OESF Portables Forum
Everything Else => Sharp Zaurus => Model Specific Forums => Distros, Development, and Model Specific Forums => Archived Forums => C1000/3x00 General discussions => Topic started by: slackwaresupport on March 17, 2005, 10:44:13 pm
-
so anyone have a clue when a good rom is gonna be out.. its been 3 months since i got my new 3k, and nothing yet. anyone ??? ETA?
-
I've had my SL-C3000 for 3 days and have now got my prototyping environment set up where I can run Qtopia entirely from SD card, hack around with the config etc. without having to trounce my reasonable Sharp ROM config until I'm happy with the results.
My initial though was to adapt Cacko ROM 1.22 from the Cacko ROM. I'm going at it the other way round now and hacking stuff from Cacko into the environment.
So when you say 'when is a good rom' going to be out... I'm not sure... it will take me a while to produce something and then I'm going to want to test for a while before releasing into the wild.
My initial thoughts are as follows...
Tetsu's special Kernel
Simple locale.conf switchover
Samba scripts (for WLAN etc. inetd from Cacko ROM)
openssh (client and server)
sudo
suspend-resume stuff (particularly required for some Bluetooth cards)
keyhelper (and keyboard switcher bits from Cacko)
inputhelper (gives Mouse support)
BlueZ and scripts (tetsu's Bluez modules, Cacko scripts)
Qtopia plugins (some from Cacko - Going to remove Overclock, different scheme on
3000 and there's a new program for this - don't like overclock so user can inst
all this and use themselves)
squashfs (my build, tested, works fine)
fonts (Cacko)
sharp music player 2
sharp photo album
fdisk and e2fsprogs (my build, tested, works fine)
misc commands to be added - readline, top, ps, free, uptime, ar nm, strings, ldd
ICONS
At this point I'm considering this core stuff and NOT taking long suggestions for addon's - I consider most of this stuff reasonably easy stuff so it means that I can probably get it running relatively quickly and then get into testing.
- Andy
-
Sounds great, Andy!!
Ready for testing, when its available
-
ya im with archi, ready for testing.
-
Starting to piece the fonts, applets, extra binaries into the Sharp ROM structure for the 3000.
Have found a couple of things that don't work on the 3000 from the Cacko ROM in the test environment.
Discoveries so far...
1. System Information - doesn't implement the USB Host tab so we have to stick with the current version of this application. I wondered at first if it used plugins and would pick up the Sharp page for the USB Host - apparently not - all the functionality is coded into this app. This is a shame, this was a nice extension of Antons.
2. The updated battery applet from the 1.22 Cacko ROM - simply causes Qtopia to terminate on a 3000
3. After performing the Vulcan Mind Meld with the Z several times in quick succession to get the thing to boot to the recovery Linux (D+B mode) your hand's start to ache and you start to get fed up with doing it.
- Andy
-
Ok, I now have a reasonably similar Qtopia environment to Cacko 1.22 although there are a few Cacko Qtopia bits that for now we will have to leave out.
I am corresponding with Maslovsky who is keen and I'm hoping that by going through this I can help him to speed up development of the more official Cacko ROMs for the 1000 and the 3000... currently the Cyrillic Input package from Maslovsky doesn't work perfectly on the 3K and he is going to take a look at that.. this is REALLY important for the ROM because it also implements a lot of national keymap features.. it runs at the moment (see the little Union Flag on the screen) but doesn't map all the keys properly.
BTW: This is still quite a way of being complete and being turned into a flashable image.. The work currently runs from a ROM layout directory structure but the picture shown below is the SL-C3000 booted in Emerygency Linux mode and running the whole environment from SD card.
PS: Sorry about the blurry image, it's difficult to light without a lot of glare. Hence no flash + caffeine + nicotine = lots of camera wobble
Regards,
Andy
-
COOL!.. good job, keep it up.. and let me know when the release is..
-
Can't wait till I can try this on my lil' Z.....
Great work Andy!!
Mark
-
Outstanding! I really look forward to checking it out.
-
Just to join in the chorus of expectation:
I also can't wait, I'd prefer PdaXrom, but any new rom is fantastic in my eyes (If anyone ever decides to do a Slackware rom...or (if infomation and time peresnts iteslf i could DIY) I'll be extatic, but i doubt somehow)
Keep up the great work mate!
-
Great job, Andy! Your work will help me in getting Cacko ROM on the new models sooner.
Just to let everyone know, I've already ordered my C1000, should recieve it in the begining of April. As soon as I get it in my hands I'll work on porting Cacko ROM to C1000 and with the help from Andy, to C3000 too.
-
yes slackware would be nice. im a slackware freak.
-
Buy Patrick V. an SL-C3000 and I bet you'd get your wish.
-
If i can find some time (perhaps in this summer) Then i'll email pat for any advice, and try to port it myself
NO PROMISES!
but i'd like it myself, so i'd carry out an unofficial port if i got the info on making roms etc
Pat's still ill it seems, there's been no changelog activity for a while (but a massive upgrade today actually). So getting pat to do anything is a no go. The poor guy!
How many people would be interested, and can anyone pass me links on ROM creation? I'll do a bit of research and see how practical it is.
-
i dont think pat has time to port slackware to another arch. he been really sick lately.
-
I don't think it's about "getting him to do a port". My guess is that if he had a Z he'd probably bail on x86 development until he'd gotten Slack running on it.
And yes, I'd run a Slack ROM!
-
i seriously doubt Pat would bail out on x86 support, he doesnt even handle the porting anymore, its outsourced to close developers. each handle a single port.
-
Hi,
Just thought I would post a status update although I don't have a release date on the horizon yet.
I have added to the spec the 'eject' command which I think is important for the use of USB media (via host mode).. this seems to work out well and post dismount of USB media should be used to eject the device before removal.... can't think why Sharp didn't include it in the ROM.
Was momentarily puzzled by the initrd until I realise that this initrd is pure jffs2 and comprises just the root filesystem... jffs2 image begins 16 bytes into the file with the usual Sharp header (no cramfs at all)... but we only have 0x500000 bytes to play with here.
I am now making an 'overlay' type build environment which takes basic ROM images and applies a set of changes to construct the ROM layout so we should be quicker to release when a new Sharp ROM is produced.
I haven't yet blown away my SL-C3000 and installed the new ROM natively... I still await an updated version of the Cyrillic Input IM from Anton Maslovsky before I go alpha with this release.. if Anton has got too much on his plate for a while then I'll strip it from the ROM and use traditional Keyhelper but would really like to get that functionality in before going Alpha.
- Andy
-
Well, I'm glad that you're taking up the task of starting the rom off with Anton. I was going to do exactly what you're trying (changes to stock rom) when I got my 3000. Now with someone else doing it I'm free to go start actual programming instead of getting tied up doing a ROM.
I'll have my 3000 in a few days if you need testing or help.
-
I haven't yet blown away my SL-C3000 and installed the new ROM natively... I still await an updated version of the Cyrillic Input IM from Anton Maslovsky before I go alpha with this release.. if Anton has got too much on his plate for a while then I'll strip it from the ROM and use traditional Keyhelper but would really like to get that functionality in before going Alpha.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=72545\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
I will have this package updated later this week.
-
Awesome, thanks Anton.
-
OK, today I have been mostly learning about updater.sh and how to brick and unbrick an SL-C3000.
I am at the point of working on the flashing process although it doesn't seem to be going as swimmingly well as possible.
After decoding the updater.sh that comes with the Sharp ROM 1.11 I found that it chops 16 bytes off the beginning of your initrd.bin and 16 bytes off the end of your Kernel image before flashing so my scripts that generate these files currently borrow the same region of bytes from each file on the original Sharp distribution...
This does not seem to be enough though. If I flash with tetsu's kernel I still end up with bricked Zaurus.. in fact the only way to get the tetsu Kernel to work is to flash using the updater.sh.c3000 file that he mentions on his site... strange... can't see anything else in updater.sh that may be causing it.
If, however, I use everything else (mversion.bin, initrd.bin and hdimage..) from the new build then everything works out absolutely fine... strange.
Anyone that's been playing around with updater.sh on an SL-C3000 please shout out...
I would like to just use this updater if possible for first tests.. I'll work on a Cacko like updater later on.
Regards,
Andy
-
any idea on how much longer?
-
We are talking a few weeks rather than days. I'm going to go on holiday in a couple of weeks time and don't really want to be away over a 'bedding in' period...
I would much rather be able to offer a little advice during the early stages.
The good news is that I do have a flashing process worked out.
The bad news is that not everything is ready for the ROM and it needs a lot of testing.
I'm sorry if this is frustrating but it has to be this way. I want something that is reliable for everyone.
Regards,
Andy
-
no, no.. take your time. just curious ..
-
I must say that Andy is doing a great job working on the ROM flashing process for the C3000 device. As soon as I get my C1000 in hands I will be able to help him with other Cacko ROM specifics, like kernel, drivers and tools support as well as ROM build process.
-
Well today the rom booted for the first time from a complete device reset.
Flashing works well, various bits of the Cacko stuff is in ... some had to come out ... sorry Anton, were going to have to work on the card monitor stuff too.. it won't eject media on the 3000 and it shows up the internal HDD.
One bit of advice if anyone's thinking of doing this... .home_default.tar has GOT to be tarred with --format=oldgnu if you don't do that then the /dev directory doesn't get created and nothing starts... took me a while to work that one out.
- Andy
-
I've been using my 760 with Anton's Cacko ROM because the stock ROM on my 3000 blows.
Thanks for the work you're doing, Andy. It'll be nice to actually use my 3000.
I'm really looking forward to seeing what you and Anton get hammered out!
Scott
-
More news, the new ROM is networking with WIFI and Bluetooth, the nice Cacko Bluetooth applets that scans for dialup devices works well although I suspect that I'm likely to be trying to pickup problems on that one... all I've got is an LSE0039 card to test with.
Oh and it sychronises - tested with USB Storage Mode, USBIO Sync, USB Network... SAMBA runs over the Wifi connection... SSH preinstalled... all ticking away quite nicely.
