OESF Portables Forum
Model Specific Forums => Sharp Zaurus => Zaurus - pdaXrom => Topic started by: Stathgar on March 12, 2006, 02:16:47 am
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Hello,
After about 24 hours worth of struggle spread out over a week, I finally have things working reasonably well. There are still convenience issues, but I'm at the point where I can actually install XMMS with a graphical package manager and use it to successfully play MP3s.
So, here's how I did it:
First off, I started with a 128MB CompactFlash card, a 128MB Secure Digital card, and a D-Link DCF-650W CompactFlash wireless card. You could do this without the SD card, but I'd rather not go into explaining alternate routes unless someone wants to ask me something specific.
1. Make sure the CompactFlash card is formatted as FAT16, and format the Secure Digital card as ext2.
2. Copy initrd.bin and zImage.5500 to the CF card, and follow flashing instructions from here: OpenZaurus's flashing instructions (http://openzaurus.org/wordpress/installation/sl-5000sl-5500-revised/#nav-flash)
3. Move your home directory onto the SD card so you don't run out of space (seems only about 1MB of internal storage is free?)
mkdir /mnt/card/home
cd /home
cp -rs * /mnt/card/home
cd /
rm -r /home
ln -s /mnt/card/home home
4. Set up wireless:
Go ahead and put in your wireless card.
Depending on your network, you may have to do some configuration with iwconfig. Some good info on that can be found here: http://linuxcommand.org/man_pages/iwconfig8.html (http://linuxcommand.org/man_pages/iwconfig8.html)
In my case I had to specify essid, WEP key, and "key on".
Run "dchpcd", and if you're lucky your wireless will work now. You could test this using wget to download a file at a known URL. Due to space issues, I suggest only downloading files to SD.
5. Fix ipkg's configuration - hopefully you know how to use vi.
vi /etc/ipkg.conf
Change the first line in the file to the current correct feed URL for the 5500.
At the time of writing this, it's: http://mail.pdaxrom.org/1.1.0beta1/Zaurus-5000D-5500/feed/ (http://mail.pdaxrom.org/1.1.0beta1/Zaurus-5000D-5500/feed/)
6. Install qt-mt and packagemanager to your SD card
ipkg update
ipkg -d sd install qt-mt
ipkg -d sd install packagemanager
7. Start the GUI
startx
8. Find the packagemanager under System Tools, and run it. It may be a little annoying to use the interface on the low-resolution screen of the 5500, but it's possible.
Be sure to install everything to SD of course, or you'll most likely be out of room before you finish installing the first package.
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I hope that helps somebody, and if something doesn't work I may have made an error in typing this so please feel free to ask about it.
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some more packages for 5500 (compiled using the builder, I don't know which are and which are not in the "official feed", I think mplayer at least is not in the beta1 feed) :
http://mail.pdaxrom.org/contrib/ (http://mail.pdaxrom.org/contrib/)
(under the 5000D-5500 title)
All the xxxx.armv5tel.ipk won't work for the 5500
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update:
vi does work fine from the root terminal prompt you get on boot up, but not from within pdaxrom (x) as mentioned must be due to screen size as the base terminal uses a smaller font...
is there a way to adjust the pdaxrom aterm font size ??
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following those instructions didn't seem to work. I renamed the zimage, and it still didn't work. Originally it would start to boot OZ(what I had previously), and not get anywhere. Now it won't even light up the charge light. It won't turn onl. I'm pretty sure I haven't bricked it, because a reflash does the same thing, but the lights do come on. Suggestions?
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following those instructions didn't seem to work.... / Suggestions?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=130630\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Hi,
I just noticed your post, since I am thinking about putting pdaXrom on
my 5500 again. In order to find out what your issues are, perhaps you
could answer a few questions:
1 - When trying to flash, do both LEDs stay lit for a couple minutes?
2 - Have you tried reformatting the CF card again (FAT not ext2 of course!)
3 - Have you done an MD5 check on the files to ensure they were downloaded OK?
John
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UPDATE 1
It appears the link to the SL-5500 and SL-5000D kernels is not valid as posted on
the pdaXrom page http://www.pdaxrom.org/index.php?showid=8&menuid=11 (http://www.pdaxrom.org/index.php?showid=8&menuid=11) ...
If that is what you are trying to use, (like I just did), you will be downloading a
6.8K text file that is the web page HTML code that states that the page is not found!
