Rom Discussion On Tosa, lets share our opinions Options

[enlightened_j]

e17 on Zaurus 6000 looks pretty sweet!!

I got my Zaurus back in 2004. I used OpenZaurus for about a year until one day that I decided that the orange line really annoys me and switched to PDAX rom.

I run PDAX rom as my daily rom now. I primarily uses fluxbox, Firefox, Minimo (scaled down version of FireFox) , AbiWord, mplayer, xmms, and qbedict.
Here are some of my experiences from PDAX rom.

Firefox: Takes roughly a minute to load, once loaded it works great.

Minimo: Runs great, tries to render everything so that you don't have to scroll horizontally. But its effort sometimes actually screws up the page. It's kind of buggy.

Abiword: I use it to take notes when I am reading.

Qbedict: I use it to look up words I don't know when I am reading. It's usually run in conjunction with Abiword in different "workspace" of Fluxbox.

mplayer: I used mplayer to watch re-encoded xvid movies when I need to take flights. No complains here. I also use it to play online streamed NPR.

xmms: Works great.

I pretty much use PDAXrom as a scale down version of Linux PC and NOT a pda. This factor alone makes the transition to PDAXrom worth it. The only draw back I have with PDAX rom is that there's not much development for Zaurus 6000. I personally wish I have more time to do some development on it, but just don't have time.

[eji]

e17 on Zaurus 6000 looks pretty sweet!!

[...]

I run PDAX rom as my daily rom now.

How's the overall speed of pdaxrom compared to a ROM like Sharp or OZ?

Can you play movies fullscreen using mplayer in pdaxrom, or does it suffer from the same video acceleration issues as the other ROMs?

Is there any good PIM software, or does the K/Pi suite work just as well?

What's the deal with WiFi and Bluetooth? Is the reconition of the 6000's built-in WiFi flaky? Is Bluetooth working as good as or better than the Sharp-based ROMs?

I'd really appreciate it if you could answer all those. I'm dying to ditch the Sharp ROM for something as beautiful as E17, but stability, speed and hardware integration have kept me from pdaxrom so far.

[nevarrie]

Nevarrie,
It would be really nice if you could share your experience in using pdaxrom on the 6k, esp the wifi part, thank you, and i understand that we can actually dual boot the pdaxrom from sd so to keep the stock in internal flash?

can someone point out the + and - of doing so?

p/s: it's really been quiet around here (6k) and i really envy all the attention others (3k, 1k) have.. 

I am sorry that I did not see your post till today. After finding that pisync and screen where not included on pdaxrom I decided to see what programs would do the things I wanted my Z to do(As a PDA). I finally gave up about a month ago on making my Z work as a PDA that will sync easily with my exchange server at work. I really only used pdaxrom for a few weeks with e17. It ran great but I could not figure out how to sync it with my exchange calender and I could nto get my targus IR keyboard to work. I never had a problem with wifi other then I it does nto ahve a gui for bringing wifi up and down or choosing profiles but aterm and vim worked for me.

In the last month I have went back to flashing between pdaxrom 1.1.0beta1, OpenZaurus e17 with 2.6 kernel, OpenZaurus GPE with 2.6 kernel and angstrom.

I have not tried booting pdaxrom off of my sd card, probly should so I am not reflashing every other day.

I am currently flashed back to using pdaxrom with e17 again so I can work on writing a gui for the wifi that will work as an e17 module. So we will see what comes out of that.

[enlightened_j]

How's the overall speed of pdaxrom compared to a ROM like Sharp or OZ?

Can you play movies fullscreen using mplayer in pdaxrom, or does it suffer from the same video acceleration issues as the other ROMs?

Is there any good PIM software, or does the K/Pi suite work just as well?

What's the deal with WiFi and Bluetooth? Is the reconition of the 6000's built-in WiFi flaky? Is Bluetooth working as good as or better than the Sharp-based ROMs?

