On my Palm Pre, I'm running a PalmOS emulator, with a VNC client in it, connecting to a VNC server on the same phone, in order to get to an xterm. About the most roundabout way to get a prompt on a phone one can imagine, and also very wasteful of screen space because of that PalmOS emulator. I hope better methods become available.

  1. Install Classic. (This will only work for a week w/o being bought, BTW.)
  2. Login as root to Debian chroot on the Pre.
  3. Download PalmVNC: cd /media/internal/ClassicApps; wget http://palmvnc2.free.fr/stable/PalmVNC.prc
  4. apt-get install tightvncserver
  5. su to your non-root account on the Pre.
  6. Create a VNC password file containing an empty password by running: mkdir -p ~/.vnc; echo | vncpasswd -f > ~/.vnc/passwd; chmod 600 ~/.vnc/passwd
  7. Run tightvncserver -interface 127.0.0.1 -geometry 320x320
    (It only listens to localhost, so the empty password is ok (ish). The geometry is all that is visible on the Pre without scrolling.)
  8. Start Classic (or restart it).
  9. In Classic, select PalmVNC and tell it to connect to localhost, and change the display from 0 to 1. It will prompt for a password, just hit Ok for a blank one.
  10. Optionally, make VNC auto-start on boot, add to rc.local something like this: su joey -c 'cd; tightvncserver -interface 127.0.0.1 -geometry 320x320'

TODO:

  • Need way to send arrow keys!
  • xmonad configuration

Update: Here's another screenshot, of FBReader on the Pre. One of the missing apps on the Pre is a good offline e-book reader with no vendor lock-in. FBReader is what I use on my laptop, so it's great to have it on my phone. Especially since I have room for my entire e-book library on the Pre's generous flash drive.

Previously: Palm Pre, ssh to Debian chroot on Palm Pre