Some problems that I still need to crack are fonts missing in some applications like PhotoStorage and the Cacko Memory module... another one that needs slight modification to add Internal Hard disk to the swapfile locations.. not much room in internal flash for that kind of thing.
Ah well, back to the grindstone.
-
Flashing works well, various bits of the Cacko stuff is in ... some had to come out ... sorry Anton, were going to have to work on the card monitor stuff too.. it won't eject media on the 3000 and it shows up the internal HDD.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=73000\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
You need sudo package for that to work.
-
Fixed the cardmon issue and posted updated back to Anton.
Fixed an issue with fonts... FINALLY... that took FAR too much time..
Now we have a basic working ROM... now to make it a little more interesting !
- Andy
-
YUM YUM!!
-
Great!
-
Im happy to see that this project is comeing along so well!
-
OK, I'm now into application and compatibility testing on the ROM...
Which means that I get to use my SL-C3000 properly again !! YES !!
Feature list at present is relatively good although not the full complement from the Cacko ROM.
Many, many thanks to Anton Maslovsky for providing me with an updated version of the Cyrillic Input stuff which he managed to do 'blind' without a device to test on (WHAT a STAR!). The second iteration worked GREAT.
Will post more information when I have it.
-
OK, things are looking good, generally compatibility seems as good as the Sharp ROM.
Now I need some adventurous types who want to try the alpha stuff.
Please be aware though that I'm off to the Algarve at the weekend and will be incommunicado for a couple of weeks - so really only reply if you are pretty sure how to recover your Z to a point that you are happy with.
- Andy
-
Now I need some adventurous types who want to try the alpha stuff.
Now that description seems to fit me like a glove... I hate it when things work too smoothly! (not that it does, generally, when computers or PDAs are involved...)
only reply if you are pretty sure how to recover your Z to a point that you are happy with.
I think I should manage that much... I've got a good 1Gb SD card for backing up the HD (even if it takes multiple inserting-copying-ejecting-backing-up on the PC-re-inserting loops) in case I really need to reinstall everything from scratch, I've been able to install a new kernel, all I need is to fly back home first to get my DSL connection and grab whatever is needed from the net...
One (stupid) newbie question, though (the 3000 is my first Zaurus, so I haven't been able to play with non-Sharp ROM before), can you still use the builtin Z apps? I expect so since you're able to run NeoCal or other Qtopia ARM apps, but I guess it doesn't hurt to double check, now does it? I'd like to at least be able to use the datebook and address book applications during the tests if that's possible, otherwise I'll dig up my old Tungsten T!
-
Now I need some adventurous types who want to try the alpha stuff.
Now that description seems to fit me like a glove... I hate it when things work too smoothly! (not that it does, generally, when computers or PDAs are involved...)
only reply if you are pretty sure how to recover your Z to a point that you are happy with.
I think I should manage that much... I've got a good 1Gb SD card for backing up the HD (even if it takes multiple inserting-copying-ejecting-backing-up on the PC-re-inserting loops) in case I really need to reinstall everything from scratch, I've been able to install a new kernel, all I need is to fly back home first to get my DSL connection and grab whatever is needed from the net...
One (stupid) newbie question, though (the 3000 is my first Zaurus, so I haven't been able to play with non-Sharp ROM before), can you still use the builtin Z apps? I expect so since you're able to run NeoCal or other Qtopia ARM apps, but I guess it doesn't hurt to double check, now does it? I'd like to at least be able to use the datebook and address book applications during the tests if that's possible, otherwise I'll dig up my old Tungsten T!
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=73654\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Ditto sounds like me!
First Time Zaurus owner but ready to learn more and try things out!
-
I'm using my 760, anyway, until a better ROM comes along for the 3000, so I'll give it a try.
-
Just to answer a few questions..
The ROM is essentially a focussed effort at an English conversion with some nice to have bits added so you don't lose the main Sharp utilities. I have removed the translator and CRIM (Japanese input from the ROM).. you can see that in the readme.txt file. Basically if you could sync with the Sharp ROM then you should be able to do the same with this ROM.
The KeyHelper-Cyrillic input stuff possibly needs some extra explanation.
The applet is configured to automatically provide various key mappings including automatic / instead of , (you shift to get comma now). Shift Home gives a task select, Shift Menu gives a Task Cycle, Shift - gives the elusive ` symbol, Fn+O gives { Fn+P gives } unless you use the UK keyboard when you get a £ sign (see keyboard config in Settings). To switch between two keyboard layouts use Fn + Right Shift (only switches when you release both keys).
Finally read and understand the limitations on the USB automounter and eject facilities. (see the readme.txt in the zip file)
Good luck,
Andy
-
Oh, and another thing.
Thanks go to 'stupkid' for providing the hosting facilities.
BTW: 'stupkid' just for now don't worry about your bandwidth going through the roof. I'm keeping tabs on the Alpha team and limiting the size initially to be about 5. I have 4 potentials at the moment.
If you do accept the alpha and install then please report back to say when you have successfully installed.
Regards,
Andy
-
Just though it may be useful to post the readme.txt file for folks...
Release notes of the Cacko SL-C3000 pre-release Alpha 1 ROM
Specifications
locale.conf switchover - default En, London/Europe
Hancomword updated to 1.6 - stock SL-C3000 on 1.11JP ROM was v1.0
Updated Cacko Card monitor. Implements SL-C3000 checking and hides HDD + Implements USB storage eject. - Automount of USB storage also included* (see note)
sudo
suspend/resume script architecture
Bluez Scripts from Cacko ROM
Bluez Dialup and PAN applets from Cacko ROM
OpenSSH
SAMBA configured to start from inetd
Cacko Antialias Fonts
Cyrillic Input method
Input Helper - Should autodetect a mouse connected to USB
Music Player 2 from Sharp
Escape to shell prior to Qtopia launch (hit / during 5 second countdown)
Tetsu Special Kernel 17h including all modules (Bluetooth and iptables etc)
Various useful command additions (file, strings, ar, nm, bzip2, zip and many more)
fdisk 2.12a
eject (USE IT if manually handling USB storage)
squashfs module and mksquashfs utility (2.1r2)
Removal of the Japanese support** (see note)
ICONS :)
About the installation process...
This is important!
This ROM will erase ALL of your personal data and ALL of the Sharp ROM.
Make sure you have whatever backup you need to ensure correct recovery - this is your responsibility.. suggest that you have a copy of the Sharp 1.11JP ROM install, a NAND flash image of the current ROM state and a user backup... assuming that you are on Sharp 1.11JP ROM then you should be able to completely recover by..
i. NAND flash restore.
ii. Sharp Upgrade.
iii. Device zero process (option 3, then 1 from the OK menu).
iv. Restore user backup.
Actually I don't do anything with the flash sizes on this release so the NAND flash is probably not needed but advised for completeness. The Sharp Upgrade should restore as closely as possible the basic shipped state.
Install the ROM as usual using a CF or SD card using the OK menu during startup, if you don't know how to do that then you shouldn't be using this pre-release.
As soon as the install has completed re-enter the OK menu and select option 3, then 1. This will erase the user portion of the flash and hdd and extract the rest of the ROM. This will be encorporated into the user install process later.
Known issues/omissions from the Cacko ROM.
voice recorder (where did that go??) - not included in the Sharp ROM
Opera - May add it in, don't like it but it's a finicky install on the 3000. may add it for ease of use by the user.
Wireless Monitor - May be dependent on Wireless extensions that we don't have.
KEYSWITCHER script into inittab ! ? - This IS an alpha ROM. KeyHelper/Cyrillic Input works whilst in Qtopia.
Memory Monitor applet.. swapfile bits. - Haven't got round to this yet.
Battery/CPU Frequency Application - Probably wait until Anton has his 3000, don't like overclocking anyway.
Notes
* For USB storage to work your device must be partitioned and the automounter will use /dev/sda1. Many USB pen drives do NOT come pre-partitioned. Simply create a partition table with fdisk and format these devices and everything should be fine. I've done some testing and partitioning a pen drive like this retains Windows compatibility.
** Japanese support has been removed, this includes the CRIM, translator and dictionary applications and libraries. At this stage we are working on the best way of creating a non-japanese ROM but could add those bits back in easily later with the new build structure. There's a good reason to remove them and that is the SL-C3000 Sharp ROM hooks the libCRL and other translation libraries at various points - without the libraries installed the unit functions perfectly whilst set to an EN locale. With the libraries installed and set to EN then several mojibake artifacts remain (squares replacing characters in entire text blocks - notably WLAN config, Tab Settings, File Finder - some of these disappear if you preload the addressbook, some don't). So for now, for non JP use I have removed them. I anticipate that we will modify the script that generates the ROM later to skip their removal and simply revert the unit back to Japanese.
-
so its done?? wheres the download!!!
please i need the drug.
-
And that's number 5. Please share your experiences.
-
Installed! Looks great! I'll post more tonight or tomorrow after I've set things up and installed some apps.
-
Installed! Looks great! I'll post more tonight or tomorrow after I've set things up and installed some apps.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=73682\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Excellent,
Oh BTW: forgot to mention. The Kernel boots up with more traditional Linux startup display and shows you all the system messages as the machine boots.
A couple of things should be pointed out.
i. Its quite normal to see a lot of messages about the sd card until the driver initialises properly so if you boot with one in then don't freak out when you see the messages. Chances are everything is fine.
ii. Similarly don't get freaked by jffs2 messages talking about deleting child inodes. jffs2 is what runs on the flash and it doesn't fully erase blocks (even when files are deleted) until its desperately short of space (this is tactical to minimise the number of writes and prolong the life of the flash device). Unfortunately the kernel module is extremely 'chatty' and can throw up some messages that look like serious errors. I can assure you they aren't.
Good to see that one of the team are up and running.
