Open Source Bluetooth PAN's Forum Nokia Blog

Reset S60-3rd emulator defaults

Carbider — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 10:35:42 +0200

While pushing more and more Internet Access Points on the emulator, the CommDB database appeared to malfunction.

First of all, when deleted temporary IAP, some others have disappeared too.
Next, when creating new entry, those which were gone can suddenly appear.
In conclusion, after system attempts to retrieve connection data, it returns “General error -19” and “General error -20”

Undoubtedly the reason was in wrong DB’s records manipulation. During debug, some tables could be filled in, while the rest are untouched if the debug is stopped.

While searching for a method to reset the CommDB on emulator I’ve looked through an amount of posts and articles:

symbian-freak.com/...
newlc.com/topic-7653
developer.sonyericsson.com/...
discussion.forum.nokia.com/...
simplysymbian.com/...

One can reset a real phone softly by combination: #*7870#
And hardly (full) by combination: #*7370#
Also one can go to main menu, select settings, general, factory settings.

After all this methods fail to function at win emulator, I was ready (with a heavy heart) to reinstall the SDK.

Mine is S60 3rd FP1 (Symbian 9.2).

But fortunately I’ve remembered that I have a backup copy of “Epoc32” folder stored when migrated from one machine to another. From one of the articles above I’ve learned that someone have installed the SDK to a different folder, then replaced old “Ecpoc32” with the fresh one.

So did I with backup’ed one.

With a sinking heart I was waiting while the emulator is starting again. After that I’ve unexpectedly found out former “cold” blue theme.

That was good. Emulator can start.

All previously installed apps were not there. But CommDB database works fine now and the whole behavior is quite adequate.

Attempt to create a CSY module

Carbider — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:55:52 +0200

So yes.
I've stand on the way of creating my own CSY module.

It is some kind of a reckless scheme for me. I have no any assurance it will help me in my researches. Furthermore, the web-search on "create custom CSY module" brings me back to my own blog post about serial protocols. Cool.
I call this adventure as a crazy attempt because it demands to throw together a lot of components without strong hope it will bring to essential result.

But the rays of hope are:

1. When creating new IAP, one of the Data Base fields is: "MODEM_CSY_NAME".
Some previous adventurers used it to set as "BTCOMM". Hmm good.
2. It is possible to create new serial modules. How? The search returns me back to my posts. The discussion boards speak only about connecting to modules.
3. There is a framework on Symbian OS called "Ecom". Ecom provides interaction between clients and polymorphic DLLs, which CSY modules, at my sight, are.

The Ecom's (symbian.com/../v9.2docs/../EcomArch) so-called plug-ins are polymorphic DLLs. Those DLLs provide the interface, the implementation and the factory functions (which instantiate concrete classes).

As it is said here, Serial protocol modules also have Service providers (interface implementations), Protocol Factories (that are called to instantiate serial service provider) as well.

Looks pretty familiar to understand the serial modules are finally polymorphic DLLs too.

Thus let’s try to accommodate my own DLL instead of BTCOMM.CSY.

By these conditions I've imported the Ecom example from SDK to launch and explore.
The example is situated in SDK folder:
/Symbian/9.2/S60_3rd_FP1/Examples/SysLibs/ECom/

and has 3 sub-folders:
-» InterfaceClient
-» InterfaceDefinition
-» InterfaceImplementation

After unsuccessful build I’ve noticed the given project depends on extra sources at the 'examples' folder.
It was 'CommonFramework' situated at '/Symbian/9.2/S60_3rd_FP1/Examples/'.

So I’ve copied entire 'CommonFramework' inside ‘Ecom’ and modified some paths.

In '/InterfaceClient/InterfaceClient.mmp'
USERINCLUDE ../..CommonFramework
to
USERINCLUDE ../CommonFramework

The familiar change at file: 'Ecom/.cdtproject'

So to be exact with my creepy idea we need:
-» Create new IAP,
-» Go to CommDB database and change this IAP record field 'MODEM_CSY_NAME' to newly-fledged polymorphic DLL.
-» See if there is any way DLL can be launched after user picks hackneyed IAP.
-» Maybe to rename DLL to CSY as well.
-» Of course, the final goal is that DLL to start working as serial module plug-in.

Besides there is work to divine the appropriate entry point to serial module DLL.

