I give this information as is, with no guarantee of anything. I did not produce it maliciously, I leave it for public review, and I would like to edit it as necessary. Outstanding Issues: 1. The entire document needs to be reviewed by other people. 2. I don't know how to get a play list for .m4a files 3. I don't know the optimal way to format videos 4. I need to confirm that the CF card is located at /dev/hda1 5. I would like to specify more about which "goodies" to install, and specifically what they do 8. I need to figure out some decent emulator / games to use. 9. This document needs to be cleaned up in HTML format, and hypelinks added where appropriate 10. Need to add a list of compatible wifi cards 11. Need to add the md5 check sum procedure (need help with this). The RC11 + XFCE4 + ROX Desktop Guide for Linux Newbs for the C1000 Hello. I am not an expert on Linux, this guide is meant to help people who know little to nothing about linux to install this combination of software, which I think is very user friendly, functional, and pretty. General Procedure: 1. Install OpenZaurus in order to partition your internal flash memory properly. 2. Install pdaXrom RC11. 3. Install Applications, including ROX filing system. *install libstdcxx from older distribution to make firefox work 4. Install XFCE4 and "XFCE4 related goodies" into flash memory *fix display orientation *fix keyboard and mouse input *create the pinboard "ROX --pinboard=MYPINBOARD *add the pinboard to xinitrc.xfce4 Required/Recommended Materials: C1000 Power Adaptor (if you are in the U.S., DO NOT USE THE JAPANESE ONE) CompactFlash Card SecureDigital Card CompactFlash Wifi Card CF Card Reader for your PC Internet Connection through your PC ONE PART A You will need to install OpenZaurus in order to partition your drive the way that pdaXrom wants. Download the three files that you need from the OpenZaurus website: http://www.openzaurus.org/official/unstable/3.5.3/c1000/ You will have 3 files: opie-image-akita-20050427214434.rootfs.img updater.sh zImage-akita-20050427214434.bin You need to rename two of these files in this way: zImage-akita-20050427214434.bin ==> zImage.bin opie-image-akita-20050427214434.rootfs.img ==> initrd.bin You should now have three files: zImage.bin initrd.bin updater.sh Format/initialize/erase a CompactFlash (CF) or a Secure Digital (SD) card. If you can guarantee that the file system is ext2, this is best. The console is a text based interface for controlling linux. You can usually click on an icon of a black computer screen named terminal or console to open the console. If you would like to do this on a Zaurus running the original Sharp ROM, open the console and type the following: CF CARD: cd /mnt/cf [enter] ls [enter] SD CARD: cd /mnt/card [enter] ls [enter] This means "change the directory to the location /mnt/cf (or in the case of SD, to /mnt/card). mnt = mount. We are checking to see if the Zaurus has mounted your card. Given that your zaurus has mounted a card, this first line shouldn't throw an error. Next, we say "ls." This command means list, as in "list the contents of the directory that we are looking at. Since we cd'd into the /mnt/cf directory, after we enter "ls", we should be able to see a list of the contents of the CF or SD card. Hopefully you've removed any files you want to save to your home computer or something. Now we want to UN-mount the CF / SD card. We must unmount the card in order to re-format it. Therefore, make sure that you're not using anything on the card that you're formatting. If you are running something from the card when you try to format it, the Zaurus will not let you unmount the card. We unmount the card with the following command in console: CF CARD: umount /mnt/cf [enter] SD CARD: umount /mnt/card [enter] Now that the card is unmounted, we want to format it. The command for formatting the card is: CF CARD: mkfs.ext2 /dev/hda1 [enter] SD CARD: mkfs.ext2 /dev/mmcda1 [enter] If for some reason you wanted to format your card in a fat16 format, you would use the command mkfs.vfat. Now your card should be erased and formatted to the fastest (ext2) format. Copy the three files for OpenZaurus onto your CF/SD card. Do not put them into a folder or directory on the card. Put them into the card's main "root" directory. PART B: Make sure that your battery is fully charged. Turn the Zaurus off by opening the console and typing: halt [enter] Wait until the Zaurus shuts down completely. Remove Power Adaptor. Unlock Battery Compartment. Remove Battery. Wait 5 Seconds. Replace Battery. Lock Battery Compartment. Hold down the "OK" key. While OK key is held down, press the "ON" button. Wait for a screen to appear giving you 4 japanese options. Plug the Zaurus into a power source now. There should be 4 Japanese options on the screen. Choose the 4th option. Insert the CF/SD card with the three files in it into