Messages

1

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

2

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

3

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

« on: June 20, 2025, 05:12:52 am »

Yes, the Zaurus section of the forum unfortunately has a very low activity since many years, which is expected since only the SL-5500 and SL-6000 models were sold outside Japan. I still have my collection of Zauruses and switch them on from time to time, I read the posts here with interest.
I suspect there are other users following the various threads but they never answer. We have a views counter for each thread, there are between 5000 and 19000 views for each of them, though most of them are be probably made by bots. I prefer to keep the subforums open for read-only access for non-registered users, so that it's easier for Google to index the pages and make the information here more accessible.
Other users that have posted here in the past are probably following this subforum. To any of you, please post here so that we can have a rough idea of how many of us are here.

Varti

4

Zaurus - Void Linux support / Re: who is working on the Zaurus Kernel?

« on: May 14, 2025, 05:01:18 am »

Hi, the only developer working on the kernel that I'm aware of is greguu. I don't think there's any active mailing list for Zaurus kernel development, OESF is the only place I know with discussions about it. In the #kexecboot IRC channel on Freenode there used to be lots of useful, although unsorted, info about recent kernel development, there's a log of the channel available here:

https://logs.nslu2-linux.org/livelogs/kexecboot/

I'd suggest to wget those logs and to make local searches there. There were also #alarmz and #voidz channels, though no logs of them are available. Plus the historical #zaurus one for older discussions, logs are here:

https://infobot.rikers.org/%23zaurus/

Varti

5

Zaurus - Hardware discussion / Re: Zaurus C1000, C3000, components datasheet?

« on: March 21, 2025, 07:34:14 am »

I don't know where they might have been/are still available, I have never seen them. I hope to be able to put the wiki back online sooner or later, maybe some info might be stored there:

https://web.archive.org/web/20080724000758/http://www.oesf.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

Varti

6

Zaurus - Void Linux support / Re: Void Linux Packages

« on: March 19, 2025, 06:26:33 am »

I have forwarded the news on three subreddits, let's see if we get any feedback there:

https://www.reddit.com/r/OldHandhelds/comments/1jetqqa/new_release_of_void_linux_for_sharp_zaurus/
https://www.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations/comments/1jetrhy/new_release_of_void_linux_for_sharp_zaurus/
https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/comments/1jetrye/new_release_of_void_linux_for_sharp_zaurus/

Varti

7

Zaurus - Hardware discussion / Re: Zaurus C1000, C3000, components datasheet?

« on: March 17, 2025, 05:18:22 pm »

From what I have read in a couple of older posts here, no service manual has even been released for any Zaurus SL model, unfortunately:

https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?topic=23469.msg156189#msg156189
https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=14114

I have done a Google search in both english and japanese (by searching for zaurus 回路図 = schematics and サービスマニュアル = service manuals), they seem to not have been released recently, too. Sharp has only released some HW infos on the earliest models, though no schematics: http://support.ezaurus.com/developer/doc/hardware.asp

I have searched in my local copies of the forum and the old ELSI webpage, too, to no avail.
I hope to be able to put back the old Zaurus wiki online soon, maybe there could be some info about this. It would be also interesting to get in touch with some old Sharp employee or official Sharp repairing services which might have a copy of the manuals, we can host them here.

BTW, not related, but I have found some hires scans of Zaurus related pamphlets and catalogs here: https://galapagosstore.com/web/book/search/result?sw=zaurus&res=false

Varti

8

Zaurus - Void Linux support / Re: Void Linux Packages

« on: March 17, 2025, 01:50:06 pm »

This is great news, I really missed these announcements  thanks greguu!

Varti

9

Astro Slide - Hardware / Re: changed my battery now with video

« on: December 13, 2024, 04:15:06 am »

Hi, that's a very interesting solution for the battery problem, thanks for sharing it! Regarding the attachments issue, we are currently working on it to fix it, sorry for the inconvenience.

