HowTo

This page serves to answer commonly asked "How do I do X?" question.

Generic (not device specific)

How I lock and unlock the device?

If the device is unlocked, pressing the power button twice in quick succession will lock it. Also, pressing the power button once will pop up a dialog with an option to allow you to lock the device.

If the device is locked, pressing the power button once will bring up the lock screen with a slider you can drag to unlock the device.

(NB: on the Droid 4, the unlock slider may sometimes not show up or show up in the wrong place. In this case, you can still 'drag' it blindly. The drag area is exactly halfway from the top to the bottom of the screen, and starts around 1/4 of the width of the screen and extends to about 3/4 of its width.)

Additionally, if your device has sliding keyboard (like the Nokia_N900 and Motorola_Droid_4), then opening the keyboard will also unlock the device. Closing the keyboard will lock the device again, but only if you have not interacted with the screen since the last slide up. Devices such as the Nokia_N900 can also be locked/unlocked by toggling their physical lock/unlock slider.

How do I play music?

Currently, pick any UNIX or GUI tool from standard debian that you like.

In the future, we would recommend the Maemo player: https://wiki.maemo.org/Open_Media_Player

How do I get the virtual keyboard to show up?

Go to the application menu and start the control panel. From the control panel, open the text input applet, and make sure "Use virtual keyboard is checked".

The next you time touch an input field, you should see the virtual keyboard pop up. (If your device has a keyboard attached, then this will work slightly differently, depending on the sliding state of the keyboard)

Motorola Droid 4

How do I improve battery life?

In an optimal case, with a healthy battery, you should be able to get several days of uptime with the modem online. This will probably get a little better over time.

But there are also lots of things that might hinder power management, so it might also be less. We're still actively working on this.

Currently, you should consider stopping ntp (/etc/init.d/ntp stop) since it will eat a lot of battery needlessly.

How do I show the special keys virtual keyboard?

Press the OK button, and then press the key labelled "shift" (but really is the control key).

Nokia N900

How do I show the special keys virtual keyboard?

Press the blue arrow, and then press the ctrl key.