the Zaurus. Now there should be a prompt "1. CF 2. SD" Choose the option which corresponds to the card that you are using. There should be one more Japanese prompt, most likely asking you if you really want to do this. Choose the button with the (Y) in it (the left button I believe). OpenZaurus should now install. If there are any more menu options, they will be in English, and you should pick the one that amounts to "intall OpenZaurus". This should be straightforward. I think afterwards it automatically reboots and you get to start using OpenZaurus. The important part is that if OpenZaurus installs correctly, then it partitions your drive into the pieces that pdaXrom needs to install. The downside of this partitioning is that once you install OpenZaurus, the only way to get back to the original Sharp ROM is through a NAND Restore. Play with OpenZaurus now while you have it. I didn't particularly like it, but you might as well look at it while you are running it to see what you think of it. TWO PART A: We will now install pdaXrom rc11. All three required files will be in one zip file found here: http://212.10.30.205/rc11/Zaurus-C1000-C3100/kathrin-rc11-akita.zip This time, you will not need to rename any of the files. The files will have these names: initrd.bin tools.tar updater.sh Installing pdaXrom is essentially identical to installing OpenZaurus. To install pdaXrom, follow the instructions in ONE, and use these three files instead of the OpenZaurus files. You will not need to reformat the CF/SD card a second time, but you will need to delete the OpenZaurus files from the CF/SD card before putting the pdaXrom files onto the CF/SD card. After you say (Y) at the last Japanese prompt, the pdaXrom installer will ask you which option you want to choose. Choose the first option, to install pdaXrom. When prompted, erase your flash memory. After this, choose the 6th option to reboot your machine. PART B: Your machine should now reboot with a cute penguin. Wait for a while until it prompts you for a login. Type the following: root [enter] You can now set a password if you like. This password will be the God-of-all-passwords on your machine, so make sure to remember it. If you would like to set a password, type the following: passwd [enter] Now, it will prompt you for your password, and ask you to retype it. Enter your password, retype when prompted, and your password is set. After you have logged in and perhaps set a password, type the following: startx [enter] This command means "start the X Windowing system" and is the command used to get into the pdaXrom flavor of X. At this point, you should be asked to calibrate the screen. Follow the on-screen instructions. When pdaXrom starts for the first time, I think it asks you to set the time. Use your intuition and set the time. The interface is fairly user friendly. If you screwed up while calibrating the screen, you can click on the "settings" folder, and click the "Input Setup" icon and then toggle the box that asks for a screen calibration on restarting X. You can then hit the bottom left menu on the screen, logout/exit, and type "startx" again. When you log back in, you will get an opportunity to recallibrate the screen. Should your mouse be so messed up that you can't hit that icon, you can use the "menu" button and arrows on your keyboard to access the bottom-left menu. At this point you have pdaXrom rc11 installed on your sweet C1000, and it looks pretty damn good compared with the original Sharp ROM. Behold, however -- even this can be improved upon. We will now embark on a journey to intall XFCE4 and the ROX desktop. THREE PART A: By default, pdaXrom uses 2 things that can be improved: Matchbox Desktop and the bar at the bottom of the screen. The bar at the bottom of your screen isn't pretty enough, and your desktop isn't customized enough. Furthermore, the default windows used by matchbox aren't as good as those in XFCE4. You will see the difference later, trust me ;-). Those things will wait for a moment, however, while we install a library that will allow you to run FireFox and other Yummy Programs. The library is called libstdcxx. I don't know what this means. You can download it here: http://212.10.30.205/rc10/Zaurus-C1000/feed/libstdcxx_5.0.5_armv5tel.ipk Once you have downloaded this file, copy it onto a CF/SD card's main directory and stick that into the Zaurus. Then type the following: CD CARD: cd /mnt/cf [enter] ipkg install libstdcxx_5.0.5_armv5tel.ipk [enter] SD CARD: cd /mnt/card [enter] ipkg install libstdcxx_5.0.5_armv5tel.ipk [enter] The package should now install into your C1000. PART B: Now that we can Run Firefox, you might as well download it. You can use the package manager to download the programs that you want. The easiest way to do this is through an internet connection to your Zaurus. If you have a wireless card, this is the time to use