There Goes My Cacko ... Options

[andresgriego]

Well, somehow I just screwed up my Cacko install. Now when I reboot, It just turns off on the slash screen. Once it runs though all that text initialization, it'll goto a 'Cacko and Qtopia is loading' screen. Part way through the splash, the screen used to 'flare up', like it just finished loading it's settings for the screen brightness. After the flare up, the little cross-hair would appear.

Currently, my Z just shuts down before the flare up, and never reaches the cross-hair.

How very fragile Linux is ...

Before this happened, I was trying to get my new Linksys WCF12 working. This was no easy task and I never succeeding in getting it to connect. While working on this, the music player froze and wouldn't close via the X in the right hand corner, so I hit the reset in the back of the device. BIG MISTAKE, my problems started from there.

I'm not really looking for help, unless someone knows exactly what's wrong. I'm just going to flash with Cacko again, and try to get my WiFi working.

Me and my Z have a love-hate relationship, but mostly it's the OS I hate. I'm not advocating MS. Windows Media is no better with all the deception and copyright crap, but atleast it's stable. But after seeing what a Z is capable of, Ill never look back.

Hopefully a usable version of Pdaxrom will be available soon.

[Stubear]

Sounds like you have been hit with the brightness app - lowest level bug

Let it sit for a few minutes after the flare-up time, then hit Fn+4 to bring the brightness level up.

Or plug it into the ac adapter- that should put you on highest brighness.

The brightness/battery app in the status bar has a problem with the lowest setting, for some reason when changing screen orientation or returning from suspend the screen is set to LCD off, it can be turned back on by changing the brightness level (FN+4) or plugging in the ac-adapter (at least that has always worked for me)

Hoep this helps

Stu

[andresgriego]

plugging in the ac-adapter (at least that has always worked for me)

I remember reading about this bug, I will try the plug-in method when I get home.

Thanks, StuBear.

EDIT: That was the problem, the screen came on once it was plugged in. I adjusted the battery dim to one level above the lowest.

And I take back my remarks on stability, jury's still out on this matter.

[daniel3000]

plugging in the ac-adapter (at least that has always worked for me)

I remember reading about this bug, I will try the plug-in method when I get home.

Thanks, StuBear.

EDIT: That was the problem, the screen came on once it was plugged in. I adjusted the battery dim to one level above the lowest.

And I take back my remarks on stability, jury's still out on this matter.

Great to hear you got it working again.
However, my experience shows: It is sometimes better to buy a card (or whatever accessory) for some additional dollars which is KNOWN to work, rather than trying to make one work which is questionable.
Of course we need these people who make such hardware work too (I am one of those, I guess - sometimes I try very hard just to get a cheap USB Bluetooth module going ;-), but if you don't know Linux well enough, if you rely on the Zaurus as a daily tool, or if you "just want to work" with it, rather use approved hardware...

Just my 2 cents

daniel

[uth]

On Linux & Stability, the major problem is the Zaurus isn't exactly a mainstream hardware platform, so it doesn't have a developer communitiy anywhere near the size of the PC. Linux on my desktop is rock-solid, on my Z, it's a bit flaky, but usable (but frustratingly poorly-documented)

[uth]

plugging in the ac-adapter (at least that has always worked for me)

I remember reading about this bug, I will try the plug-in method when I get home.

Thanks, StuBear.

EDIT: That was the problem, the screen came on once it was plugged in. I adjusted the battery dim to one level above the lowest.

And I take back my remarks on stability, jury's still out on this matter.

Great to hear you got it working again.
However, my experience shows: It is sometimes better to buy a card (or whatever accessory) for some additional dollars which is KNOWN to work, rather than trying to make one work which is questionable.
Of course we need these people who make such hardware work too (I am one of those, I guess - sometimes I try very hard just to get a cheap USB Bluetooth module going ;-), but if you don't know Linux well enough, if you rely on the Zaurus as a daily tool, or if you "just want to work" with it, rather use approved hardware...

Just my 2 cents

daniel

Yes, and when you find something that works, please update the appropriate wiki pages with the information (if it's not already there). It would be nice to have all this information in one place, and not have to dig through the forums and web for it.

