SmartQ 7 Stock OS: Compatible Hardware & Software

[celtica96]

Many people have received their SmartQ 7 Internet Tablets and I thought it would be a good time to start listing hardware and software that works with it as it comes out of the box.

[celtica96]

I've tested the following and found them to be compatible.

USB Mice (Mouses)
Inland Optical USB Mouse (Model Number 07233)
Micro Innovations Mobile Optical Scroll Mouse (PD250P)
Kensington Orbital Optical Trackball (Model 64327)

USB Keyboards
Logitech Internet 350
Inland Pro Keyboard (P/N 70008)
Fellowes USB Stowaway Portable Keyboard

SD & SDHC Cards
SanDisk 512MB SD Card
Kingston Memory 2GB Secure Digital Card
MicroCenter IPSG 16GB SDHC Card (Class 6)
Top RAM 4GB Mini SD Card via Adapter

Software
Flite (libflite1_1.2-release-2.2build1_arm.deb; flite_1.2-release-2.2build1_arm.deb)

Cases
Amazon Kindle 2 Neoprene Case

Please share what you know works.

[celtica96]

Has anyone paired a Bluetooth keyboard/mouse/other device with the SmartQ 7?

GPS would be a great Bluetooth application for the Q7.

[bjkel]

Does anyone know how to uninstall a program on the Q7? Sorry for if it's a stupid question but I'm new to the whole Linux thing.

[rogue_ronin]

sudo apt-get remove appname

in a terminal (like cmd for windows.)

Go to the applications menu, pull down to "Run". In the popup, type evilvte and you'll have a terminal.

m a r

[bjkel]

Originally Posted by rogue_ronin

sudo apt-get remove appname

in a terminal (like cmd for windows.)

Go to the applications menu, pull down to "Run". In the popup, type evilvte and you'll have a terminal.

m a r

Thanks for that. Couldn't figure out how to get a terminal up.

[rogue_ronin]

You're welcome. I haven't heard of evilvte before this, and I just happened to read it on Chippy's site.

Some weird decisions went into the original firmware. Why not xterm? Everybody knows xterm!



Anyhow, I just got an email from eletroworld (after an inquiry) that a new firmware should be coming out soon. Hopefully some of the quirks will be ironed out, and they'll use Jaunty.

m a r

[celtica96]

The SmartQ 7 stylus' main advantage is that it fits in the device's shell.

Otherwise, I think it's cheap and too sharp.

I've switched over to using an old Belkin Stylus for the Handspring Visor (the old product ID is F8E721-E for the 3-pack).

I think it has a better feel and tip. When I use it, I don't feel I'm going to scratch the screen.

Unfortunately, it's discontinued under the above part number.

I think a similar if not identical product is the Belkin F8Y0300-E stylus 3 pack and it's available for under $10.

What are other people using?

[rogue_ronin]

@celtica96: I agree about the stylus -- haven't replaced it yet. I'd love to get one cast, and add a nice rubber tip.

I'm putting on a screen protector tomorrow -- just bought a 15" sheet, should make three or so. And I'm building a case from a CD case and an old zippered foam case from my Asus EEE. If it works out (I can never trust glue!) I'll take some pics. For a hack, it might look pretty good.

Sort of a reverse compatability hardware thing: for folks who don't know, the small type B USB connector lets you export the SD card in your Q7 to your desktop if you connect it up.

BTW, the new 3.0 firmware is out. I'm going to install it soon, and see if I can switch the locale to English. And I'll probably delete the Chinese if I can. There's an app called localepurge in Ubuntu that removes all but your selected locales -- it can free up quite a bit of space -- I'll give it a try, and let you know.

m a r

[imaredr]

I really like the game Aisleriot. I played it alot on my N770. I found an arm.deb file and tried it. I got an error message:

Dependency is not satisfiable: gnome-games-data

So, I don't really know much about this. I am guessing that I don't have all the dependencies. Can anyone shed any light on this for me?

