Getting Started With MeeGo
If you are from a Windows development background, you may find it quite daunting to enter the world of MeeGo which may feel a little bit alien. Indeed some of the methods to start MeeGo development would assume you have a working knowledge of non-Windows operating systems.
You can think of this article as a short-cut to getting started as quickly as possible, which gratifyingly removes the need to learn lots of things you probably didn’t need to know. This article also provides a video of the entire process by way of a real world example.
The Video
As a video is worth a thousand pictures, we thought it might be easier for you to sit back and watch the whole process as it happens:
http://appdeveloper.intel.com/sites/files/Getting%20Started%20With%20Mee...
Things You Need
You will need three things to follow this guide:
• Windows PC
• Netbook
• Fast USB Stick
Creating a MeeGo 1.1 Netbook USB Image
We choose MeeGo 1.1 as this was the latest official release, and for those with a touch-based Netbook you will have basic touch support right from the get go. The MeeGo 1.1 Netbook OS download can be located from this page:
http://meego.com/
Once the file has been downloaded, download the Image Writer For Windows Tool from this page:
http://meego.com/devices/netbook/installing-meego-netbook/windows-instru...
Once you have both files, extract the contents of the ‘Image Writer For Windows Tool’ zip file to your desktop and drag the MeeGo 1.1 Netbook OS Image file into the newly extracted folder. Now insert the USB Stick into a spare USB port on your PC, and then run Win32DiskImager.exe which you can find in the extracted folder.
It is critical that you ensure the Win32 Disk Imager tool specifies the drive letter that represents the USB Stick you have just inserted. Failure to specify the correct drive letter could mean disaster as this tool will completely erase that drive. Use the tool to specify the MeeGo 1.1 Netbook OS image file and click WRITE and confirm. When the write is complete, you can exit the tool.
Install MeeGo 1.1 Netbook OS
With the netbook powered down, insert the USB Stick you have just prepared and switch on the netbook. As the netbook powers up, press the key that will take you into the netbook BIOS. This could be ESCAPE, DELETE, F2 or F12 depending on the device.
Use the BIOS menus to navigate to the BOOT menu, then to HARD DISK DRIVES (or similar) and change the boot order so that the netbook will boot from the USB stick hard drive, rather than the hard drive built into the netbook. Now chose save and exit.
When you reboot, you will notice the MeeGo boot menu appears. Select ‘Installation Only’ from the menu and follow the installation steps until you get to the drive screen. You will probably want to preserve your current netbook operating system, and the default setting from the drive screen will be ‘Remove Any Linux Partition’. Providing your current OS is Windows, this option will keep your Windows partition safe and allow you to install MeeGo onto a second partition if available, or split the Windows partition so both operating systems can sit side by side.
When you click Write Changes to Disk, the MeeGo operating system will be installed to the netbook hard drive and once the write has completed, you can click Finish.
When the netbook reboots, intercept again with ESCAPE, DELETE, F2 or F12 to get into the BIOS and restore the settings so that the device boots from the built-in netbook hard drive instead of the USB Stick. Once you have selected save and exit, you can remove the USB Stick from the netbook.
Rebooting a second time will boot directly into the MeeGo OS. You may be asked to boot from a number of different OS types, or you may have to press F12 during the boot sequence to see this menu. The first time you boot into MeeGo you will be asked a series of set-up questions such as language, time zone, username and password. When you click Finish, you will be presented with a complete functional MeeGo operating system.
Configuring your MeeGo Development Environment
Once you are in MeeGo it is vital that you establish a network connection before you can begin developing your MeeGo applications. Fortunately this process has been made extremely simple. Click the Network Icon in the top right corner of the screen, and browse the available wireless connections for the one you would like to use. Select Connect and enter your wireless password (if the connection is a secure one). If you prefer to use a wired connection, simply connect a LAN cable between your netbook and your network router or hub.
You can test whether you have a connection by using the browser within MeeGo. When you are happy that a connection has been made, go to the Applications tab and within the System Tools sub-menu, select the Terminal application.
You now need to download and install the components required for your MeeGo development environment. This is done by executing a series of instructions. Type out and execute each of the lines below, answering any questions with yes:
sudo zypper refresh
sudo zypper install yum
sudo yum groupinstall Development-Tools
sudo yum groupinstall ‘X Software Development’
sudo zypper install qt-creator
sudo zypper install qt-devel
Once all six steps have been completed, you can exit the terminal by clicking the close icon and then select the applications tab.
Your First Hello World Application
You will find a new application called Qt Creator in the programming sub-category which has been installed as a result of the previous configuration steps. We will use this tool to create a simple program in MeeGo so click the application to launch it.
Select File menu, then select New File Or Project and finally select Mobile Qt Application and select CHOOSE. You can then give your application a name and then agree to the default settings by clicking NEXT, NEXT then FINISH.
When the project has been created for you, select the EDIT button on the left icon bar, find the main.cpp source file in the Sources tab and double click it to open the code file. You now need to add a few extra lines to this program:
1. Add #include as the third include line
2. Comment out the two lines referencing the Window as we won’t need these
3. Add the following three lines:
QLabel *label = new QLabel(QObject::tr("hello world"));
label->show();
label->resize(300,300);
Now you can compile the program by going to BUILD, then select BUILD ALL, and then select SAVE ALL if prompted. The tool will build the project as an executable, and will report any errors in the Output tab (bottom right).
If there are no errors, you can select the Run icon in the bottom left corner of the screen (green arrow) and if everything goes well, you should see the new application launch your first MeeGo Hello World application!
A good link to learn about more about a Hello World tutorial can be found on this page:
http://wiki.meego.com/SDK/Docs/1.1/Creating_Hello_World
The benefits to developing directly on a MeeGo device are numerous, including a water-tight certainty that your application is MeeGo friendly and the fact you are getting the best performance as the applications is running directly on the target device rather than a simulator. After a few short tutorials, you should find yourself creating some rather nice MeeGo applications and best of all; you’ll have a truly portable development environment to boot!
Black Belt (App Development)
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