John
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no, the lights don't stay on. I'm assuming what's going on is that the two files aren't valid. I need to pick up a card reader today, in order to reformat and start over. Thanks
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UPDATE 2
I just flashed my SL-5500 with the files from:
http://mail.pdaxrom.org/download/1.1.0beta...rus-5000D-5500/ (http://mail.pdaxrom.org/download/1.1.0beta1/Zaurus-5000D-5500/)
It booted up fine. Note that it runs the matchbox window manager, and that
only the aterm and dillo2 applications will appear in the various directory
icons on the "desktop". This is correct, but may surprise some folks!
Also note that with only 816K free on the / partition, folks should move a
lot more than just the /home directory to external storage. In the past I
moved many things, and typically could run with about 5MB free on the
/ partition. Details will follow, as I proceed to do this again, if folks express
interest.
BUT, I'm confused as to one of the commands in STEP #3 which is:
cp -rs * /mnt/card/home
Using the "s" option will just create symbolic links, but then 2 commands
later, the /home directory is erased. Wouldn't this cause all the symlinks to
become broken? Please correct me if I'm wrong! Thanks!
John
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UPDATE 3
FYI - I believe the file feed.tar.gz at:
http://mail.pdaxrom.org/download/1.1.0beta...rus-5000D-5500/ (http://mail.pdaxrom.org/download/1.1.0beta1/Zaurus-5000D-5500/)
is corrupted. I have downloaded it twice, and see:
[...]
-rw-r--r-- sash/sash 459308 2005-12-22 12:56:11 feed/sylpheed-gtk2_2.0.2_arm.ipk
-rw-r--r-- sash/sash 8964162 2005-12-22 12:57:36 feed/timidity-patches_1.0.0_arm.ipk
gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file
tar: Unexpected EOF in archive
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
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UPDATE: Yeah, you're right, it's the html file I downloaded. Is there another place to download it? Or does pdaxrom not support the 5500 any more?
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UPDATE: Yeah, you're right, it's the html file I downloaded. Is there another place to download it? Or does pdaxrom not support the 5500 any more?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=130865\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Yes, look a few posts back in my "update 3" message, I purposely put
the link there!
It seems that the "mail.pdaxrom.org" page has the correct links, and has
superceded the older pdaxrom.org web page.
Perhaps the maintainers should replace the old page with a page that
announces, and has a link to the new page. AND, of course fix the
feed.tar.gz file!
John
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yeah, sorry, I was posting from a page that hadn't been refreshed, so I didn't see your updates at all. I'll see if I can do this. I tried to go back to OZ, assuming pdaxrom had dropped support for the 5500, and now I can't get it to flash at atll, the lights don't turn on.
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Hmm, I just tried to setup WIFI, and the config files are not there. I looked
in the filelist in the feed, and don't see wlancfg-DEFAULT listed.
Did WIFI setup change in the beta versions of pdaXrom?
I was expecting to find that file, and a directory named /etc/wlan or something like that.
John
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So... has anybody been successful in implementing these steps to get pdaxrom working on their 5500? This discussion ended about two months ago, and both participants seemed less than happy with the upgrade. Would love to hear a success story before I embark on this adventure, I already have enough bricks .
Note: my reason for moving to pdaxrom is so that I can run Python, Vim, an internet browser and mp3 player. Pdaxrom is the only one that seems to support all four. Any other ideas???
Thanks.
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So... has anybody been successful in implementing these steps to get pdaxrom working on their 5500?
Hi,
I think I got WIFI working, by using the GUI, but it was a while back. I lost interest
because of the lack of a complete feed. I was confused, since I mainly use a 6000,
and was expecting the network setup to be the same. It got too confusing trying to
remember the differences between the 5500 and 6000, and I stopped using the
5500 to run pdaXrom for the moment.
I would be willing to try to setup my 5500 again with pdaXrom if a complete feed
(and hopefully a tarball of all packages) was available.
I am currently without work, and have some extra time, but I get the feeling that
(much to my disappointment) the 5500 is falling way behind in support. This seems
to be the case for OZ also. I love my 5500 and prefer to carry it, since I ride a
motorbike most of the time, and I don't want to endanger my precious 6000.
I posted this mostly, in order to let the developers know that interest in the 5500
still exists!
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Hi,
Just an FYI - The feed.tar.gz located at:
http://mail.pdaxrom.org/download/1.1.0beta...rus-5000D-5500/ (http://mail.pdaxrom.org/download/1.1.0beta1/Zaurus-5000D-5500/)
Seems to be OK, at least as far as tar is concerned! Thanks to whoever fixed it!