Varti

10

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

« on: November 30, 2024, 12:10:58 pm »

Hi all,

regarding yesterday's outage, this is what our host has published today in the support's forum:

"On Thursday the 28th of November 2024 (the Thanksgiving holiday here) in the afternoon, our Domain Registrar suspended our domain due to a false positive in one of their systems. Because of communications complications involving the holiday, it took us more than 18 hours to reinstate the domain. The vast majority of ibiblio-supported sites and service have been impacted. We are still working to resolve the lingering effects and plan future steps to avoid a recurrence of this problem."

Everything is now back to normal, thanks for your patience.

Varti

11

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Re: Contrib feed hosted on ibiblio is giving a 404

« on: October 07, 2024, 06:12:00 am »

Regarding the install guide, there are a quick and a step-by-step one on the old PdaXRom site:

https://web.archive.org/web/20071016182436/http://pdaxrom.org/?q=docs/installation

Varti

12

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Re: Contrib feed hosted on ibiblio is giving a 404

« on: October 07, 2024, 03:43:57 am »

All the PdaXRom installers are thankfully still online:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/

I have made a bit of research on the contrib/ folder, for some reason there's an index.html at http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/ which redirects to http://distro.ibiblio.org/community, which doesn't exist. All the folders in the directory path below it are still there though. There are two older index files which don't have the complete contributions folders list, but still have some useful infos:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/oldindex.html
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/index.htm

Here's a (hopefully) complete list of the folders:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/1.1.0beta3/
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/anunakin/
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/armagon/
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/Civil/
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/daal/
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/desertrat/
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/docs/
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/humit/
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/iamphet/
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/jabbath/
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/merli/
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/notes/
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/pgas/
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/pungipungi/
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/rc11+-armv5tel/
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/rc5+-armv5tel/ (empty)
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/rgrep/
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/shmigol/
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/tmp/
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/voider/ (which seems to contain a tgzipped copy of voider_feed/)
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/voider_feed/
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/Xromer/
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download/contrib/Zaurus-5000D-5500/

I have managed to compile this list since there's a complete mirror of the pdaxrom distro on ibiblio here:
http://ftp.nluug.nl/ibiblio/distributions/pdaxrom/
and here (FTP only):
ftp://ftp.nl.freebsd.org/vol/2/metalab/distributions/pdaxrom/

I'll get on touch with the server's owner, or in alternative with ibiblio themselves to get this sorted out.

Varti

13

Zaurus - Other distros support / Re: Linux kernel version 6 support

« on: August 08, 2024, 10:40:43 am »

You can rest assured that you have my support    I have posted on some Reddit subforums (r/RetroBattleStations, r/Zaurus, r/VintageComputing, r/OldHandhelds) to see if there's any VoidZ user around, and if there's any interested there on a new kernel release.

EDIT: link to the threads:
https://www.reddit.com/r/OldHandhelds/comments/1en7d9q/linux_kernel_6x_for_sharp_zaurus_slcxx00_pdas/
https://www.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations/comments/1enajny/linux_kernel_6x_for_sharp_zaurus_slcxx00_pdas/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Zaurus/comments/1en7h66/linux_kernel_6x_for_sharp_zaurus_slcxx00_pdas/
https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/comments/1en7ewr/linux_kernel_6x_for_sharp_zaurus_slcxx00_pdas/

Varti

14

Gemini PDA - Android / Re: My Gemini is getting to its limits

« on: August 05, 2024, 04:20:15 am »

If this might help you, I have the same problem installing Instagram on my Android 10 phone, Play Store says that my phone is not compatible, but doesn't state what version of Android it requires. I have solved this by installing Instagram via Aptoide.
It would be great to have a port of the latest LineageOS release on all the 3 Planet devices, I hope someday we'll see that released.
Personally, my Gemini has not been working well since more than a year, I'm now thinking to switch to a GPD Micro PC + my current phone, although I'll dearly miss my Gemini's keyboard.

Varti

15

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Are new Cosmos/Geminis still available on Planet's webshop?

« on: July 02, 2024, 07:46:30 am »

Planet still lists the Cosmo and the Wifi-only Gemini as available on their webshop:

https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/cosmo-communicator
https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/gemini-pda-wifi-only

Has anybody recently bought any of them, or knows if they are still accepting orders?

Varti