Rom Discussion On Tosa, lets share our opinions Options

[malik]

hello out there,


i read about users who wanted to sell their tosa, others bought a 2nd
zaurus and again others flash frequently from rom to rom. some time ago
i also had the idea to change the zaurus model. there must be reasons for
that and i think its not the hardware aspect of this device.

the aim of this thread should be to share your thoughts and experiences
on the different roms. it can also be useful for others who want to test
a different rom. what do you like, what do you hate? what works, what doesnt?

i will start with my opinion on the different roms. some of them i used for
several months, some only for several hours. but maybe others will write more
on the roms, i only tested.

before i start, i should mention for what i use my zaurus most of the time:
reading news with opiereader, pim (kopi), latex, wikipedia with zbedic,
from time to time mp3s and ebooks...


----------------
SHARPROM
----------------

for the moment it seems to be the best choice for me. i used it for the
most of the time, but nevertheless my report is short.

installed/working applications (besides usual ones): tex/dviviewer,
usb keyboard (also usb mouse, but i dont use it), xqt/pocketworkstation,
giant icons on root

todo: maybe i will replace the default fonts and update opera

pros: stability, browser opera, wlan out of box

cons: no progress, no development --> no future ?!



--------------
PDAXROM
--------------

i used (maybe i should write tested) it for nearly 3 months with ups and downs.
in the end i had the feeling that i dont use this rom on a daily basis, i was
spending a lot of time in getting things to work. i had problems with
suspend/resume and in some cases only taking off the battery helped.

this was more than 6 months ago. now i tried 1.1 beta out and i was suprised
but in the negative. it took me 10 minutes to flash back as everything
i tried out went wrong: i started scite and dillo, minimized it,
then i recognized that the time was wrong. setting the time resulted in turning
off the backlight and killing the minimized applications?! i added a rotation
applet on the taskbar. but i was not able to rotate back. suspending confuses
me as the backlight is turned off for more than one second and then the device
does that what it should do.

all this sounds bad, but it is nothing serious. i know that a lot of tosa users
use this rom, so it has to be good. and be sure that i will give it another try,
maybe using a different wm than matchbox.

pros: great, active community and communication. very nice rom with all the
advantages of X application. the idea of running the same wm on my linux box
(kde) and my zaurus is somehow cool.
cons: see above. maybe the speed of the tosa (and the rom) is not sufficient
enough to run big applications like kde.


-------------------
OPENZAURUS
-------------------

oz was the reason getting me a linux pda instead of a pocket pc. i owned a
collie running hentges rom and everything was fine, ii was also running
sharp applications under opie with compat libs.

pros: very structured development with higher aims (i dont know if this is
a really pro in view of the users). upcoming kernel 2.6, but unfortunately
the tosa device does not play a main role for natural reasons.
ability to run a lot of applications, those of the sharprom world with opie
and compat libs and also X applications with gpe. the dual boot idea is
also very good.

cons: there are some bugs in oz 3.5.4 rc1, which hold me back on jumping on
this train, in the first place the line drawing bug, sound problems with opie,
missing keys. the bad thing in my opinion is that all the mentioned bugs are
not new and are well known from previous releases.
i dislike the feed structure of oz. net, network, networking, this confuses me,
a directory named e and a lot of ones with only one package, hundreds of
"locales". maybe it doesnt matter for those who use ipkg from the console,
but if you want to use the package manager it matters..


--------------------
GUYLHEMROM
--------------------

a kind of "one man show". i tried it in the beginning and had the feeling
that this rom was more or less a personal nand backup, a kind of snapshot.
i also tried the fast kernel thing getting me crazy as the "f" key turned
the light on and off. natural consequence: i avoided this rom for months.
now i tried rc4 and i was suprised. i like the boot screen (no confusing
warnings as before). a lot of things changed.

pros: the exact battery applet, nice fonts. the idea of getting the existing
rom more usable. guylhem used nicer fonts, why not use nicer icons?

cons: i removed a lot of applications and installed some others, but i was
not able to remove the corresponding icons or to move them between
the categories with the help of the launcher. restarting opie and rebooting
didnt changed anything except the touchscreen was not responding (maybe i
removed the wrong applications).