it. Ideally, you will plug in your wireless card, and go to a place with an unprotected wireless hub. I'm going to assume that you can get your wireless card working in pdaXrom on your own. Given that you've bought a known-compatible card, this shouldn't be a huge deal. I have had some trouble with getting the settings correct on encrypted networks, however... At this point you should be connected to the internet. You can confirm this by going into the internet folder, opening up the web browser "dillo" by clicking on it, and then surfing to google.com, or some other really common website. After confirming that you are connected to the internet, proceed. In the settings folder on the matchbox desktop (the one that you are using now), there is a package manager. Open this package manager, click the rotating thingy to refresh the available packages. Then, click on the Available tab, and look through the list. Check boxes by the things that you want to install. I use a 1 GB pretec SD card to hold my programs. I suggest these: Links (Fast, accurate minimal web browser) Firefox (Big Slower, super-accurate web browser) Gaim (fast AIM (and other protocols) client) Mplayer (movie/music player) Thunderbird (e-mail client) VLC (movie/music player) ROX (Lets you look at your files in windows, VERY desirable) After you have checked the boxes by the programs that you want, make sure that you are installing them in a place that has enough free memory. In the top right corner, there should be a text: "Install On" and then a pop-up menu. Use this pop-up menu to select your user memory, your USB memory, or your SD card. Ideally, you would be using an SD card for these programs, given that you CF slot is probably taken up with a wireless card. You should download all of the ROX packages available. The download and installation of these files might take a while. Make sure that your wireless signal is strong, and that everything goes well during the install process. Ideally at this point, all of these packages were installed onto your SD card from the internet by the package manager. Given that this is true, we continue. Test firefox by clicking on the icon. Firefox will take ~30 seconds to load, so be very patient. Once it load, it is pretty fast. Use it to surf the internet a little. FOUR PART A: We will now install XFCE4, and a few XFCE4 "goodies." You can find the main file needed to install XFCE4 here: http://zaurus.spy.org/feeds/cacko/pdaXrom/1.1.0/rc10/chero/old/xfce4_4.2.2_armv5tel.ipk You will find the "goodies" here: http://zaurus.spy.org/feeds/cacko/pdaXrom/1.1.0/rc10/chero/old/ and here: http://zaurus.spy.org/feeds/cacko/pdaXrom/1.1.0/rc10/chero/ I recommend that you install XFCE4 onto the C1000's internal memory. I have heard problems occur after rebooting if you use an SD card. Given that you installed your programs onto an SD card, there should be plenty of space left in the internal memory. Download the XFCE4 main file, and put it onto a CF or SD card. Don't erase the SD card with your programs! I was fortunate, and had an extra CF card from my digital camera. You can install the package with the following command: CF CARD: cd /mnt/cf [enter] ipkg install xfce4_4.2.2_armv5tel.ipk [enter] SD CARD: cd /mnt/card [enter] ipkg install xfce4_4.2.2_armv5tel.ipk [enter] I hope you are seeing a pattern now with the manual installation of ipkg's. After XFCE4 installs, you can choose a few of the goodies to install as well. It is the same process, except with different file names. I recommend these packages: xfce4-mntplugin_0.3_armv5tel.ipk xfce4-battery-plugin_0.3.0_armv5tel.ipk xfce4_systray_plugin_4.2.2_armv5tel.ipk xfce4_menu_pdax_0.0.1_armv5tel.ipk After you have installed all of this stuff, you will want to exit/logout of X. Use the menu at the bottom left to do this. You should be at a black screen. Type the following: startxfce4 [enter] Now XFCE4 should start up. It will blink a dead rat on the screen. The screen will be rotated the wrong way. Eventually the blinking dead rat will resolve to a rotated desktop. Physically rotate your zaurus to look at the screen the "right way." At the bottom there should be a bar with lots of icons on it. The left-most of these icons is actually a console icon. On My Zaurus, this icon was barely on the screen, but I managed to click it with the stylus anyway. I wish you luck -- you will need to open a console. You might be able to do this by clicking on that barely-visible icon. You might be able to do it by finding the "right click" key combination (fn-shift, fn-ctrl, something else maybe -- it seems to be different every time i install XFCE4). Once you manage to get a console open, type the following: xrandr -o right [enter] Hallelujah! The screen should now be rotated into the proper orientation. Now, hopefully you know that XFCE4 is working for you (to a certain degree. We will come back to it