Colors of Noise

Thanks to the the great work of the pkg-fso team you can now install Debian onto your Openmoko Freerunner. This gives you access to all Debian packages and makes it a great tool for you mails, contacts, etc. Here's howto get kerberized email on the Freerunner:

• install Kerberos for single sign on:

  apt-get install krb5-config krb5-auth-dialog matchbox-panel dbus-x11 hicolor-icon-theme
  

• If the user on your Freerunner is different from your kerberos principal you have to tell krb5-auth-dialog about it:

  gconftool-2 --type=string --set /apps/krb5-auth-dialog/principal "principal@YOUR.REALM"
  

• install network-manager:

  apt-get install network-manager network-manager-gnome
  

• to make network-manager work with the wireless interface you need to add allow-hotplug eth0 to /etc/network/interfaces.

• install tinymail and TMut - either build Debian packages from source:

  http://git.debian.org/?p=users/agx/tmut.git
  http://git.debian.org/?p=users/agx/tinymail.git
  

  or use prebuilt debs:

  echo <<EOF >/etc/apt.conf.d/99_swirlberry.list
  deb http://honk.sigxcpu.org/projects/swirlberry/ unstable/
  EOF
  apt-get install tmut
  

• add an icon for TMut in the panel:

  # Install mutt for the nice icon:
  apt-get install mutt
  
  
  # add a desktop file for the panel
  cat <<EOF >/root/tmut.desktop
  [Desktop Entry]
  Name=TMut
  Exec=tmut
  Icon=mutt.xpm
  Type=Application
  EOF
  

• add a /root/.Xsession so everything starts up as needed:

  cat <<EOF >/root/.Xsession
  #!/bin/sh
  matchbox-panel -ns -nm --bgcolor 000000  &
  krb5-auth-dialog -A &
  mb-applet-launcher --desktop /root/tmut.desktop &
  nm-applet &
  /usr/bin/zhone-session
  EOF
  

  and set PROG_FSO=/root/.Xsession in /etc/init.d/zhone-session.

• Restart X:

  /etc/init.d/zhone-session start
  

• startup TMut and set up your accounts. Then for kerberos add:

  mech=GSSAPI
  

  to each file in /root/.tmut/accounts/. So that an imap account looks like:

  [tmut]
  proto=imap
  name=swirl@berry.example.com
  hostname=berry.example.com
  user=swirl
  type=store
  options=use_ssl=wrapped;
  mech=GSSAPI
  

  while the smtp one looks like:

  [tmut]
  proto=smtp
  name=swirl@berry.example.com
  hostname=berry.example.com
  user=swirl
  options=use_ssl=tls
  mech=GSSAPI
  

Afterwards you have a tiny email client usable on your Freerunner. Connect to wireless via the network manager applet and enter your kerberos password via krb5-auth-dialog applet (both in the lower right corner of your panel) then fire up TMut via the icon in the lower left corner of the panel.

Things that could be a bit nicer though:

• get accelerated (and rotated) X to work (xglamo) - without it scrolling is quiet slow
• a nice gtk theme with a slim engine (e.g. gtk2-engines-sapwood)
• allow to scale fonts and icons
• add integration with dates and contacts and a calendarserver on the other end
• easy GPRS setup
• finish PKINIT support in krb5-auth-dialog so you can authenticate with your crypto token
• improving TMut or look for another client (modest?) that has:
  • a progress bar when downloading messages
  • displays if in online or offline mode
  • proper handling of mime attachments
  • thread view