N900 – Firmware update PR1.1

Yesterday was a very good day for the many N900 owners out there. The first major firmware update arrived. The release was done in phases with some countries being luckier than others with regards to who received the updated first. My UK device was ready for it’s update at about 2pm.

I must admit that the update didn’t go as smoothly as I would have liked. I recieved the below message which I thought was not helpful at all.

Luckily my friend @SirMutley helped me out, by mentioning that this message was related to not having enough space in the rootfs as he posted here. 45mb is required for the update to work OTA. It was worth the hassle of removing apps(mostly Qt and devels apps) because this meant that all my settings stayed in place after the update. Please note if you use NSU for the update your settings will be restored, and you may have applications removed.

(left is too little space, right is enough space) (You can check rootfs space in x-term by typing “df -k”)

Personally I think this is something that needs to be sorted out in the future, with a 32Gig harddrive I expect there to more space allocated to rootfs in the future.

Now this were things got weird for me. After the update I went back into the Application Manager and noticed that there was still a Maemo 5 update available, but this time the size of the update was 0mb. Once again I had to go through the process of clearing out rootfs.  At the time of writing I am the only person that I know of that has come across the issue of the double update.

(second update with a size of 0mb)

The release of the Change log is HUGE and done in a really great way, in comparison to the way Nokia used to do some of the s60 ones in the past.(in fact sometimes we didn’t even get a change log)

I’m also happy to boast that one of the bugs that I logged with regards to the N900 birthday calendar has been fixed. To me this highlights one of the great advantages of the N900 and the Maemo community that continues to move this device forward with it’s great support.

Another bit of advice is that if you having some small issues I have found that a simple reboot of the device smooths things out.

Before I go over the Change log I would like to highlight some of my favourite updates:

• When in the web browser if you press ctrl+shift+o and close the keyboard your webpage will turn to portrait.

(Left is Landscape, Right is Portrait)

• Maps GPS locking is extremely fast in about 3sec I got an indoor lock. (I’m still not happy about the app load time though)
• My Mail box is now on steroids and as a result is lightning fast.
• The web browser seems to faster and smoother from what I can tell, and the over performance of the device if you can believe it is faster and smoother.
• And final the birthday calendar bug fix regarding duplicate entries is now fixed which made me very happy.

Below is the full Change log which I’ve taken from the Maemo.org Wiki. My comments where possible about the new features are in read.Red comments are things I don’t like and Green are things I do like.

New features

• Hutchison SIM cards are supported.
• MS Exchange 2003 support.This has put a smile on the faces of many people.

Maemo Update

• Bootloader (Nolo) can be updated over Maemo Update.
• Cellular software can be updated over Maemo Update.
• Icon cache removed to allow more memory space for Maemo Update.
• Application Manager: Available space check moved to apt-worker for more accurate results. I’ve definitely noticed that the app manager is now faster

Reliability

• Improvements in SGX performance and reliability.

Use-time and power consumption

• API for status area applets to detect if they are invisible/absent.
• Fixes to Pulseaudio timer increasing power saving when starting/closing apps.
• Browser: Removed unnecessary serial logging.
• Reduction of wake-ups in Desktop, Connectivity, Conversations, RSS Feed Reader,
• Backup handles correctly directories containing pairs of symlinks.
• Less CPU load caused during video recording.
• Support disabling Virtual Keyboard in input field.
• Performance improvements in Browser. I’m very happy with this the browser is now even more awesome than it already was.
• Lock: “swipe to unlock” will not stay on.
• CPU idle latencies and thresholds updated.
• Fixing eMMC data lines while sleeping.
• CellMO power consumption reduced.

Usability

• Volume button operation in call flipped based on audio routing (no more on screen orientation). To be honest I find this very very irritating, but I guess it’s just a personal thing. I would like the volume keys to always work the same direction
• Browser: Downloading & rendering of page content runs promptly.I’m very happy with this the browser is now even more awesome than it already was.
• Helping to avoid capacity limits of rootfs when installing apps (make Docpurge aware of /opt).
• Stability and usability fixes to the Profiles applet. Selection, usage and restoring of ringtones.
• Fast call from home shortcuts. This is confusing cause I can’t find the functionality, I think they mean the call log for this one.
• Fast SMS rejection of incoming call. This is very cool, you can custom type an sms to reject the current incoming call.
• Avoid false alarms in pocket.
• Silence ringing by flipping face down. This is a nice feature, funnily enough I thought it was already there.
• Fix to Camera photo orientation problem: correct orientation is now written to EXIF.