in a little bit. Use the icon on the right of the bottom bar to log out of XFCE4. Then, type startx at the black screen to log-in to the matchbox desktop. Now, open a console, and type the following: SciTE /home/root/xinitrc.xfce4 [enter] We will be adding 2 things to this file right now. One thing will auto-rotate the screen in XFCE4, and the other thing will allow you to use some keys that you weren't allowed to use before. Look through document (don't change anything but what I say!!), and below the line saying: /usr/X11R6/bin/xset s 0 insert the following: xrandr -o right Scroll back up, and find the section that starts with the following: MODEL=`cat /proc/deviceinfo/product` echo 'MODEL:'$MODEL case "$MODEL" in after this, insert the following code: SL-C1000|SL-C3000|SL-C3100) test -f /etc/X11/kb/akita.xmodmap && xmodmap /etc/X11/kb/akita.xmodmap ;; Go to the "File" menu, and save your changes. Then, exit SciTE. exit/logout using the menu at the bottom left. Now type: startxfce4 [enter] Hopefully, this will start up XFCE4 in the correct screen orientation, and furthermore, fn-click will definitely be the Right-click, and your keyboard will have access to all of the keys it normally does. Now, open a console, and type the following: rox --pinboard=MYPINBOARD [enter] Your desktop should now change to a different color, and a "home" folder should appear at the top left. You can click on this home folder, then click on the up arrow in this new window twice, then click on "usr" folder, and then click on the "apps" folder. You can drag and drop the apps that you want for your desktop from this window. You can fn-click on the desktop to change the desktop background. Once you have the apps that you want, go back to the console and type: SciTE /home/root/xinitrc.xfce4 After the following line: xrandr -o right Type this code: rox --pinboard=MYPINBOARD Now, go to the file menu, save your changes, and dance a jig. You are DONE. USEFUL INFORMATION To install an IPKG manually from a CF to the SD card, use the following syntax: ipkg -d sd install /mnt/cf/IPKGName.ipk Must install new version of KDEPIM to get it working, located here: http://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=952 You can find the Settings from pdaxrom in the setting folder in the apps folder that i led you to before. You can change your wireless scheme by typing the following in console: cardctl scheme YOURSCHEMEHERE [enter] You can right click on the menu at the bottom of the screen to add your goodies to it. If you want to open the most minimal version of links, type the following in console: links [enter] To surf to a web page, press 'g' This can actually read gmail!! If you want to open the image-showing version of links, type the following in console: links -g [enter] If you want to watch movies, I suggest that you reformat them into 320x240 and 13 fps. You can then use VLC to "stretch" the movie to fit full screen. This works pretty well. For Macintosh users: Mplayer can decode .m4a files, so if you have lots of those (like me), MPlayer is your friend. Kismet is a wireless sniffer. This section from Takuan:: How do I setup/install kismet? Download and install the IPK like any other program. Now add a new user to the system, using adduser and enter a username (kismetuser) You have to edit the /usr/etc/kismet.conf and set the suiduser to the new user name (suiduser=kismetuser). Now you need to configure the card driver, add the line source=wlanng,wlan0,prismsource (Its different if you're using the hostap drivers. Check out kismetwireless.net docs)Also set gps=false, just in case and make sure sound=false is set. (There isn't any play command yet, but soon there will be). You might also want to set the logtemplate entry to something like logtemplate=/mnt/card/%n-%d-%i.%l or maybe into a folder on the card - remember you will have to give the user(kismetuser) the rights to write into the folder. Now edit kismet_ui.conf and set sound=false. Now run kismet and you should have it up and running, click h to see the help and start sniffing away. Have a look at the homepage http://www.kismetwireless.net/ for more info and also look into forums for further help. When i run kismet in Xterm from MatchBox (the gui) its not in color? Do a export TERM=xterm-color before starting kismet from Xterm Kismet fails when starting? Look at the kismet homepage, http://www.kismetwireless.net/ - check forums and documentation. You might also want start your network first using the settings program and also try running cardctl scheme CardResume before starting kismet. How do I use kismet? Press h to bring up the online help screen and read away. I get an error about not being able to create the dump logs. You are in a directory that doesn't have the right permissions. Goto the /home/kismetuser directory or change the permissions with chmod :: end of Takuan section