John
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Hi,
FYI - I was planning on setting up my 5500 again with pdaXrom beta1, now that I
was able to download a complete (uncorrupted) feed.tar.gz.
There is a major bug, where holding down the right arrow or the menu key
will suspend the Z. I figured I'd mention it, even though I know the 5500 support
is fading...
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Just as a note- I have pdaxrom working mostly on an sl5000.
Using a 1gb cf card and 256mb sd card.
Most things work so far, and its nice to have much more control of the OS than in the other roms I have tried....
But even though I can get networking set up and functioning just fine, including running through a gateway to route packets, I can NOT get packages to install and run.
NO package feed is working for me, even when I have checked the EXACT url on another machine. It connects but then just times out after about 30 seconds.
One of my guesses on this point is the port used is still blocked- anyone know the EXACT port in use by ipkg?
One of the things I tried is to install locally, and this works in PART-
applications say they install, and I get icons.
But they don't work. Not sure why, but my leading guess is space.....
Another guess I am working on is space- trying moving stuff from the onboard to one of my cards.
So far I have screwed up twice by moving stuff...wrong, in some fashion.
So I am still working on it.
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NO package feed is working for me, even when I have checked the EXACT url on another machine. It connects but then just times out after about 30 seconds.
One of my guesses on this point is the port used is still blocked- anyone know the EXACT port in use by ipkg?
If it connects it's very unlikely that the port is blocked. There are some networking issues floating around that cause the connection to hang, particularly as soon as you start saturating it (e.g. downloading). Discussion around here somewhere, not sure if anything was ever resolved. Also issues with 2.6.14 kernel if you have this on your desktop/router machine. Try changing the mtu to a lower value and see if it helps.
Also I see in the other thread that you are having problems with apps being set for landscape mode (I have the same issues on an SL6000). The solution to this is generally a better window manager which forces the correct sizes - not sure if this is a possibility on a 5500...
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Whew, I spent a few hours setting up my 5500 with beta1 today. I was able to get
WIFI access working, but I had to switch window managers using openbox to
circumvent the "truncate windows to fit screen" behavior of the matchbox WM.
This was preventing me from using the "network configuration" tool namely
network.py, as the wireless options were being truncated.
Below is a crude set of notes I took, and I promise to cleanup the post later, and/or
add more detail for those who may not understand some of the steps, key bindings,
how to use vi (I am a *real* novice but I see emacs is not in the feed).
I was getting a little frustrated, and I bet it shows, but I'll clean up the post later.
Please provide feedback if there is anything you feel should be added or clarified.
It was cronological, so the "mistakes" I made were noted. It's best to read ahead to
avoid the stumbling and save some frustration.
<BEGIN CRUDE NOTES>
flashing my black 5500 with pdaxrom_1_1_0_beta1
will use 128MB SD for swap space and packages installs
will use 128MB CF flash to hold packages to be installed (.ipk files from feed.tar.gz)
Creating the 32MB swap file on SD (I used my desktop machine as it is faster)
# cd /mnt/card
# dd if=/dev/zero of=swapfile1 bs=1 count=32M
33554432+0 records in
33554432+0 records out
# mkswap swapfile1
login (root no pwd)
passwd (to set a password on the root account)
# swapon /mnt/card/swapfile1 (to enable use of the swap file)
startx (first time run, need to calibrate touchscreen)
matchbox wm appears
8 folders show
only 2 apps available, aterm in Other, dillo2 in Internet
816KB free on /
all installs use "ipkg -d sd install WHATEVER.ipk" to install onto sd card
ignore error about the cacko-unstable feed, and suggestion to run ipkg update
(which of course can't be done without a network)
(later when I install an editor I know well, I will change ipkg.conf so -d sd will be the default)
installed wireless_26
installed dhcpcd
seems there is no wlan string found in filelist
seems lanconfig package has network.py and wireless configuration
something crashing when "cardctl suspend 0" executed with wifi card in
can't scroll back in non-X11 console to see what crashes
system hangs on cardctl eject 0
RESET
installed lanconfig
network.py needs python
installed python
network.py needs gtk module (pygtk)
(from packages file, deps are:)
lanconfig has Depends: pygtk, python-core, python-codecs, python-re, python-dbus, python-fcntl, python-io, python-math, python-stringold, python-xml
geez, copy all the darn python-* packages to the cf card
install python-gtk
DARN, it's called pygtk, unmount cf, eject cf, inject cf into desktop, copy pygtk.ipk to cf, eject cf, inject cf, try again
install pygtk
install python-core
install python-codecs
install python-re
install python-dbus
install python-fcntl
install python-io
install python-math
install python-stringold
install python-xml
DARN, network.py fails trying to open network.cfg
search the filelist
found in matchbox-pdaxrom_1.0.14_armv5tel.ipk package
unmount cf, eject cf, inject cf into desktop, copy matchbox-pdaxrom_1.0.14_armv5tel.ipk to cf, eject cf, inject cf, try again
install matchbox-pdaxrom
YAY, network.py runs, lets try to configure WIFI access
NOPE, DARN, screen is truncated
need to change window manager to one that does not clip X11 windows
install openbox
try to run openbox (realizing that it will complain about another WM running)
just want to see if it runs... NOPE
checking dependencies in packages file...
