Hi Guys,

I found this http://www.users.on.net/~hluc/myZaurus/distros.html

Who is working on this and when will it be available?


"The Next Generation Zaurus distro - Linux 2.6 and EABI

There currently is a lot of work being done on creating newer and better distros for the Zaurus based on the 2.6 kernel. Work on pdaXrom is still ongoing and has progressed to version r198. It still is full of annoying bugs. OpenZaurus is no more. It has been abandoned in favour of its successor, Angstrom. There has been some progress made in Angstrom which is also based on the latest 2.6 kernel as well as EABI. It is currently still in an unstable state. Debian has also been revamped and the new version is also using EABI and 2.6 kernel. There is no Debian installer for armel build for Zaurus yet, but it is possible to boot Debian for the Zaurus using a combo of bootloaders and custom 2.6 kernels. The future for a 2.6 kernel based distro on the Zaurus seems to be either with derivatives of Angstrom or Debian which are build using OpenEmbedded. Binaries compiled for each should be binary compatible, but library dependencies will be an issue.

pdaXng will be the next generation of pdaXii13 but build on top of a stable 2.6 kernel and updated libraries. It will retain the look and feel of pdaXrom but not be based on the pdaXrom code base and definately not use uboot."

It's a great pleasure to see that Meanie hasn't stopped his work. This is exactly what I`ve been dreaming longgg time.

Can't wait to install it.

....and Meanie gets it exactly right again:) (and has the skills to implement his analysis)

...just the day i'm selling my zaurus

anyway don't forget you can yet "play" with debian on your zaurus, with kernel 2.6.24, and it is to me very usable
(just lacking a real web browser with java but it is a matter of time)

then once Meanie release his NG (Star Trek style!), it should be only a matter of untaring a new rootfs!
unhopefully i won't see it ... unless my ebay auction doesn't complete

I'm checking out Meanie's updated page now. This one is linked to the above one, (at the very bottom)
http://www.users.on.net/~hluc/myZaurus/pdaxiing.html

This looks very interesting.
I'm just wondering where Meanie has been lately? I haven't seen him on this forum since last year. (2007)

Just curious,
Jon

Cool! Something to play with later. Hey jp, if your Z does sell, and you get the bug, let me know. I have an extra Z I could let go fairly cheap. I've currently stopped playing with the Z in favor of my new iPhone. My wife buys me the coolest toys. She and our room mate both got the new (to ATT anyway) palm centro's. They got them so they could use the Readerware software on them and she hasn't really used it at all yet. Though she's using the hell out of every thing else. Which is cool. I've been watching the Android Zaurus page pretty closely too. I've got the older version running on the 3100. Pretty neat, but not real usable yet. Have Meanie's pdax on the 3200. I think once Android is up and running on real phones it might give the iPhone a run, but by then we should have 3rd party apps without hacking. The iPhone and my apple tv are really the only things in the house I haven't taken apart or hacked yet! Though the apple tv might. Haven't decided yet. I might throw a larger drive in it.

well il depends on how i'll like my new machine i'm still waiting for it

What can I do to help Meanie with this release?

Send him money so he doesn't have to have a real day job! That's a joke, but probably not far from the truth....

Hi

any chance for installing NG or debian on c860 with sf / cf card ... I'm heavely wating for a usable distro on my Z ... pdaXrom still stopped, waiting for something internal???

What about angstroem distro ... how stable it is for Z ? any new compilations after 12-2007? I've seen some image for my small simpad SL-4 ... but not able to install ...

THX for all your work ...
Martin

I need a stable kernel 2.6 and support zaurus' special functions, like speedstep, etc.
And a native compile.

and .. Qt 4?

Zaurus is dead.

I do like my new iPhone, though.

Scott

I think there are a LOT of people here who would disagree...

My Zaurus still boots, runs apps, and isn't locked down, FWIW. I fail to see how it constitutes as "dead."

Don't need QT4 at all. Why would you think so? Of course, it will be compiled for the Z. How is the OSS software on that i-phone?

I like my iPhone too. Probably the best phone I've ever owned. Still like my Z, even though at the moment it's just an expensive paper weight. Freaking debian.....