Performance

• X: performance of GLES apps improved.
• Lower RAM consumption while capturing video.
• Phone-UI & Msg-UI always ready to appear. I still find when I turn to portrait that it takes to long to switch to phone.
• Application Manager UI speed improvements. WOW yeah the application menus are so fast now, it’s the first thing I noticed after the update.
• Email faster with large mailboxes.
• Large file copy (SD->MMC) doesn’t degrade system performance.

OVI Maps

• Route calculation and search performance improved. BIG UP on this one. I still prefer the maps on s60 but the speed here is awesome.

Connectivity

• BT Secure Simple Pairing fixed for Windows Vista.
• BT transfer progress indicated.
• Improving WLAN connection stability.
• Improved WLAN negotiation when going out of reach of access point.

Phonecalls

• Add voicemail shortcut support.
• Showing call forwarding correctly when busy forwarding is not set.
• Call log improved. This is cool, there have been some quick SMS buttons added so less clicks to do what you want.

Audio & Video

• Audio volume control works with +/- keys in full-screen playback of flash. This did not work for me
• Handling corrupted ring tone files better.
• HW volume keys always have same orientation.Yes they do but not for the phone which sucks
• Media Player UI now provides feedback when tapping control buttons in video playback.
• MIC input not clipped when loud voice in VoIP call.
• Pulseaudio: Ringtone is heard from the loudspeaker if BT connected.
• Ringtone played both to headset (BT or wired) and to internal HF speakers. WHY WHY would they do this, now everyone hears my phone ring on the train while I’m listening to music, Nokia PLEASE add a setting to turn this on/off.
• AV sync fix for recorded videos.

Camera

• ISO EXIF value for images saved when automatic sensitivity in use.
• Vignetting test of 2nd camera fixed, VGA sensor stability.

Battery and Charging

• Improved charging in case of low charging power (PC USB charging).

USB

• Fixing the USB detection and card mounting issue related to quickly attaching/detaching the cable.
• Able to format corrupted eMMC properly.
• Hang fixed in case of WLAN disconnection while copying files.

Synchronization

• Activesync supports now MS Exchange 2003. This is big change for the N900 and one that the community has been waiting for. Big brownie points here
• Activesync – fixes the forwarding of attachments showing incorrect sizes (Exchange server 2003).
• Content copier of PC Suite enabled. Whole content backup (including Notes) can now be restored from PCSuite.

3rd party applications

• Policy-settings: Fixes rotation transition in for 3rd party applications.
• Policy-settings: By default, 3rd party apps should have the same limits as our applications.

Calendar

• Public API for color picker. Home widget is now translucent. It is nice to pick you own colours isn’t it That pink for b-days was getting old.
• Set/get alarms API.
• Syncing of task alarms supported. AT LAST. I was going mad not having an alarm on my task. I’m a very happy man now

Image Viewer

• Thumbnailing faster. Super fast I’m very impressed

Application Manager

• Rename Maemo Extras to maemo.org and enable by default.
• Grid view applied for the categories in download view. Added API for filtering packages.

Development Platform

• SDK content and tools updated.
• SDK GUI installer updated.
• New sharing-dialog-dev package added to enable Bluetooth and email sending.
• New wappushd-dev package documenting MMS interfaces available.

Upstream Security Issues

• Fix for CVE-2009-2417 in curl.