Meanwhile the project was built successfully and I've got two DLLs as a result.
The 'ExampleResolver.dll' and the 'EComExample.dll'.
As expected, they are not extension ".csy" provided.
The 'ExampleResolver.dll' is an Interface Definition.
The 'EComExample.dll' is an Interface Implementation.

Putting their names to CommDB records didn’t bring any results.
Even giving them 'csy' extension wouldn't help.

Being on this stage I'm still wondering if anybody knows:
1. How to write a proper CSY module.
2. How to create a Bluetooth Access Point. Which tables and rows of CommDB should be affected for this purpose.

I'll appreciate any comments on this subjects.

Serial protocol modules

Carbider — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 13:57:36 +0200

Continuing the last blog entry I can say it is impossible attach to an existing interface (with help of RConnection) in such a way that I can listen to all passing packets (or rather those sockets that I don’t own).

What is keeping me busy is creating Bluetooth® IAP (internet access point) after what I can get all the TCP/IP packets incoming to that IAP. As you read my blog I need this to transfer TCP packets over Bluetooth.

As I try to create BT IAP I mostly face with articles and forums related to distant 6th and 7th versions of Symbian.
Like this one.

Figure 1 – list of IAPs.

In Symbian_OS_Overview_To_Networking I’ve read that on Symbian OS there are Serial Protocol Modules (CSY) that are used to implement software serial port services. The Serial Protocol Module API (cs_port.h) allows developing new CSY modules.
Theoretically one can substitute the already existing BTCOMM.CSY with new module.

So current questions are:

Is it really possible (I didn’t find yet) to create new serial protocol modules (CSY). And how-to.
How to bind new IAP (see figure 1) with a new CSY so one can listen to all it’s packets.

And yes, have a nice Holidays!

Symbian Networking interface

Carbider — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:57:38 +0200

I've spent some time to examine the Symbian's networking architecture.
Since the TCP/IP connection should be established over Bluetooth® the new entry to CommDB database should be entered.
This can be performed by CCommsDatabase class.
After user selects the PAN record, all TCP traffic should be encapsulated into BNEP packets and transmitted over wireless link.

Inside the application, the IAP (internet access point) is selected by RConnection class with RConnection::Start() or RConnection::Attach() methods.
This methods associate the connection with underlying interface.

But no documents can be found about creating those underlying interfaces.
In my mind that should be something like device or DLL library.

I asked for help from expert on FN Discussion Boards. This method was recently introduced. And now wait with the impatience.

Accomplish SSL connection from S60v3

Carbider — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 09:47:24 +0200

The PAN profile defines how to enable Bluetooth devices to participate in a personal area network.

One of the roles in PAN profile is a Network Access Point (NAP) that provides an Ethernet bridge to support network services to the PAN user. Read about it here: PAN specification.

For now I will try to simulate connection to a NAP from my phone. Why simulate? Because to achieve the real connection I need realization of BNEP protocol class which will transmit Ethernet payloads via Bluetooth.

Since Bluetooth can be eavesdropped in on, we want to use SSL as David said here in comments.

So the goal for now is to connect to some server using secure internet connection on my phone.

I chose the www.mozilla.org SSLv3 site as a server to connect to.

I found the CSecureSocket example at symbian.com/.../v9.2docs/.../ but not everything went of smoothly rather the connection was not established and system was completed with panics.

It seems that that example is pretty old even not for 3^rd edition. But I can’t assert so.

However I scoped the similar problems and documents over here and here.

When got tangled I used some parts of S60v3 Chat code example with insecure internet connection.

The “guiSetBluspan” application that was initiated at previous posts looks like this now:

you need to click “Options” menu then pick “Connect/Disconnect” item and then pick “NAP” item.

Diagram 1 – Connecting from application

After some seconds server will send SSL certificate. You need answer “Continue”.

Diagram 2 – Certificate question

After all steps of connection, handshaking, page request, getting server response and closing connection the notification will appear about successful operation.

Diagram 3 – Connection finished

The objects of these routines were to establish connection to secure HTTPS connection where NAP’s authorization page will be.

At next researches I need to connect to NAP server, provide user’s login and password. NAP is connected to Radius server which will verify user existence and will start accounting on him.