Have fun,
Andy
-
OK, I went through the tabs and turned off fastload for all the apps that had it preset. I adjusted most of my settings such as Light/Power to my personal preference. I reorganized my tabs. I connected via Ambicom wifi card and browsed this forum. No problems, so far, and no sign of the dreaded boxes in any of the dialogues or menus. I'll check my Pretech LAN card tomorrow at work.
My normal usage is mundane, mainly network, office, simple games (i.e. no emulation required) and multimedia apps. I'll install them and set up and test them this evening and tomorrow at work. I'll list them all and indicate whether or not they work, afterward.
Wish list: Graphical overclocking via the battery applet. I'd like to see it over/underclock for performance/battery life.
First impression: Great job replicating the look and feel of 1.22a! Looks like the 3000 will be off my shelf and in my pocket, now. Since flashing, my 3000 feels quicker and more responsive than my 760. I plan to run both Zs side by side for a while to see if the difference is real or just excitement on my part.
-
Couldn't resist the urge... I'm downloading the stuff right now with my 56k modem in a hotel room. I thought I could wait for the DSL connection in 48h back at home, but I can't wait that long! After all, according to transfer window, the 25Mb will be downloaded in about 110 minutes or so... I'm sure it's worth every minute of wait!
-
Set up wifi at home. Unable to pull an IP via DHCP. Set static values (like I did at work) and it works fine.
-
Couldn't resist the urge... I'm downloading the stuff right now with my 56k modem in a hotel room. ...
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=73699\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
That can be really expensive!
-
Sounds Great. How can i download this alpha ROM.
Greetings
-
Hi there,
haven't found no link for download the alpha1 for testing!? can somebody give a hint please
where i can find the rom?
greetings from germany
-
Hi as previously mentioned I am keeping the alpha test phase down to 5 users to limit the scope of assistance during the initial alpha phase.
The number will grow as and when we start to get useful and positive feedback.
I'm expecting these people to 'live with' the environment for a couple of weeks and then we will assess the situation again.
Sorry guys but we have 5 on the alpha team now.
- Andy
-
Once again, may I emphasise that if you are involved in the alpha test then you MUST do as the readme.txt file suggests and do a device erase (options 3 then 1 from the OK menu that you used for the flashing process).
If you don't then your ROM will NOT work properly.
This action is needed to ensure that the user portions of the ROM are correctly populated with the links back into the static portion of the ROM and without doing this you will certainly find that you wont be able to suspend your device etc.
Please, please do this.
- Andy
-
This also means do NOT restore a Backup taken from the Sharp ROM because this will overwrite the new ROM information just created by the system erase process.
The Sharp Backup process carries all user settings but also all system settings that could potentially be changed. This means that although the Backup process is the same what you restore from a Sharp ROM backup is NOT compaible with the new ROM. This is true of all Sharp based ROM derivatives that add significant functionality.
-
Couldn't resist the urge... I'm downloading the stuff right now with my 56k modem in a hotel room. ...
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=73699\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
That can be really expensive!
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=73724\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
It took a bit more than two hours to get, but eventually I was able to disconnect the phone line before going to bed! And as for the price, I don't expect to pay too much, by chance I have a local number for the Compuserve access here in New York (pity the hotel doesn't have high speed internet in the room, though...)
I finally decided to go to bed yesterday evening without installing the new ROM, as I needed 1) to perform a full backup, and since I had more than 2Gb of music on hdd3 this was going to take a while, and 2) I decided to do this with a clear head so as to avoid making mistakes...
With the (not so) early rays of sunshine, I finished to backup my data, reformated my SD card (just to make sure it was clean and FAT), installed the files on it, and rebooted to get the OK menu.
The ROM upgrade itself went smoothly, the first boot indeed showed the "normal" Linux messages along with the Linux logo you get with the framebuffer boot, and the first start was OK. Great pleasure to discover the various Cacko bits here and there, and no error message (apart from those mentioned by Andy).
The next reboot, to get to the OK menu again, let me initiate the hard drive reformating to get the ROM content expanded on the hard drive, and again everything was smooth as silk.
BTW, Andy, I took a couple of screen pictures using my digicam, and can write a small "guide" describing the whole process so that newbies (like me) know what to expect when installing the ROM. Just let me know if you're interested, and when this should be done (probably later if you intend to bundle the ROM flashing and ROM expanding on the hard drive in a single step...)
Once the second boot is finished, you find yourself in front of a brand new C3000. You get a welcome screen asking you to tap on the screen, then the Qtopia screen calibration dialog, then the date & time screen, the owner info screen, and you find yourself in the usual launcher screen, except that the background, icons etc... are different (I should write "better" actually).
Launching the calendar or address book is very quick thanks to fastload, and I would say that overall the Zaurus seems more responsive, faster than with the stock 1.01 JP Sharp ROM.
One thing I have quickly noticed is that the Calendar, Address and Mail buttons beneath the keyboard are not setup out of the box. If you go to the Application Key setting program, they are indeed set to "None". Setting them to their respective applications works like a charm, though.
I'll keep playing with the Zaurus to find out more possible bugs/problems (I'll start by (manually, of course) restoring my PIM data, and reinstalling a few apps I need), but so far it's a very smooth and uneventful experience, I want to congratulate Andy for the high quality level of this first "alpha" release!
-
OK, I installed Qclockchange and BatteryPlus. As I use my Zaurus for work and I'm usually in a hurry and looking for the path of least resistance, BatteryPlus is more to my liking. On my 760 I upclock to play Doom, maybe 10-15 minutes per session but I haven't installed it on my 3000, yet. The screen on my 3000 does have a cyclic flickering when upclocking. I'm hoping the applet will be worked on to get the same degree of functionality that the battery applet in 1.22 has, currently it only allows for the two higher settings and I like to downclock to extend battery life when reading .txt or .pdf files.
One annoyance I've found is that the left shift button is "sticky" when used immediately prior to the space bar, causing the space bar to produce a pipe symbol after typing a comma, for example.
My Pretec LAN card works fine. No DHCPD at work, so I can't check the DHCP client until this evening.
Apps I've installed that work correctly:
*aliens 1.0.0
*batteryplus 1.1.3
*dig 9.2.1
*fish 1.1.0
*guigrep 1.0
*neic 1.0.1 (note that the icon stays red in the installer, but it works)
*nethack 3.4.0 (the real reason I have a Zaurus, LOL)
*nmap 2.53 (with the message "Unable to find nmap-services! Resorting to /etc/services" I knew how to fix that at one point, but I'm rushed and I'll look at it later)
*opie-kpacman 0.3.1
*opie-nethack-sounds 3.4.0-2 (it installed, but I haven't heard anything)
*opie-tetrix 1.5.0-20030214
*processmanager 1.1
*qclockchange-for-c3000 0.1 (interface is a PITA)
*qpdf2 freetype-2.2.1-20040217
*qpe-qasteroids 1.5.0-1
*qpenmapfe 1.0.0 (works, but the interface is QVGA portrait, buttons overlap text and needs to be corrected for VGA landscape)
*qpesearch 0.0.3
*qtrdesktop 1.2.0 (will not function without adding openssl 0.9.7d)
*traceroute 1.0
*treeexplorer 1.6.0
*wlanmon 1.7.0
*zipsc 0.4.3
*zsolitaire 1.0
I've also installed but haven't tested:
*kismet 3.0.1 (bah. I'll RTFForums later)
*kismet-qt 2.0.0
*opie-keypebble 0.9.1-20020703
*zaurus-fbvncserver 0.3-slc700-0.4
Seems very solid, so far. Nothing hugely wrong except that the space bar producing a pipe symbol is very annoying.
-
.....
One thing I have quickly noticed is that the Calendar, Address and Mail buttons beneath the keyboard are not setup out of the box. If you go to the Application Key setting program, they are indeed set to "None". Setting them to their respective applications works like a charm, though.
....
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=73782\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Excellent, that's 3 of the 5 up and running that I know of.
And yes, should probably add that to the release notes about the application keys.
I did know about it but this also happens on the Cacko ROM 1.22a for SL-Cxxx and its such an easy thing to fix (once installed) that it completely went out of my head and I never did search for the cause.
Glad to know that you are up and running...
Anyone tried the USB automount/eject stuff yet?
- Andy
-
And yes, should probably add that to the release notes about the application keys.
I did know about it but this also happens on the Cacko ROM 1.22a for SL-Cxxx and its such an easy thing to fix (once installed) that it completely went out of my head and I never did search for the cause.
It's no big deal, but for the first few seconds I was puzzled as to why the key seemed to be working (i.e. I hear the beep when pressing them) and have no effect. A line about it in the readme should be enough, I agree.
Anyone tried the USB automount/eject stuff yet?
Still hunting for a USB host cable for the Z. I'll try at J&R right now, otherwise I'll have to purchase a iRiver cable with the help of a US friend (iRiver won't ship in Europe <sigh>) and test the USB stuff when I receive it...
-
OK, I installed Qclockchange and BatteryPlus. As I use my Zaurus for work and I'm usually in a hurry and looking for the path of least resistance, BatteryPlus is more to my liking. On my 760 I upclock to play Doom, maybe 10-15 minutes per session but I haven't installed it on my 3000, yet. The screen on my 3000 does have a cyclic flickering when upclocking. ....
More info here, especially on the flickering...
https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=11753 (https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=11753)
One annoyance I've found is that the left shift button is "sticky" when used immediately prior to the space bar, causing the space bar to produce a pipe symbol after typing a comma, for example.
Edit Settings/keyhelper.xml, delete the line shown below...
<define key="Shift" type="Shift" toggle="True"/>
Then from the command prompt use...
khctl reload
Actually the Shift / to get the , then producing the | on space IS an issue with keyhelper. It's because Keyhelper is configured to send shift when you hit , to produce / and it masks out the use of the real Shift on that keypress. This leaves the Shift toggle active so when you hit another key you get a caps letter or in the case of space bar you get |. - Phew!
I'll knock that out of the keyhelper.xml before we go live.
- Andy
-
on the memory monitor plugin, theres a part for a swapfile. but it only wants to use cf or sd card, anyway to make it use part of the harddrive?
