Messages

1

Angstrom & OpenZaurus / Oz 3.5.2 "check Backup Batter !" Bootup Hang

« on: December 06, 2004, 07:52:36 pm »

A couple ideas:

Did you remember to hit the reset button again after the flash was done?
Are you sure both files were named correctly on the CF card (zImage and initrd.bin)? ZIMAGE is not the same as zImage.

I'd try redownloading the image and reflashing.  Maybe the image was corrupted somehow.  The first time I flashed 3.5.2 it didn't work out right (different error than yours), but after I redownloaded the image and reflashed it's been working pretty well since then. Hope this helps.

-John

2

Angstrom & OpenZaurus / POLL: How stable is your Open Zaurus

« on: December 05, 2004, 06:31:18 am »

3.5.1 seemed to die on suspend for me.  I would suspend it then it would never wake up.  3.5.2 has been rock stable so far though, and way faster than 3.2. I use wellenreiter, xmms, opie PIM stuff, konqueror.  Most apps are installed to a 256MB SD card (a sandisk) that I leave in almost 100% of the time.  Opie-ftp seems a bit flakey in this version (doesn't want to save settings right) but that's not a big problem. I like command line ftp better anyways. Also, xmms sometimes randomly fails to turn off power-management and lets the zaurus fall asleep while I'm listening to music.  If that happens simply exiting xmms and restarting it fixes the problem.  3.5.2 hasn't crashed yet and I've had it since it was on the oz ftp server. And I haven't been nice to it either.  I've been installing and removing all kinds of programs.  I haven't run into a glitch yet.  

3

General Discussion / Sound is Dead! Help!!!

« on: April 29, 2004, 01:02:36 am »

If you can get any form of sound at all you should be mostly in the clear.  Sharp\'s version of MediaPlayer is pretty finicky from what I remember.  I would suggest that you go to: http://www.mneuroth.de/privat/zaurus/madplay.html
download the latest version of madplay and install it.  Its a console program so you\'ll have to run the terminal program, then run the program followed by the complete path to the mp3 like this

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madplay /root/name_of_mp3.mp3
If you can get sound out of that then its just a software problem with Sharp\'s media player.  The audio codec chip isn\'t a flash chip, and its not a codec in the way you\'re probably thinking about it.  Any decoding of mp3s and other music formats is done by the Zaurus\'s main processor, which from what you say appears to work.  Besides what I\'ve mentioned I\'d try playing different MP3s.  There are some mp3s that play fine on my desktop but just don\'t play at all on the Zaurus.  Good luck!

-

4

Zaurus - pdaXrom / quake2 slow on 760

« on: April 22, 2004, 10:28:51 am »

I imagine the biggest problem is the lack of FPU.  Is that port of of Quake 2 relying on software FPU emulation or did someone manage to recode it to used fixed point math only? The strongarm in the 5000/5500 didn\'t have an FPU. Does the XScale add an FPU?? I would think that would be one of the biggest problems with getting the game to play at a decent rate.  I\'d imagine that Quake 1 would be much less FPU dependent since the FPU of that era were much slower than the FPUs in x86 chips when Quake2 was released.  Correct me if I\'m wrong. It could still be too early for me to be thinking straight.

5

Security and Networking / Wifi stupidity: "The signal level is low."

« on: April 13, 2004, 04:44:40 am »

I agree with Synfin0.

Code: [Select]

cardctl eject
will shut it down and

Code: [Select]

cardctl insert
will bring it back online.  It will disable the interface and also treat the wireless card like its not there.  If you wanted you could make a couple icons that executed those commands just so you wouldn\'t have to open a terminal window and pull out the keyboard to run them. Now that I think about it I think I\'ll do exactly that.  Thanks for the inspiration :mrgreen:

-Mr. Secodina

6

5x00 General discussions / OpenZaurus?