The source codes of application above are provided by this link: guiSetBluspan Zip archive v 0.003 (Nokia’s wiki)

See this posts here to know how to use sources.

The Secure Connection engine in focused in /Core/ folder and is called from “guiSetBluspanSettingItemListView.cpp”

Insert Multiselection list into GUI

Carbider — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 11:09:53 +0200

One of my favorite classes that Symbian grants to build User Interface is Multiselection List. I’ve learned about it recently.

This is a type of Vertical lists which draws a set of elements each of them can be marked by checkbox.

At future BluSPAN GUI there is “Chat settings” view. User can determine which types of files can be accepted by chat. Example: .bmp, .jpeg, .avi, .mpeg, wav and so on. See diagram 1.

Diagram 1 – Multiselection list at Chat settings view.

To build Multiselection List into my application I had to read about a lot of stages how to use it.

I divided this stages to:

» Defining Multiselection List in resource (.rss) file

» Code implementation in source (.cpp) to Popup it.

» Get results of user choice.

1. Defining Multiselection List in .rss file

I’ve read the Resources_Dialogs.pdf at S60_Platform_Avkon_UI_Resources documentation series. Upon this I’ve formed the resource definition as below:

Listing 1

// Multiselection list query dialog

RESOURCE DIALOG r_accept_type_multiselection_query

{

flags = EGeneralQueryFlags;

buttons = R_AVKON_SOFTKEYS_OK_CANCEL;

items =

{

DLG_LINE

{

type = EAknCtListQueryControl;

id = EListQueryControl;

control = AVKON_LIST_QUERY_CONTROL

{

listtype = EAknCtSingleGraphicPopupMenuListBox;

listbox = LISTBOX

{

flags = EAknListBoxMultiselectionList;

height = 3;

width = 3;

array_id = r_accept_types_multiselection_query_list_item;

};

heading = "Select types:";

};

}

};

}

RESOURCE ARRAY r_accept_types_multiselection_query_list_item

{

items =

{

LBUF { txt = "1t.Bmp"; },

LBUF { txt = "1t.Jpg"; },

LBUF { txt = "1t.Avi"; },

LBUF { txt = "1t.Mp3"; },

LBUF { txt = "1t.Wav"; }

};

}

I have put this listing to [project_name].rss file. After that you can call ExecuteLD() function with Reference to this resource object. This will be shown below.

2. Popuping list. Code implementation.

With UI designer help, choose the Event tab for “Accept types” menu item. Double click on event to generate Handler function.

In this function we need to create an Instance of CAknListQueryDialog class and Execute it. The source code below shows it.

Listing 2

// Run a dialog of “Acceptance of data types”

CArrayFixFlat<TInt>* indexArray = new(ELeave)CArrayFixFlat<TInt>(5);

CleanupStack::PushL(indexArray);

CAknListQueryDialog* dlg = new (ELeave)

CAknListQueryDialog(indexArray);

if ( dlg->ExecuteLD(R_ACCEPT_TYPE_MULTISELECTION_QUERY ) )

{

Here we will take results of User’s choice

}

CleanupStack::PopAndDestroy();// indexArray

By this code the Multiselection List will Popup and user can mark preferable items.

3. Geting results of user choice

That task was not easy due to Specific Array type of CArrayFixFlat<TInt>. I could not retrieve data from it. I found a way with help of the similar topic of this forum.

The source code below should be placed at Listing 2 to the “if ( dlg->ExecuteLD)” branch. This source code takes result from List and shows indexes of selected items on screen (diagram 2).

Listing 3

if ( dlg->ExecuteLD(R_ACCEPT_TYPE_MULTISELECTION_QUERY ) )

{

TBufC<136> resultString;

TPtr ptr = resultString.Des();

//temporary string to convert from TInt to text

TBufC<136> temporaryString;

TPtr ptrTemporaryString = temporaryString.Des();

TInt intValue;

//How much elements did user select from Multiselection list

TInt elementsAmount = indexArray->Count();

//Retrieve all element that user have picked up

for (TInt elementI = 0; elementI < elementsAmount; elementI++) {

intValue = (*indexArray)[elementI];

ptrTemporaryString.Format(_L("%d "), intValue);

ptr.Append(temporaryString);

}

//Show the elements user have picked up

CAknInformationNote* Notelnformation;

Notelnformation = new (ELeave) CAknInformationNote;

Notelnformation ->ExecuteLD(resultString);

} // If

Diagram 2 – Results of user’s choice. Indexes of selected items

Download source code here: guiSetBluspan Zip Archive v 0.002 (Nokia’s wiki)

See this posts here to know how to use sources.