Ellen

[wonderboy]

I am pretty knew to this as well, but taking a page from Cold Sun's description for installing Comix, you might be able to make this work by installing gnome-game data from the same repository that Cold Sun found his dependencies:

http://repository.handhelds.org/hast...g/gnome-games/

One of the first two are probably what you are looking for.

Hope this helps. I can't wait until I have my Q7 (probably early in July) to try some of these applications out.

Also, can you share your source for this game?

[imaredr]

Originally Posted by wonderboy

I am pretty knew to this as well, but taking a page from Cold Sun's description for installing Comix, you might be able to make this work by installing gnome-game data from the same repository that Cold Sun found his dependencies:

http://repository.handhelds.org/hast...g/gnome-games/

One of the first two are probably what you are looking for.

Hope this helps. I can't wait until I have my Q7 (probably early in July) to try some of these applications out.

Also, can you share your source for this game?

Thanks for your suggestions. This is where I found the file:http://packages.debian.org/etch/gnome-games

Just scroll down the page and it has the arm download link.

Ellen

[rogue_ronin]

You'll need to make sure that every file above it (with the red dots) is also installed. They may be already. Just follow the links to their pages and install the arm version. Then, once you've installed them all, install your game.

The other choice is to add the debian etch arm repository to your sources.list and just sudo apt-get install gnome-games-- but that may break other things...

Give it a try -- you can always reflash!

m a r

[imaredr]

Originally Posted by rogue_ronin

You'll need to make sure that every file above it (with the red dots) is also installed. They may be already. Just follow the links to their pages and install the arm version. Then, once you've installed them all, install your game.

The other choice is to add the debian etch arm repository to your sources.list and just sudo apt-get install gnome-games-- but that may break other things...

Give it a try -- you can always reflash!

m a r

I saw that long list and something told me that I was gonna have to install them all. I do not know how to add repositories to the Smart Q7. On the N770 and N800 it was a lot easier. Are there instructions somewhere on how to do this? Thanks.

Ellen

[rogue_ronin]

Debian is a honkin' pain. That's why the Buddha invented Ubuntu.

Well, it's not trying to be difficult, it just expects you to know quite a bit about the command line.

I'd actually not recommend adding a Debian repository unless you're pretty familiar with it all -- if you update the wrong thing, it could bork the device. I'm not very familiar with ARM machines at all -- I'm struggling with how to get access to the underlying OS, sub-GUI, for when I bork it up.

Did you add the handhelds.org repository? It's the one that Smart used -- but didn't enable.

Run PCManFM. Go to the /etc/apt folder. Switch to root (under Tool on PCManFM menu.) Double-click (or click if you haven't changed that yet) on sources.list Leafpad will launch in root mode: there's only one line -- change it to:

deb http://repository.handhelds.org/hasty-armv6el-vfp hasty main multiverse universe restricted

You should be able to just edit the current line -- there are a couple of extra sections in the one from China (which was on some sort of local network, they must have mirrored the one from handhelds.org.)

Save it, then launch a terminal, and type sudo apt-get update.

There's a GUI front-end for apt-get in the repository, gnome-apt. It's not nearly as good as Synaptic, but Synaptic is not in the repository, so... It's better than aptitude or apt-get. (Well, maybe. Aptitude, with a keyboard attached is pretty good, but a little klunky.) gnome-apt looks pretty old, and it has a bit of a weird interface, but you can resize it, and it's clickable. Slow though.

I ditched some stuff. It's remarkable how much GNOME is on this -- there really shouldn't be any GNOME on such a tiny thing. I'll experiment more when I've got some more time.

I did a search in aptitude (hey, now I sorta know how to do that) and gnome-games is available. But I didn't try to install it. Just do sudo apt-get install gnome-games once you have the repository enabled and updated. Answer any questions, and you should be good to go.

Good luck!

m a r

BTW, PCManFM is driving me nuts. It's just not managing the desktop well, and whenever it lurches, I get popup menus galore... Thunar would probably kill the Q7 though. I'm gonna have to go to Pantip and see if I can find someone to upgrade the memory...