-
just had a bomb out.. was trying to connect wireless in our building, it wouldnt pull an ip from dhcp, so i specified one, and after about 2-3 seconds of trying to connect, it bombed and reset.
-
on the memory monitor plugin, theres a part for a swapfile. but it only wants to use cf or sd card, anyway to make it use part of the harddrive?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=73800\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Please see the known issues/limitations in the readme.txt file. This is known and will be addressed at some stage.
-
just had a bomb out.. was trying to connect wireless in our building, it wouldnt pull an ip from dhcp, so i specified one, and after about 2-3 seconds of trying to connect, it bombed and reset.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=73802\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
One thing that I have observed with the Sharp ROM and it's equally important for this is that if you specify a default gateway in the config the ROM WILL try to ping the gateway to see if the link is up.
If you are on a corporate LAN then its possible that your IT people have blocked ICMP traffic to the router. Try to ping the gateway address from a desktop PC and make sure that the ROM is configured for that gateway address.
I haven't tried DHCP just yet myself.
- Andy
-
OK, just tried DHCP, seems to work OK.
I'm wondering if this is the same issue, you have to have a pingable gatway if set or acquired by DHCP otherwise the unit drops the connection as unavailable.
- Andy
-
i am the system admin. :>
we are a WISP. and the person who owns this company also owns a couple more here.
-
My wifi did the same thing last night, i.e. tried for about 3 seconds and then reset. Turns out the IP I'd specified was already in use (yeah, yeah, I was going from memory, doh!), but when I specified a free IP it worked.
-
i am the system admin. :>
we are a WISP. and the person who owns this company also owns a couple more here.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=73809\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
OK, good start then.
Actually before I go any further.. when you say it bombed and reset did you mean the connection or the whole Zaurus? If that's the case then could I ask you to try a different WLAN card?
If its a connection related issue though (and not a Z reset) could you see if you can manage a packet trace? Your need to scan in promiscuous mode from your sniffer because the ping will go to the specific mac address of the gateway... also may need to enable a monitor port on your switch to do this. - We are looking for not just the standard DHCP Req. Ack. Offer. Ack. but the follow-up ping working too.
- Andy
-
well., its ok now.. dun know. freak occorance.
-
well., its ok now.. dun know. freak occorance.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=73813\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Is that the card you had the suspend problem with?... could be either an issue with the Z driver or a duff card... intermittent or not... this is tetsu's kernel but he doesn't show any WLAN patches to the standard so we have to assume a Sharp module for the Ambicom WL100CF that you have... don't have one myself.
-
on the memory monitor plugin, theres a part for a swapfile. but it only wants to use cf or sd card, anyway to make it use part of the harddrive?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=73800\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Please see the known issues/limitations in the readme.txt file. This is known and will be addressed at some stage.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=73803\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Ok Alpha team (god that sounds so 70's mini-series!)
If you download qtopia-memoryapplet_1.0.1_arm.ipk from the download location that I PM'd you then that will give you the option of creating the swapfile in the /home/zaurus/Documents folder which is symlinked to /hdd3/Documents.
I have only just made this modification and submitted it to Anton so please don't pass this around. If Anton likes all my patches then we will keep these binaries.
- Andy
-
Works for me. I have a 32MB swapfile displayed on the battery applet's memory tab, and the applet's tray icon shows a lower percentage of memory used.
-
Works for me. I have a 32MB swapfile displayed on the battery applet's memory tab, and the applet's tray icon shows a lower percentage of memory used.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=73825\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
How did that happen, it was supposed to go on the memory applet... darn! (lol ).
-
ya, mines on the battery too.
-
also, one thing i would like to see, is on the file browser, browse all files, not just ~/Documents.
-
I'll fire it up and tonight and put the USB stuff through it's paces. I was a bit busy yesterday ;_;
-
I'll fire it up and tonight and put the USB stuff through it's paces. I was a bit busy yesterday ;_;
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=73829\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Kahm,
Glad to see that you could join us.
You may want to download the memory applet update that I posted on the last page too.
Have fun,
Andy
-
Damn, you guys are so fast... Hard to keep up with only a dialup connection!
I've downloaded the new memory applet and will try it ASAP. FWIW the original one worked like a charm, I did setup a 64Mb swapfile on the SD card allright.
A few notes about what I've found so far:
MusicPlayer 2.0:
The display in play view is a bit "corrupted": every text displayed is not properly erased when modified, and some of it doesn't display at the proper place right from the starts (horizontally). So it's impossible to read the tune's title, or the next tunes coming... all the digits (which I suppose are bitmaps) display fine, though. There's also a bit of the "Off" button bitmap scattered on the bottom left part of the display. All in all the display looks a bit messy, but otherwise the application works as expected, from what I could tell.
Movie Player 1.11:
At first, I thought that the MPEG-1 movies that played fine on the Sharp stock ROM (v1.01) did not play anymore. I was getting a rather obscure "???" error message (Japanese text, for sure, but displayed with a non-Japanese font) when trying to play the file. Then I realized that I was already playing a MP3 tune with MusicPlayer at that moment, which obviously is the cause of the error message. Stopping the MP3 lets Movie Player do its job normally, but in the end it would be nice to locate and translate that short & cryptic error message! (Don't remember triggering it with the Sharp ROM so I don't know what it looked like before)
KeyHelper:
The sticky shift key is IMHO causing more trouble than help, as already mentioned... I do realize that there is a learning curve involved, but I've disabled it for now. In fact I reinstalled my previous keyhelper.xml config file and everything is as I like it (accented characters & such).
USB auto-mount:
Works great. I've just purchased the required adaptor, and when I inserted it (alone) in the USB port of the zaurus, it was recognized by the system (at least, the Zaurus detected that something had been connected, thanks to the two grounded pins of the USB-host adapter).Then I inserted a USB memory key, and sure enough it showed up in the Launcher's file explorer. The icon's name is "Storage /dev/sda1" and since the filesystem on it was FAT I was able to browse its content. Using the applet in the bottom bar, I was able to "eject" it (i.e. it didn't show anymore in the file browser screen, and there was one less entry in the mtab file), but this didn't turn off the green light on the key, the way it usually happens when I umount it from my windows PC. Unplugging the key seems to work fine, though, I didn't get any crash or dramatic error message with dmesg.
Let me know what kind of test I must do with USB, if needed, or what potential problems to look for...
-
Also for some reason the battery applet seemed not to be active after the first boot (or maybe I did mistakenly disable it afterward, but that would be very unlikely as it would have forced the Zaurus to reboot, which it hasn't). I just re-activated this applet using the "little blue dot" applet, and it works fine now. Did anyone else notice this?
-
euroclie, Thanks, good feedback on the multimedia apps. Haven't seen the battery applet disappear though.
Will take a look when I get the chance.
- Andy
-
USB auto-mount:
Works great. I've just purchased the required adaptor, and when I inserted it (alone) in the USB port of the zaurus, it was recognized by the system (at least, the Zaurus detected that something had been connected, thanks to the two grounded pins of the USB-host adapter).Then I inserted a USB memory key, and sure enough it showed up in the Launcher's file explorer. The icon's name is "Storage /dev/sda1" and since the filesystem on it was FAT I was able to browse its content. Using the applet in the bottom bar, I was able to "eject" it (i.e. it didn't show anymore in the file browser screen, and there was one less entry in the mtab file), but this didn't turn off the green light on the key, the way it usually happens when I umount it from my windows PC. Unplugging the key seems to work fine, though, I didn't get any crash or dramatic error message with dmesg.
Let me know what kind of test I must do with USB, if needed, or what potential problems to look for...
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=73834\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
No that's good on the USB. The IOCTL to the usb storage device doesn't seem to fully remove the device. If you just used eject sda1 from the command line then you would see that the /proc/partitions still contained /dev/sda although /dev/sda1 would have been purged.
The eject command that the applet uses should trigger a graceful sync and dismount, however, and the next thing the patch to the applet does is rmmod the usb-storage driver so that when you disconnect and reconnect the device it gets /dev/sda and /dev/sda1 rather than being assigned sdb/sdb1.
That all sounds good then,
Andy
-
also, one thing i would like to see, is on the file browser, browse all files, not just ~/Documents.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=73828\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Sorry slackwaresupport, thats part of libqpe. If we rebuilt that then we would lose any extra Sharp enhancements. I would suggest that you use TreeBrowser.
- Andy
-
Ahem, yeah, battery applet, memory applet, whatever. Pay no attention to the man behind the typo.
-
MusicPlayer 2.0:
The display in play view is a bit "corrupted": every text displayed is not properly erased when modified, and some of it doesn't display at the proper place right from the starts (horizontally). So it's impossible to read the tune's title, or the next tunes coming... all the digits (which I suppose are bitmaps) display fine, though. There's also a bit of the "Off" button bitmap scattered on the bottom left part of the display. All in all the display looks a bit messy, but otherwise the application works as expected, from what I could tell.
Right, this is really messy and needs sorting out... I'll try to take a look at this tomorrow. Thanks for the heads-up on this one.. I have to admit that the MusicPlayer and Movie Player, just got launched to check for Mojibake errors.. At the time I was going through reflash cycles so rapidly that I just couldn't push chunks of media at the Z on each cycle but I will try to find out what's going on.
Chances are though that this may be font related. May need to do a bit of hacking to get this to display well.
- Andy
-
The new memory applet works fine, except that it seems that somehow the maximum size for the swapfile shrank back to 32Mb, whereas in the original version included with the alpha ROM, you could have up to 128Mb swapfiles, unless I'm mistaken. Otherwise, it seems fine.
Maybe a text change (from "RAM" to "HD") for the RAM radiobutton could be meaningful for C3000 owners? But then, the vast majority of Zaurus owners won't have hard drive, and I don't know how hard it would be to modify the radiobutton's name dynamically according to the device... So take this as a suggestion, not a request!