Community reports fixed

Reports in http://bugs.maemo.org that have been fixed for PR1.1:

Browser

• “”About Flash Player”" contextual menu item treated as unrequested pop-up
• Focus not set to location bar after Ctrl-L shortcut is used
• Spacebar scrolls more than 1 page
• microb doesn’t trigger onchange
• Page is not rerendered when JavaScript actions increase page length
• Complete Browsing History on the N900 sometimes displays “”None”"
• The menu item “”copy”" in the browser menu does not work
• OK button remains disabled in dialog for Integer settings in about:config
• Browser window checkerboards and repaints when navigated to from multi-task view
• Sometimes the browser window goes black for over a second after clicking the fullscreen/restore button

Calendar

• Start and end times are changing when daylight saving time ends (begins)
• Incorrect entries in the Birthday Smart Calendar
• Changing to next week is very slow
• Smart birthday-widget doesn’t show up any birthdays or shows one on random

Chat & Call & SMS

• Phone app crashed as call ending
• Dialer does not accept SS (3GPP TS 22.030) dial strings
• Unclear how to open a contact (sender/receiver) of a conversation
• High latency between UI and SIP events being sent
• clicking on notification window fails for 2 or more messages when in Dashboard
• Skype does not allow entering DTMF tones
• skype: Call does not support DTMF tones
• Can’t send sms/chat to known contact from the Call list
• libnice violates Debian packaging policy for description of package “”libnice0″”
• Volume buttons should be swapped when using the phone in portrait mode.
• Call Log only displays contact name that called, not phone number
• Show wrong Contact for a SMS after a couple of days
• scrollbar instead of kinetic scrolling
• Chat window for jabber / xmpp is not always updated with new incoming messages

Connectivity

• Bluetooth DBUS UI dialogs – wrong args in the example code
• Button style in Bluetooth file receive applet is wrong
• Inconsistent keyboard behaviour when configuring a static ip address
• Drops WLAN connection to Linksys WRT610N after 10-15 minutes
• after failed pairing to bluetooth car kit bluetooth can’t be turned on
• Wrong settings for Orange (France) gprs
• udhcpc overriding default routes

Contacts

• address book cannot import vcards from benq/siemens phones properly
• Contacts re-appear in list after disableing and re-enableing accounts
• No hint that it is impossible to paste an strings containing non-numeric characters into a phone number field
• Skype Support>Report problem leads to an error page

Core

• N900 sometimes ignores USB data cable

Desktop platform

• Publish sources of alarm framework
• Failed to build libosso-2.19 from Fremantle repo (ggc 4.3.2)
• wdgt_va_full_12h_time, wdgt_va_12h_hours should be replaced by wdgt_va_full_12h_time_am/wdgt_va_full_12h_time_pm and wdgt_va_12h_hours_am/wdgt_va_12h_hours_pm
• Easy to enter ~ ^ ‘ ` “” symbols with 3rd row of special character view
• “”More…”" applications launcher does’t allow scrolling
• Can’t easily align desktop widgets (snap to position) on home screens
• Allow keyboard input to jump to an entry in a list (“”type ahead”")
• No rubber-banding effect in the Main “”More…”" menu (task launcher)
• WiFi password shows up in auto-completion
• When applying a different theme, not all colors change in application manager
• libsdl: Task switcher area can be a dead area
• FN-lock and Ctrl+Backspace breaks input for used application
• Application Manager moves to background after start when quickly clicking
• Typing in newly opened window brings up contact search
• Race condition with hardware shift key
• Home view blurs on triple-tapping the launcher grid icon
• Hanging application menu requires system reboot
• Rotation in 42-11 is not as smooth as in 41-10 for some third party apps
• “”More…”" view is not sorted at all
• Add a (short shown) scroll bar in the status area window to indicate that there are more elements inside as actually shown
• Updating software removes desktop shortcuts

Desktop Widgets

• AP News Widget causes Excessive CPU wakeups
• Contact widgets move to active desktop after merge
• Media Player widget suddenly starts music after Phone call ends

Development Platform

• Link to C code not working (not a link in fact) on Fremantle camera api dev page
• Package downloads should be retried when the http connection time-outs
• Link for osso_wlan documentation broken
• Video indexing failed in SDK (Tracker issue?)
• xkbdata: Inconsistency between installed packages in SDK and FW
• example source code not available in “Writing a new maemo application”
• e2fsprogs derivative packages not available?
• HildonTouchSelector example has wrong parameters in callback function
• URL for sharing plugin template missing