Bah, I wasn't trying to say that the iPhone is
*better* than the Z or whatever. I liked the Z,
but the support just evaporated. It had such
potential, but now mine has been a paper weight
for over a year.

Scott

zaurus is total different with iphone.
iphone is modern, suitable for end user, supported by commercial company now.

As a linuxer, those advantages of iphone is not the whole world.

Hi :-)



I agree :-) ...

iPhone is nice and pretty ... but closed (source) and bundled (with itune) ... I buy my CDs DVDs in store NO download !

my c860 is open and I like to develope on / for it ... have alternate free software ... no bundling with closed access

Martin

Scott, what 'support just evaporated'???

Never knew that there was really any 'support' for the Z's other than this community here...

Unless you live in Japan....

Out of the 379.28 Gigs of data in my iTunes library, I'd say that only 100 Gigs was bought off the store. Most of that is tv shows my wife watches. The rest was ripped from my cd collection. Closed source isn't always bad. Show me a fully open source cell phone. The openmoko isn't even completely open.

I actually get more use out of mine than I ever had. iphone seems nifty, but I'm not sure it would work for me-I really need a keyboard. I think probably if there is a Z alt. it is the eeepc.

What I mean is -- this place use to be hoppin' ... two pages of threads with updates almost
daily. New software quite often -- things current... things that worked.

Scott

I know we're offtopic... but at least there's activity!

Barry -- Ya. Look at the android stuff. All the recommendations
for programming on it are like anti-best-practices. It's sad.
Android has potential -- but the iPhone is out there.


The pope recently released a list of new items that are considered
sins and I guess I'm going straight to hell because programming
in Objective-C++ was right at the top of the list.

Anyway, I like the zaurus form factor and keyboard. I looked
at a lifebook, but the keyboard was just unusable. I wish sharp
would come out with the next generation PDA, but I'm not
holding my breath. We seem to be in a phase of incremental
improvements, and sooner or later there will be a big enough
jump that a PDA will look good again, vs a phone... but phones
are where the action is going to be for quite some time now.

Scott

FWIW the Z along with pdaxii13 fits my needs at work perfectly. I use a spreadsheet to input data on my feet on a daily basis. The Z just works for me. Linux runs on it. It has a nice thumb keyboard. It is small enough to carry around all the time at work. Gnumeric works without a hitch. Bingo. I have yet to see another device that combines linux, a nice small screen and a good keyboard the way the Z does.

When there was more activity on the boards two years ago the system wasn't as mature and didn't work as well, so more activity is not necessarily a sign of a successful system.

Good point-- a lot of the posts 2 years go went either: "How do I (some seemingly simple thing)" or "Holy Crap! what just happened?- and how do I fix it?"
Now my Z with a (free with my plan) krzr does all sorts of useful things without a problem--it also does silly stuff just cuz it can.

Was reading through the PdaXng site this afternoon. This sounds fantastic. I'm dying to see the 1st beta downloads.
I got to the site reading through Meanie's 'distros' page...kinda thinking about doing a cacko/debian dualboot and maybe adding XQT/Etch for extra browser functionality.

EDIT:
I was interrupted and posted without reading. What I was trying to say was that I had it in mind to try a cacko/Debian Dualboot..possibly including a different debian/XQT for firefox under cacko- which was why I had been reading meanie's 'distros' page. Looking at pdaxng again got me curious. Any news?

Hi,

Does anyone know if this is being worked on?

I haven't heard anything about but then again I'm not a dev. Personally, I think it is unlikely that it is being worked on since InSearchOf refers to himself as the retired lead developer of pdaXrom and Sash and Meanie are MIA. No, I would say pdaXng is either in a deep coma or dead.

Hi :-)
I ask via PM ... (please don't reask, they are on heavy work!) ...

They are doing a complete rebuild on pdaXrom (V2.0.0) on a newer 2.6.xx kernel ... kernel work done by maybe 90% ... I don't know how far is GUI! THey said that if it is going to Beta state there will be an announce on the projects homepage ... Hope to get it soon because angstoem-distribution.org is getting really fine :-)

Please GoOn pdaXrom ...