« on: April 12, 2004, 09:32:14 pm »

Under the settings tab, click on Packages.  You\'ll want konqueror for web and opie media player 2 for audio/video.  Here\'s my list of package sources if you miss opera too much or want to try out wellenreiter for wireless network scanning:

Code: [Select]

src xmms http://xmms-embedded.sourceforge.net/feed/oz32

src opera http://elkins.org/zfeed

src wellenreiter http://opie.net.wox.org/wellenreiter/feed/openzaurus/armv4l-gcc2.95

7

Linux Issues / What\'s wrong with this executable bash script?

« on: March 10, 2004, 12:47:17 pm »

You either need to put it in a directory listed in your PATH or you need to run it with the complete path to the binary ( /home/zaurus/wellenreiter_startup ) or you need to cd into the same directory as it and run it as ./wellenreiter_startup.    Any of these should work.  To see what directories are listed in your PATH:

echo $PATH

Just off of the top of my head, /usr/bin seems like an ok place to put it.

-John

8

General Discussion / Linux for desktop?

« on: March 06, 2004, 05:26:49 am »

I tried RedHat 5.1 way back in the day, and I tend to try it out every couple years but you described it exactly the way I would: It feels broken.  I\'m not knocking it.  I realize that it can be a great distro, its easy to setup.  After RedHat I tried Debian and I\'ve been hooked.  Debian is a pain to configure but once you do \"it just works\" tm.  Forever.  Configuring X is possibly its biggest weak point.  I suggest you grab a testing iso of debian from here
( http://gluck.debian.org/cdimage/testing/da...386-netinst.iso ) if you get fed up with fedora.  The installer is slightly less ... hostile then it used to be. Then upgrade to the unstable branch, so you\'re not stuck in the stoneage in terms of software versions.  You will probably need to end up writing your own XF86Config file.  Consider it a rite of passage.   It is a pain to set up but once it is running, there is no need to reinstall.  It doesn\'t randomly break when upgrading and there is no dependency hell like redhat or mandrake.  Invest the time to get to know debian.  I\'m sure a gentoo guy will show up in a second and say that Gentoo is the best distro.  Gentoo is good also.  I just like Debian better.

-ChanSecodina

9

Sharp ROMs / SL-5500 with no gui

« on: February 09, 2004, 04:42:40 am »

I\'m not 100% sure but  it should stand up to a couple thousand flashes minimum.  I wouldn\'t worry too much.  

-Chan

10

Accessories / spare battery for sl-5600 (ea-bl06 or ea-bl-08)

« on: February 08, 2004, 09:52:44 pm »

Does the ea-bl06 even work with the 5600? Thats the battery that goes with the zaurus 5500.  Is it the same voltage? Do the contacts line up? Will it stay in place even though the battery holder for the 5600 won\'t hold it firm since it is half the physical size of the bl08?
I don\'t know the answers but they are things to ponder...

-Chan

11

Angstrom & OpenZaurus / zImage wont stick

« on: February 08, 2004, 05:57:19 am »

What exactly do you mean by \"wont stay on the CF\"?  Are you saying that right after you copy the file over to the cfreader in Suse it doesn\'t show up in Suse, as if you never copied it? Or are you saying that after you unmount it and plug it back into the card reader that the zImage file is gone? Or just that the flash appears to be failing for some reason? Be brutally specific.

-Chan

12

Sharp ROMs / SL-5500 with no gui

« on: February 08, 2004, 05:49:38 am »

1) Can a flash be done when the Zaurus does not have a gui installed in it or if the ROM image is somehow corrupted

Yup, Reflashing ROM is handled by the Zaurus\' equivalent of the PC\'s BIOS.  Someone will probably pop up and correct the analogy I\'m using but that\'s ok.

2) if so, do standard instructions for flashing the ROM apply or are there special considerations (software that has to be installed in the Zaurus that is not currently installed)?

Nope, no special considerations at all.  The code that is responsible for reflashing ROM isn\'t usually updated during a flash.  Since your Zaurus actually boots at all, that means the software needed to reflash is still intact.

3) if special software is needed, how would I go about getting it in there?

Again, no special software needed.

To get this working I\'d recomend just breaking down and getting a small compact flash card, 32MB or so, and a compactflash card reader for your PC.  Just follow the instructions to install your ROM of choice.  It should flash no problem, and you\'ll be all set.

-John