Email

• Does not always mark e-mails as read (dovecot/cyrus/google IMAP server)
• Modest reports email username / password incorrect when it is correct
• Performance is unusable on IMAP accounts with a large number of messages in one or more folders (e.g. INBOX)
• When an IMAP account is selected, only refresh that account’s folders
• Locales not working correctly
• Deleting email should be more evident…
• Fix modest compilation warning
• Remove HildonDialog deprecated symbol
• Import conic support only if It’s available
• Remove Hildon 0.x conditional code
• Remove Hildon 1.x conditional code in Hildon2 version of modest
• Modest doesn’t take care of preferences for automatic update
• New email notification leads to blank email instead of email itself
• Double-tapping “”Inbox”" sometimes opens ‘empty’ Inbox
• nokia messaging doesn’t synchronize selected imap folders
• Long delays when opening emails – viewer window shows “”Updating”"

Images and Camera

• When ISO sensitivity is set to automatic, ISO EXIF value in resulting image is 0
• Vertical photos from other devices should fill more space when shown in portrait.
• User-facing camera produces a left side dark vertical band
• Audio does not sync with video (and is ultimately unsyncable)
• Improve zooming

Location

• Bluetooth GPS reconnect dialog refuses to go away after clicking “”No”"

Map

• USA localization displays distance in kilometers
• Can’t delete route waypoints in Map application
• Route Settings screen is not finger friendly

Media player

• Information on artist / track not updated in media player with internet radio
• Plays next radio station when current station cuts out / has playback issues
• flashing pixels around the lock button if media player is playing a video.
• Media player track search only matches the beginning of title/artist
• Viewing songs by “”Artists”" automatically scrolls to the end of the list

Multimedia

• N900 needs to be rebooted if media player fails to play video (h264dec)
• Volume in media player jumps when receiving emails, IM´s or sms´s
• Can’t change FM TX radio station name
• Xvid encoded videos unwatchable

Settings and Maintenance

• Streamlining user access to the Extras repository
• Should remember position in packages list after installing package
• Other Category appears twice
• Installing many packages at a time via App Manager exhausts rootfs space
• Artifacts (visual noise) when tapping screen in Screen Calibration
• docpurge is not aware of /opt
• Inconsistent layout on similar Sharing/VOIP applets
• Background image settings not restored

Sharing

• Evernote uses to much space in root partition, should use /opt

Statusbar Widgets

• Volume slider doesn’t notice when you plug in headphones
• Currently active connection should be first in Connections list

Synchronization

• First Synchronization between N900 and Exchange 2003 Server always fails
• MfE spams screen with error messages when it cannot connect to the server
• MfE wont keep Exchange account updated
• Changing password on Exchange 2007 makes MfE go crazy
• Company Directory not present
• MfE is missing some CA cert symlinks on some devices (NuevaSync)
• Initial sync fails with exchange 2007

System Analysis

• getbootstate bricks the device after 17 reboots if there are no normal boots in between them

System software

• Shaking device switches between landscape and portrait modes
• Charger not recognized when plugged in when in Touch & Key lock
• Low power/battery beep does not sound if you’re on a call
• Pin / lock code entry dialog reveals digits on backspace
• Alarm clock does not wake me up when battery has died.

Telephony

• 3 Mobile SIM card rejected
• Call forwarding settings not being saved
• No pause before sending DTMF tones

Translations

• Change ‘TV uit’ (TV out) to ‘TV-uitgang’
• “?adowanie” used without distinction between “”charging”" and “”loading”"
• addr_va_lastname has a comma that it shouldn’t have
• IP address field in WiFi advanced settings partially hidden (“”Recuperar automáticamente dirección IP”" string too long)
• Some sentences in the User Guide don’t make sense
• Wrong profile names in the User Guide
• Delete dialog text missing a space
• Polish string too long in UPnP browsing menu bar
• Wrong PO Box translation for CZ language

Utilities

• Re-enable reset and/or reset-and-clear in osso-xterm
• “”Already at minimum / maximum font size.”" not translated
• File manager fails to show folder sizes beyond 999,9 MB
• Clock alarm status icon is sometimes shown as dash (-)”