Thanks to devs for their hard work !
Martin

Thanks for the info but who is working on this stuff?

Yes ... who did you asked?!? There's no activity on pdaXrom mailing list _at all_ . I (was) one of the developers, but - sorry to say that, pdaxrom newer than b3 is a dead cause. Because noone is working on it, and because the builder suxx big time. The most error-full app I've ever seen. I managed to build correctly only ONCE. And of course - I gave up.

So I doubt there will be new version at all. It's just dead. If you want newest and coolest stuff - go to angstrom, debian or poky.

Beta 3 with all the packages I do and upgrades, works great for me. I wish there was at least 256mb of ram ...

Thanks Again for the support Martin, myself and Sash (defiently not MIA). As martin said ,yes pdaXrom is getting built again from scratch, literally, from scratch. We have a working bootable "shell only" rom, with functional CF, USB, SD(MMC), Hotplug, etc. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done but it is being worked on.

pdaXrom isn't dead, we are just hiding :-)

Late

I stand befuddled but corrected. Can't wait to see what the two of you can come up with. Thanks so much.

That's good news, you guys have our support...go go go go

Something makes me wonder here and this is the phrase:



The basic consequence of that would imho be to base everything on the sophisticated Angstrom base including build system, kernel, glibc, modules, etc. and put primary efforts on customising Xfce, enlightenment, whatever to the pdaXRom feeling.

But from what I read this is not the case, maybe I am wrong here, so please correct me.
If I am right then I still see lots redundant efforts which I feel is disappointing.

Oliver

That sounded like what was planned to me, as well. Actually it sounded like a very good idea. I sincerely hope it happens.

the best mobile phone is nokia. Only in Usa Iphone sells, in europe (italy in particular) the market is very very hard and iphone don't do..

I used to think that too until I got my wife an N95. The bloody volume up switch has a weak solder joints (known issue) and popped off less than three months after we got it. The unit has been a case the whole time and has not been dropped. Nokia Canada says they won't fix it even though it is still under warranty. Her next phone will definately not be a Nokia and I won't allow anymore Nokias into the cell fleet at my company.

To expand; I think it was to be built with the same system as Angstrom, using core work from Angstrom and PdaXrom, while being essentially a separate and distinct system with (probably) some variations in dependencies and versions. Since it appears that meanie has wandered off we may never know. Though it is to be hoped, failntly, that he may re-emerge with some version of pdaxng yet

One swallow does not make a summer...

http://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=25666

Back on topic.
Is there any news on pdaxng?
Debian, Angstrom and Android installs seem too complex, so I'm sticking with pdaxrom.
If only someone would port Puppy Linux to ARM, I would probably try that.

I need to get on the ball with sending updates, I apologize.
Yes, we are still in the works of getting it stable enough to start releasing nightly builds. (more like weekly builds)

Current functional stuff.
USB, SD, CF, Touchscreen, Suspend, Date/Time after reboot, X starts at boot,

Working on
Sound, Xorg, Boot time optimizations,...

I just opened up our pdaxrom-everyone mailing list to the public, You wont see to much traffic on there (hopefully that will change), but if you would like to become involved in pdaxrom please join.
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinf...daxrom-everyone

Late

WOOT!! news!

this is great

Ok, only 1 person signed up for the mailing list so far!.. Come on, All the cool kids are doing it!!!... I'm looking for fol\ks that want to help, want to ask questions, want to test... Whatever just sign up and speak!

Late

I'm joining now. I didn't realize there was a mailing list again!

Hi ...

now on the list tooo ... c860 :-)

Martin

Joined the list as well. I can help test either on a C1000 or a C3200 but, I am more of a Beta/Release Candidate than an Alpha tester these days since I am short on time and loosing my Linux skills.

Spending too much time working on Windows and OS X machines these days.

Thanks to everyone for joining... I mean any help is help... I would like to start pumping out releases every week... I have a dedicated machine that will do it also... so... soon, we will start dropping releases avaliable for download up to the official v2 release.

Late

Joined.