Messages

1

New products and alternatives / Mecha Comet portable Linux device on Kickstarter

« on: February 02, 2026, 10:24:29 am »

The Mecha Comet is a modular handheld Linux computer that lets you swap out the parts to suit what you want to use it for. A keyboard, a gaming controller and an IO board module have been announced so far.

https://www.xda-developers.com/i-love-this-linux-handheld-computer-and-you-can-help-fund-it-right-now/

The device can be configured as follows:
- an AMD64 I.MX8M Plus CPU, 4-core, up to 1.8 GHz or an I.MX95 CPU, 6-core, up to 1.8 GHz
- 2GB, 4GB or 8GB RAM
- 64GB or 128GB eMMC storage, an external MicroSD card or an NVMe SSD disk can be used too, supported size up to 1TB
- a 3.92" AMOLED display

It will be available starting from May 2026 (I.MX8M Plus version) or September 2026 (I.MX95 version). The prices start from $189/€160 for the base model, the modules and all the other accessories must be ordered separately.

As a word of warning, this is a Kickstarter project, so keep in mind that the project might not reach its goal or the pledged money be returned.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mecha-systems/mecha-comet-modular-linux-handheld-computer

Varti

2

Cosmo Communicator - Android / Re: Android Recovery missing partition and custom OS options?

« on: November 25, 2025, 11:55:25 am »

Hi,

have you tried flashing with both 'Aeroplane mode' and 'Do not disturb' ON? What error does the CoDi Assistant return?

Varti

3

Zaurus - Other distros support / Re: YT video about Zaurus and intel arm

« on: October 03, 2025, 11:58:45 am »

Code: [Select]

PDA ---- serial ---- laptop ---- VGA ---- VGAvideo-grabber


I didn't know this was possible. Too bad it won't be possible to do the same with a video output e.g. showing the Sharp ROM desktop GUI, not enough bandwidth on the serial port for a start...

Varti

4

Zaurus - Other distros support / Re: YT video about Zaurus and intel arm

« on: October 03, 2025, 03:27:57 am »

I believe your bootloader is shown at

v3-rev, is shown at 13:16

Aha, missed it, it shows a bit more of this. Is that clip showing it running on an emulator?

Varti

5

Zaurus - Other distros support / Re: YT video about Zaurus and intel arm

« on: October 02, 2025, 09:07:57 am »

Nice that we still have coverage of the Zaurus after all these years, and that your project is also shown! I believe your bootloader is shown at this time in the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHZyDh0vyl4&t=887s

Varti

6

Gemini PDA - Linux / Re: "The Scatter file does not correspond to this device" error.

« on: October 02, 2025, 07:44:21 am »

Glad to hear you have managed to flash it, though it find it strange that it worked only on Windows. I remember having issues as well flashing my Gemini from Linux (I use Void Linux), I don't remember the details of the issue, due to lack of time I had to use Windows.

Varti

7

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Re: Sharp Zaurus linux in 2025

« on: September 05, 2025, 09:34:59 am »

Hey InSearchOf, glad to see you back! I hope everything is well with you. PdaXRom is IMHO still the best Zaurus ROM in terms of hardware support and has the best GUI for our old little devices, although projects such as VoidZ are more than welcome to bring recent Linux developments to the Zaurus.

What about you? Do you still have any Zaurus, and/or develop anything for it? BTW, it would be really great to have the download links and install guides for pdaXrom back on the pdaxrom.org site, for future reference.

Varti

8

Zaurus - Void Linux support / Re: Void Install Guide

« on: August 28, 2025, 12:09:22 pm »

Hi Varti,

Great to hear about Void's new release news—super excited! Any word on the release date?

I’m already using Void Linux build-8, plus the new kernel Greguu released in Jan 2025. Void feels really lightweight, but I’ve run into some challenges too.

Also, do people still use Arch Linux? Any tips to share, like on GUI or productivity? Eager for Void-related insights too!

By the way, I have a question: the USB hosts of C1K and C3K cannot provide sufficient power to support external devices. How can I get these devices to work properly? Thanks.

No release date yet unfortunately, I hope greguu can update us on the current status of the release.
As already mentioned by DiTBho, an externally powered USB hub/device is unfortunately required.

Varti

9

Zaurus - Void Linux support / Re: Void Install Guide

« on: August 22, 2025, 03:47:33 am »

Greguu is preparing a new Void release and he's asking what new packages to add to the release, you might want to list the packages here and he'll add them to the new release.
Regarding the setup of the crosscompiling env, there are some instructions here: https://github.com/greguu/voidz-packages

Varti

10

Site Suggestions, Requests, and Updates / Re: Forum outage

« on: August 18, 2025, 04:43:20 am »

Hi,

the forum is currently experiencing connection issues, from time to time the forum fails to load. The source of the issue might be a recent PHP upgrade on our hosting server, the current version isn't fully supported by our forum software. Sorry for the inconvenience, I'm working on a forum upgrade which should solve these issues.

Varti

11

New products and alternatives / A Chinese company is reviving old BlackBerry Classic phones with Android

« on: August 15, 2025, 07:43:26 pm »

"A brand named Zinwa Technologies is working on resurrecting a limited number of decade-old BlackBerry Classic Q20 devices and installing Android on them. The reborn phone will be sold as Zinwa Q25 Pro."

https://www.androidauthority.com/blackberry-classic-revive-android-3587932/

Varti

12

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Re: Sharp Zaurus linux in 2025

« on: July 23, 2025, 07:15:39 am »

Welcome! PDAXRom is a good choice for the Zaurus, AFAIR it's the only one which allows to overclock the CPU on-the-fly, at least on the SL-Cxx00 models. Thanksfully, the official install guides and FAQs can be still recovered from archive.org:

Installation: https://web.archive.org/web/20071016182436/http://pdaxrom.org/?q=docs/installation
FAQ: https://web.archive.org/web/20071016182505/http://pdaxrom.org/?q=faq

Varti

13

Zaurus - Hardware discussion / Re: C1000, C3xxx: is the PXAfb/LCD 16bpp?

« on: July 11, 2025, 05:23:47 am »

Don't know about the 8/6 bit modes, but I can confirm it's 16bpp.

Varti

14

Zaurus - Other distros support / Re: it looks like a dead forum, is it just a bad moment or is it really dead?

« on: June 24, 2025, 09:44:22 am »

AFAIK the SL-C1000/3x00 models were never directly sold in the US/EU, only imported through resellers. I bought my 1000 from an online japanese shop which exported japanese electronic goods.

I'm really looking forward for your new bootloader, I can help with testing it on my devices. I understand your frustration with the lack of feedback, unfortunately the Zaurus community is these days extremely small. I have answered on your thread for the update issues, sorry I didn't answer earlier.

Varti

15

Zaurus - Hardware discussion / Re: C3000 can't update when the microdrive is missing

« on: June 24, 2025, 09:36:54 am »

I guess the simplest way to fix this is to by editing the update.sh script to remove the need for the microdrive. The file itself is encoded with a simple character substitution algorithm, here's a simple program to encode/decode it: endecsh.c at the bottom of this page:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160505230130/http://www.h5.dion.ne.jp/~rimemoon/zaurus/memo_008.htm

I have tried to make a mirror of the page with httrack but it was unsuccessful, I'll try again.

Varti