I have noticed that there has already been 2 release for qtopia on the 2X which is great, but I was wondering what ppls thoughts were on making the switch to qtopia for the permanent interface?

A few questions would be:

Is qtopia themeable? (2X'ers love menu themes so it seems)
Is it usable / Will it be usable in the future?
Are applications easy to write for it?
How configureable it it?

I have been following the progress on the Xynth windowing system on 2X and I was wondering, are these similar programs or is qtopia more/less?

These are just a few questions I thought I would bring up. I know alot of interest has been made in the "Replacement Interface" threads that are around and I though that with the progress made on qtopia/Xynth that these might be good alternatives to a custom interface.

Also one thing someone mentioned before is eed (enlightenment embedded)... it looks very nice.. and smooth too. Just a thought.

NOTE: I am not trying to undermine the progress already being made on the alternate interfaces, I just thought these were some valid questions.

I've ported a bunch of the efl libraries but not eem itself. Performance was pretty average as it seemed to depend on floating point stuff a lot, and doesn't have much use for the hardware blitter as it's all for fancy alpha effects and whatnot.

Look for a new custom interface designed to be easily themable and fairly minimal in the next couple of weeks.

It looks interesting.

In my travels I've started to seen some support for Qtopia (and I wasn't seeking it out)

Support like the fact that KDevelop has project templates for it built in.

Here are some links for the uninitiated:

http://www.trolltech.com/products/qtopia/pda.html
and some photos:
http://www.gpain.com/gp/skins/bbs/Read.asp...t=&TopicNum=412

http://www.gpain.com/gp/skins/bbs/Read.asp...t=&TopicNum=410

How about using
OPIE (screenshots)
or
GPE (screenshots)

Well for really low system requirements you can't go past Contiki
http://www.sics.se/~adam/contiki/

(It runs on a Vic-20 and the C64)

QTopia don't run fine for me
It start but when i press one button he start all and block the stick

Contiki is a Operative System...
OPIE and GPE rock, the best is GPE , a port of it will be really nice

Qtopia ran well for me. In fact, with the RNDIS setup and that, I almost got qpe-gaim downloaded and running using the built in package manager.

I was fooling around for two hours editing stuff to get it running but eventually hit a problem where ipkg and sed wouldn't get along, that and I needed wget which wasn't apparently on the system at all.

Ah well, a man can try XD

Any of you thought about the fact that these GUIs are far away from being really usable without a touchscreen/mouse/keyboard?

It has a virtual keyboard built in and the stick suffices perfectly as a mouse. I had no trouble using qtopia. I for one like the idea of developing qtopia as a replacement interface!

I would rather have qtopia as the default interface for GP2X. It just looks nicer, runs nicer, has more of a standard PDA/desktop OS feel to it, and already has tons of applications developed that could be easily ported over. We need to get the graphical glitches ironed out though. Maybe build a script (similar to the .gpe and .gpu) that just kills qtopia when running an emulator, game, etc. and then launches it again after it is done being loaded. Has anyone tried this to see what would happen?

What config file launches the current gp2x interface at boot up?

On the screenshot of Qtopia on the GP2X i have seen a clock, im guessing its not very accurate?

as a longterm gnome lover, i vote for gpe http://handhelds.org/~gpe/gallery/
even the 2x filextension .gpe makes sense then ;-)

I'm still more curious about enlightment.

Ok, my opinion about it:
On my linux desktop I ran most common graphical environments.
Currently I am sticking on Gnome 2.12....
First of all, I am happy with any more advanced interface than the one we currently have, and I DO think that it would be smart to port something over (like Qtopia) instead of writing custom stuff, simply because we would have a much better support and a larger community (behind the project respectively).
Of course, the nicest looking-one is enlightenment, but I do not know if it's the best choice if it's using floating points all the time, the GUI should look nice but it shouldn't eat all ressources and but make it possible to run programs/services inside of it.
Qtopia and GPE seem less ressource-hungry (or cpu-hungry).