More about the Music Player 2.0 application: the mode button (normal, repeat, smart, etc...) between the display off button and the stop button isn't displayed at all. This is probably linked to the scattered button bitmaps problem I mentioned earlier. Tapping at the place where the button is supposed to be does work, though, as is reflected by the checkboxes in front of the menu entries in the Mode menu (which works as well).
-
euroclie,
Yes I intend to do something better for final release.. it was just to make it workable on the 3000... + I can change the text for the RAM setting to HDD based upon the checks that I put into the applet to detect an SL-C3000.
Sizes are default to Anton's original, all I did was to put some checking in for the model number and punch in a different location for /home/.swapfile to /home/zaurus/.swapfile to make it sensible for the 3000.
Expect more after my break.
- Andy
-
MusicPlayer 2.0:
Chances are though that this may be font related. May need to do a bit of hacking to get this to display well.
Yes, this is probably font related, because it affects mostly the text. OTOH, there's the button problem as well... I know that this button has changed (new modes) between the previous version and the 2.0, as has the display (pictures can now be displayed, so the whole layout changed a bit), so maybe here lies the problem... Good luck to try and find out the cause, anyway!
I'm flying back home tonight, so this'll be my last contribution before tomorrow mid-day. Happy hacking to you all until then!
-
MusicPlayer 2.0:
Chances are though that this may be font related. May need to do a bit of hacking to get this to display well.
Yes, this is probably font related, because it affects mostly the text. OTOH, there's the button problem as well... I know that this button has changed (new modes) between the previous version and the 2.0, as has the display (pictures can now be displayed, so the whole layout changed a bit), so maybe here lies the problem... Good luck to try and find out the cause, anyway!
I'm flying back home tonight, so this'll be my last contribution before tomorrow mid-day. Happy hacking to you all until then!
[div align=\"right\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
(http://index.php?act=findpost&pid=73873\")
OK, I botched the media player... please install this version instead..
[a href=\"http://cacko.biz/cacko/feed/musicplayer-C3000_2.0.0-1_arm.ipk]http://cacko.biz/cacko/feed/musicplayer-C3...2.0.0-1_arm.ipk[/url]
I missed the pics144 directory from the package and since there are more of them than in media player 1 (which the ROM build system overlays) and the applications controls are sized around the size of the pics that's why the fonts screw up... missing pics=missing positions ... ah well gotta have these quirks just to remind you it's alpha1
I have a sneaky suspicion that the exception on the MoviePlayer (about the sound device being in use) may be a little trickier.
- Andy
-
BTW: Anyone tried the built in mouse support?
It's sort of OK, bit of a gimmick though. Because it implements a mouse cursor on the Qtopia frame buffer it's no real use for XQT or SDL apps but someone may get a kick out of using it.
- Andy
-
Should any USB mouse work, or would it need to be a particular type? Is there anything I'll need to do other than just plugging it in?
-
Got it up and running now. These are my first impressions. I have a few days off starting day after tomorrow, so I'll hammer it more then.
Flashed with 0 issues. Looks eerily familiar
USB Keyboard - Check!
USB Mouse - Check! -> I love this Makes mucking with the Z with a keyboard much easier - no picking up a sylus, steadying the Z, then tapping on the screen. Maybe of limited use for normal people, but for anyone doing actual *work* I think it'll be great
USB Storage - No Check. I haven't played much yet. The first thing I hooked up was my Lyra 40gb MP3 player. The Z recognizes it as /dev/sda, but it can't make heads or tails out of the partition table. Subsequent attempts with a memory card reader also failed to produce anything. I don't have a memory key, so I'll try mucking with my various readers and memory cards later.
WiFi - Problem. There might be an issue with starting wi-fi for the first time. (Perhaps some weirdness in a default config file?) I stuck my card (linksys WCF12) in, and it was detected. Opened the network applet. Clicked "Add". Entered my SSID, WEP key (128bit), set my static IP info*, and set my DNS info. It created the wireless profile. I click on "connect" and I'm instantly looking at the boot screen with the 5 second count down. If I go back to the network applet and try to connect after it rebooted, it works perfectly. The crash seems to be a one time occurance. The crash looks like it occurred before the "select service" listbox came up.
I made a 32mb swap file with the updated memory applet, seems to work fine.
That's about all I have time for tonight. I'll play with installing the Kx/Pi stuff tomorrow. I'll be using the media player with the remote, too
I miss opera =(
-kahm
*I can't use DHCP for the Z on my home network. The 860 with the Sharp 1.4 rom works perfectly in DHCP. The 1.01 C3000 rom and Cacko 1.22a on the 860 manage to extract an IP from the *disabled* dhcp server on my wireless router. Don't know why, but it works if I specify my IP
-
Further notes:
There may be some weirdness with USB and suspend/resume. I'll test that more later.
USB Storage - After a reboot, I can see my CF cards in my reader now. My earlier issues may have been something to do with the RCA mp3 player messing up the works.
USB Storage again - I put my 1gb CF card in an external reader. It automounts and shows in the documents tab as Storage /dev/sda1. I browsed down through the FS, and found some MP3 files I had on there. Clicked on an MP3 file and the (updated) Media player started. Then nothing. The Sharp Mediaplayer app doesn't recognize the existence of the USB storage. When it opens up you're in its built in file browser, and it only shows Internal memory. (I didn't have any cards inserted into the Z itself, just the USB reader). Other files that I've tried work fine off of USB (a text file and an IPK).
I'll be testing out Textmaker on here as well. hopefully it works
Sleep now, work tomorrow.
-
USB Storage - No Check. I haven't played much yet. The first thing I hooked up was my Lyra 40gb MP3 player. The Z recognizes it as /dev/sda, but it can't make heads or tails out of the partition table. Subsequent attempts with a memory card reader also failed to produce anything. I don't have a memory key, so I'll try mucking with my various readers and memory cards later.
WiFi - Problem. There might be an issue with starting wi-fi for the first time. (Perhaps some weirdness in a default config file?) I stuck my card (linksys WCF12) in, and it was detected. Opened the network applet. Clicked "Add". Entered my SSID, WEP key (128bit), set my static IP info*, and set my DNS info. It created the wireless profile. I click on "connect" and I'm instantly looking at the boot screen with the 5 second count down. If I go back to the network applet and try to connect after it rebooted, it works perfectly. The crash seems to be a one time occurance. The crash looks like it occurred before the "select service" listbox came up.
*I can't use DHCP for the Z on my home network. The 860 with the Sharp 1.4 rom works perfectly in DHCP. The 1.01 C3000 rom and Cacko 1.22a on the 860 manage to extract an IP from the *disabled* dhcp server on my wireless router. Don't know why, but it works if I specify my IP
USB Storage again - I put my 1gb CF card in an external reader. It automounts and shows in the documents tab as Storage /dev/sda1. I browsed down through the FS, and found some MP3 files I had on there. Clicked on an MP3 file and the (updated) Media player started. Then nothing. The Sharp Mediaplayer app doesn't recognize the existence of the USB storage. When it opens up you're in its built in file browser, and it only shows Internal memory. (I didn't have any cards inserted into the Z itself, just the USB reader). Other files that I've tried work fine off of USB (a text file and an IPK).
USB Storage, the release notes mention this, we simply look for /dev/sda1, if the device hasn't got a partition table then you get zilch.
WiFi proble, The Qtopia restart symptom that you mentioned can be indicative of a range of things, basically something is crashing the Qtopia display server and it sounds like the WIFI applet which is from the Sharp ROM.
* DHCP... strange, I have had a couple of reports on this, you have a 1000 too. does that behave in the same way? The WIFI network stuff should be fairly stock Sharp ROM stuff at the moment.
USB Storage again - Have you tried setting the 'other' location in Option->Preferences->Library?
- Andy
-
Should any USB mouse work, or would it need to be a particular type? Is there anything I'll need to do other than just plugging it in?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=73904\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
I can't say 'any USB mouse' that would depend on the usbmouse driver in the Kernel but if you have one that isn't being recognised then tell me and I will see if there's anything I can do.
Just plug it into a host cable and you should be away.
- Andy
-
Updated memory applet again.. get it from the same location.. same file name...
Uninstall the previous one first and restart Qtopia when you have installed the new one (you can just use the Restart option for Qtopia in the Settings tab).
The new version allows up to 128Mb swap files (takes a while to create so be patient) and now changes the label from RAM to HDD if run on an SL-C3000
Incidentally if your Z seems sluggish after creating a large swapfile that's because the disk cache has been purged by creating a large file.. it should recover within a few seconds of 'tapping around'.
- Andy
-
I miss opera =(
OK, I will put it into the released ROM.
It's a badly behaved installation that can hose a 3000 if you install from IPK (due to cache location etc.) unless you do the following..
1. Start Konsole then..
mkdir /hdd2/Applications/.opera
mkdir /hdd2/Applications/.operasave
ln -s /hdd2/Applications/.opera ~/.opera
ln -s /hdd2/Applications/.operasave ~/.operasave
2. Install the IPK (from the cacko feed http://cacko.biz/cacko/feed) (http://cacko.biz/cacko/feed))
3. Start Konsole again..
su
ln -s /opt/QtPalmtop/opera /usr/share/opera
That should get you up and running for now. (this is also applicable to stock ROM users)
- Andy
-
Also, since I'm going to put Opera into the release what are your thought on putting apache-php into the ROM since its a swine to install on an SL-C3000. Would you like to have it without having the hassle ?
I'll add it to alpha2 if you want it (will put that together after I come back from holiday).
- Andy
-
OK, I spotted a howler.
If you synchronise then inetd dies which means that you can't Samba or ssh following sync until you restart inetd.
Reason, qtsamba kicks in whilst doing the sync process, claims the netbios port which the inetd superserver is listening on and inetd dies.
Temporary fix .. drop to the command line, su and /etc/rc.d/init.d/inet restart to get your services back.
