Nokia QT: Compiling a Symbian application

After my initial testing of Nokia QT I had still the whole mobile application compilation part to test. So, once the Ubuntu upgrade season has ended, I decided to take some time and try to compile my simple “hello world” program as a Symbian application and test it on my Nokia 5800 phone.

Linux version of Nokia QT, as I did already write, doesn't directly support compilation of mobile applications. This is some way solved by the “remote compiler”; an experimental service, provided by Nokia forum, that compiles sources sent to it returning back the mobile device installation file. The whole process might look complex at first, but it's well documented both in Nokia QT help files and in forum's pages.

Remote compiler configuration

In order to access to the remote compiler service you must be registered to Nokia QT forum; once registered you can configure your user-name an password in remote compiler configuration form and start using then service.

Installing Nokia QT SDK on Ubuntu Linux

QT (pronounced as in “cute”) is a C++ multi-platform application framework and integrated development environment actually maintained by Nokia. QT is in the development scene since about 1991 but I got news about it only recently from a Ghabuntu's tweet. Since it promised a rapid multi-platform application development even for Nokia Symbian phones I decided give it a look.
 

Downloading: QT SDK or Nokia QT SDK?

QT is available for download in two version: QT SDK is in some way a “plain” version for desktop applications development while Nokia QT SDK is a version specifically studied for developing and deploying on Nokia devices. I downloaded Nokia QT SDK since I'm more interested in experimenting in mobile development. After some searching on QT forum it came out that Nokia devices compiling is not entirely supported in Linux version. In order to compile on Nokia devices one must download the “offline” version of Nokia QT SDK and then activate the “remote compiler” option, a service, held at Nokia forum which provides compilation of sent sources.

Installation

Once downloaded QT installation file I made it executable and launched as usual

chmod +x Nokia_Qt_SDK_Lin32_offline_v1_0_1_en.run

sudo ./Nokia_Qt_SDK_Lin32_offline_v1_0_1_en.run

the installation wizard started, after agreeing with license I selected the “custom” installation option in order to enable the “remote compiler”