OESF Portables Forum

Everything Else => Zaurus Distro Support and Discussion => Distros, Development, and Model Specific Forums => Archived Forums => Angstrom & OpenZaurus => Topic started by: weasel123 on May 25, 2005, 08:28:18 pm

Title: Switching To Gpe? Need Advise
Post by: weasel123 on May 25, 2005, 08:28:18 pm

I am a veteran when it comes to opie, however i have never flashed GPE on my sl 5500, however i can see that gpe is progressing well, and i do think that the future for linux handhelds will be based on X (or a micro version of it) considering the large apps alredy avilable.
So I need some help,
1. What are the benefits of using GPE
2. All i need is a working setup, power on and off etc working ok, i dont mind broken package managers I cna use ipkg from the command line.
3. Working internet tools, like mozilla/minimo, sylpheed
Will i get these if i switch to GPE?

Title: Switching To Gpe? Need Advise
Post by: mscdex on August 15, 2005, 04:42:02 am

Quote

I am a veteran when it comes to opie, however i have never flashed GPE on my sl 5500, however i can see that gpe is progressing well, and i do think that the future for linux handhelds will be based on X (or a micro version of it) considering the large apps alredy avilable.
So I need some help,
1. What are the benefits of using GPE
2. All i need is a working setup, power on and off etc working ok, i dont mind broken package managers I cna use ipkg from the command line.
3. Working internet tools, like mozilla/minimo, sylpheed
Will i get these if i switch to GPE?

I was kind of wondering the same things myself. I currently have an sl-5600 with the stock sharp rom. Trying to decide what the major pros and cons are to switching to another rom (mostly openzaurus from the look of things).

Can anyone comment on it?

Title: Switching To Gpe? Need Advise
Post by: koen on August 15, 2005, 07:02:57 am

Quote

I am a veteran when it comes to opie, however i have never flashed GPE on my sl 5500, however i can see that gpe is progressing well, and i do think that the future for linux handhelds will be based on X (or a micro version of it) considering the large apps already avilable.
So I need some help,
1. What are the benefits of using GPE
2. All i need is a working setup, power on and off etc working ok, i dont mind broken package managers I cna use ipkg from the command line.
3. Working internet tools, like mozilla/minimo, sylpheed
Will i get these if i switch to GPE?
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1) I'd say X11, everything else is just personal preference
2) powermanagement is mostly an OS issue, so if the device works with OpenZaurus it should work with any environment (opie, gpe, whatever). And yes, there is a commandline
3) You can use any X11 based application, the only limit is your storage space. minimo and sylpheed should be in the OZ feeds.

I hope this helps

Title: Switching To Gpe? Need Advise
Post by: asola on October 24, 2005, 10:16:11 am

Quote

I am a veteran when it comes to opie, however i have never flashed GPE on my sl 5500, however i can see that gpe is progressing well, and i do think that the future for linux handhelds will be based on X (or a micro version of it) considering the large apps alredy avilable.
So I need some help,
1. What are the benefits of using GPE
2. All i need is a working setup, power on and off etc working ok, i dont mind broken package managers I cna use ipkg from the command line.
3. Working internet tools, like mozilla/minimo, sylpheed
Will i get these if i switch to GPE?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=81533\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

I believe you are completely right about the future of X on the Zaurus and on other PDAs. I think the whole Qtopia and OPIE thing is a detour and the future is a standard linux and X on the Zaurus. For this reason I am trying to install OZ 3.5.3/3.5.4RC with GPE onto my C3000.

As you may know OpenZaurus is a Debian based distro and supports the latest kernels (2.6.x). In theory, a GPE based Zaurus should be able to run all of the arm ported X apps which are not too big for the 64Mb of RAM in the Zaurus.

However, currently OZ/GPE is not very smooth on the Spitz (it may be different with your Zaurus). On/off doesn't work at all and I couldn't find any icons on the GPE interface which I could use to suspend the machine (I am a GPE begginner though).

I couldn't configure my wifi card either and the GPE look&feel app freezes completely (I wanted to change font sizes).

I am sure newer OZ/GPE distros will become stable enough soon but there is some work to be done.