Messages

1

Sharp ROMs / Cacko Rom 1.23 Is Released

« on: January 11, 2006, 01:25:42 pm »

I'm having trouble installing the latest Cacko on my 860.  I downloaded the 1.23 ROM files to my 860 and installed as instructed. However, on several attempts things get as far as the first post-install boot, then after calibrating the screen I get a message "Please wait, loading time and date dialog" and the system sits there forever. The Back and Forward buttons are alive and I can skip past this point, but the time/date tool will never launch.  Any suggestions?  Have I got faulty hardware?

If it's relevant, while booting I get a stream of messages like

jffs2_scan_eraseblock: Magic Bitmask 0x1905 not found

and

wrong magic

2

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Video Encoder Settings

« on: December 27, 2005, 12:11:32 pm »

run it by using mplayer -vo bvdd -vm name.avi
the diffrence is that i use 320 for video bitrate and u use 192 does 192 is good quality?

Nope; it's pretty poor.  I only did it to pack as much as possible in (though looking at 2-phase results I see I wasn't saving anything).  But I don't worry about the picture too much; I use it mainly for foreign language videos where the sound is the key.

I did the 2-phase encoding as recommended and the results are exceptional.  However, XMMS still plays the sound faster than the video.  Going to the console results in the following:

# mplayer -vo bvdd -vm /mnt/card/bg01.avi
Failed to open /dev/rtc: Device or resource busy (it should be readable by the user.)
Playing /mnt/card/bg01.avi
Cache fill: 0.00% (0 bytes) AVI file format detected.
VIDEO: [FMP4] 320x240 24bpp 25.000 fps 193.2 kbps (23.6 kbyte/s)
Clip info:
 Software: MEncoder SuSE Linux 9.3 (i686)-Packman-3.3.5
=======================================
Requested audio codec family [mp3] (afm=mp3lib) not available.
Enable it at compilation.
Opening audio decoder: [libmad] libmad audio decoder
AUDIO: 24000 Hz, 2 ch, s161e, 8.0 kbit/1.04% (ratio: 1000->96000)
Selected audio codec: [mad] (libMAD MPEG layer 1-2-3)
=======================================
Error opening/initializing the selected video_out (-vo) device.
Exiting...

I can't find bvdd listed; what is it?

3

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Video Encoder Settings

« on: December 24, 2005, 06:07:25 am »

I've been experimenting with various mencoder options (on my SuSE 9.3 PC) to get something that works optimally on the Z.   A typical command is

mencoder $1 -o $2.avi -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vhq:vqmin=2:vqmax=20:vmax_b_frames=2:vbitrate=192:vqcomp=0.6:vpass=
 -vf scale=320:240,eq=6 -oac mp3lame -lameopts abr:br=64:aq=1 -srate 24000

but XMMS plays the result with the sound leading the video by a second or more.  Also I'd like to run full-screen but the results are always jerky.  On Cacko using kino I had some success by rotating the video and sizing to 480x640, but everything I encoded recently played with no video at all, which was the main reason I moved to pdaXrom.

Does anyone have a recommendation?

4

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Mounting A Remote Nfs Volume

« on: December 24, 2005, 04:22:35 am »

Many thanks for the pointer.  I tried an FAQ search but failed to turn that up.  Must try harder.

The command that worked in the end was:

mount {server}:{path} /mnt/{mountpoint} -t nfs -o noauto,hard,intr,nolock,async,nfsvers=2

5

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Mounting A Remote Nfs Volume

« on: December 23, 2005, 03:58:22 pm »

RC12 is a smooth piece of work, and most things work out of the box.  However, I'm trying to mount a remote NFS volume:

mount -t nfs {url}:{exported path} /mnt/net

and it just hangs.  (It all works fine under Cacko.)  Is this a problem anyone else has?

6

Sharp ROMs / 860 Install Problem

« on: December 21, 2005, 05:49:45 pm »

I downloaded the 1.23 ROM files to my 860 and installed as instructed.  However, on several attempts things get as far as the first post-install boot, then after calibrating the screen I get a message "Please wait, loading time and date dialog" and the system sits there forever.  The Back and Forward buttons are alive and I can skip past this point, but the time/date tool will never launch; neither will several other Settings tools.  Strangely, going back to a new download of 1.22 exhibits the same effect, though before I started the whole process the machine was fine on that version.

Is there some step I'm missing out?

7

General Discussion / Howto: Dvd To Avi Using Linux

« on: December 12, 2004, 12:14:10 pm »

Second oops:  The file parameter in the second line should read temp.mpg, not temp.vob.

Must be getting tired...

8

General Discussion / Howto: Dvd To Avi Using Linux

« on: December 12, 2004, 12:12:21 pm »

Sorry, I accidentally left in some test code:  the "-chapter 8 is redundant.  Should be:

Code: [Select]

mencoder dvd://$1 -oac copy -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vbitrate=4000:vhq -vf expand=0:-160:0:80 -o temp.mpg

mencoder temp.mpg -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vhq:vqmin=2:vqmax=20:vmax_b_frames=2:vbitrate=192:vqcomp=0.6:vpass=1 -vop scale=320:240,eq=6 -ofps 25 -sws 2 -oac mp3lame -lameopts abr:br=64:aq=1:mode=0 -srate 24000 -o "$2".avi

rm -f temp.mpg

9

General Discussion / Howto: Dvd To Avi Using Linux

« on: December 12, 2004, 12:09:47 pm »

Addendum regarding widescreen movies:

