Python on CF/SD, on Sharp ROM without ext2/ext3 card Options

[kopsis]

For the impatient:

http://pyqplayer.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/b...qPlayerDownload

The story:

For the past couple months I've been working on a nice iPod-like media player front end for the Zaurus. It's getting close to where I can release it (GPL'd open source) but I've been struggling with the question of how to let ordinary Zaurus users run Python apps.

There are Python binaries/libraries available for the Zaurus (Python for arm-linux) but the versions built for Sharp or Sharp-compatible ROMs have to be installed in internal memory (or an ext2/ext3 formatted CF/SD card) to work properly. To make matters worse, for my app you'd need to install a bunch of those packages and it ends up requiring some knowledge of Python and using a lot of internal memory.

So instead I built an almost complete (missing the Tk stuff and some test scripts) Python 2.3 distribution for Sharp and Sharp-compatible ROMs. Then I packaged all that up into a single file that contains an ext2 image of the Python installation tree. Thanks to some scripts and the magic of "loop" mounting, you can toss that image on any FAT formatted CF/SD card (with enough free space to hold a 50 MiB file), install a 1.2 MiB IPK, and you'll now have a relatively complete Python 2.3 distribution on your Zaurus without chewing up the 30+ MiB of internal memory that it would normally take. Note that you can install all of this without ever seeing a command prompt

My media player still isn't quite ready for prime time, but I'm releasing the Python image and IPK now in hopes that folks with some Python knowledge will try it out and report any problems.

This has been tested on an SL-C760 running Cacko 1.21a and an SL-5500 running a standard Sharp 3.13 ROM. It should work on other Sharp-compatible ROMs. It will probably not work on OE or pdaXrom.

I've found that Python with PyQt (included in this image) is by far the easiest way to write Qtopia applications for the Zaurus. And it has the added advantage that you can develop directly on the Zaurus! If you know or want to learn Python, give this image a try and let me know what you think.