I May Need To Change Rom, Need Suggestions, Unusual constraints Options

[jfv]

I might finally give in and flash a new ROM but I'd like suggestions on which to choose. I'll explain my constraints. First, the main reason I might have to switch is that I can't make wpa supplicant work on the Sharp ROM, I don't think the ipks floating around work for it. (But suggestions on how to accomplish this are welcome too).

I use my Zaurus mostly on trips and I travel quite a bit, both for business and personal reasons. At home, I don't use the Zaurus much, other than fiddle with it. My main constraints are the following:

1. Networking and Internet

1.1 Software
I need a good network applet, like the Sharp ROM's that allows me to easily switch between several network configurations and save the settings. I can edit conf files but I don't to want to edit one for a airport hotspot, one for the hotel and a third for a conference center, all in a couple of days. I also need a good browser, which at a minimum will allow me to authenticate at wifi hotspots. I am happy with Netfront and wouldn't like to have to downgrade the browser.

1.2 Hardware
In addition to wifi, I often find myself using wired ethernet and occasionally a land line modem. So I need these to work. I don't have a cellphone which I can use with the Zaurus. I could look into one, if it is a viable alternative as long as it is reasonably priced and works in any country, but it may be asking too much.

2. Presentations

When I travel for work, I often give talks and although I prefer a blackboard (despite the gadget fetish ) I often have to give slideshow presentations. I use the Sharp presentation program and the IO-Data CFXGA card. I have scripts on my desktop to convert TeX generated pdfs to jpgs so I can use in the presentation program and even have TeX and ImageMagick on the Zaurus just in case. Again, these have to work flawlessly or have equivalent (as good or better) alternatives.

It would be good to have a functioning package manager, movie player and the usual goodies, but that's not essential.

I await your recommendations, thank you.

Also, for those who might recommend Cacko, can I restore a Sharp ROM backup on Cacko?

[Capn_Fish]

Well, I think Sharp/Cacko are the only ROMs that support the CF VGA card for starters. pdaXrom also more or less lacks a good browser. FF is slow, Links/Links2/Lynx/w3m/Dillo render oddly, Konqueror-embedded is quirky IMO, and the WebCore stuff is incredibly unstable.

The network applet works fine in pre-beta4 and ii13 and my wlanconfig tool works well in r1xx, so that is covered. WPA works so far as I am aware, just not easily, from what I've heard. YMMV.

The package manager works fine in pdaX, so that's OK. No idea about the modem and stuff, but I think I've heard of people using modems, and I know people use CF Ethernet adapters.

So, in short, pdaX may be good, but it probab;y won't work with your VGA adapter, which is an issue appartenly. Browsing may or may not be satisfactory, I can't tell you, as it's a matter of opinion.

No idea about restoring a Sharp backup on Cacko, but you can do a NAND backup/restore, which is a better method anyway IMO.

HTH