To keep the aspect ratio right but still within a 320x240 window, I've found I need a two-pass approach (though I'd welcome suggestions on how to do it in one).  The first thing is to add a suitable border top and bottom to the movie; after that it can be encoded to 320:240.  The aspect ratio of movies varies so some experimentation is needed, but the following worked for The Bourne Identity:

Code: [Select]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mencoder dvd://$1 -chapter 8 -oac copy -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vbitrate=4000:vhq -vf expand=0:-160:0:80 -o temp.mpg

mencoder temp.vob -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vhq:vqmin=2:vqmax=20:vmax_b_frames=2:vbitrate=192:vqcomp=0.6:vpass=1 -vop scale=320:240,eq=6 -ofps 25 -sws 2 -oac mp3lame -lameopts abr:br=64:aq=1:mode=0 -srate 24000 -o "$2".avi

rm -f temp.mpg
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the first command, the DVD is ripped to a high-quality MPEG, with 160 pixels added to its height and the picture offset by 80 pixels to keep it centered.  The second command then writes the result to an MPEG4 AVI.

10

General Discussion / Howto: Dvd To Avi Using Linux

« on: December 11, 2004, 06:56:49 am »

Here's a small Linux script, with documentation, to rip a track from a DVD and convert it to a form suitable for playing on a Zaurus using Kino2.  One of the new 1GB SD cards will hold up to 5 full-length movies converted this way.

I'm posting because I haven't seen it anywhere else on the Forum...

-- GT

Code: [Select]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/sh

#######################################################################
# dvd2z
#
# This script is a front end for mencoder to convert a track of a DVD
# into a format suitable for playing on a PDA using Kino2 or equivalent.
# The resulting AVI requires about 80MB/hour using the settings below,
# so a full feature film will fit comfortably onto a 256MB flash card.
# (Terminator 3 needs 188MB)
#
# Some things you may want to alter:
#
# The track number is usually 1 for the main feature of a film.
#
# The video bitrate is set here at 192kbps ("vbitrate=192").  Try
# experimenting with lower values until the quality is unacceptable.
#
# The audio bitrate is 64kbps ("br=64").  Can be reduced but not a lot
# to gain.
#
# Brightness usually has to be boosted for PDA; here it's set to 6
# using "eq=6". Leave this option out for standard brightness.
#
# Frame size is 320:240.  Can be changed but the scaler may not like it
# on replay.
#
# Frame rate can be reduced to 15 ("-ofps 15") to give player less
# work.  Makes a small saving in file size.
#
# Mono audio - a small saving - can be done using "mode=3".
#######################################################################

if [ $# -lt 2 ]
then
    echo "Usage: dvd2z "
    exit
fi

mencoder dvd://$1 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vhq:vqmin=2:vqmax=20:vmax_b_frames=2:vbitrate=192:vqcomp=0.6:vpass=1 -vop scale=320:240,eq=6 -ofps 25 -sws 2 -oac mp3lame -lameopts abr:br=64:aq=1:mode=0 -srate 24000 -o "$2".avi

exit

11

Sharp ROMs / ROM prefrences

« on: December 10, 2004, 08:19:39 am »

I've had my 860 for a week; before that a 5500 for a couple of years, but never did a lot with it.  Although the standard Sharp ROM (with ShirtPocket mods) works well enough I was itching to do some reflashing.  First I tried Cacko, then pdaXrom.  So with a grand total seven days' experience, here are my initial reactions:

The Sharp ROM was fine for an hour after the machine arrived, then the touchpanel stopped working.  After a phone call to ShirtPocket I reflashed it with the Japanese ROM and reinstalled their patches.  The machine was fine again. General impressions: There's still too much of a Japanese feel to it and the default keyboard setup has / as a shifted key (as marked on the button), which is a real pain at command level.

Installing the Cacko ROM was easy.  Having never done one before I'd been concerned about getting myself an expensive brick, but no worries.  [Question: Why do all the flashing instructions talk about removing the battery etc?  Surely a reboot with the OK key down has the same effect?  Or is there something else going on?]  General impressions:  More useful gadgets and features, like screen saver (smallest fishtank in the world!) and economy modes.  Too many media players, though, and Java has to be installed separately if it's wanted.

The pdaXrom installation was also simple, but with few instructions it wasn't immediately apparent that with Package Manager all the software arrives from an online resource.  This would be truly fantastic if it worked, but on my machine a download hung and nothing would persuade the machine to complete one after that.  Without a progress indicator it's difficult to see what's happening, and I've yet to see any instructions for Package Manager.  Also, the interface is much less polished than either Sharp or Cacko.

Comparisons and conclusions (a personal view): The three ROMs represent a kind of continuum from "Near PDA" to "Geek's Delight", with Cacko somewhere in the middle.  I'd like to go with pdaXrom but it lacks the user-friendly widgetness of the others.  As a miniature Linux it's fine (assuming the software installer works) but I also want something that feels like a PDA, and I feel it has some way to go for that.

Comparing Sharp and Cacko, the latter has much more readable icons and more helpful goodies.  The automounter works properly.  On my 5500 - and now with Cacko - I could pop out a card and replace it and the machine would update.  On the 860 Sharp I had to tell it each time or it wouldn't notice the change.  The only thing that works less well is Kino2.  On Sharp it played my movies (400x300) in the middle of the screen; on Cacko they sit down on the bottom left, obscuring the controls.  Is there a fix for this?

In conclusion, Cacko is the best compromise by far, but I'll keep an eye pdaXrom developments and try it from time to time.

Cacko wish list:  Provide a 'basic' ROM where all applications are installable as needed.  As a minimum, give it sshclient and an address to get things from.

--------------------
 
C860 running Cacko 1.2.1b
SanDisk 1Gb SD card
Buffalo WiFi