Port of PAND (BlueZ) system

Carbider — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:44:03 +0300

To build a system's skeleton we decided to construct all the GUIs which will be presented at final BluSPAN program. But after 20 days have passed, my Carbide License was expired and I could not use the UI designer. While the license gets outlined (via https://pro.forum.nokia.com/)

I decided to look at the existing PAN and BNEP sources. The first I found was “BlueZ” linux bluetooth protocol stack (http://www.bluez.org/).

It is written on C language, so I supposed it will be a good attempt to port it into Carbide C++ as Symbian application.

I’ve downloaded two archives.

“bluez-libs-3.18.tar.gz” and “bluez-utils-3.18.tar.gz”

at http://www.bluez.org/download.html

As Carbide C++ project base I chose Bluetooth Chat example that still available with expired license. I took Chat example, because I thought it has all headers and libraries included to work with BT.

To do that, I created new directory for future workspace, and copied “S60ExChat” folder there.

Then opened Carbide, switched workspace to which I recently made.

Next step was importing example.

Choose File->Import->Symbian OS Bld.inf -> Browse to “workspaceChatgroupbld.inf”.

So Chat example is imported.

Then I created new files: pand.h, bnep.h, bnep.c .... which are copy-pasted from BlueZ.

Now there was a time to see how Unix C code would be compatible with Symbian one. Of course, they were not so alike. I started porting, that means to make Unix source code and algorithms functioning. For that time my idea was to achieve just out of error compilation.

The first problem I saw were type definitions undefined for carbide. So I wrote “myPortedTypes.h” header file which typedefs some Bluetooth types known in Symbian. Some types were available from <systypes.h> library.

I made some type definitions out of “myPortedTypes.h” also.

At bnep.c I defined

#define AF_BLUETOOTH 31

#define PF_BLUETOOTH AF_BLUETOOTH

#define BTPROTO_BNEP 4

This types were expected at <syssocket.h> library but were absent there. So I had to determine them.

At bnep.h I defined

#define ETH_ALEN 6 // That was expected at <netethernet.h> lib

One more pain was connected with lib <sys/ioctl.h>.

Carbide has a little different implementation of <sys/ioctl.h> than BlueZ expected.

<ioctl.h> has the macroses _IOR and _IOW which are used by bnep.h.

But Carbide’s ones have 2 arguments , but BlueZ expects 3 arguments…

I passed through 3 ways before solve this problem.

»The first.

I thought I have to use other source code of <ioctl.h> (and <ioctl.c>) library. I’ve found some sources in the web, and used them in my project. Everything seems to be ok. But there are 2 disadvantages:

1. The Symbian’s one ioctl should be much more effective, because it’s native to their phones.

2. I’m not sure that new trouble will not appear because of possible conflicts with hardware.

»The Second.

Due to _IOR is a macros declared with #define directive, The #undef directive is applicable to it. In this case I can apply new definition to that macros using other source libraries.

By this manipulations I reached redefinition just of the part of <ioctl.h> library. So it was more effective way.

»The Third.

The third way was to examine, how Bnep.h uses those macros, and to transform the Bnep.h code to use 2 arguments instead of 3.

During the code examination, I found out that the third argument of _IOR macrosis not used. It was just drowned by useless int type. So the only thing I had to do is to cut every third parameter from _IOR macros call. This was a best way to leave standard <ioctl.h> macros definition.

The current problems that brake porting are signal operations.

I created new file “mySysSignal.h” which includes <sys/signal.h> header and determines some definitions from <signal.h>. Yes, they are different.

Furthermore, <sys/signal.h> doesn’t want to declare “sigaction” struct, because _STRICT_ANSI was defined. So I had to #undef it and then #define back.

But I could not find the sigaction() function implementation at this headers!

I tried to adopt other sources where sigaction()is implemented, but no result. Those codes want more and more implementations. Does anyone know which sigaction()implementation would be the best for Symbian? Please, write your comments if you do.

