On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 21:16:08 +0000 (UTC), steveg at moregruel.net (Steve
Greenland) wrote:
> According to Joshua Layne <joshua at willowisp.net>:
>>
> My initial response to the flash requirement was the same ("You've *got*
> to be kidding me!") but there's one significant difference in N800 et.
> al. that doesn't apply to Debian-based systems in general: extremely
> limited storage space. An OS upgrade can require a lot of core packages
> to be upgraded simultaneously (glibc, busybox, dpkg, apt, etc.) There's
> simply not enough free space on a standard N800 to download everything
> and install it all at once. Additionally, Debian upgrades get a huge
> amount of testing resources which is probably not available to Nokia.
> Combined with a long history of "just re-flash it" style upgrades in the
> embedded industry, I can understand why Nokia made the choice it did.
That makes sense. It seems like an alternate path would be to change
apt-get a tiny bit and have it download/install packages serially instead
of in parallel (where possible: dependencies permitting). Also, the N810
has more flash space than I have ever had on mobile device. Come to think
of it, the N810 has more flash space than my first debian box had disk (by
a factor of 2.5!).
> The good news is that OS2008 should support more-or-less automatic
> restores of your install packages, and Nokia is working on supporting
> "real" Debian style upgrades, possibly for OS2009(?) (but I don't have
> the link handy).
I look forward to that. Unfortunately, reinstallation of packages is not
by any stretch the only aspect of bringing a system back to the way _you_
(one) likes it. There is a significant amount of data and customization
usually involved as well.
Of course, there is always the point where it is _so_ overly customized
(and broken) that it is easier to start fresh. Always nice to have options
:)
Rgds,
josh