Permanent fix.. su and remove /etc/rc.d/init.d/samba you don't need it because samba starts from inetd.. tested... still syncs
Regards,
Andy
-
what are your thought on putting apache-php into the ROM since its a swine to install on an SL-C3000. Would you like to have it without having the hassle ?
yes i'd love to get apache-php-mysql already installed and configured
loran
-
Also, since I'm going to put Opera into the release what are your thought on putting apache-php into the ROM since its a swine to install on an SL-C3000. Would you like to have it without having the hassle ?
I'll add it to alpha2 if you want it (will put that together after I come back from holiday).
- Andy
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=73961\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Instead of pre-installing badly behaved packages, it should be possible to modify the install scripts in the ipks to detect installation on a 3000. Even a 3000 specific IPK would be better. I'll look at it this weekend to see what I can put together.
USB Storage, the release notes mention this, we simply look for /dev/sda1, if the device hasn't got a partition table then you get zilch.
I saw the bit about the partition table. I tried the RCA on another linux box and got the same strange partition table info. It may not actually have a partition (which surprises me somewhat - this is a 40gb HD based mp3 player ) More importantly, plugging it in seems to break something, as I can't get ANY usb storage to work afterwards. Rebooting clears that up. Are you supposed to be able to manually mount a partionless drive as just /dev/sda?
* DHCP... strange, I have had a couple of reports on this, you have a 1000 too. does that behave in the same way? The WIFI network stuff should be fairly stock Sharp ROM stuff at the moment.
I just tried it with the 1000 and it got it's IP from the proper DHCP server. The 3000, in the stock rom, got it from the disabled one. This is probably a combination of oddities in my dlink wireless router and the Sharp networking stuff.
USB Storage again - Have you tried setting the 'other' location in Option->Preferences->Library?
Setting a location there allows the "library" view in the media player to find the files. The "filelist" view is still unable to browse any but the default file locations (internal, sd, cf)
WiFi proble, The Qtopia restart symptom that you mentioned can be indicative of a range of things, basically something is crashing the Qtopia display server and it sounds like the WIFI applet which is from the Sharp ROM
I double checked, and the crash didn't occur on the 1000. I'll wipe both back to default conditions and see if either behavior is reproducible.
-
USB Storage, the release notes mention this, we simply look for /dev/sda1, if the device hasn't got a partition table then you get zilch.
I saw the bit about the partition table. I tried the RCA on another linux box and got the same strange partition table info. It may not actually have a partition (which surprises me somewhat - this is a 40gb HD based mp3 player ) More importantly, plugging it in seems to break something, as I can't get ANY usb storage to work afterwards. Rebooting clears that up. Are you supposed to be able to manually mount a partionless drive as just /dev/sda?
You can mount file systems using just the /dev/sda type device, however, I would be very careful with something like an MP3 player just in case you upset something that the device uses to boot.
As mentioned lots of pen drives present no partition table so it's reasonable to suggest that Windows doesn't care about partition tables on USB devices.. this may explain the MP3 player drive.
* DHCP... strange, I have had a couple of reports on this, you have a 1000 too. does that behave in the same way? The WIFI network stuff should be fairly stock Sharp ROM stuff at the moment.
I just tried it with the 1000 and it got it's IP from the proper DHCP server. The 3000, in the stock rom, got it from the disabled one. This is probably a combination of oddities in my dlink wireless router and the Sharp networking stuff.
I've got a DLink DL-624 and it works perfectly with DHCP to my Senao WLAN card on the new ROM. This is getting to be a strange problem that I may not be able to locate without some different HW. The real problem is traffic sniffing the WLAN stuff, I found the ping going on whilst using my Linux box as a NAT/gateway device (setting up Wireless sync to VMWare guest).
USB Storage again - Have you tried setting the 'other' location in Option->Preferences->Library?
Setting a location there allows the "library" view in the media player to find the files. The "filelist" view is still unable to browse any but the default file locations (internal, sd, cf)
Ah, pretty poor. That's not something we are going to be able to do much about unless Sharp fix it.... the only other thing that I can think of is create a symbolic link off flash pointing to /mnt/usbstorage. This will report the NotAvailable file when not mounted. - just browse to it as a location in flash.
WiFi proble, The Qtopia restart symptom that you mentioned can be indicative of a range of things, basically something is crashing the Qtopia display server and it sounds like the WIFI applet which is from the Sharp ROM
I double checked, and the crash didn't occur on the 1000. I'll wipe both back to default conditions and see if either behavior is reproducible.
[/quote]
Thanks for all your help, good to get some feedback.
(tsk.. 100 replies and we broke the quote tags !)
- Andy
-
Back home, and trying to keep up...
* The new MusicPlayer 2.0.0-1 works perfectly now.
* USB Mouse works OK with my Logitech Mouseman Traveler. Cool! Have yet to try a USB keyboard...
* Wifi works good as with the Sharp ROM, it seems. With the Sharp ROM I had to install some additional drivers (from the manufacturer website) to make the Planex GW-CF11X Wifi CF card work, and it's the same here. Did a quick test (just launched the Google page in Netfront), but things seem OK with DHCP on my WiFi router at home (SMC Barricade).
More later...
-
Did y'all see that I updated the memory applet again by the way ?
-
after the one for the swap?
-
Yep, uninstall the old one, download from the same location install and restart Qtopia from the settings tab. Now changes the name to HDD for the internal stuff on a 3K and allows up to 128Mb Swap files.
Please be aware that your Z may take quite a while to create a 128Mb swap file and will be sluggish until you work with it a bit. Writing a file this size will purge all your disk cache.
- Andy
-
good. got that. overclocked, opera, kdepim, kismet with qt, qtrdesktop, and a few games,
working great.
havent got it to sync yet. having problems with my kapi on my laptop. but im sure its fine on the zaurus. also im still running the 1.11
-
.... also im still running the 1.11
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=74032\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Excellent... bit confused about the last bit though... do you mean the version of the memory monitor applet? If so then yes, haven't changed the version number on it.
- Andy
-
so, how soon till kernel 2.6 is running :-)
-
Musicplayer, memory applet and Opera all work as advertised.
No USB devices on hand to check.
Apache w/ PHP preinstalled wouldn't hurt my feelings.
This "alpha" ROM is looking great, to me.
-
so, how soon till kernel 2.6 is running :-)
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=74036\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
lol, but I can do you a nice line in openbsd...
-
You can mount file systems using just the /dev/sda type device, however, I would be very careful with something like an MP3 player just in case you upset something that the device uses to boot. As mentioned lots of pen drives present no partition table so it's reasonable to suggest that Windows doesn't care about partition tables on USB devices.. this may explain the MP3 player drive.
It may be a problem with the RCA, then. I poked around with it for a few minutes and was utterly unable to get /dev/sda or /dev/sda1 to mount. I'll check to see if I can mount it under Mandrake linux, and I'll check to see what windows reports for a partition table.
I've got a DLink DL-624 and it works perfectly with DHCP to my Senao WLAN card on the new ROM. This is getting to be a strange problem that I may not be able to locate without some different HW. The real problem is traffic sniffing the WLAN stuff, I found the ping going on whilst using my Linux box as a NAT/gateway device (setting up Wireless sync to VMWare guest).
My network has a linux based DHCP server. My WAP is actually a DI-614 where I've disabled the DHCP server. The problem seems to be that I'm somehow still getting IPs from the 614 instead of my networks server. It might just be specific to me - I suspect a firmware bug in the 614 triggered by something unexpected in the newer Sharp DHCP protocol. I wouldn't worry about it unless someone else starts reporting issues on it. Further investigation is required on my end as the 1000 and 3000 had different results when they were both using the 1.01jp rom. The same version of DHCPCD is installed on both.
Ah, pretty poor. That's not something we are going to be able to do much about unless Sharp fix it.... the only other thing that I can think of is create a symbolic link off flash pointing to /mnt/usbstorage. This will report the NotAvailable file when not mounted. - just browse to it as a location in flash.
I was thinking that might be the best option. Or at least an alternative. I haven't checked too many apps to see if they're affected by it yet.
Thanks for all your help, good to get some feedback.
(tsk.. 100 replies and we broke the quote tags !)
If we're breaking the board, perhaps a mailing list might be better. I don't have a mail server set up anywhere anymore, but I know people I can pester for one. Or, with only 6 people, even a CC list would work.
-
Musicplayer, memory applet and Opera all work as advertised.
No USB devices on hand to check.
Apache w/ PHP preinstalled wouldn't hurt my feelings.
This "alpha" ROM is looking great, to me.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=74037\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
But Apache isn't something a huge number of end users will feel the need for. I'll poke around at the IPKs this weekend and see if I can make ipks that will "just work" for 3000 users. What version of mysql do people end up using to go with Apache-PHP? I had to dig up my own because the Cacko feed didn't include Mysql, last I checked.
Opera might be a better candidate for inclusion. I use mainly Opera, but sometimes netfront works better on a particular site. Others I know are the opposite.
I am a big fan of the Cacko-lite rom - I almost halved my installed apps with it because I don't use a lot of the stock stuff. That's probably for consideration much later, though.
-
My network has a linux based DHCP server. My WAP is actually a DI-614 where I've disabled the DHCP server. The problem seems to be that I'm somehow still getting IPs from the 614 instead of my networks server. It might just be specific to me - I suspect a firmware bug in the 614 triggered by something unexpected in the newer Sharp DHCP protocol. I wouldn't worry about it unless someone else starts reporting issues on it. Further investigation is required on my end as the 1000 and 3000 had different results when they were both using the 1.01jp rom. The same version of DHCPCD is installed on both.
Nope, not aware of any new DHCP versions and the Option codes used when not understood should just be discarded.
On my DHCP conversation I get...
1. DHCP Discover from the SL-C3000 containing these options....
Option 52: DHCP Message Type = DHP Discover
Option 57: Maximum DHCP Message Size = 548
Option 51: IP Address Lease Time = Infinity
Option 55: Parameter Request List
1 = Subnet mask
3 = Router
6 = Domain Name Server
12 = Host name
15 = Domain name
17 = Root Path
23 = Default IP Time-to-Live
28 = Broadcast Address
29 = Perform Mask Discovery
31 = Perform Router Discover
33 = Static Route
40 = Network Information Service Domain
41 = Network Information Service Servers
42 = Network Time Protocol Servers
Option 60: vendor class identifier = "Linux 2.4.20 armv5tel"
Option 61: Client Identifier
Hardware type: Ethernet
Client hardware address: My-mac-address-which-I'm-not-sharing.