I'd really appreciate it if you could answer all those. I'm dying to ditch the Sharp ROM for something as beautiful as E17, but stability, speed and hardware integration have kept me from pdaxrom so far.

I am no sure what was the acceleration issues in other ROMS. My experience with Open Zaurus and PDAX ROM is that if a movie is re-encoded to 320x240 with 15 fps, it can be play full screen without dropping any frame and audio/video out of sync. There is a program I found in OESF forum that I use to re-encode my XVID movies for Zaurus. I can lookup the name of program later tonight when I get home.

I have the PIM software installed, but never really used it much. So I can't really help you on that.

Wifi works ok, but I use a script instead of the GUI. I couldn't get the Wifi GUI to work. My Zaurus is without Bluetooth; can't give you any pointer on that.

I forget to mention few other programs I use frequently on PDAX rom in my last post:

GAIM: I consistently log onto msn and yahoo messenger to take a look on who's online. Witout an external keyboard, it's hard to carry out conversations on Zaurus.

KPHONE: I use KPHONE to dial toll free number for internation calling cards during the day when my cell phone minutes are low. Some phone card does not recognize the DTMF send by KPHONE, overall experience is still positive though. Voice call through SIP woks decently well.

xvncview and server: I find xvncviewer less useful when connect to a Windows vnc server, but it works well with Linux vnc server if you set the resolution usable for Zaurus. xvnc server works pretty well. I use it pretty often when I am at home on my real computer.

xpdf: I rarely use it unless, but the times I used it to read pdf e-books, it works fine.

Here is my conclusion for PDAX rom:

I think it's a pretty decent ROM. It requires some tweaking and getting use to when first used. I think the first thing you need to do AFTER installing PDAX rom is to get the libstdc++ library. I am not sure if it's the case anymore.

I love the customisibility and versatility it gives me at the expense of some learning curve. If you have some experience with desktop Linux I would highly recommend giving PDAX rom a try if and only if you have some free time.

[trichmon]

How's the overall speed of pdaxrom compared to a ROM like Sharp or OZ?

Can you play movies fullscreen using mplayer in pdaxrom, or does it suffer from the same video acceleration issues as the other ROMs?

Is there any good PIM software, or does the K/Pi suite work just as well?

What's the deal with WiFi and Bluetooth? Is the reconition of the 6000's built-in WiFi flaky? Is Bluetooth working as good as or better than the Sharp-based ROMs?

I'd really appreciate it if you could answer all those. I'm dying to ditch the Sharp ROM for something as beautiful as E17, but stability, speed and hardware integration have kept me from pdaxrom so far.

I am no sure what was the acceleration issues in other ROMS. My experience with Open Zaurus and PDAX ROM is that if a movie is re-encoded to 320x240 with 15 fps, it can be play full screen without dropping any frame and audio/video out of sync. There is a program I found in OESF forum that I use to re-encode my XVID movies for Zaurus. I can lookup the name of program later tonight when I get home.

I have the PIM software installed, but never really used it much. So I can't really help you on that.

Wifi works ok, but I use a script instead of the GUI. I couldn't get the Wifi GUI to work. My Zaurus is without Bluetooth; can't give you any pointer on that.

I forget to mention few other programs I use frequently on PDAX rom in my last post:

GAIM: I consistently log onto msn and yahoo messenger to take a look on who's online. Witout an external keyboard, it's hard to carry out conversations on Zaurus.

KPHONE: I use KPHONE to dial toll free number for internation calling cards during the day when my cell phone minutes are low. Some phone card does not recognize the DTMF send by KPHONE, overall experience is still positive though. Voice call through SIP woks decently well.

xvncview and server: I find xvncviewer less useful when connect to a Windows vnc server, but it works well with Linux vnc server if you set the resolution usable for Zaurus. xvnc server works pretty well. I use it pretty often when I am at home on my real computer.

xpdf: I rarely use it unless, but the times I used it to read pdf e-books, it works fine.