I downloaded some sigaction sources from:

http://www.google.com/codesearch?hl=ru&q=+sigaction.c+sigvec+show:AgRC3LpYoiU:1H180pELpu8:1yxJZQz8fw8&sa=N&cd=1&ct=rc&cs_p=ftp://tug.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/unix/teTeX/current/distrib/tetex-src.tar.gz&cs_f=tetex-src-3.0/libs/ncurses/ncurses/base/sigaction.c#a0

ftp://tug.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/unix/teTeX/current/distrib/tetex-src.tar.gz/

I started CVS project at Sourceforge.net. You can download my sources and examine them here:

http://bluspan.cvs.sourceforge.net/bluspan/pand_port/

You can checkout this source codes directly to Carbide C++. To do this look for my post: Get project from CVS to Carbide C++.

The source files I worked with are:

Bluetooth.h

Bnep.h

Getopt.h

Hci_lib.h

Hci.h

L2cap.h

myPortedTypes.h

mySysLog.h

mySysSignal.h

pand.h

poll.h

sigaction.h

sigvec.h

and their *.cpp implemenation at "src/".

The written code is pretty chaotic because of Porting process. So don’t be wonder for that : -)

Thanks

The Battle for BlueZ

Carbider — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 13:14:01 +0300

Last week I asked Kostya to install Fedora 7 and BlueZ. We have a big pile of parts so when ever
we need some cheesy unix box (no xwindows etc) we just make one from the parts lying around.

Kostya is fresh out of college and hadn't really worked on UNIX that much, if at all, so, I figured
I'd go ahead and work on the same task and play with it a bit.

The last thing I wanted to do is get into a big argument with the programmers in the office
as to which *nix is better, besides, the whole idea was a simple machine that might work like
an out of the box bluetooth NAP, with the addition of radius.

My project was a $200-300 machine, booting from USB flash, no monitor, running BlueZ and SLAX http://www.slax.org.

If you haven't checked out SLAX, check it out. I have a couple machines in the office that run it, burn an ISO,
pop it in the CDrom and wala you are rolling.

If you unpack that ISO onto a USB MSD, then write the boot sector using a utility called syslinux, you can
do without the cdrom and boot right from USB with a motherboard that supports it.

pretty cool eh?

In one of my emails to Kevin, I wrote that I started working on the NAP side to which he replied
"Hey post about it" mentioning that the road there is often as interesting as the destination and
part of the S2F blogs nature is the public display of trials and tribulations in the process of development.

More likely this will be a post on how not to develop.

So, down to the store for some parts, I'd need a motherboard (FOXCONN WINFAST), memory (256), a CPU(AMD SEMPERON),
and some cheesy case w/ PSU. Grand total $150 or so in the local currrency.

I took the base installation of SLAX as my starting point, I figured what i'd wind up with in the end of it
all was a machine that would only be accessed via telnet and never rebooted. With Bluetooth, figure you can
connect any 7 devices so I was hoping that the machine I built would be enough.

Downloaded SLAX, unpacked it, installed it, sys'ed it and set the bios up for booting from USB. This should have given
me a nice little UNIX environment that would let me configure a little OS that I could later pack back into an
ISO and distribute as a bootable CD or use in a virtual machine (like virtual box).

SLAX uses a UNION file System, located in ramdisk. All the changed you make are saved to a second file system
and before you shut the system down, you can issue the command 'configsave' which takes all your changes and
puts them in a special module file. Next time you boot, SLAX looks for this file in the root directory of all
your mounted drives and if it fonds it, loads it. Alternatively, you can save the file to the /modules directory
and have it loaded during boot.

http://pendrivelinux.com is a good site for reference.

everything up to this point was as advertised.

You can make a module by installing software, then saving the changes. BlueZ, the Official Linux Bluetooth stack
has a module, so I used it, there were a few dependancies and some functionality added by these modules:

blueproxy_1_13.mo
Bluetooth_1_1.mo
bluez_mo_1_0.mo
dbus_0_61.mo
gtk_2_10_6_i386.mo
PyGTK_2_6_2.mo
Python_2_4_3.mo

All of which you can get on the get on the SLAX repository.