[DrWowe]

I switch between pdaXrom (the newest beta version works well for me) and Sharp ROM, although I've heavily customized the Sharp ROM. I've been experimenting with Guylhem kernel, by default he changes all the keymappings but you can change it back by recompiling. As soon as I get that finished, do you want me to post it? It should just be a few days if all goes well.

I acquired a C760 recently and I've been playing with Cacko ROM. It's very very nice, it's what Sharp ROM should be. I'm thinking about combining that with Guyhelm kernel and seeing if I can make a Cacko-6000 ROM. I'll post back if I get that going.

[loc4me]

I switch between pdaXrom (the newest beta version works well for me) and Sharp ROM, although I've heavily customized the Sharp ROM.  I've been experimenting with Guylhem kernel, by default he changes all the keymappings but you can change it back by recompiling.  As soon as I get that finished, do you want me to post it?  It should just be a few days if all goes well.

I acquired a C760 recently and I've been playing with Cacko ROM.  It's very very nice, it's what Sharp ROM should be.  I'm thinking about combining that with Guyhelm kernel and seeing if I can make a Cacko-6000 ROM.  I'll post back if I get that going.

I would also be very interested in tyring the rom you have customized for yourself. If you have time combining best of Cacko and Guylhem's ROM would make a really nice combo.

You say that he changes all the keymappings by default and you can change back if you recompile the kernel. Why would you want to change back? the Guylhem rom is the only one i have had working with all the keyboard "out of the box" with out hacking it. What advantage do you see in going back to the "default" keymapping. I know you have been able to make your own keymappings using the keycode.tbl file, is that the reason you would go back?

Thanks

[lardman]

cons: there are some bugs in oz 3.5.4 rc1, which hold me back on jumping on
this train, in the first place the line drawing bug, sound problems with opie,
missing keys. the bad thing in my opinion is that all the mentioned bugs are
not new and are well known from previous releases.

I know about the (orange?) line bug which is a kernel issue afaiu, this requires people to investigate and fix it. There aren't many people with 6ks so this takes time I'm afraid.

Although you say they are well known, are these other bugs - sound with opie, keys, etc. in the bugtracker?


Si

[speculatrix]

as I understood it, Guylhem ROM for 6000 was a work in progress with Guylhem replacing components of Sharp ROM with new things as and when he had time... bits of Cacko are already there.

Whilst Guylhem has done some sterling work in fixing the Sharp bodges and making a clean install, it's a long way off being Cacko for the 6000 as yet,

When I got my 860, I tried Sharp rom only briefly, went straight to Cacko 1.22 (trying thin and fat), and are now v happy with 1.23 fat. Anton truly did a remarkable job, not just in putting together a complete package, but also in back-porting kernel components after 2.4.18 back into the sharp kernel. I don't know where he gets the time!

I think if Guylhem had the time, the G-ROM would be catching up with Cacko...

I donated to Cacko, to Guylhem, and would happily donate to Dr Wowe if he came up with Cacko-6000. I am also hopeful that the bounty for accelerated video for the 6000 will help too.

Paul

[malik]

@drwowe> sure, i am very interested in the guylhem kernel with or
without the different keyboard supports. the cacko/guylhem synergy
sounds also well but may be harder to realize. thanx in advance.

@lardman> concerning the other mentioned bugs i had an older thread
and a comment of mickey in mind, see oz 3.5.3 bug list, post #14:

http://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=12076

at this point i think that i have to check whether my oz/upgrades feed
is not an old one. thanx:-) the sound problem only appeared in
opieplayer2, not in gpe. i installed mplayer from the oz feed, but if
i remember right it had similiar problems and was much too slow. trying
out a mplayer binary from my sd card (from a sharp rom installation) let
me forgot about this bug, it had no sound problems and was much faster.

but you are right, reporting bugs should be much better. the line
drawing bug was reported at the end of november! oz 3.5.3 was
announced in april...

[lardman]

the sound problem only appeared in
opieplayer2

What is the problem with it? Not that it plays too fast by chance? If so, this is generic for PXA machines and is caused by the conf file having one missing setting in it. Do a search for 'opiexine' and alter the conf file accordingly.

the line
drawing bug was reported at the end of november! oz 3.5.3 was
announced in april...