2. The DHCP Server offers...
Option 53: DHCP Message Type = DHCP Offer
Option 1: Subnet Mask = 255.255.0.0
Option 51: IP Address Lease Time = Infinity
Option 3: Router = 10.255.255.254
Option 6: Domain Name Server = 10.255.255.254
Option 54: Server Identifier = 10.255.255.254
3. Z then requests..
Option 53: DHCP Message Type = DHCP Request
Option 57: Maximum DHCP Message Size = 548
Option 54: Server Identifier = 10.255.255.254
Option 50: Request IP Address = 10.255.255.100
Option 51: IP Address Lease Time = Infinity
Option 55: Parameter Request List
1 = Subnet Mask
3 = Router
6 = Domain Name Server
12 = Host Name
15 = Domain Name
16 = Root Path
23 = Default IP Time-to-Live
28 = Broadcast Address
29 = Perform Mask Discovery
31 = Perform Router Discover
33 = Static Route
40 = Network Information Service Domain
41 = Network Information Service Servers
42 = Network Time Protocol Servers
Option 60: vendor class identifier = "Linux 2.4.20 armv5tel"
Option 61: Client Identifier
Hardware type: Ethernet
Client hardware address: My-mac-address-which-I'm-not-sharing.
4. DHCP Server sends ACK
Option 53: DHCP Message Type = DHCP ACK
Option 1: Subnet Mask = 255.255.0.0
Option 51: IP Address Lease Time = infinity
Option 3: Router = 10.255.255.254
Option 6: Domain Name Server = 10.255.255.254
Option 54: Server Identifier = 10.255.255.254
That's it... succesful DHCP lease!
If your DHCP Server is on a Linux host any chance of firing up Ethereal and showing us what it thinks is going on?
Actually, thinking about it.. did your 860 originally get the IP address from the DLINK WAP ?
If so, and the 860 is treating that as truly an infinite lease time then the renew message will only be sent to the address of the WAP box... getting no response it will keep its address unless you release it..
Another hypothesis is a buggy DHCP daemon on the WIFI box that still responds to Renew requests but stops responding to Discovers/Leases when disabled.... Sniffing has got to be the answer to this one.
- Andy
-
Actually, thinking about it.. did your 860 originally get the IP address from the DLINK WAP ?
If so, and the 860 is treating that as truly an infinite lease time then the renew message will only be sent to the address of the WAP box... getting no response it will keep its address unless you release it..
Nice try, but I don't think so. I had a second 860 that I brought in long after the 614's DHCP server was disabled, flashed to cacko, plugged the card in, set it up for the WEP, and it got an address from the 614 and not my network.
Another hypothesis is a buggy DHCP daemon on the WIFI box that still responds to Renew requests but stops responding to Discovers/Leases when disabled.... Sniffing has got to be the answer to this one.
- Andy
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=74049\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
If nothing else, I definitely believe in the bugginess of Dlink firmware.
It never bothered me enough to try and track down the issue. Too many variables to isolate with too little gain I have connected with a half dozen other WAPs with various states of WEP or lack thereof without problems. If I have time I'll see fi I can get ethereal running sometime this weekend to try and sort out what's up.
-
Kahm,
Does it make any difference if you use a different card? Maybe it's something related to existing entries in the lease database on the WAP DHCP server (if it's buggy).
- Andy
-
Kahm,
Does it make any difference if you use a different card? Maybe it's something related to existing entries in the lease database on the WAP DHCP server (if it's buggy).
- Andy
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=74065\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
I only have the WCF12. CF Wireless cards are *extremely* rare in Edmonton. I only even saw 2 or 3 for sale when I was in Akihabara and Den-Den town, so I'm stuck with this one
It happened on two different WCF12, bought well over a year apart. I can get access to a wired CF card, but that won't be until my friend returns from Japan in about 3 months.
The WCF12 works in my 5x00 fine, and for my laptops I've used a Dlink 650+, Netgear MA401, and an SMC2532W-B without problems under Win2k, WinXp, and Mandrake 10. (It may not surprise you to find out that I've been looking for the ultimate portable computing device for a while. I currently own, in increasing order of size, a Toshiba Libretto 50m, Toshiba libretto 100ct, Panasonic Toughbook M34, a P3-450 IBM thinkpad (M series? Can't remember), and a Thinkpad A21p) The Sharp 860 running Cacko 1.22 and the C3000 running the stock rom are thus far the only configurations that display the error. I didn't even try Cakco3k-alpha1 yet, I just hardcoded it.
Using the 860 I can get a 192. ip from the disabled Dlink, eject the card, stick it in the 5500, and get a 10. ip address. It has so far been very consistent.
-
Tried the latest memory applet, it works great with a 128Mb swap in the hard drive. Nice! I didn't even notice any particular initial slowdown...
About Appache+PHP+MySQL, I'd love indeed to be able to install that in a single package, or in separate packages that go along smoothly, but I'm not sure it needs to be integrated in the basic ROM... Granted, the 3000 has quite a large hard drive, so the amount of space taken by the ROM is probably not a big deal when compared to the free space available, but some might object that it eats too much space when you don't need it, should it be included (with an option not to run it).
-
About Appache+PHP+MySQL, I'd love indeed to be able to install that in a single package, or in separate packages that go along smoothly, but I'm not sure it needs to be integrated in the basic ROM... Granted, the 3000 has quite a large hard drive, so the amount of space taken by the ROM
Why not go the whole hog: apache + php + tomcat + mod_perl + + +? Might as well throw in the Oracle client too :-)
it's always nice when there's a standard package people can use to get started, but I think you'll find that 99.9% of Zaurus users would only ever need the most basic of cgi support if they needed apache at all.
-
==LOCATION==TAG==
OK, I'm going to be travelling from late Saturday evening (9th) and will not be online again until at least the 24th when I return from holiday.
Here is the current issue list to be patched into the alpha2 ROM when we come back... I would appreciate if all of you alpha testers could consolidate your issue list and potentially any fixes that you may have found in the meantime once I return.
voice recorder possibly to be added from 860 build.... to be tested.
Opera to be added
Wireless Monitor
Memory Monitor applet.. swapfile bits. - fixed in patch - just include.
Battery/CPU Frequency Application... Anton says he will work on this. (please don't start lobbying Aton for updates, he's not got a device to test with yet and is very busy on the regular Cacko stuff).
Remove the Shift toggle from keyhelper.xml
Media Player is screwed... missed pic144 directory... simple fix.
Remove samba from /etc/rc.d/init.d otherwise inetd dies when you sync.
DHCP in certain environment seems not to work... need more detailed info.
I will post a message saying that I'm back.. please then post your consolidated findings over the period.
Have fun,
Andy
-
As a followup to my list of apps and how well they function, zaurus-fbvncserver 0.3-slc700-0.4 functions, but borks things afterward. I keypebbled in from my 760 and was able to browse files and tabs. After closing the connection from the 760 and going back to my 3000, I was unable to launch any application from its icon. I was able to check the different tabs, and when I tried to launch apps I'd get the exploded icon, but no application. I stopped the VNC server and was still unable to launch apps except for the final one I tried, which was "Shutdown".
I restarted Qtopia and everything worked again. :/
Kind of a shame because although I have no pressing need to VNC into my 3000, it does look cool when I'm showing my 3000 off.
-
vnc works for me. i can not control anything from my vncviewer side though.
-
RUH RO!! on a reboot. i cant click anything on the zaurus, like the screen is disabled.!
-
Did you pull the battery and try again?
-
removed the vnc server. and rebooted. back to normal
-
I've posted an analysis of the USB keyboard map in:
https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=11834 (https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=11834)
Most of what is there applies to the Cacko3k rom, save for the few bits about the Japanese support.
-
Correct me if I'm wrong, but in regards to the Slackware ROM that was hoped for earlier in the thread, the best bet is ARMedslack (http://www.armedslack.org/). When that's finished then somebody can base a ROM off of it for the Zaurus.
-
The Slackware ROM was me, the linklooks good, if i get some time this summer then i'll look into it.
Exams are coming up for Uni though, so not yet.
Pity I wasn't on the forum recently no alpha for me.
How many people would like a slack ROM (afrid the question mark isn't working on my Z right now)
IF enough show interest I'll do it, and if i can get some info sorted out.
Later,
-0-
-
The lack of a Slackware ROM is one of the few defects in the Zaurus, in my opinion. I'd love a Slackware ROM.
-
slackware would be great, but, the package manger doe not check for dependences, slackware is based on KISS , " Keep it simple Stupid". its not gonna install something you dont want, because its a dependent on some other program.
-
May I ask why the lack of dep support is a 'but'(still haven't fixed the q. mark) as an avid slack user i pefer the simplicity of thwat approach, it avoids problems and means you know what you are installing.
I'll certainly consider donating my summer to the cause.
Later kids!
-0-
-
That's not something I mind at all. I much prefer installing everything myself, and if you can't figure out how to open up the documentation and find out for yourself what it needs for dependencies, you shouldn't be trying to install it in the first place.
-
That's not something I mind at all. I much prefer installing everything myself, and if you can't figure out how to open up the documentation and find out for yourself what it needs for dependencies, you shouldn't be trying to install it in the first place.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=74505\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
And that is precisely why nobody's bothered to make a Slackware rom for a PDA. A lot of users have enough problems with IPKs, never mind .tgz's.
I'm not entirely sure yet-another-rom is necessary. It comes with linux. You can replace Sharp's linux with a better version of Sharp's linux in Cacko, a completely GPL version in Opie, two seperate X versions in GPE and PDAX, and a full distro in Debian.
I'm not saying don't do it, but I'm not sure what the draw for Slackware is. Is there something that one of the pre-existing roms doesn't do?