I, personally, would vote for GPE since it's using GTK+, and this means -LOTS- of possible configuration/skins. I haven't run QTopia nor GPE yet, so I do not know which system has actually got a better performance/ports...

isnt qtopia just a interface so shoudnt all the apps emu homebrew work if we just have a script that kills qtopia?

qtopia should definetly be the permanent interface once we incorporate the mplayer and tvout into it it will kick asss

will be the best and cheapest pda in the worldddddd

I ran SquidgeSnes from within Qtopia and apart from being really really slow, the effects of them both running at the same time were undesireable. Not to mention, after SSnes exits, it loads gp2xmenu back up while qtopia is still running.

sand_man: I think we will need to kill Qtopia when running a game and start it again when the game exits.

I think Qtopia has alot of possabilities and would make a great permanent interface for GP2X.

The only other option is to get someone to convert the enlightenment embedded libraries to fixed point math. Which is alot of work so its probably a no go.

As it looks though, qtopia is more of a mouse driven interface (I haven't tried it yet though) and to play games, i want a quick startup (cramfs) and a simple way to select the games (the current file browser).

I don't think enlightenment gives you anything you can't do in SDL. For all its crazy stuff, the eem demo wouldnt be very hard to re-implement in SDL.

True theoddbot, SDL could do alot of eem stuff... but eem is already written, wouldn't that be easier... i guess converting it to fixed-point maths would be more hassle than it is worth.

Hmmm ok... well qtopia was just a thought anyways. I am sure there would be ways to make it less of a mouse-driven interface and more GP2X friendly.

sure that we need to kill qtopia ?
iirc, it takes quite some time to restart on my Zaurus, nothing really desirable from a long term point of view...

What about using "nice" ? that might help, and while we're at it, what about an AND port ? this could improve preformance for lots of stuff...
(btw, nice is to linux what process priority is to windows)

Also, in order to prevent stuff from running the gp2xmenu, you probably would simply have to replace the /usr/gp2x/gp2xmenu (right?) executable with a script that launches/resumes QT

And what is the memory footprint of qtopia? I'm not sure all games/emulators will run with qtopia still in the background...
I personnaly prefere a simple/minimal interface.

Isn't Qtopia based on Trolltechs QT library - I thought this was not free ??

Your info is a little bit out of date

wikipedia QT page
Trolltech's dual licensing scheme

I personally think the menu should always be exited when loading a game, but, if we get the right applications, it should be possible to run PDA-programs like wordprocessing/editor and music at the same time (as an example).
-> Multitasking for PDA-like operations
-> Monotasking for CPU-intensive games/movies, kill and rejoin the GUI
I have to say it once more, EEM would be a real eyecandy, but I really dont know how much CPU it consumes.
Wouldn't it be possible to modify QTopia/GPE/EEM in a way so they are able to work with less mouse-interaction?

Why is everyone so anti-mouse interface? Windups used a cursor, and it worked really well.

It works well. Just less well than a non mouse interface.

qtopia is great fpr pda stuff... it works really good on the go and a pda for free is great
the normal gp2x controls are enough for me and work if you just want to open a website or edit a text, test something with the console.
with keyboard and mouse and tv you could really us it as pc if your in hotel or at friends house..
but i dont think its a replacement, qtopia eats much power and its not wise running this in the background... of other resource eating apps like emulators or games.
i woul like to have a option while launching the gp2x, like if you press a while loading it will go straight to qtopia or something like that.

Except for the fact it has no touchscreen, WiFi, internal battery to keep time... you get the picture. And Palm make several PDAs cheaper that are much more suited to being PDAs.

The GP2X is not about to become a PDA. It was designed as a games machine, it is meant to be used as a games machine. I like all this Qtopia stuff, truly, but trying to make a games machine into a PDA is not easy and the results aren't exactly desirable. Of course, feel free to make PDA-style, organiser-type apps but the GP2X is not and will never be a replacement for any PDA. It will not be the cheapest nor the best PDA in the world. Ever.

