OESF Portables Forum
Everything Else => General Support and Discussion => Zaurus General Forums => Archived Forums => Software => Topic started by: charlesa on June 07, 2004, 05:31:25 am
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Hi -
Can anyone recommend a good PDF viewer for the Z? I have tried qpdf2 but run into some install overhead on Cacko 121 on a 860. I hope someone has some recommendations on what is working for you.
Regards,
C.
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I use qpdf2_freetype-2.2.1-20040217 on a SL5500 + OZ 3.3.5 without any problems.
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QPDF2 also works great for me too on my SL-5500!
Regards,
Qman....
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Qpdf2_freetype works great for me on my c860 Cacko 1.21b. By far the best PDF reader I\'ve found.
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Wow all you guys recommend the QPDF2, which is a good sign. I tried to install it on a 860 running Cacko 121 and couldn\'t get it running (but perhaps my download was corrupted). If you\'d come back and recommended a different viewer I would not invest in getting QPDF2 installed ok. But since the verdict is so stong...l
Do you recall if you just installed an ipk, or did you need to do a manual install?
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No, I installed an ipk with no issues.
What are the errors you are getting?
Si
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QPDF on a 5600. works fine. a little slow, too much scrolling, but that\'s not the software\'s fault.
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Add me to the list of people recommending qpdf2...
Only thing I would like added would be the ability to see the hyperlinked contents pages of some PDFs. So you could jump straight to the correct page.
But that would be bonus, the program does an excellent job of handling the PDF files I\'ve thrown at it.
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No, I installed an ipk with no issues.
What are the errors you are getting?
Si
# ipkg install qpdf2_render-freetype-2-1.2.1-20040217_arm.ipk
The following package were previously requested but have not been installed:
error
Install them now [Y/n] ? n
zcat: qpdf2_render-freetype-2-1.2.1-20040217_arm.ipk: not in gzip format
zcat: stdin: unexpected end of file
ipkg_install_file: ERROR unpacking control.tar.gz from qpdf2_render-freetype-2-1.2.1-20040217_arm.ipk
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Not sure where that error message is coming from; \"ipkg update\" doesn\'t seem to clear it. I also tried installing qpdf2_render-freetype-2-1.1.0-20031208_arm.ipk and got the same zcat error.
This in on Cacko 121 ROM.
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Thinking more about this, perhaps qpdf2 is having a prob unpacking into flash. So I try the -d option:
#ipkg -d ram install qpdf2_render-freetype-2-1.2.1-20040217_arm.ipk
ipkg: invalid destination specification: ram
Valid destinations are directories or one of the dest names from /etc/ipkg.conf:
root
tmpinst
#
Then checking /etc/ipkg.conf I see the following:
# more /etc/ipkg.conf
dest root /
dest tmpinst /home/tmp/ipkg/inst
#
and here is my filesystem:
# mount
/dev/root on / type jffs2 (ro)
/proc on /proc type proc (rw)
/dev/ram1 on /dev type minix (rw)
/dev/loop0 on /usr type cramfs (ro)
/dev/mtdblock3 on /home type jffs2 (rw,noatime)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw)
/dev/mmcda1 on /usr/mnt.rom/card type vfat (rw,noatime)
#
Do you guys have an example of your ipkg.conf which can write to RAM & also an SD card? I tried the FAQ but couldn\'t see anything there, nor does the man page shead much light.
Sorry if this is going off-thread!
C.
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It looks like your ipk may be corrupt, or it may be in ar format. Possibly.
Might be best to check the ipk format.
for the ipkg.conf file, you probably want to add something like \'dest sd /mnt/card\', but it\'s only a guess.
Si
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You\'re right, it was a hosed ipk from SourceForge. I contacted qpdf2\'s author and he was _very_ helpful in supplying a kosher version. It now running on my Z and working great!
Thanks for all the feedback.
C.
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I cannot use qpdf2 because when it starts, it hangs in "Reading directories, please wait...".
Any hints?
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lekter, have you created a circulary link of symlinks. I had that problem with the add/remove software applet, as i had created a symlink circle and the program kept looping.
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That was the problem!!!!
I made a symlink on /home/zaurus to / to be able to navigate through all the filesystem using the builtin filemanager.
Once I removed that symlink, qpdf2 worked again.
Now I can continue reading 1984 (George Orwell). ;-)
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I also would recommend QPDF2 .. actually what I would like to see is
a desktop version, I find the ability to annotate PDF's really useful
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Unfortunately QPDF2 often reports low memory when opening large files on my C860. Any soultions? Thanks.
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It also did that last night on me, and actually hung my Z once. I was opening a 2 meg pdf, but with 70 pages... that was no problem, until i zoomed in on one of the large schematics.
