Launchpad Entry: mobile-mid-karmic-use-mer
Created: 2008-04-29
Contributors: Emmet Hikory
Packages affected: Many: see https://code.launchpad.net/m-r
Summary
The Mer project has rebased much of the Maemo stack on Ubuntu, and prepared an environment optimised for MID use. This work will be included in Karmic, replacing the previous Moblin 1.0-based MID stack.
Release Note
Ubuntu MID Edition is now based on Mer, and has been optimised to an even greater degree for small screens, slower processors, and low-memory environments.
Rationale
With the sunset of Moblin 1.0, the previous upstream for MID is dead. The Mer community is active, and actively engaged with Ubuntu, so the flavour is more likely to be kept up-to-date and of interest to users.
User stories
Alice has not seen signficant improvement in the MID experience in Ubuntu for some time. Looking at the Mer-based Karmic release, she excitedly upgrades her MID to the newest release.
Bob has been working on Mer for several months, and is happy to see his work more widely distributed to users.
Chris has had increasing difficulty merging the Moblin 1.0 packages and patches in each successive cycle, and looks forward to an alternate interface with greater cohesion.
Assumptions
- None of the Mer patches significantly degrade the experience for non-MID flavours
- The Mer stack is sufficient to provide for a complete experience, without additional software.
Design
Firstly, apply all the Mer patches to Ubuntu, and include any unpackaged Mer software.
Secondly, modify the MID seeds to match a base Mer installation.
Implementation
This section should describe a plan of action (the "how") to implement the changes discussed. Could include subsections like:
UI Changes
Should cover changes required to the UI, or specific UI that is required to implement this
Code Changes
Code changes should include an overview of what needs to change, and in some cases even the specific details.
Migration
Include:
- data migration, if any
- redirects from old URLs to new ones, if any
- how users will be pointed to the new way of doing things, if necessary.
Test/Demo Plan
It's important that we are able to test new features, and demonstrate them to users. Use this section to describe a short plan that anybody can follow that demonstrates the feature is working. This can then be used during testing, and to show off after release. Please add an entry to http://testcases.qa.ubuntu.com/Coverage/NewFeatures for tracking test coverage.
This need not be added or completed until the specification is nearing beta.
Unresolved issues
This should highlight any issues that should be addressed in further specifications, and not problems with the specification itself; since any specification with problems cannot be approved.
BoF agenda and discussion
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Specs/MobileMidKarmicUseMer
The Mer project has rebased much of the Maemo stack on Ubuntu, and prepared an environment optimised for MID use. This work will be included in Karmic, replacing the previous Moblin 1.0-based MID stack.
http://www.daimi.au.dk/~cvm/cphnotes.pdf
Nokia went Qt, so Mer project runs with it.
Our current MID has no upstream anymore. So lets use Mer.
- Mer will take care of the Hildon stack
- Mer may have a hildon replacement based on Qt eventually?
- will shell out in the next few months
Mer has been historically building with OpenSuSe buildservice
- Mer is a set of packages, focused on upstream and good interface rather than constructing images
- No one else is using Mer, so we can coordinate with upstream better since we'll be only user
- - Mer started with some Ubuntu base
we have patches that have been sent to nokia
Mer currently makes rapid releases every 3 weeks or so
- no plans for a long term stable release
- We'll have to pick one near feature freeze
- feature freeze 27 August
Need to pull in things:
- Some Mer packages are based on Maemo and are aggressively native,
- need packagers to help review, separate into upstream code and patch sets
- People to help package
Persia, Scott Ritchie (YokoZar), and k-s (barbieri) to help package
- Need help getting Persia's patches into seeds in time for alpha 2
- We need to have a reasonable image produced by Alpha 3 (23rd July)
Need test cases:
- Show that each milestone meets requirements for useful product (installs, etc.)
- Need common testcases with Mer (wiki pages with simple descriptions of common tasks)
- - can write these later, near the milestone
- Hildon had an automated test suite of unit tests, may be out of date.
Mer upstream may become Ubuntu developers proper
- Persia to go over that with them
Matchbox window manager and matchbox keyboard issues?
- Maybe remove matchbox keyboard from the archive (StevenK's idea) - most MIDs we use have keyboards anyway
- - or just sync it and stop caring (not seeding) - we have other options (Hildon Input Method) as well
- - Look into florence, have something that will be a keyboard (HIM may be going away?)
- - or just sync it and stop caring (not seeding) - we have other options (Hildon Input Method) as well
Implementation
List of the packages in Mer OBS repository with their status into the ubuntu repo.