OpenZaurus, OZ on the 6000 Options

[nevarrie]

I was able today to get a build made with openemebedded of GPE to flassh and run on an SL-6000L. I will try to get screen shots and picture on the internet. There is also a second 6k running GPE so it looks like it is repeatable. Right now I do not know what all works and what does not but at least it boots. 6k user may finally have an alternitive and it runs X.

[dino]

Cool!
Does it have any onboard development tools? I was looking through the OpenEmbedded packages and I'm not sure if the tools stay on the developemnt PC. They may get compiled and included in the package installed on the target machine.

[nevarrie]

here are a few pictures of my Z running my build of GPE with openembedded:

Zaurus SL-6000 running GPE

As of right now there are still several things that do not work, such as WiFi and APM(Suspend and sleep lock the Z requiring a hard reset). Hopefully I will be able to find what is still missing form the kernel and have a build that will work on the SL-6000L. I will keep the zug posted on my progress.

dino...as of right now it is just a base rom so that I can fiugure out what needs to happon to get OZ working on the SL-6000. ,,I am not sure what development tools are already setup for build to be onboard but I am sure there is a way to add ones you would want ot the oe system if they are not already there...

[ced]

what's the performance like?

[nevarrie]

Over all I fell it is faster then the default sharp rom in responce to clicking on an icons. But since I really do nto have much on the rom I built I can not tell you how well it runs programs yet. I am building a new kernel right now that should give me network access and then I will try out a few more programs.

[benkrembs]

You are a hardcore dude, my friend. My hat is off to you. Keep up the good work for all of us lamers out here who arent nearly as gifted as you....

[nevarrie]

I not so sure I would call myself that gifted...the people that have put OE together are the ones that are gifted...I am just willing to take a risk and see if I can make it work on my zaurus(Praying that it will not break my Z) and see what errors I get and see if someone can tell me how to fix it...

[zaurist968]

nevarrie,

Any updates on network access? did you get it working?

I am >this< close to taking the plunge with an alternate image on my 6000. Can you post the procedure you used? I am well versed with Linux on the PeeCee but this embedded thing is a whole new world.

I feel 100% at home with the layout of RedHat/Fedora and Slackware. How does the openembedded distro compare?

[nevarrie]

I have nto got the wifi working yet...I have finally got the kernel module to load and see that card but I have not had the time to get further then that on WiFi...I have been working on both a binary package that is using sharps stuff to uses the wifi using wlan-ng 0.2.0 and getting oe to build 0.2.1 pre21 for uses...

I did get my usb keyboard to work with OE though the biggest problem other then the networking right now is that apm does not work. This means that the z does not suspend correctly. It does go to sleep after 15 minutes and then requires the battery to be removed and then pressing the reset switch before it will power on again...I also have to uses the battery trick if I isssue a shutdown -h now.

As for you question on how the embedded distros compare to a desktop distro, OpenZaurus built using OpenEmbedded follows Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) so most files are where you would find them in redhat and other distros that follow this standard. In many ways I like OpenZaurus better then the default sharp rom since it does follow this standard and has an init structure like that find in redhat will sharp uses and init structure like that found in slackware and bsd.

As it is right now I run OpenZaurus during the week and then restore to Sharps rom for the weekend so I can uses my Z when I am going to school. Sharps restore works very well for getting you back to where you where before flashing a new rom. THe only thing I have found in flashing back and forth is that you must uses a cf card to flash the sharp rom onto you z, where as I flash OZ all week from my sd card.

[msodano]

So you _have_ OZ running on your 6000? Or the OpenEmbedded as you mention? Be interesting to try this w/e, if it is OZ---which version, and was there anything special to be done as far as flashing?

---Matt

[lardman]

OpenEmbedded (OE) is the build system used to build OpenZaurus (OZ) which is the distro for the Sharp machines.

As far as versions go, it's probably something like 3.5.1 - yes the number is correct and not a typo - (though there are no official versions at the moment).


Si

[Mickeyl]

So you _have_ OZ running on your 6000? Or the OpenEmbedded as you mention?

Write down 1000 times: OpenEmbedded is a build tool which happens to build OpenZaurus, OpenSIMpad, familiar linux, and others.

[nevarrie]

So you _have_ OZ running on your 6000? Or the OpenEmbedded as you mention? Be interesting to try this w/e, if it is OZ---which version, and was there anything special to be done as far as flashing?

---Matt

As serveral have already said, I used OpenEmbedded to build an OpenZaurus kernel and jffs2 image. Flashing was not hard. Here is what I did:

• put updater.sh, zImage.bin, and initrd.bin in the root of my sd card
• reset my Z then pressed the OK button while pressing the power botton.
• Selected Update from the menu that come up
• After the z printed the it was writing the kernel and image it asks you to reset
• After resetting the Z I have been pressing OK while powering on then selecting format from the menu. I am nto sure if this is needed though I have had a few times that it was stuck at the OpenZaurus boot image and would nto go further till I did the format, and the sharp room will not except screen input till the format has been issued.
• After format Z will reboot and you will see the GPE screen with OE at the bottom.

The is what I did to flash my 6k to run OpenZaurus using GPE. I will verify all this when I flash again today to try out the wlan-ng package.

[coolass]

Any more news on OZ for your sl-6k ?????

[tonyb]

Gtreat going, Nevarrie, I have been following you in the OE IRC channel. I will be OEing my 6K next.
Need to back out my Sharp fs into a new initrd.bin, cause dont want to loose all my stuff, when I go back and forth. Then I am going to build a task-bootstrap, first, rather than a meta-gpe or meta-opie, cause I want to play with it in mode 3 first. Not really interested in the GUI's...