I have actually seen some posts about this bug, but as only one person was working on it (iirc), progress will be slow unless others want to help out.


Si

[Zal42]

I've tried each of the ROMs for the 6000, and have settled on the OZ release candidate, despite the remaining problems. The others, outside of the Sharp ROM, have several problems which are showstoppers for me.

In OZ, the orange line problem is largely gone -- you still see one every so often, but only briefly. The missing keys and problems with authenticated SMTP remain the biggest problems for me, but I can live with them for now. I haven't noticed any sound problems, though (unless it's the double-speed in opieplayer thing, which is easy to fix, and I use XMMS anyway).

In the near future, I'm going to get a development platform set up. Perhaps I can help with some of the OZ kernel problems (my favorite programming is low-level programming).

My second choice would be Guylhem, although the problem with using the on/off button is a big enough deal for me that I ditched it as soon as OZ RC1 came out.

[jbruno]

I use pdaXrom, rc12 version.

AFAIK, the only thing that doesn't work is alarm while suspended, but I think the recent version that just came out may fix that.

I get to use Firefox and have a complete dev cramfs from the pdaXrom feeds.

I tried the others, but have no plans to go back now that I have pdaXrom.

[DrWowe]

I'm thinking about combining that with Guyhelm kernel and seeing if I can make a Cacko-6000 ROM.  I'll post back if I get that going.

Just an update here. I've been working on this a bit for the past few days and it's working. I've got Cacko on the 6000.

Not everything is working yet and there are bugs, but I'm hopeful I can get them worked out and make a release eventually.

Any ideas for what I should call it? I'm thinking "CG-6000 ROM" to acknowlege Cacko and Guylhem.

[loc4me]

I'm thinking about combining that with Guyhelm kernel and seeing if I can make a Cacko-6000 ROM.  I'll post back if I get that going.

Just an update here. I've been working on this a bit for the past few days and it's working. I've got Cacko on the 6000.

Not everything is working yet and there are bugs, but I'm hopeful I can get them worked out and make a release eventually.

Any ideas for what I should call it? I'm thinking "CG-6000 ROM" to acknowlege Cacko and Guylhem.

That would be really great. I have always thought that the cacko rom for the 6000 would make it the best hand held. The only thing that would be different is that Kino would not be as good since video acceleration is not working at the moment.

I have no idea for the name. CG6000 Rom is better than anything i have attempted to put together. Let us know if you would like to recieve some donations to help with the porting progress. Thanks

[speculatrix]

Any ideas for what I should call it?  I'm thinking "CG-6000 ROM" to acknowlege Cacko and Guylhem.

this is fabulous news! If it weren't for the experiments to implant bluetooth into the 6000 and add flash and ram, I would be selling my 6000 and 860 now to buy a 3100. I too would like to offer beer tokens to encourage you. When (to be positive) accelerated video comes along, the 6000 will suddenly realise its full potential!

I have no idea for the name. CG6000 Rom is better than anything i have attempted to put together.

I have no idea for the name. CG6000 Rom is better than anything i have attempted to put together.

thinking out loud...a bit of name mangling...
Guylko? Cackhem?
Cackaznur? or Azko (to use Guylhem's surname).

[malik]

Just an update here.  I've been working on this a bit for the past few days and it's working.  I've got Cacko on the 6000.   

Not everything is working yet and there are bugs, but I'm hopeful I can get them worked out and make a release eventually.

Any ideas for what I should call it?  I'm thinking "CG-6000 ROM" to acknowlege Cacko and Guylhem.

this sounds great. though the name should be secondary CG is ambiguous
on this device --> "CG Silicon"... i am ready to test anything you upload;-)

@lardman> i guess you are right, its a speed issue of the opieplayer and can be fixed
easily...

[LeTic]

I agree with Malik, maybe you could agree with the Cacko Rom guys to be considered as an official SL 6000 Port so you can use their name

If you need beta-tester do not hesitate !


Concerning the opie-player issue the speed problem is indeed easily fixe by uncommenting a line in the opiexine.cf file see here http://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showt...998&hl=opiexine

[xjqian]

Looking forward to the Guylhem + Cacko.