OESF Portables Forum
Everything Else => Zaurus Distro Support and Discussion => Distros, Development, and Model Specific Forums => Archived Forums => Debian => Topic started by: ZDevil on September 28, 2007, 08:17:45 am
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I have been trying the system settings apps from pdaXrom r198 (now w/ 2.6.xx kernel) on Debian (Lenny).
Backlight setting:
So far setfl works like a charm. I've modified the setting value from one degree to five (the range is 0~47). And now I run icewm-experimental (darn faster than xfce4!) and bind seftl - and setfl + to Ctrl-Alt-3 and Ctrl-Alt-4 separately. An essential tool for Debian/Z. The modified script is attached here. Have fun.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ] (Remove the .txt extension and put it in any executable path)
CPU over/underclocking:
Next I'm gonna try cpuoverclock.py.
(Side story: I've installed the 2.6.20 kernel with cpufreq support (zImage-2.6.20-cpufreq.bin) from http://www.bigbridgezau.sakura.ne.jp/dev/debian/ (http://www.bigbridgezau.sakura.ne.jp/dev/debian/)
I am still wondering if dvfm (also available in the link above) will work. But I need to be more informed before trying it. Any hint?)
The cpuoverclock.py does launch despite some GTK deprecation warnings, which may be due to the older GTK libs used in pdaXrom, i guess. But I don't want to take the risk to toast my buddy Z. So I wonder if this app will function in the same way as it does in pdaXrom. I am not sure if it makes any difference when the two systems are using different kernel versions.
Isn't it cool to transplate these apps to Debian?
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I have been trying the system settings apps from pdaXrom r198 (now w/ 2.6.xx kernel) on Debian (Lenny).
Backlight setting:
So far setfl works like a charm. I've modified the setting value from one degree to five (the range is 0~47). And now I run icewm-experimental (darn faster than xfce4!) and bind seftl - and setfl + to Ctrl-Alt-3 and Ctrl-Alt-4 separately. An essential tool for Debian/Z. The modified script is attached here. Have fun.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ] (Remove the .txt extension and put it in any executable path)
CPU over/underclocking:
Next I'm gonna try cpuoverclock.py.
(Side story: I've installed the 2.6.20 kernel with cpufreq support (zImage-2.6.20-cpufreq.bin) from http://www.bigbridgezau.sakura.ne.jp/dev/debian/ (http://www.bigbridgezau.sakura.ne.jp/dev/debian/)
I am still wondering if dvfm (also available in the link above) will work. But I need to be more informed before trying it. Any hint?)
The cpuoverclock.py does launch despite some GTK deprecation warnings, which may be due to the older GTK libs used in pdaXrom, i guess. But I don't want to take the risk to toast my buddy Z. So I wonder if this app will function in the same way as it does in pdaXrom. I am not sure if it makes any difference when the two systems are using different kernel versions.
Isn't it cool to transplate these apps to Debian?
it should work. the cpuoverclock python script is a GUI for passing the values to call dvfm anyway so just make sure the values stored in the cpuoverclock script are correct which they might not be since nobody really tested them in pdaXrom...
the deprecation warning can be easily removed by simply replacing TRUE with gtk.True and FALSE with gtk.False or something similar. i need to check, or just use the python script from the sp7 or was it sp8 package instead of the default python scripts in r198...
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Great to hear this, Meanie.
Just to play safe, what should the values in the script look like, like 416, 520, 624 mhz, etc?
Once this is fixed then I will test performance difference w.r.t. audiovisual use after overclocking.
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Great to hear this, Meanie.
Just to play safe, what should the values in the script look like, like 416, 520, 624 mhz, etc?
Once this is fixed then I will test performance difference w.r.t. audiovisual use after overclocking.
for better video performance you probably want the pxa patch from the Angstrom kernel and an optimised build of mplayer with pxa mode and iwmmxt enabled.
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Then this should not be too difficult, as I have already tested a couple of homemade packages under Debian...
