PluThon FAQ

General questions:

Download and Installation:

Working with Maemo devices:

General questions:

What is the PluThon?

PluThon is an Eclipse Plug-in that provides support for developing Python applications for maemo. PluThon does NOT require Scratchbox. Developers run and debug applications directly on a maemo device, speeding up the development time.

PluThon offers useful utilities to test and deploy applications directly into a Maemo device. Therefore, it saves a lot of programmer effort and time and also eliminates the use of command line and archaic text editors.

How is the PluThon licensed?

This software is produced by the IDE Integration team combined with third party software developed from other Open Source Projects. This software has been licensed under Eclipse Public License Version 1.0 ("EPL").

How is the PluThon Project organized?

PluThon consists of three major layers:

  • Eclipse platform

    A popular and extensible framework for developing IDEs. See the eclipse.org website.

  • Maemo IDE Common Architecture

    A plugin framework supporting both the ESbox and PluThon products, which provides an extensible platform for Maemo development:

    • Unified project model, with C/C++ and Python implementations
    • Linux development (e.g. Debian packaging)
    • Support for copying files or mounting a project to run, debug, and profile programs on Maemo devices
    • and more! See the Mica project website for more information.
  • PluThon product

    A targeted set of product plugins, providing the top-level project and import wizards, this help, graphics, and user interface modifications giving Pluthon its unique feel as a product.

How do I find out about future releases of PluThon?

To find out about futures releases see: PluThon News

Which operating systems does PluThon support?

The PluThon product runs on Linux (32 or 64 bit), Windows XP/Vista, and Mac OS X.

How do I ask questions?

The garage.maemo website provides some mailing lists. Choose a list to browse, search, and post messages. Keep in mind that these newsgroups are public, so do not include any confidential information in your questions. You should also read "How to ask questions the smart way" by Eric Raymond before participating in the newsgroups.

How do I report a bug or request a feature?

The bug and feature trackers are stored at the PluThon project page.

Before entering a bug report, you should search to see if someone else has already entered a bug report similar to yours. If you find a bug report that outlines the problem you are seeing, you can simply annotate it with your comments to let the developers know that you have also hit the bug. Also you can add yourself to the "Monitor" list of the bug so that you will be notified when the status of the bug changes or someone adds comments.

Download and Installation:

Are there complete HowTos for setting up PluThon?

PluThon itself is fully packaged and ready to run. You only need to unzip it somewhere and run the "PluThon" executable inside.

Full integration information is supplied here http://maemo.org/development/documentation/ide_integration/.

Which PluThon build should I download?

Download one of the 2.0.0 product builds for your operating system from the PluThon Files section. This will provide a full Eclipse environment with Eclipse, Mica, and PluThon.

Manual installation

If you want to add PluThon features to your existing Ganymede installation, see the instructions for installing from the PluThon update site.

How do I uninstall PluThon?

Removing plugins from Eclipse is easy, so no particular uninstaller is needed. You can browse and manage your configuration from the Product Configuration dialog. Open the Product Configuration dialog by clicking Help > Software Updates > Manage Configuration.

  • Disabling a feature: select the feature and click Disable in the right pane of the dialog. This option is available only when the feature is currently enabled, and the feature is either an optional feature or a root feature (not included by other features).
  • Enabling a feature: First, ensure Show Disabled Features is turned on in the tool bar. Then, select a disabled optional or root feature and click Enable in the right pane of the dialog.
  • Uninstalling a feature: features that you have installed using the update manager can be uninstalled, provided they are already disabled, or that they are optional or root features. If the feature is disabled, make sure Show Disabled Features is turned on in the tool bar. Select the feature and click Uninstall in the right page of the dialog.

Working with Maemo devices

How do I set up my device for development?

The first important step is to install the maemo-pc-connectivity metapackage. This will install the proper servers on your device so you can access it from your PC for the purpose of remote SSH launching, copying files, debugging, and using Scratchbox Remote Shell.

You also need to set up your device for R&D mode (so you may become root, and install Debian packages, update the system from PluThon, etc).

Also, you must install the host-side programs needed for communication with the device programs in maemo-pc-connectivity. (These are preinstalled in the virtual machine images or available in the host-pc-connectivity package.)

All the details are on the PC connectivity garage project page.

How do I configure my device for use with PluThon?

PluThon integrates the Eclipse Remote System Explorer project, which provides a common framework for interacting with remote machines.

PluThon will automatically create a set of RSE connections for the account "user" corresponding to the methods of network access supported by PC connectivity.

For example, Maemo device (USB) is preconfigured with the standard USB address (192.168.2.15) and "user" account.

Whenever you see these connections in PluThon dialogs, you can right-click and Configure... to edit the address or username if your configuration is different. Alternately, open the Remote Systems view (Window > Show View > Other > Remote Systems > Remote Systems) to see more complete UI.

If you forget the address or otherwise mess up the connection, you can delete it (using the Remote Systems view) and it will be recreated anew the next time you start PluThon.

Currently, there is no special behavior associated with any of these connections other than the name and default address.

How do I run and debug on a device?

PluThon supports running and debugging Python programs on a Maemo device. The N800 and N810 series are currently supported. Please set up your device for development first.

After you create or import a project, you may for example right-click and invoke Run / Debug As ... > Maemo Remote ... Application. Choose the Copy Programs (SSH) download selection method, and then select one of the Maemo device connections. 

The Mount Project (SBRSH) option is also available, but you must enable SBRSH and allow your host access to your device using the Connection Switcher utility on the device, and then Exchange Keys between the host and device. 

If this fails, see the next entry.

How do I resolve networking issues?

The primary line of defense is to make sure the connection works from the command line and that all the daemons and configurations are set up properly. See the PC connectivity site for details. Also, be sure you understand the utilities provided in the maemo-pc-connectivity project and follow the instructions for configuring various types of networks.

The second line of defense is to understand how PluThon uses Eclipse preferences to influence the network.

The Window > Preferences > General > Network Connections preference contains the HTTP proxy configuration. This will be used when communicating with apt repositories (when validating packages). If you do use a proxy, be sure your host and your device are both referenced in the “No proxy” section. (Note: from my experience, you need to specify exact IP addresses here; wildcards and “slash notation” do not work.)


For USB networking:

By default, a USB connection will mount the removable storage from the device into your computer. Use the Connection Switcher toolbar icon to change the USB connection into a networking connection.

Typically the addresses used are static: 192.168.2.15 (for the device) and 192.168.2.14 (for the host).

If the command-line connection (verified with ssh or ping) does not work, and the device is configured for USB networking, then in Linux you can use sudo ifdown usb0; sudo ifup usb0 to try to reset. This should fix things.


For wireless networking:

The maemo-pc-connectivity package will let you configure and use several types of wireless networks (WLAN, ad-hoc WLAN, Bluetooth). Refer to that configuration to discover the configured IP addresses. For WLAN, the device will receive a semi-random IP address from the DHCP server.

In any case, you can verify the address and update the corresponding RSE connection like this:

  • In the device, run Utilities > X Terminal.
  • Execute /sbin/ifconfig to see what address is assigned to the wlan0 (WLAN, ad-hoc WLAN) or bnep0 (Bluetooth) interface.
  • Copy this address into the connection (in PluThon UI, right-click the Maemo device (...) connection and use Configure..., or edit it via Remote Systems view using Properties > Host).