In January, various improvements and bug fixes were made to the NemoMobile. These updates include improvements to the x86 installation manual, fixes to the glacier-settings developer mode, and enhancements to the time picker component. Additionally, USB moded settings have been updated to work with MTP, and issues such as disconnecting from the internet and a typo in the polkit agent service definition have been addressed. Notifications have also been improved.
x86 installation manual
The installation manual for x86 architecture and/or virtualbox has been updated to include additional steps for running the lipstick compositor as the desktop environment. In addition to installing packages, configuration files and user setup are now necessary for proper installation. This includes providing device-specific configuration files, such as /var/lib/environment/compositor/* and /etc/eglfs-config.json, as well as ensuring that the user is a member of the appropriate groups, as demonstrated in the creation of the manjaro user when creating the image.
Developer mode
The developer mode is a glacier-settings plugin that allows for turning on and off the SSH daemon. There have been some fixes in the use of D-Bus interface, as well as improvements in the handling of activating and deactivating states. Additionally, the D-Bus permission settings have been fixed to be installed in the correct folder.
glacierconfig –help
The command-line tool glacierconfig, which is part of the libglacierapp package, now has a –help option, and one typo has been fixed.
Time picker
The time picker component is part of the Qt Quick controls for Nemo. It now handles the mouse move event, which improves the smoothness of use and enhances the user experience. You can test the basic implementation in the glacier-components application. The component is also used in the glacier-alarms, but some tuning may be necessary to reach an acceptable level of usability.
MTP via USB
Previously, the usb-moded settings were fixed to get the daemon working. Now, the configuration has been cleaned and settings required for MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) have been added.
Disconnecting from the internet
The button to turn off the mobile internet connection was not working. Now, both the button on the feeds page and the glacier-settings plugin allow for disconnecting from the internet. The autoconnect behavior is probably controlled via connman, and it needs to be fixed yet. There were related fixes in the libqofono example application.
Infinite swiping on home screen
An issue with infinite swiping on the home screen had been present for a long time. The previously proposed fix had issues with window transparency and did not function as expected. However, it has now been rebased on the current master branch and is working as expected.
Notification cleanup, invoking of remote action
The notifications layout has been tuned a little and the strings’ positions have been rearranged. Additionally, the remoteAction trigger should now work. The remoteAction is a mechanism in notifications that invokes a function via D-Bus. For example, when an SMS message arrives, the notification is created. After clicking on that notification, the Glacier Messages application window is shown, and the conversation is opened.
Development Images
As there has not been an official image release for some time, development images are available at https://nemo.mlich.cz/images/. These images are based on recent commits in git and come with all the associated consequences.