So, Meanie can you give me the pointers to the cpuoverclock.py scripts for sp7 and sp8? I have not used pdaXrom for quite a few months and I've already got lost in the versioning and the download locations ... sorry.
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I have been trying the system settings apps from pdaXrom r198 (now w/ 2.6.xx kernel) on Debian (Lenny).
Backlight setting:
So far setfl works like a charm. I've modified the setting value from one degree to five (the range is 0~47). And now I run icewm-experimental (darn faster than xfce4!) and bind seftl - and setfl + to Ctrl-Alt-3 and Ctrl-Alt-4 separately. An essential tool for Debian/Z. The modified script is attached here. Have fun.
Great. I've been wondering about that, but haven't managed to hunt down the settings. Will try your script later on.
So, you recommend icewm?? Just when I was getting used to xfce4. What else does that let you do that you can't do with xfce4? Is it lighter in terms of system load? Easy to configure? That was a problem with enlightenment (e7, in Angstrom). Configuration was a nightmare. But xfce4 is not bad -- as long as you use lenny. With etch, you could not configure launcher tabs.
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Here is one very nice review of IceWM (still a good read though a bit dated): http://www.osnews.com/story.php/7774/IceWM...Window-Manager/ (http://www.osnews.com/story.php/7774/IceWM--The-Cool-Window-Manager/)
In short the good things about IceWM are: 1) It is fullyand easily customizable with just five plain text config files; 2) as the writer of the article says, "it makes you forget about its existence."
I have searched a bit through the posts in the pdaXrom forum. I could find a r198 SP8 package, but there is no patched cpuoverclock.py script in it. Could someone provide a pointer or upload the file to here?
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I have been trying the system settings apps from pdaXrom r198 (now w/ 2.6.xx kernel) on Debian (Lenny).
Backlight setting:
So far setfl works like a charm. I've modified the setting value from one degree to five (the range is 0~47). And now I run icewm-experimental (darn faster than xfce4!) and bind seftl - and setfl + to Ctrl-Alt-3 and Ctrl-Alt-4 separately. An essential tool for Debian/Z. The modified script is attached here. Have fun.
OK, this works (thanks!), but only as root. I even chmod 4755'd it to be suid root, and it still won't work except as root. That's no good, since in order to bind it to C-A-3/4 and have it work it'd have to be able to run as my regular user. Any clues?
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I have no idea about why setfl executes as root only. Does it matter if you put it or execute it from different locations? Or chgrp or add the nonroot user to wheel group?
About the cpuoverclock.py:
Tried overclocking. It worked. But the screen flickered when refreshing.
I still can't see a patched version for r197 or 198 in all the service packs. There is only one for pdaXii which cannot run in Debian.
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I have no idea about why setfl executes as root only. Does it matter if you put it or execute it from different locations? Or chgrp or add the nonroot user to wheel group?
I managed to get my non-root user to be able to use it by changing the permissions on the brightness file. Odd, though, setting the executable suid root should have made it possible to write that file. Oh well. At any rate, I can change the brightness with Alt-4/3 now (I used keylaunch to set that up). Very useful, and it should extend battery life.
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If I'm thinking correctly... in the py script it executes a sudo root... so installing sudo under you debian install may fix this
but dont mark my word on that :-)
Late
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I have no idea about why setfl executes as root only. Does it matter if you put it or execute it from different locations? Or chgrp or add the nonroot user to wheel group?
I managed to get my non-root user to be able to use it by changing the permissions on the brightness file. Odd, though, setting the executable suid root should have made it possible to write that file. Oh well. At any rate, I can change the brightness with Alt-4/3 now (I used keylaunch to set that up). Very useful, and it should extend battery life.
One more tip:
If you don't want the setfl script to turn the brightness to completely off (= 0), first check if the brightness is at the maximal level:
nano /sys/class/backlight/corgi-bl/brighness
The max value should be 47.
Then setfl - won't turn the screen completely off.
If you feel like customizing the brightness intervals, just open up the script and change the value in lines 23 and 26 from "1" to other values. Note that the whole range of brightness is from 0-47.