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: omro on May 13, 2005, 03:27:57 pm
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Honest opinion, what ROM for my Zaurus?
Do we have any pages where you can see ROMS vs Model with pro's and con's of each?
If I reflash my shirtpocket supplied ROM, their manual makes it sound like I'll lose their conversion forever :-( Is this true? Or is there a way back if I don't like the uncharted territory of another ROM?
Thanks,
Owen
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Honest opinion, what ROM for my Zaurus?
He he! If you manage to find any user pretending to have an honest (i.e. not passionate) opinion on this subject, you can consider yourself very lucky!
More seriously, there aren't yet many choices except if you're a die-hard beta-tester. The 1000 is still in its infancy. By chance, it's very similar to the 3000, which is a bit older, but there's no "stable" alternative ROM for either model, only work-in-progress.
All in all, in addition to the Sharp original ROM, there is (or will be in the near future) the Cacko ROM (Sharp-based), the OpenZaurus ROM (Opie-based), and I think you can probably install Debian as well (didn't try that one, I suspect the install to be longer or more difficult than the two other ROMs)
A good search on these forums should get you started...
Do we have any pages where you can see ROMS vs Model with pro's and con's of each?
I don't think that such a page exist, but if you do test many different ROM, please feel free to contribute by setting up a page with your opinion and the pros and cons!
If I reflash my shirtpocket supplied ROM, their manual makes it sound like I'll lose their conversion forever :-( Is this true? Or is there a way back if I don't like the uncharted territory of another ROM?
I don't have a 1000, only a 3000, but given that the 1000 has a (limited) flashROM to hold everything, I expect a NAND backup to be a good solution for a later restore if you miss the original ROM? I'm sure many knowledgeable users of this forum can confirm or infirm this...
All in all, I think that in a few weeks/months from now you will have plenty of alternatives even if you don't feel like "exploring uncharted territories". Right now, it's "living on the egde", though!
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Ah.. I'm up and running with mine too. Damn this thing is nice. Anyhoo.. I'm taking a wait and see approach with the ROMs. Looks like things are still fairly early, but I'll probably check out OZ when I get a chance.
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All in all, in addition to the Sharp original ROM, there is (or will be in the near future) the Cacko ROM (Sharp-based), the OpenZaurus ROM (Opie-based), and I think you can probably install Debian as well (didn't try that one, I suspect the install to be longer or more difficult than the two other ROMs)
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=79681\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Actually, Debian is the easy one, because it all runs under the regular Sharp ROM.
You don't need to repartition your disk, or reflash anything.
You can go in and out of it at will. All your existing packages and data are still on there.
The Debian environment is run chroot'ed so Debian's different app and library versions can
coexist with what is already there on the Z. It requires a linux filesystem, but that need not
be a whole disk partition, it can be on a disk file, which avoids complications with restore
(that may occur if /hdd3 is changed from fat to something else).
It occurs to me that the process could be made even easier if someone prepares a .ipk
containing a working Debian disk image.
The downside is that some of the Debian stuff is slow on the Z, since it was mostly written with
2-3ghz processors and gobs of memory in mind. A swap file is recommended.
(Some of the earlier descriptions for installing Debian required rebooting to switch between them,
using a vnc client and server, and reformatting hdd3 as ext2. None of this is necessary).
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Actually, Debian is the easy one, because it all runs under the regular Sharp ROM.
You don't need to repartition your disk, or reflash anything.
You can go in and out of it at will. All your existing packages and data are still on there.
The Debian environment is run chroot'ed so Debian's different app and library versions can
coexist with what is already there on the Z. It requires a linux filesystem, but that need not
be a whole disk partition, it can be on a disk file, which avoids complications with restore
(that may occur if /hdd3 is changed from fat to something else).
It occurs to me that the process could be made even easier if someone prepares a .ipk
containing a working Debian disk image.
The downside is that some of the Debian stuff is slow on the Z, since it was mostly written with
2-3ghz processors and gobs of memory in mind. A swap file is recommended.
(Some of the earlier descriptions for installing Debian required rebooting to switch between them,
using a vnc client and server, and reformatting hdd3 as ext2. None of this is necessary).
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=79707\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Does that mean you could install it on a compact flash card and not have any touching main memory? Is there a how to for this anywhere?
Thanks!
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Actually, Debian is the easy one, because it all runs under the regular Sharp ROM.
You don't need to repartition your disk, or reflash anything.
You can go in and out of it at will. All your existing packages and data are still on there.
The Debian environment is run chroot'ed so Debian's different app and library versions can
coexist with what is already there on the Z. It requires a linux filesystem, but that need not
be a whole disk partition, it can be on a disk file, which avoids complications with restore
(that may occur if /hdd3 is changed from fat to something else).
It occurs to me that the process could be made even easier if someone prepares a .ipk
containing a working Debian disk image.
The downside is that some of the Debian stuff is slow on the Z, since it was mostly written with
2-3ghz processors and gobs of memory in mind. A swap file is recommended.
(Some of the earlier descriptions for installing Debian required rebooting to switch between them,
using a vnc client and server, and reformatting hdd3 as ext2.  None of this is necessary).
[div align=\"right\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div] (http://index.php?act=findpost&pid=79707\")
Does that mean you could install it on a compact flash card and not have any touching main memory? Is there a how to for this anywhere?
Thanks!
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=79717\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Take a look over here : [a href=\"http://www.users.on.net/~hluc/myZaurus/]zaurus 3000 page[/url]
or over here : Pocketworkstation Wiki (http://wiki.debian.net/index.cgi?PocketWorkstation)
Good luck
Chero
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Does that mean you could install it on a compact flash card and not have any touching main memory? Is there a how to for this anywhere?
Thanks!
[div align=\"right\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div] (http://index.php?act=findpost&pid=79717\")
I recommend putting it on a SD card so that you can keep the CF slot free for your wifi card (it makes it kinda hard to apt-get application in your pws install without network going), unless of course you use a usb networking adaptor.
Also check out [a href=\"http://www.pocketworkstation.org/]http://www.pocketworkstation.org/[/url] , it has specific instructions for installation.
good luck
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When I had a 5500, SD with that was cripplingly slow, has that issue been resolved with the Cx000 series?
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SD on the clamshells is pretty good - nowhere near as slow as on the 5x00's.