The PIN helper application complained a bit about not finding a library, got around that with

'ln /usr/lib/libbluetooth.so.1.0.25 /usr/liblibbluetooth.so.2'

BNEP is loaded in the kernel at runtime with

' modprobe bnep '

which I stuck in /etc/rc.local along with

' hciconfig hci0 up '

which turns on the USB Bluetooth DOngle and the service discovery protocol deamon

' sdpd '

and last but not least

' pand --listen --role NAP '

http://bluez.sourceforge.net/contrib/HOWTO-PAN is a good link for explaining the actual workings.

so far so good, I could see the SLAX machines from a windows notebook, SDP returned the existence of a NAP but when I tried to pair, nothing,.. a long timeout.

Tried switching the PIN helper but that didn't seem to do much and further investigation revealed it was looking for x windows and couldn't open a window so it died.

There is another version SLAX with X windows, but by the time I tried to connect with the new SLAX it seems my windows had been poisened with ad information or something, Couldn't ever get a connect from my notbook although from other machines, it connected but failed to give an IP address. I hadn't actually considered the system fully configured, DHCP hadn't been turned on for BNEP0 nor had I set up any hotplug scripts yet.

Prior to this, I had been booting the machine pretty regularly, changing the config, saving a module and rebooting to ensure the changes I made where being included in the regular boot. With the advent of a connection and the knowledge that's need to script hotplug for the devices, I went to lunch. Upon return - the machine had hung. Completely dead, no signs of life, and since everything is going on it a ramdisk, nothing to read later after a hard boot to give clues as to what had actually happened.

Futher testing showed that the machine would hang regularly, often within an hour. Not very interesting for our purposes since a big part of the idea to set up the whole thing from boot to operation on a "diskless" system was to make it somewhat "foolproof" and reliable. Download, make a flash, or boot the ISO in a virtual machine.

My first though was maybe the whole boot from a flash idea wasn't the best way.. Second thought was maybe SLAX wasn't the best solution, I grabbed the machine, grabbed a copy of Fedora-7-i386-DVD.ISO and went home figured I'd have a project for the weekend, back in the office Monday to show my tricks to the boys.

Back to the computer store, to pick up a hard drive to install Fedora on. Once you get a Linux installation you want, you can use the Linux Live scripts to make a ISO and that was my plan. ( http://www.linux-live.org/ )

I burned a DVD with the ISO I had, installed the hardrive and a DVD in my "diskless" machine" and set off to install.

" INSERT BOOT DISK and PRESS ENTER "

Hmm, read the forums - "Me too! and me, and me too" I wasn't the only one not booting from the Fedora ISO, yet most of the suggestions where along the lines "probably a bad disk try to burn another one" or "you should stop smoking crack and try again"

After 3 attempts on 2 different burners I finally figured out the software I was using was not writing the El Torito boot system in sector 17 of the last session of the ISO.

4th time was a charm, downloaded deepburner pro, it worked fine.

Fedora wants some memory for it's GUI setup, with 256 MBs it whined and gave me text mode - fine with me, I didn't grab a mouse anyways. Obviously not your father's UNIX.

A quick run through the standard options, pick a keyboard, pick a language, config your NIC, give a name and slice your disk into partitions. I didn't really expect to use 500 GB, I just wanted a big disk for my music collection later. I broke the disk up, gave myself 100 mb and mounted /boot there, and another 5 GB on / and 300 MB for swap.

The system complained I didn't have enough ram and asked if it was alright if it turned on swap right away. I was suprised actually, gee, I didn't want X windows and didn't realy expect the text based installation to be memory intensive. I clicked YES, and the set up went on execute the changes to the partition and format the disk.

46% through the format, I got a red screen with a bunch of garbage and the hard drive was making terrible noises.

Hmm, ok, reboot, do it all again, this time, let it take the defaults for the partitions. No luck, same red screen, same 46%.

A friend of mine who had stopped watched the machine booting said, Gee, "how can you read that fast" I chuckled and answered "That's why we make the big money. When he saw the red screen with all the garbage he asked, "how can anyone understand what that means?"

By now the Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA hard drive was making chirping and cracking sounds as if it was about to explode. I answered my friend, "it means the drive is dead"

I figured i'd found a bad sector and the OS wasn't dealing with it. Google noisy seagate and saw quite a bit about it, a few people had suggested adjusting some of the SMART settings, others just sent the drives back.

