Gpe Advice, what version to run and apps available Options

[richie]

Hi

I want to have a go using OZ with GPE. What is the best version GPE 3.5.3 or 3.5.4RC and what apps should I use with OZ/ GPE to use for the following? I have a collie Zaurus, 5500.

1. MP3 player app that allows resume for audio books
2. web browser to use
3. email app to use

Also, I want to use a full ram 64mb kernel and use an 128mb SD card to install programs though do I need to change it to ext2 format and do I need to mess with moving the filesystem to the SD card?

I have already installed the 3.5.4RC OZ/GPE, but not sure if this is best to use. I picked this as I assumed the kernel in this version has the collie suspend problems fixed, but should I go back to 3.5.3 and upgrade to the r21 kernel for an overall more stable OS?

thanks
Rich

[lardman]

Keep the latest version. It's better than the old one.

1. MP3 player app that allows resume for audio books

I don;t know which ones allow resume I'm afraid. Can anyone help? Personally I use GXine, though there are others.

2. web browser to use

I'd give gpe-minibrowser a go.

3. email app to use

Sylpheed (spelling?)

Also, I want to use a full ram 64mb kernel and use an 128mb SD card to install programs though do I need to change it to ext2 format and do I need to mess with moving the filesystem to the SD card?

No, you don't need to move anything, just ensure you have sufficient space on / (you need space for garbage collection & symlinks) and then use 'ipkg install -d sd <>'

Welcome to the club,


Si

[richie]

Welcome to the club,
Si

Hi Simon

Thanks. I'm going to stick with it and try the apps you listed, though I'm struggling with the WiFi connection. I've got a Buffallo card using hostap_cs driver, but struggling with the Network Setup GUI. Should GPE/OZ work with 802.11b and WEP? Do you have to setup networking by hand? Or should the gui work?

Cheers
Rich

[lardman]

The GUI ought to work. I don't know anything about WEP though I'm afraid. Might be worth asking on IRC to see if anyone has any ideas (#openzaurus and #gpe perhaps, though it's a bit OT as it's not about GPE itself).

I presume wlan0 is up, etc. (i.e. it's not a module problem)?

Si

[richie]

Hi Simon

Thanks for the reply. WiFi working now, WEP problem, I thought I knew the WEP key, but didn't! Now online!

Is it known what I can delete or move to the SD card without breaking things? Or should I just use a kernel with less memory to give more space?

I have 700K left on internal flash using the 64Mb ram kernel. Just tried installing gpe-mini-browser and it tried installing dependant packages and died. I had to reflash, I'm not sure if a space issue or libc6 on SD issue though.

I did try and move the whole of /usr to an ext2 SD card and it killed it too and I had to reflash, back to square one.

Cheers
Rich

[lardman]

I'd immediately start installing things to the SD card, 700kb is not much for jffs2 to use.

It might pay to uninstall the PIM apps and re-install them to the SD card (or some of the pre-installed apps anyway).

Make sure you reboot a couple of times between uninstalling and re-installing to give the jffs2 system a chance to reclaim the space used by the deleted files.


Si

[richie]

Hi Simon

Thanks for your help, I had a go at removing stuff and found even with reboots that I needed more space or to run a kernel with a ramdisk. So I've since used rboot and running gpe of an SD card so loads more space. Though I think I need to think about fsck the ext2 image everynow and then.

I now have gxine and gpe-mini-browser installed, gxine is excellent, though it seems to have a few process consuming about 17-19mb each.

BTW gxine is okay for audio books, it doesn't bookmark where you in a file, but it does allow you to pause playback, suspend and resume from the same point or seek to a position, which is an improvement on the Sharp Qtopia mediaplayer.

thanks for your help.
Rich

[lardman]

I think I remember hearing about some memory optimisations for gxine, not sure whether they got applied or not though.

Might be worth asking about it on #gpe.


Si

[silencer51]

Hi guys,

I recently flashed my Collie with OZ 3.5.4 and GPE... Everything works ok, but I can't find a web browser anywhere!

I've set up WiFi and I can access the internet... I've also edited the ipkg.conf files to point to the utwente.nl feed...

But I can't find dillo or minimo or any other browser in the feed!

Any ideas?

[lardman]

Try gpe-minibrowser.

Otherwise the other web browsers should be in the 3.5.3 feed in the GPE/X11 subdirs.


Si

[richie]

Hi guys,

I recently flashed my Collie with OZ 3.5.4 and GPE... Everything  works ok, but I can't find a web browser anywhere!

I've set up WiFi and I can access the internet... I've also edited the ipkg.conf files to point to the utwente.nl feed...

But I can't find dillo or minimo or any other browser in the feed!

Any ideas?

Hi

Change all the feeds, X11 in particular in /etc/ipkg to this root dir, http://ewi546.ewi.utwente.nl/mirror/www.op...ble/3.5.3/feed/

so for the X11-conf you would add
src/gz http://ewi546.ewi.utwente.nl/mirror/www.op.../3.5.3/feed/x11

Minimo and Dillo is in the X11 feed.

gpe-mini-browser, as you probably know is in this feed, http://ewi546.ewi.utwente.nl/sfeed/

There is an extra hyphen - in the ipkg for gpe-mini-broswer, so add the feed and type ipkg install gpe-mini-browser and not gpe-minibrowser

Cheers
Richie