OM 3.0 T-Mobile Dash - fixed in 3.1

OM 3.0 T-Mobile Dash - fixed in 3.1

Hi guys, I previously had the low mem version of OM 2 on my dash and it worked flawlessly. I just uninstalled it, and installed OM 3.0 and it seems to work fine except for 1 very annoying thing. The left softkey (for the menu option) doesn't work at all. The right softkey works just fine, and I connect flawlessly, it's just this one issue.

For Reference...
The T-mobile Dash is a rebranded HTC Excalibur
It is a Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone
It has Java (low memory version)
OM 2 worked just fine on it.

P.S. When I say OM, I mean Opera Mini, not Mobile.

Any Ideas?

Thanks,
Geoff

I'm having the same problem with my Dash. As you mentioned, version 2 worked flawlessly yet this version has some button confusion. I noticed that pressing "I" seems to trigger the event that the left soft key would normally trigger. Also, certain other keys trigger strange things. Otherwise, the web browsing seems to work fine.

Maybe we can fix it. Could you try to install the MIDP key detector program and post the output you get when pressing left and right softkey.

http://mini.opera.com/mkey

Thanks
Per Thomas

The right key generates this response:

Keycode: -7
Label: SOFT2
Mapping: <none>
Event: released

The left key generates no response whatsoever.

The "I" key which is triggering the left soft key functions for me reports the following:

Keycode: 105
Label: null
Mapping: <none>
Event: released

Hope this helps! Let me know if there's something more I can do to help out.

Actually, I have a T-Mobile Dash, and it's the "Q" key that functions as if it were the left soft key on mine. The "i" key might work too, but I can't check, because Opera Mini 3.0 Hi-Fi will not load on either of my two Dash's more than once. It only loads the first time I run it, after installing. After that, it hangs at the loading screen, and won't fully launch. 2.0 was better.

I'm having the same problem.... I can only run 3.0 once on my dash. If I try to run it again, it says "A MIDlet is not responding" and gives me the options to "Wait" or Kill." "Wait" completely freezes my Dash and "Kill" lets me try to launch Opera again - but I get the same error. Only uninstall/reinstall gets it working again. But it still works only once.

I am also getting the "MIDlet not responding" message. The browser works at installation but you can not run it again. I also have the nonresponsive soft key issues.
Thanks,
Martin

I'd like to add that I'm also getting the MIDlet not responding message after the first run, which I hadn't noticed before. If a fix can't be found soon, how should I downgrade to OM2?

Yeah I hadn't realized that it would only run once at the time i posted. Does anyone know how we can find a copy of OM 2?

SUCCESS!! It seems that The opera mini web site has just been giving us the wrong version of OM 3. If you goto http://www.getjar.com/products/3334/OperaMini and download the first option which is called opera-mini-3.0.6306-basic-int.jar, it works just fine. Granted it looks almost exactly like OM 2, but it works. The left softkey works and it can launch more than once. Hope this helps guys.

It works! Thanks Geoff. I wonder if the hifi version will ever work on the dash- it was really slick. BTW, by following Goeff's link I saw that you can get the the download directly from the dash by going to wap.getjar.com and entering download code 9531.

Yeah, this is the low-fi version, which works great on my Dash! However, it would be fantastic if we could get the hi-fi version of Opera Mini running on the Dash! It's weird. Other than the left soft key, the high-fi version works fine the first run. There has to be a way to fix that issue. I wonder if installing a different Java virtual machine on the Dash would work better (other than the Esmertec java that shipped with the phone? It's a shame that we have to run the same low-fi version as basic cell phones on our advanced Dash smartphone! By the way, what are the differences between the low-fi and hi-fi versions of Opera Mini other than the hi-fi one looks a lot better?

I'm really bummed that this freezing issue with the hifi version couldn't be fixed in time for the final version of opera 3's release. It doesn't seem like that bad of a bug considering that opera 3 hifi runs like a dream the first time it's run.

Opera 3 hifi must be leaving behind some sort of settings after being run the first time that causes it to not be able to launch again. I searched around to try to find some sort of config file to delete, but could not find one.

Here's hoping opera devs crush this bug soon, since it's a showstopper on the dash.

Yeah that seems to be the problem with almost all mobile programming. There are just too many different types of phone that all have very specific specs.

Originally posted by ManneS:

I know... But we have about 250 different phones here at Opera. Will look into getting this device! Is it available outside the US?

Outside the US it's called the HTC s620, I think the codename is the Excalibur.

Here's a link:

S620 on HTC Site


Though I really don't know if the European version is affected by this bug, since the Dash has a custom t-mobile branded firmware.