Figured try that on a fresh head (err) and a another hard drive. "Vodka - Connecting people" was the motto for the rest of the night as I left my cyber endevors for the evening. The next morning I went down the the computer store and picked a $50 samsung 80G SATA drive. Nope, same red screen at 46%.

By now, my cheesy $150 machine was already in the $500 range and things still didn't look any better. Checked the net for bios updates and when I couldn't find any I becames convinced I had been stuck with a cheap immitation chinese motherboard.

Back to the computer store. ANother motherboard (ASUS), 512 MB of RAM, and promises that the board would boot from USB. Tried the Seagate, still chirped. tried to boot from USB, nope, and settled in on the 80 GB drive.

Back to square one. I'm going to still try to do it on SLAX, get the smallest ISO I can, and go from there. I learned some lessons:

* Never trust a salesman, I don't care if the guy says the machine will boot from USB, "Prove it" will be my answer.

* If your UNIX is flaking out, you can probably get it to fit on your system, recompile the kernel, nifty boot tricks etc,.. but why mess with it. My mistake was trying to get everything under a couple hundred bucks and picking a less than friendly motherboard in the process.

* SLAX is plenty stable, if you boot it on a decent machine.

* If your weekend project lasts until Thursday you are doing something wrong.

* Even if you have been working on UNIX since 1989 you'll never know it all and sometimes the only way you'll find out is by actually doing it. UNIX is amazing, it's like you can do anything.

I wouldn't write that it was a complete loss. I know everything that needs to be done and how to do it. I don't have the biggest choice of parts here in Ukraine, so, I'm going to spend a little time shopping around for a decent motherboard and I'm going to try again when I find it. BTW, the CHillispot.org site is down, and has been for at least 2 weeks, anyone that has any suggestions for another NAS, please let me know. with so many WiFi Hotspots using it, I'm hard pressed to believe that project is dead.

Ohh and if you have read this far, please save the internet at http://www.savetheinternet.org You really have to wonder what will happen to the open source world if you and millions like you don't do something to keep the internet free. Thanks in Advance.

Kevin thought it would be interesting to know the behind the scenes, if S2F blogs where about the HOW-to's of development - let this be a how-not-to :)

David Stickney
Fishnest Ukraine

Start of development on Carbide

Carbider — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 13:09:48 +0300

To develop programs for nokia phones running S60v3 I chose Carbide C++ IDE.
Carbide C++ is a tool to create applications for Symbian OS.

My machine is running Windows XP SP2.

There are several variants of Carbide C++. I've chosen Professional Edition.

So i downloaded Carbide c++ v1.2 using this link:

http://www.forum.nokia.com/info/sw.......

To use IDE you first need to install:

»ActivePerl 5.6.1.x

I've downloaded ActivePerl 5.6.1.638

Direct link is:

http://www.activestate.com/store/.....

Download page is: http://www.activestate.com/store/dow.....

»Java Run-Time Environment

My choice was JRE v 1.4.2 by link:
http://javashoplm.sun.com/ECom/......

»Platform SDK

First of all we want to create application for S60v3 platform.

So we need download S60 Platform SDK by this link:

http://www.forum.nokia.com/info/sw......

How to handle all of that.

I recommend to install all of we've downloaded in this order:

1. Install ActivePerl

2. Install JRE

3. Install Carbide c++

4. Install S60 Platform SDK (install it to folder path which is out of white spaces)

My experience was successful and Carbide started correctly.

To make my first steps I've read Carbide.c++ Introduction
http://www.forum.nokia.com/info/sw.....
and found it as an excelent document.

My first impression was: "Hey! The environment seems to be like Eclipse Platform!".

But after reading introduction PDF I knew that Carbide IDE is based on Eclipse open source development platform.

I started my first project, just using one of given wizards. After building and running project, the phone emulator appeared. And my program was available there in "Installed" folder. During development and emulating I discovered that my Pentium 4 2.6 GHz, 256 Ram notebook works slowly but stable. Now I'm looking for some hardware here, in my office to satisfy the needs of recently installed platforms. I'll tell you if I find optimum.

I was told to use CVS at SourceForge.net for collaboration,

the account is registered. I made a home page, there isn't much to see yet,

but I will post the URL here and if you want to help on the project you can join!

S.F. link: http://bluspan.sourceforge.net/