Here is my conclusion for PDAX rom:

I think it's a pretty decent ROM. It requires some tweaking and getting use to when first used. I think the first thing you need to do AFTER installing PDAX rom is to get the libstdc++ library. I am not sure if it's the case anymore.

I love the customisibility and versatility it gives me at the expense of some learning curve. If you have some experience with desktop Linux I would highly recommend giving PDAX rom a try if and only if you have some free time.

I see you mentioned watching video on your 6000 in pdaxrom. Would you mind explaining your setup. I have done that with success on the sharp rom but I cant seem to get much to work on the pdaxrom side.

Thanks
Todd

[enlightened_j]

I see you mentioned watching video on your 6000 in pdaxrom.  Would you mind explaining your setup.  I have done that with success on the sharp rom but I cant seem to get much to work on the pdaxrom side. 

Thanks
Todd

There is a post pin on top of the forum. Ｉgot all my info from that thread.
Please check that thread.

[trichmon]

Its been awhile since this thread was started and all of the projects (OZ, pdaxrom, etc) have come a long way. I would be interested to hear what other people are using as a day to day work rom right now?

Todd

[adf]

Its been awhile since this thread was started and all of the projects (OZ, pdaxrom, etc) have come a long way.  I would be interested to hear what other people are using as a day to day work rom right now?

Todd

Right now, pdaxrom 1.1beta1 (stable?). I was hoping to do a guylhem pdaxqtrom combo, but guylhem's rom seems not likely to apper very soon. I think it might end up a tetsuized sharprom/pdaxqt running kino, shoutcastplayer, netfront and, of course, firefox. (as well as the standard rom and pdaxqt stuff)

[trichmon]

adf,

Im currently using the tetsu kernel that you pointed me to. i like it. Im running the battery aplet from guylhems page. Im also running the pdaxqt from sd. The setup is fairly good. The pdaxqt works great for smaller apps but apps like firefox are very slow (vs normal pdaxrom) even with the system overclocked to the max. I have thought about going the other way and running qt stuff on pdaxrom but im not sure how well that will work and right now im stuck needing something that will sync with either evolution or outlook.

[malik]

thanx for the discussion on the tetsu kernel :-) it works very well. i have a question:

i also downloaded the battery applet from guylhems page and added the file freqchange.conf to ~/Settings, so i can over(under)clock the cpu. but i missed the detailed battery feedback from the applet in 1% steps which was present in guylhem rom. whats the point: differences to tetsus kernel or do i have to install tetsu kernel modules or do i have the wrong applet package or ???

thanx in advance, malik

[trichmon]

I have noticed that as well. Im not sure what the fix is. I would install the modules ipk from tetsu page. It fixed a problem for me ( i just cant remember what ).

Todd

[malik]

I have noticed that as well.  Im not sure what the fix is.  I would install the modules ipk from tetsu page.  It fixed a problem for me ( i just cant remember what ).

Todd

does this mean that you fixed this problem? i installed the modules ipk but it changed nothing. please try to remember, try hypnosis or whatever, i need it thanx in advance...

malik

[malik]

according to the table at the end of tetsu's homepage there is no detailed battery feedback from the testu kernel for the tosa. this confuses me a little bit...

[adf]

[atm I'm running sharp/tetsu/pocketworkstation with fbvnc and keypebble. I need to ioad a better baattery app 8guuylhem's) and see. I think I might switch to pdaxqt.... I''m mainly interested in firefox plugins- lke java.

glad the tetsu/shap thing is gaining ground. I wish,though, that the OZ folks would get a decent working mutli network capable network applet for the 6k

[ken]

[atm I'm running sharp/tetsu/pocketworkstation with fbvnc and keypebble.  I need to ioad a better baattery app 8guuylhem's) and see.  I think I might switch to pdaxqt....  I''m mainly interested in firefox plugins- lke java.

Sounds like you're like eji and I, who are mostly satisfied with the Sharp ROM. Is there a page that shows the sharp/tetsu/powerworkstation thingie? From what I'm gathering, it's mostly sharp but some tweaks here and there?