Hope that's helpful.

I want to say that exactly the same bug (softkeys, hangs on next start) happens with ASUS P525 Windows Mobile 5 Phone.

I think it uses the same version of JVM.

Curiously, my midlet manager may be different than yours. When I launch my midlet manager the version info is available through "Menu", "About". This info is:
"Jeodek Build ID: 20060804
jtwi/lockstream
Copyright 2000-2006 Esmertec AG."

This is followed by more copyright notices. Is the H620's midlet manager made by esmertec? If not then I think we've found the reason why the H620's opera3 works and the Dash's doesn't.

Originally posted by ManneS:

One more thing:

Could those of you with problems on T-Mobile DASH go to the MIDlet manager, press "Menu", "Settings", "About MIDlet Manager" and write down the following info:

Runtime MIDP 2.0: v10.1.7.561 (B:20060726)

(That's the info on my device)

Thanks!

I tried installing the tao midlet manager, but with that one the midlet manager fails to run at all. I will try IBM's java later today.

Would it be possible to make a version of opera3 hifi that does not save any settings(always acts as if it was first run) as a temporary solution for the dash?

This would be infinitely better than my current method, which is to uninstall/reinstall every time I want to use it, and would be helpful for the many Dash users out there.

I am having the same issues with my T-mobile Dash. I've resorted to OM2.0 for the moment, but 3.0 seems much better. Hopefully 3.0 will work more than once soon.

I had the same problem on my WM5 pda phone, only able to run OM 3 first time right after installation. The 2nd time, the OM 3 will freeze. This only apply to HiFi version. I can run LoFi version with no problem.

My device is HP rw6828, running Esmertec Java (Jeodek build ID: 20060731).
The same device is also marketed by O2: O2 Atom.

I suspect the problem is due to Jeodek MidLet. For the time being, the only solution for me is downgrading to ver 2.0.3920 (hifi). Hope this problem will be solved on the next release of Opera Mini.

Edit: as antipasta points out - you don't need to do the following if the lofi version of 3.0 is already working with the default midlet manager..

Ok, I was able to get 3.0 (lofi version) working on the Dash with the IBM midlet manager. I downloaded the file found at the bottom of the first post in this thread: HERE and unzipped it on my desktop. I copied the files to my Dash using activesync and ran the new midlet manager. I clicked install and directed it to http://mini.opera.com/global/opera-mini-3.0.6306-basic-int.jad and it works.
3.0 runs well and works more than once! Also, the soft keys work so you don't have to use q and p.
BTW, I tried the hifi version and it was slower (?) than lofi and it crashed a couple of times so I went back to lofi.

Tag

The lofi version worked for me with the default midlet manager, it's the hifi that only loads once. From the reports coming in of people using different phones but the same esmertec midlet manager, it seems like that is the culprit of the hifi version failing to work.

Here's hoping that the opera devs can locate a phone running this manager so we can get a fix. The hifi version is much nicer all around, reaaally hoping the opera guys can kill this bug.

Originally posted by tagvestibule:

Success!
Ok, I was able to get 3.0 (lofi version) working on the Dash with the IBM midlet manager. I downloaded the file found at the bottom of the first post in this thread: HERE and unzipped it on my desktop. I copied the files to my Dash using activesync and ran the new midlet manager. I clicked install and directed it to http://mini.opera.com/global/opera-mini-3.0.6306-basic-int.jad and it works.
3.0 runs well and works more than once! Also, the soft keys work so you don't have to use q and p.
BTW, I tried the hifi version and it was slower (?) than lofi and it crashed a couple of times so I went back to lofi.

Tag

Yeah. This is really lame. I wouldn't expect the Opera guys to get anything working for at least a year or two. Hell, they've been too lazy to release a WM5 Smartphone version of Opera Mobile for the love of God!

Originally posted by ManneS:

If you read the threads about this, you would see that we've bought a similar phone, but it didn't have those problems.

thanks for looking into this ManneS. Hopefully we can figure this out soon. I'm going to try the new 3.0 build soon and see if it works on the DASH somehow.

The common thread here seems to be the Esmertec JVM (and not T-Mobile devices, as previously theorized); I have an HP hw6945 (Windows Mobile 5) which comes with the Esmertec JVM in ROM, and I have the same problem with the MIDP 2.0 version of Opera Mini.

