Professional

Ubuntu® Mobile Development

Ian Lawrence Rodrigo Cesar Lopes Belem

WILEY

Wiley Publishing, Inc.

Contents

Introduction xxv

Chapter 1 : Mobile Linux 1

Going Mobile 1 A Short History: From Big Iron to Mighty Mouse 2 Changing Focus 3

Turning Points 4 The Generational Divide 5 Netbooks, Linux, and Ubuntu 6 A Giant's Strength in a Dwarf's Arm 8 Summary 9

Chapter 2 : The Development Environment 1 1

Getting Started 12 Getting Familiar with the Ubuntu Mobile Environment 12

VirtualBox 12 KVM/QEMU 21

Using QEMU 21 ARM on QEMU 22 Using KVM 23

NETWORKING 25 Networking in VirtualBox 25 Networking in KVM/QEMU 26

Advanced Networking on VirtualBox and KVM/QEMU 26 Using the Bridge in VirtualBox 28 Using the Bridge in KVM 29 Sharing Files Between Guests and Host 29

Sharing Files Between Guests and Host with Advanced Networking 30 Building Your Own Virtual Image 31 Working with Images 31 Building Your Own Image 32 Installing Applications inside the Image 33 Increasing a Downloaded Image Size 34

Summary 34

Contents

Chapter 3: Power Management 3 5

Introduction 35 Power Saving States 36 Power Management Packages 36

pm-utils 37 pm-suspend 37 pm-hibemate 37 pm-suspend-hybrid 37

pmi action 38 How pm-utils Works 38 Gnome-Power-Manager 40 Gnome-Power-Statistics 40

Device Kit Power 4 1 The Quality of Service: QoS Interface 43

Controlling Radio Transmitters 44 RFKILL 45 Bluetooth 45

Investigating Power Usage 46 Battery Testing 47

Preparing to Run the Tests 47 Phoronix Test Suite 47

Battery Comparisons 48 Comparing Like-to-Like 50

Summary 5 1

Chapter 4: Application Development 5 3

Ubuntu Mobile Releases 54 Creating a New Application 55

Application Design 55 Free Desktop Standards 56

The Desktop Entry Specification 56 The Desktop Application Autostart Specification 57 XDG Base Directory Specification 57 Desktop Menu Specification 57

Hildon: An Application Framework for Handheld Devices 58 What Is Hildon in Terms of Code? 58

Creating the Program 58 Menus 59 Toolbars 59 Window-Specific Settings 59 Program-Wide Settings 59

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Contents

Hibernation 60 Putting Hildon Together 60

Hello World 60 Other Tool kits 64

Signals 65 Layout 66 Horizontal Boxes 66 Vertical Boxes 66 Glade 66 Handling the .glade File 69 Clutter 70 QT 75 EFL 79 Canola 81 Elementary 81

What Key Technologies Do I Need to Know to Develop Applications for a Mobile Device? 82

D-Bus 82 Object Paths and Bus Names 83

Exporting Objects with D-Bus 84 Connect to a D-Bus Signal 85

Useful D-Bus Command-Line Applications 85 D-Bus Viewer 85 D-Bus Send 87 D-Bus Monitor 87 D-Bus Launch 88 D-Feet 88

D-Bus Security 89 PolicyKit 90

GConf 91 Notifications 93

Putting All the Concepts Together 94 Summary 103

Chapter 5: Application Packaging 105

Background and Important Tools 105 Packaging and Using a PPA 108 Initial Debianization 109

rules . 109 changelog 112 control 112

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Contents

copyright 113 Other Debian Files 114

Building the Package 115

Uploading to a PPA 115

REVU 116 RFA Packages 117

Creating Your Own Repository 1 1 8 Simple Repository 118 Automatic Repository 118

Setting Up a Repository 118 Adding Packages to a Repository 119 Removing Packages From a Repository 119

Backporting KVM 119 PBuilder 1 2 0

Configuring PBuilder 120 Performing Actions on PBuilder 123

Creating a Distribution Environment 124 Building a Package to a Specific Release 124 Updating the PBuilder Environment 124 Using pdebuild 124 Configuring Actions 125 Additional Hook Manipulation with PBuilder 125 Hook Script Resource 126 Mount Bind a Package Repository for Use with PBuilder 126

Ubuntu Policy 126 Categories 126 Sections 127

Summary 127

Chapter 6: Application Selection 129

Business Users 129 Documents 130 A Practical Example 1 3 1

Multimedia Users 1 3 1 A Practical Example 132

Useful Keybindings in the Entertainer GUI 133 Social Network Users 1 3 4

A Practical Example 134 Set Up the Environment 136 Copy the Gadget 136 Modify It 136

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Contents

Location-Aware Users 138 A Practical Example 138

Background 138 Implementation 139 Test the Gypsy to GPS Connection 142 Interaction with the GPS Daemon 142 D-Bus and HTTP Requests 143

Summary 1 4 6

Chapter 7 : Theming 1 4 7

What Is a Theme? 1 4 7 Where Are Themes Located in the Filesystem? 148

What Is a Theme Engine and Where Are They Located? 148 Theming Ubuntu MID 148

What Happens When a MID Device Boots? 149 Modifying Themes 1 5 0

A Useful Tool When Working with Themes 150 Theme Structure 151

The theme.xml File 151 The gtkrc File 152 Customizing a gtkrc File 152 Padding 153 Styles 153 Colors 153 Applying the Style 154