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It also did that last night on me, and actually hung my Z once. I was opening a 2 meg pdf, but with 70 pages... that was no problem, until i zoomed in on one of the large schematics.
That is strange. I've opened up larger pdfs with hundreds of pages and zoomed without a problem on my 5500.
By the way, there is a new version of qpdf just recently posted on killfiz.
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It seems that the one in killifiz is still the old qpdf2_freetype-2.2.1-20040217_arm.ipk, not really a new version.
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Yep,
I got excited and downloaded it. Uninstalled and reinstalled then realised it was the same one
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You guys know that you can edit the entries on http://killefiz.de/zaurus/ (http://killefiz.de/zaurus/) ?
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lekter, have you created a circulary link of symlinks. I had that problem with the add/remove software applet, as i had created a symlink circle and the program kept looping.
I have a LOT of directories containing pdfs on my Z. It takes qpdf about 90 seconds to read them. I tried changing the startup_directory_browser in the qdpf.conf file to 0, and even removing altogether. Anyone know how to force it to not read directories when it starts?
btw, I'm running the freetype 2.2.1 version on SharpROM
Thanks,
gdog
edit: Actually I learned that it was not the directory browser that was taking so long it was the Doc browser. After selecting Directory Browser in Preferences it comes up real quick. I just wish it would allow you to Open a document that is the target of a link without also having to select one of those three choices in Preferences. But at least now I can just close the Directory Browser when it does open, adding just a small amount of overhead and one extra click.
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I haven't been able to get Qpdf to display in landscape on my C750. I hit the rotation button in the program but it does nothing and there is no option to rotate the screen when this program is running.
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You most probably need to tap-hold the qpdf icon and unselect "Display with Magnified screen". THen things will work for you.
Probably about 80% or more of the software currently available needs to have this done - not sure why
Stu
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For those with memory problems...
http://my-zaurus.narod.ru/memory.html (http://my-zaurus.narod.ru/memory.html)
Works like a charm... Throw a 16 or 32 MB swapfile on a SD card and watch memory problems vanish.
Just a note: Don't use it all the time - only turn it on when you need it. Using it too much can prematurely age your SD card, causing it to not work right.
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"Just a note: Don't use it all the time - only turn it on when you need it. Using it too much can prematurely age your SD card, causing it to not work right."
Is that really a known problem or just a guess? I have used a swapfile all the time, and my SD card just died (only a couple of months old). I realise that they can fail, but was surprised that it was so quick!
James
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Thanks for the help on screen rotation. My last concern with this program is the font display. When zooming out it gets pretty jagged and hard to read. Is there any way to change the font type or at least smooth it out a little.
Don
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"Just a note: Don't use it all the time - only turn it on when you need it. Using it too much can prematurely age your SD card, causing it to not work right."
Is that really a known problem or just a guess? I have used a swapfile all the time, and my SD card just died (only a couple of months old). I realise that they can fail, but was surprised that it was so quick!
That's a known fact about all flash memory... It's only good for a certain number of write/rewrite cycles. I don't know the exact stats, but I've heard it's around 500. I don't believe it affects the Z's internal memory, luckily, but I could be wrong...
The reason the swapfile is so bad is because it's written/rewritten to very regularly, like RAM is. SD/CF cards are much better off as storage mediums, but using a swapfile once in a while for large files or applications is ok.
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That's a known fact about all flash memory... It's only good for a certain number of write/rewrite cycles. I don't know the exact stats, but I've heard it's around 500. I don't believe it affects the Z's internal memory, luckily, but I could be wrong...
Actually, it's between 10K and 100K erase cycles (depending on the flash memory technology used).
See this post (https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=28&t=7406) for lots more info.
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Phenomenal post, thank you for the contribution!
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Thans for the info. I did know that (re)writing was suppose to eventually wear it out, but hadn't made the connection to use of a swap file...reckon I must have been rather unlucky anyway, I'm not really much of a 'power user', but i will be more careful next time anyway!
James
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@kopsis:
That was one of the most informative off-topic posts I have ever seen in any forum Perhaps it could be copied somewhere more appropriate on the ZUG site - a query about PDF viewers is not the obvious place to look for something like this.
P.
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I figure if I'm going to go off topic, I might as well do it big I've relocated my "flash wear" post to its own topic in the Accessories forum (seemed to make sense for flash cards) so it will be easier for folks to find.
And in the interest of getting back on topic ... I too heartily reccommend QPDF2! It's one of the most frequently used apps on my C760. There's nothing like being able to carry dozens of 500+ page technical spec documents everywhere I go