The JVM version I have is as follows:
Jeodek Build ID: 20060803-103299

Opera staff, I understand you aren't able to get access to a T-Mobile Dash, but what about one of the HP hw6900 series devices? Or could you possibly get a copy of the Esmertec JVM to run on another WM5 device? It's a real shame this problem remains unresolved because the MIDP 2.0 version runs very well on this device (and is much nicer to use than IE), but, as so many others have reported, only runs once.

I also tested with the IBM J9 JVM but unfortunately it doesn't report key events for the softkeys.

The MIDP 1.0 version runs fine on both JVMs but isn't that much of an improvement over IE...it would be very nice to have the MIDP 2.0 version running in the Esmertec JVM.

I'm glad to hear that the OperaMini crew is aware of the problem with their advanced version and the Dash -- hopefully, they'll be able to address this soon.

Question for OperaMini Basic/LoFi version users: Does anyone else have to double click their links & menu selections in OperaMini for them to launch? I'm just wondering if there's a setting (java, operamini or registry) that needs to be tweaked so that I can single click links & menus to get them to work.

Anyone?

C.

I really hope that opera can track down an esmertec jvm phone. Considering they have 100s of handsets, I'm sure at least one runs this JVM.

A trick I figured out to avoid opera from closing after hitting the hangup key is to first choose "Enter Address", and then when at the text entry screen hit hangup. This will allow you to exit out to your phone's home screen. When you want to go back to opera you then relaunch the jvm and you're right back at that enter address screen. This avoids the freeze on relaunch.

Hopefully we won't have to resort to cute tricks like this in the future though, as they really shouldn't be necessary.

Originally posted by kurtraschke:

The common thread here seems to be the Esmertec JVM (and not T-Mobile devices, as previously theorized); I have an HP hw6945 (Windows Mobile 5) which comes with the Esmertec JVM in ROM, and I have the same problem with the MIDP 2.0 version of Opera Mini.

The JVM version I have is as follows:
Jeodek Build ID: 20060803-103299

Opera staff, I understand you aren't able to get access to a T-Mobile Dash, but what about one of the HP hw6900 series devices? Or could you possibly get a copy of the Esmertec JVM to run on another WM5 device?

I bet it's the T-Mobile branded firmware. T-Mobile USA branded sucks.

I, too, have the same bug w/ my t-mobile dash.

Hopefully it can be fixed soon, because I love Opera!

Good looking Mannes.
Our players will finally be answered. OperaMini 3.0 is the bomb on my Dash (if it only had the pic blogging feature and didn't have to uninstall and install everytime)

Glad to know there will be a fix for this problem. Hope it will also solve the same problem on other device running Esmertec java, ie: HP iPAQ, O2 Atom, etc. Great works..

I think it's the version of java that the t-mobile dash comes with. I changed the firmware of my dash to this firmware and i have not had any issues with opera mini. It does not use the same java as the t-mobile one. It is the unbranded htc s620 firmware w/o anything t-mobile on it. (no myfaves, instant messaging, etc..) Mine uses the intent java MIDlet Manager. My dash had something different.
edit: and i can say that this java software does let opera mini use the right and left buttons. I don't have to use the q key. It works much better.

Much better? what does that mean? Do you have the pic uploading option? Can you exit and launch the application again and still not lose your bookmarks, feeds etc..

I downloaded Opera Mini to my Dash yesterday so maybe I have the most current version but I haven't experienced any of the reported problems. Now if Opera Mobile was available... (hint hint)

Originally posted by rdnckcwby:

I downloaded Opera Mini to my Dash yesterday so maybe I have the most current version but I haven't experienced any of the reported problems. Now if Opera Mobile was available... (hint hint)

Are you sure you loaded the advanced version of OM? The basic version works fine, but compared to the advanced version it's just . . . well, basic. It doesn't support downloads and picture uploads.

Most of us are jonesin' for the Advanced Version that works with the Dash on an ongoing basis. If you loaded the advanced version and it works fine . . . wait until you exit it and then try to relaunch it. <boom!>

So . . . here's to renewed hope now that ManneS has a TMo Dash!

C.

Helooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!........is anybody working over here? Get off your butt and get something done for GOD's sake!

How NOT to get free courtesy support for an unsupported free product...

Ignoring? yeah thats why you are you posting when you haven't done so in weeks. And to that other guy, if they EVER fix this I'm gonna get it as fast as you, am I not? I am tired of begging these wacky EURO BOYS! They hate M$ anyway, Thats they don't support WM smartphones and OPERA for PPC is crap! Be a man and don't delete this.

Netfront v3.4 Technical Preview for PPC is OUT! go get it, its free. Now that's a REAL browser. PS: posting this from my T-Mobile Dash using PIE.

You probably would've deleted it like a pussy!