And mplayer can't be incorporated into Qtopia until we get source due to its lack of command-line interface (though you could still just run it from /usr/gp2x).

Dude. Settle down. You may not want to use the GP2X as a pda but from the majority of the responses in this thread and the other qtopia thread, it appears there is quite a lot of people who would love to use it as a PDA. I am all for making it the standard interface, as currently the GP2X interface we have now makes me want to puke. When I show people the interface they think it's way to basic (look at the PSP).

I love Linux, I used it as my desktop for over 2 years.. but I am not against the mouse driven GUI type interfaces, especially when they are very nice to look at. Want it or not, this is not just a gaming machine. This is a portable media player which runs a very capable OS with an almost unlimited amount of features. One, being a PDA. When I bought my GP2X, I was hoping that this was going to happen, because I've gone through so many PDAs looking for one that has a great form factor and has really good emulation that I feel I've owned almost every model out there. LOL

So in closing, I think a PDA with network capabilities, and an open source platform, a huge comminity/user base, tons of emulators and homebrew games, as well as a perfect music/movie player is the ultimate goal for the GP2X in my eyes. Thank you.

I dont think people want to use it as a PDA, more just not just solely a game player. Text editing on the fly is fun, but im with nickspoon more. I didnt buy a gp2x to store memos and view emails and rubbish on. If i wanted that, id buy a PDA. I just want a nice GUI for getting to Doom and back!

I Want to try QTopia but it don't work... It start but when i press anythink it's block

Agreed.

You have a valid point, but I'm still not seeing why people would buy the GP2X as a PDA-replacement (which was what I was getting at). You have a simple choice. A PDA, designed for organiser functions, e-mail and the like, with a touchscreen and all sorts of connectivity, with the occasional game or movie (I'm sure there are plenty of people here who use PDAs regularly for games and movies, but the majority of people use it mainly for organiser functions). Or a GP2X, designed for games, movies, music and possibly the occasional browsing the internet, currency conversion, checking e-mails, and other PDA-esque functions. Yes there's a slight overlap, but the two devices are in very different leagues. It's not really right to expect one to be better than the other in what the other was designed for. Not at all. So yes, I can see why people may want the occasional PDA functionality, but the want of this being a major influence in purchase is really just silly.

What I'm getting at here is it depends on your point of view whether you buy a PDA or a GP2X, as they're designed for two completely different objectives.

I thought myself about that PC-rplacement thing, I like it very well too, who else can say today he has got a mobile smaller-than-laptop dualcore system? [okok you just shouldnt mention it runs on 200Mhz ;D]

If the hardware clock is able to stay on while the unit is off, which I doubt, it could display reminders and function as an alert too, but even without this functionality, a decent editor and/or wordprocessing would be cool to use.
In addition with the TV-Out (I remember again, 720x is max for videos, but the MMSP is capable of 1024x resolutions (dunno if its really working but the spec sheet says it) so you could really have a use for your (HD!)TV-Screen) and a chatboard/keyboard you would have some kind of office PC in your pocket, which is definately a useful thing.

maybe i was just a tad over enthusiastic with my post

obv the gp2x wouldnt be the perfect PDA for most people but for me it would be

Ive been trying to have pocket computer device with decent interface since 1995 when i tore apart my acer subnotebook and made myself the first tablet esque pc ever man was it a frankenstein lookin thing with the guts of a snes pad melted on in places

Fast forward 11years and now have a smaller version of my frankenstein Acer laptop that fits in my pocket man people were amazed by it back then funny how things change so quickly

Anyone think of recompiling Opie player and using that? :- P

Do you mean when you try to move the cursor it doesn't move? If that's what you mean, then just press buttons randomly and keep moving the joystick, it will start working.