-
Incidently, I hadn't realized that we'd taken over a thread for our 3k rom feedback. I've created a new topic:
https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=11855 (https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=11855)
where we can stay out of the way of the Slackware rom discussions.
-
I love Slackware. The primary reason is that it doesn't rely on the GUI. It's there when you need it, but I much prefer doing things on the command line. It boots straight into the prompt, and I love it that way. I've also found Slackware to be much faster, easier to use, more configurable, more reliable, and generally better then any other distribution I've tried. I keep trying other distro's, but I keep coming back to Slackware.
EDIT: I didn't mean to take over the thread, I just thought it appropriate to mention ARMedslack. I apologize for any inconvenience.
-
I love Slackware. The primary reason is that it doesn't rely on the GUI. It's there when you need it, but I much prefer doing things on the command line. It boots straight into the prompt, and I love it that way. I've also found Slackware to be much faster, easier to use, more configurable, more reliable, and generally better then any other distribution I've tried. I keep trying other distro's, but I keep coming back to Slackware.
EDIT: I didn't mean to take over the thread, I just thought it appropriate to mention ARMedslack. I apologize for any inconvenience.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=74517\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
That tells me why you like Slackware on the desktop, but hasn't explained what you're trying to solve by putting it on the Zaurus. You can boot to command prompt in Cacko and PDAXrom if you wanted. What is going to the trouble of cooking up a Slackware rom going to do for you that can't be done on an existing platform? It seems like a lot of work to go through to use Slackware's package manager instead of .deb's or ipk's. (What does Slackware use for a package manager these days? Last time I used it RPMs hadn't been invented yet.)
-
I've also found Slackware to be much faster, easier to use, more configurable, more reliable, and generally better then any other distribution I've tried.
Mostly, I just love Slackware on the PC, and I'd love to see it on the Zaurus. Besides, the more variety the better, correct? The same argument could be used against all new Linux distributions. It's not a matter of "pdaXrom works, so therefore it's pointless to port anything else", but one of variety and each user's preference.
-
Besides, the more variety the better, correct? The same argument could be used against all new Linux distributions. It's not a matter of "pdaXrom works, so therefore it's pointless to port anything else", but one of variety and each user's preference.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=74536\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Well, I for one certainly would complain about having too much choice when chosing a Zaurus ROM, but like kahm, I fail to see exactly what a Slackware Zaurus ROM would bring when compared to the other existing ROMs...
Not that it matters much, of course, if you or anyone is willing to spend time on it, then go for it , it's just that I'm a bit sceptical of the real benefit, and wondering if trying to get a few selected ROMs to a better level wouldn't be more interesting than having many ROM ported but with only basic capabilities.
I'm a real newbie when it comes to Zauruses (my first one is a 3000 purchased a mere three months ago ), but as far as I could tell, it seems the biggest problem (for me at least) is to find applications that run on it, and I'm not sure that yet another ROM would provide a solution to this...
-
I've also found Slackware to be much faster, easier to use, more configurable, more reliable, and generally better then any other distribution I've tried.
Mostly, I just love Slackware on the PC, and I'd love to see it on the Zaurus. Besides, the more variety the better, correct? The same argument could be used against all new Linux distributions. It's not a matter of "pdaXrom works, so therefore it's pointless to port anything else", but one of variety and each user's preference.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=74536\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
[rant]
I'm one of those heretical Linux users that doesn't see variety as the holy grail of the open source world. Don't get me wrong - I love Linux. I run it on two laptops, my main desktop, my raid-5 fileserver, my router, and my PDA. Unfortunately, I feel that there are two things wrong with linux.
1) The GPL. Linus has stated that linking non-gpl code to the kernel (for example: loading a non-gpl kernel module or binary only kernel module), is violating the GPL of the kernel. That means no proprietary drivers. No Sharp supplied binary only SD module, no Nvidia desktop video drivers - Nothing! That reduces Linux from an operating system to a philosophical argument. They know they can't enforce it, but they'd like to.
2) 10,000,000 projects, none of them complete. Every time an OSS coder has a problem to solve, he'll look at what is available and chances are he'll promptly decide to start a new project. Even when a project does reach a usable and popular stage the market becomes fragmented, causing end user, support, and compatibility issues. (See KDE vs Gnome, or Sharp vs Opie, or AR-based ipks vs Gzip based ipks).
So, no, my personal belief is that variety is not always better. In some cases it is required to combat stagnancy, but the vast majority of the time that energy can be better applied to an existing product.
[/rant]
Edit:
Ironically, I just remembered that my first linux install was Slackware. Kernel 0.98 off of 40 floppy disks. To install that on a machine with 4mb of ram and a 5 1/4" A: drive required 6 reboots (messing with partitioning and swapfiles) to get to the package selection stage. The only more difficult linux install that I've ever done was a Fujitsu stylistic 1000, which has no floppy, no keyboard, and a PCMCIA hard drive.
-
Well I havent been on the forum for a while, i'm back now.
Thought i'd join the discussion by stating why I prefer slackware enough to want to use it. (this was originally posted, but lost, so this post may well be not as good. or coherent,)
Well Slackware seems to be a distro that drags people in and assimilates them, you may have heard the phrase "Once you go Slack, you never go back), people like it's simplicity, and it's philosophy, so stick with the distro, evermore.
I'm one of those you see, I like the philosophy behind it, i like the simple package system, I like the fact that it's all as simple and close to how the software was origianlly intended as possible, I like the fact that It's on of the most UNIX like distros available.
On the Package management, it's not hard, especially compared to how some people think. I subscribe to teh view that if you don't understand the basics aobut something, can't be botherd to read ever the README file, then you have no business installing it. If you just check what dependancies a package needs, and install them, then you are set, it will install sweet as anything, and just work.
For those reasons, and perhaps more (I'm picky and perfectionistic, plus i like a challenge ) I'm prepared to try to get the distro in a state to be used as a Z rom,
But, University exams are coming up, I'll have to wait untill i have the mout of the way at least. 4 weeks till my exams, I'll look into it after then, till then I'l happily beta test for any other rom, as a new rom for the 3K is good for all .
Later kids
-0-
edit: sorry ther ewas a lot more of this post, my thoughts on slack, etc, I'll post it when iget home, sorry if this amkes little sense in the meantime
edit2: fixed now
-
Ok. I will do the same thing as everyone here....
Well, I would like a new car. A better one. Yes! Sure! I would love to have it. What amazing day it would be if I could have it. Do you listen to me father chrismas?
-
whats the most post on any given topic?
-
I can't understand why people are saying "why having slackware when you can have pdaXrom" when we are discussing about c3k/c1k roms ... Actually there is no support for c3k/c1k in pdaXrom and pdaXrom team haven't even anounced officially they will bother making support for these models, nor they have done anything to help external developpers doing this.. So what's the point ? Why are you talking about "having too much choice" when there is NO choice but running standard sharp rom or waiting for cacko3k to be finalized and available to more than 5 people ?
-
I can't understand why people are saying "why having slackware when you can have pdaXrom" when we are discussing about c3k/c1k roms ... Actually there is no support for c3k/c1k in pdaXrom and pdaXrom team haven't even anounced officially they will bother making support for these models, nor they have done anything to help external developpers doing this.. So what's the point ? Why are you talking about "having too much choice" when there is NO choice but running standard sharp rom or waiting for cacko3k to be finalized and available to more than 5 people ?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=76098\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
I should point out that at least one of the people advocating the Slackware ROM only has a 5500 listed in his sig. The topic has wandered somewhat afield of the forum it's in.
-
Why are you talking about "having too much choice" when there is NO choice but running standard sharp rom or waiting for cacko3k to be finalized and available to more than 5 people ?
Hopfully Andy will be back from holidays in a couple of days and the Cacko3k ROM will certainly soon reach beta stage...
That being said, even if I see nothing wrong with a Slackware3k ROM, I'm just wondering what you can do with it that is not possible with a Sharp ROM (or with a Cacko ROM, for that matter)? Choice is good, sure, but what for? If it's just a minor alteration of the look and feel, then IMHO it might prove counterproductive (in the sense of "the time spent on this might be better spent on something else") to have too many different ROM but all of them in a beta / unfinished state, instead of concentrating on just a few ROM and polish them until they are bugfree and with a load of tailored applications.
Of course, everyone is free to spend his/her time as one wishes it... So I think the bottom line is: if someone is willing to initiate a Slackware C3000 port, fine, go ahead, but if you're trying to motivate other users to team up on that project, then I think you'll need to convince them to spend their time on this project.
I for one might be tempted to help, if someone gave me a good reason why Slackware is a good choice for an alternate ROM. Statements that Slackware's package management is cool, or that you like it because you use this on your desktop computer too is not going to be very convincing (for me, at least)!
I mean, it's painful enough to have to tweak half of the existing packages so that they install smoothly on the 3k, if one has to do it for a dozen of different distro, then I fear that most programmers will fail to do it, and that in the end there wont be as wide a choice of software for the 3k as there could be for a limited number of ROM... It's essentially a matter of who comes first, and it seems that Cacko has a made the first move. Not that this ROM is inherently better than any other, mind you, it will simply be amongst the first available...
Hence the question asked by kahm:That tells me why you like Slackware on the desktop, but hasn't explained what you're trying to solve by putting it on the Zaurus.
which still hasn't been answered... (not that it matters, of course, if people are willing to go for it! Nobody's ever going to stop you releasing a Slackware3k ROM!!! )
-
im all about some slackware, but why reinvent the wheel? debian is just fine. debian is slackware with apt-get. :>
-
im all about some slackware, but why reinvent the wheel? debian is just fine. debian is slackware with apt-get. :>
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=76145\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
I find the debian bootstrap, being chrooted, is missing functionality, such as direct hardware access, i playeed with it for a while, but after a while i got bored/fed-up and went back to using sharp (it' still there, i just haven't been using it). Perhaps i'm wrong, perhaps not, but i think it's very sub-optimal