[andresgriego]

However, my experience shows: It is sometimes better to buy a card (or whatever accessory) for some additional dollars which is KNOWN to work, rather than trying to make one work which is questionable.

So is the WCF12 not a good choice for a Wifi card? That's too bad because I found this one locally and cheap. I thought other people had reported success using it? I read everything I could find on it, and the only negative thing was some people had outages and had to frequently re-connect.

Here's what I've done, maybe you can help me make a decision if I should return the card or not.

I created a new 'Wireless' profile in the Network applet in the Settings.

I have turned off AutoConnect in the Network applet in two places, the checkbox on the bottom labelled 'Autoconnect' and in the profile Wireless where it says 'Auto'.

I have set essid to 'sol' which is the same as the SSID value in my router.

NOTE: The connect button at the bottom of the Network applet is greyed out.

wlan-ng.conf
Removed all references to cards except mine.
Left in the top 2 lines:
1. device "prism2_cs"
2. class"wlan-ng" ...

Hostap_cs.config
Removed all references to cards except mine.
Left in the top 2 lines:
1. device "hostap_cs"
2. class"hostap" ...
I also left in the three lines of comments at the bottom.

The MANFID in both these files matches the output of the command: 'cardctl info'

I have reboot Cacko after making these changes. I have also tried 'remove the card(via taskbar ejector), /etc/.../pcmcia restart, insert the card'. Doesn't this command have the same effect as rebooting?

After all this
1. The connect button at the bottom of the Network applet is still greyed out.
2. Click connect in the start menu yields a message saying no hardware found.

What do I do now?
1. Should I try a firmware update?
2. Or, not even bother and just return the card for a refund?

Linksys WCF12: Hardware Revision 1A
Router: D-Link DI-524 Wireless Router


Thanks for your valued input,

Andres

[cmonex]

hm, hm, as for approved hardware.. i must've gotten lucky... tried 3 wifi cards, 5 bluetooth cards (4 different models), one lan card
all worked

the linksys thing should work IMO (it is just a prism chipset..), did you try a cardctl insert 0 when the connect button is greyed out? do you have the network icon at all on the taskbar/tray? (it is white/yellowish and looks like a power plug, at least to me )

[andresgriego]

hm, hm, as for approved hardware.. i must've gotten lucky... tried 3 wifi cards, 5 bluetooth cards (4 different models), one lan card
all worked

the linksys thing should work IMO (it is just a prism chipset..), did you try a cardctl insert 0 when the connect button is greyed out? do you have the network icon at all on the taskbar/tray? (it is white/yellowish and looks like a power plug, at least to me )

The results of 'cardctl insert 0' is 'ioctl(): Device or resource busy'.

There is no networking icon in the taskbar.

Should I flash the firmware? Or just return it? Or is there something else I can try?

[boardboyd]

hm, hm, as for approved hardware.. i must've gotten lucky... tried 3 wifi cards, 5 bluetooth cards (4 different models), one lan card
all worked

the linksys thing should work IMO (it is just a prism chipset..), did you try a cardctl insert 0 when the connect button is greyed out? do you have the network icon at all on the taskbar/tray? (it is white/yellowish and looks like a power plug, at least to me )

The results of 'cardctl insert 0' is 'ioctl(): Device or resource busy'.

There is no networking icon in the taskbar.

Should I flash the firmware? Or just return it? Or is there something else I can try?

I have a Linksys WCF12 and it worked out of the box, no problems, no config files to change in both Cacko 1.22 and 1.23 (pdaXrom was a different story though). I would suggest exchanging it. I had a problem with a Netgear WiFi card a while ago and it was doing the resource busy error as well and I bought the WCF12 and had no problems since.

[bam]

same here no-issues.

[TheWalt]

Same with me , worked out of box no issues.

[maslovsky]

I beileve it depends on the Prism chipset version. Newer cards have Prism III and it seems less stable with HostAP drivers on Zaurus.

[andresgriego]

Hey, thanks for the answers guys.

FYI: I returned the WCF12 and got my money back. I won a Symbol Spectrum on ebay. The card was recognized and the Connect command worked without a hitch. True plug and play.

It's hard to explain the awe I feel, looking at this little screen render my ebay.

Awesome.

[Snappy]

Gee ... so that was the problem ... and I thought it was a bad battery. And, congrats on your win!