Theming Ubuntu MID 154 Manually Theming MID 154 Automatically Theming MID 156

Theming Ubuntu Netbook Remix 157 Boot Splash 158 Creating a gdm Theme 158 Customizing the Netbook Launcher 159

Performance Testing of Themes 160 Test the Human Metacity Theme 160

Comparisons 160 X Window Testing 162

Summary 163

Chapter 8: Kernel Fine-Tuning 165

Ubuntu MID Kernel Overview 165 Kernel-Tuning Methods 165

Create an Ubuntu Package 166 Create a Debian Package 172

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Contents

Updating a Customized Kernel Tree 175 Updating an Ubuntu Kernel Tree 175 Update a Non-Ubuntu Kernel Tree 181

Dynamic Kernel Module Support 1 8 1 Inside the DKMS Framework 182 Basic DKMS Commands 183

Summary 186

Chapter 9: Testing and Usability 1 8 7

Why Test? 187 Ubuntu Desktop QA 188

Mago — A Desktop Testing Initiative 188 Building an Application for Testing 189

Getting Started 189 Application Creation 190 Testing with Mago 193

Adding the Browser Test to Mago 193 Linux Standards Base and Certification 196

Installing the LSB Application Testkit 196 Running the LSB Application Testkit 196

Other Testing Tools 197 Phoronix Test Suite 197 PBuilder for Automating the Testing of Packages 200 Other Useful Linux Performance Testing Tools 201

ps 201 top 201 time 201 procinfo 201 free 202 memstat 202 memcheck and Valgrind 202 Latencytop 203

Testing Strategies 203 Basic 203 Advanced 204 Compliance 204

Bug Reporting 205 If You Find a Bug . . . 205 Filing a Bug Report Automatically 206 Reporting a Bug from the Command Line 206

Summary 206

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Contents

Chapter 10 : Tips and Tricks 2 0 7

Improving Boot Speed 207 Hard Coding Modules 207 Creating a / tmp That Is Half the Size of Physical RAM 208 Energy Tips 208

Recharging Correctly 209 Laptop Mode 209 Getting to Know the Battery on a Device 210 CPUFREQ and Governors 211 Use Power Management Settings on Disks 211 Disabling atime 212

Turning Off Background Services 212 Adobe Flash 213 Configuring the Touchscreen 214 Watching Hard Disk Activity 217 Summary 218

Chapter 1 1 : Putting It All Together 2 1 9

Important Things to Consider 219 Check If the Device Architecture Is Supported by Ubuntu 220 Checking the Hardware 220 Fine-Tuning the Kernel 221 Defining Power Policies 221 Is It an Embedded System? 221

Customizing the User Interface 222 Boot Selector 222 Display Manager 223

GDM 224 Pre-Configuring GDM 224

Setting the Default Ubuntu, XFCE, and Hildon Behaviors 224 Fine-Tuning the Build Process 225

Setting Up a Repository 225 Caching Packages with approx 225

Creating a Default Ubuntu Image 226 Choosing Which Type of Installer to Use 226

When to Use Debian-lnstaller (Ubuntu Alternate Image) 226 When to Use Ubiquity (Ubuntu Desktop Image) 226

Getting Started on the Image: Preparing the Environment 226 S£ Finally, Building the Default ISO 229

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Contents

Building a Customized Ubuntu Image 230 Inside Seed Germination 231

Germinating the Seeds 232 An Example: Germinating Ubuntu Netbook Remix 234

Packages and Repositories 235 Generating Metapackages the Ubuntu Way 235 Building the metapackage 236 Generating Metapackages the Simple Way 238

Preseeding the Installer 239 Adding Packages to the Image 240 Finally, Build the Custom ISO 240

Ubuntu Policies, Trademarks, Copyright, and Common Sense 240 So What Is a Derived Distribution? 241

When to Use the LGPL 241 Summary 242

Chapter 1 2 : Mobile Directions 2 4 3

Choice, Change, and Opportunity 244 Evolution and Software Development 246

Darwin 247 Mendel 247 Mayr 248 Frankenstein 248

Big Ideas to Think About 249 The Politics of Technology 249 The Next Billion 249 Sensory Overload 249 Cloud Computing 250 ARM Wrestling 250 Razors and Blades 251 Free Lunch 251 Computing on the Edge 251

The Future 253 Ubuntu, Linux, and Mobile Computing 254 Summary 255

Chapter 1 3 : Common Problems and Possible Solutions 2 5 7

The Boot Process Stops 257 Application Icon Does Not Appear 258 Performing a Dual Boot 259 Setting a Flag Automatically 259

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Contents

Using USB 260 Running Ubuntu on Freerunner 260 Running Ubuntu on Arima 261 Ubuntu Intrepid UMPC Project 261 Installing Ubuntu Netbook Remix on a UMPC 261 Using apt 261 Joining the Ubuntu Mobile Developers Team 262 Using KVM or QEMU 262 Graphical Corruption 262 Poor Performance 263 Summary 263

Appendix A: Ubuntu's Right ARM

Appendix B: Git Usage

Appendix C: Hosting Your Project on Launchpad

Appendix D: Desktop Power Applet Code

Appendix E: D-Bus: An Overview

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287

291

297

Index 307

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