it needs libxml and startup-notification
put them on the CF card, (details ommited)
install startup-notification
install libxml
change .xinitrc to use openbox,
copy original .xinitrc to .xinitrc.orig first
note - .xinitrc is a symlink to /usr/bin/matchbox-session
OH NO, NO EMACS! (luckily I know just enough vi to do trivial things)
remember vi does not work correctly under X11, return to console...
OH NO, NO EXIT BUTTON TO CLOSE WM!
use CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE to quit X11 (calendar contacts and backspace)
use vi to create a new .xinitrc with just openbox RETURN
NOTE cancel button is the ESCAPE key
chmod +x the .xinitrc file
startx
hmm, X11 herringbone pattern... AH, control with click shows menus
but menus only have a few entries
trying obconf
OK, now xterm is in Applications menu, I don't think it was before!
xterm runs, nice and large and 80 column like on a desktop machine, but of
course need to use ALT and drag stylus to see parts of windows that do not fit
NOTE -
ALT is that "person" contacts? round button 2nd from left above cancel button
CONTROL is the "calendar" button round button on left above cancel button
trying network.py, works great now, need to drag it around using ALT and the stylus
remove cf, insert cf WIFI
create a new profile suitable named after my ESSID, specify essid and wep
YES, ping x.org works!
Whew, enough for now, I need to rest!
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sorry, cause i dig it from grave, but do you have any progress ?
i need help to set openbox for collie, could you explain this step by step!
my progress :
install openbox
install startup-notification
install libxml
next step how to change window manager from matchbox to openbox?
is this correct?
in root create .xinitrc file
vi /.xinitrc
in .xinitrc create only:
openbox
exit vi
chmod +x .xinitrc file
Thanx
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sorry, cause i dig it from grave, but do you have any progress ?
i need help to set openbox for collie, could you explain this step by step!
my progress :
install openbox
install startup-notification
install libxml
next step how to change window manager from matchbox to openbox?
is this correct?
in root create .xinitrc file
vi /.xinitrc
in .xinitrc create only:
openbox
exit vi
chmod +x .xinitrc file
Thanx
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=162474\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Well, I just checked my 5500 (long time since I did) and yes, creating a one
line .xinitrc with just "openbox" in it (may need the newline) works.
I'm not sure why you are putting a "/" before the filename though when you open it in vi.
(Unless of course you have changed the default home dir of root to / instead of /home/root)
Man, it's really a lot of work to setup a decent pdaXrom on a 5500. In fact I just opened
up vi to look at the .xinitrc, (under X) and I could not get out of it. If I executed ESC
(cancel button) then :q! I would get a message that file is unsaved and quit! overrides it.
Well, I don't use vi too often, never liked it, but for the life of me I could not figure out
how to exit vi without writing the file (I had inadvertently added characters to the file
due to my lack of vi knowledge as well as the failure of it to update the screen properly
under X)
Anyway, good luck if you pursue this...
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you can just "ctrl+z' with , holding far left "calander" button on slide and press z, or x or c ...
it was looking for q! rather than q to exist discarding changes... but i think the function key can get a bit whacky at times and not work to provide the ! ...
https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=23649 (https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=23649)
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will this work on a 5600?
Scott
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unfortuantalely im dont think it currently does...
http://www.pdaxrom.org/?q=downloads#comment-789 (http://www.pdaxrom.org/?q=downloads#comment-789)