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Software development for the OpenMoko Linux phone

A free and open platform for mobile communications

Peter Seebach (developerworks@seebs.plethora.net), Freelance writer, Freelance
Author photo
Peter Seebach has been using computers for years and is gradually becoming acclimated. He still doesn't know why mice need to be cleaned so often, though.

Summary:  The OpenMoko environment provides a completely free development environment for running application and system code on supported phone hardware, eliminating all dependency on proprietary code. This tutorial introduces the OpenEmbedded build environment used to create filesystem images for OpenMoko phones, such as the Neo 1973.

Date:  13 Nov 2007
Level:  Intermediate
PDF:  A4 and Letter (156 KB | 25 pages)Get Adobe® Reader®

Activity:  12077 views
Comments:  

Before you start

About this tutorial

This tutorial introduces the OpenMoko development platform and shows the details of using it to target the Neo 1973, a unique cell phone developed and sold with the intent of working anywhere, on any network, and running whatever software you want to develop for it.

Tutorial objectives

After a brief overview of the configuration and flashing process, I show you the files you need and what to do with them. Following that, I get into the details of software development. Rather than duplicate existing documentation, this tutorial shows you the big picture and brings everything together.

Prerequisites

This tutorial is for Linux developers with basic software development experience, and either experience with or interest in telephony and embedded systems. Some basic familiarity with the command line is assumed.

You don't need a Neo 1973 phone (or any other) to understand the tutorial, but it will be most rewarding if you have at least a working OpenMoko target, even if it's emulated. I wrote the tutorial using Ubuntu as a host environment, but virtually any Linux® system should work. It's also possible to use Mac OS X or even Windows® as host environments.

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static.content.url=http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/js/artrating/
SITE_ID=1
Zone=Linux, Open source
ArticleID=269272
TutorialTitle=Software development for the OpenMoko Linux phone
publish-date=11132007
author1-email=developerworks@seebs.plethora.net
author1-email-cc=

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