam/professional/distribution/plasma-active/12.1/ plasma-active

Increase KDE:Active packages' priority, we want the KDE:Active versions that are built with Active-specific options (higher prio than openSUSE which is 99 by default):

zypper modifyrepo --priority 90 plasma-active

(Alternative: Use YaST's Software Repositories feature to add the repository http://download.open-slx.com/balsam/professional/distribution/plasma-active/12.1/, and set its priority to 90.)

Running Plasma Active

If you have installed the plasma-tablet-config package, your system will automatically start into Plasma Active. Just make sure you have autologin enabled in Yast and restart your system.

From a full Plasma Desktop (or Netbook) user experience, you can also switch at runtime to Plasma Active as follows (as user logged into the the X11 session):

# Quit your plasma session
kquitapp plasma-desktop
or
kquitapp plasma-netbook

# Start Plasma Active
plasma-device

# It is also possible to run Plasma Active in a window,
# this is useful for testing purposes:
plasma-device --nodesktop

Installation of Plasma Active from sources (developer only)

While the recommended way to test Plasma Active is with the above recipe using the binary packages, it is possible to build Plasma Active from the source repository, who wants to try the bleeding edge repository can build plasma-mobile from sources. The recommended way is to follow the usual kde from sources build instructions. It is also possible to use the binary kde packages as a base.

It is necessary to install some packages (and their dependencies) to have a working development environment: sudo zypper install gcc gcc-c++ git cmake, kdelibs-devel

Now clone the plasma mobile source repository and build:

 git clone git://anongit.kde.org/plasma-mobile

 cd plasma-mobile

 mkdir build

 cd build

 cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr

 make

 sudo make install

Installing Additional Software

There are a few KDE projects that have created touch friendly versions of their applications already. These versions are included in the plasma-active repository. Currently, these are:

Calligra Active - Install package calligra-active
Kontact Touch - Install package kontact
Bangarang - Install package bangarang

In addition, some applications already work quite well together with active. The following is a list of applications that work ok on a touchscreen:

Okular - For viewing documents.
Marble - Virtual globe, includes routing support.
Bangarang - Media player, uses Nepomuk for listing media.
Dolphin - File manager.

MeeGo Installation from meego repository

Installation

A repository of most of KDE components, including Plasma Active for MeeGo is at https://build.pub.meego.com/project/show?project=Project%3AKDE%3ATrunk%3ATesting and is available for both i586 and ARM, which is added by running the following command if you are using MeeGo trunk

zypper ar http://repo.pub.meego.com/Project:/KDE:/Trunk:/Testing/Trunk/Project:KDE:Trunk:Testing.repo

or for MeeGo 1.2 users:

zypper ar http://repo.pub.meego.com/Project:/KDE:/Trunk:/Testing/MeeGo_1.2_oss/Project:KDE:Trunk:Testing.repo

To install the software run the following command:

zypper install plasma-contour-config

UX Launch

uxlaunch is the MeeGo component that actually launches the shell. There are two ways of switching the default MeeGo Tablet UX shell to Plasma.

Changing UX permanently

Edit /etc/sysconfig/uxlaunch and change the session key to "/usr/bin/startkde" (Plasma Active One) or "/usr/bin/startactive" (Plasma Active Two).

Dynamic UX selection at boot

Finally, to switch to using the plasma tablet UX in MeeGo, use the uxselector project, following the instructions found here: http://wiki.meego.com/MeeGo_Desktop/Changing_Desktops#UXSelect_Switcher_Tool_.28alpha.29 - edit the /etc/xdg/aard/uxselect.conf file to include the following section:

 [plasma]

 name=Plasma Active

 description=The Plasma Active Tablet UX

 # Use this in Plasma Active One
 #path=/usr/bin/startkde

 # Use this in Plasma Active Two
 path=/usr/bin/startactive

and add the text plasma text to the uxlist property in the General section.

Known Issues

The Meego tablet UX installs a number of files in /etc/xdg/autostart that are also executed when running Plasma Active, resulting in elements of the Meego tablet UX showing up nevertheless. Workaround is to rename/remove that folder.

Installing Additional Software

There are a few KDE projects that have created touch friendly versions of their applications already. These versions are included in the MeeGo repository. Currently, these are:

Calligra Active - Install package calligra-active
Kontact Touch - Install package kontact-touch

In addition, some applications already work quite well together with Active. The following is a list of applications that work ok on a touchscreen:

Okular - For viewing documents.
Marble - Virtual globe, includes routing support.
Konsole - Support for virtual keyboard

Other Systems

If you have installed Plasma Active on a system not yet listed here, please add detailed installation instructions in a new section.