Topics

1

5x00 Hardware / Memory Status: available work area is becoming very low

« on: March 09, 2004, 12:33:23 am »

I keep getting the following Memory Status message on the SL5600: The available work area is becoming very low. Please select an application to terminate and tap OK button.

I am trying to open very large files so this is not unexpected.  I can watch 22 Megs of free memory and buffers vanish in System Info under the memory tab until I get this message.

A large swap file on a very large SD card that helps a bit, but checking the status of it in the terminal shows it is only partially being used before I get this error.  

How do I increase the work area memory?  I seem to have about 30 Megs free of internal memory, can that be added to the work area?

2

Software / How do I view very large images on a Zaurus?

« on: March 08, 2004, 12:49:38 am »

I am an Architect (buildings not systems) who got a SL5600 to use in the field.  I installed the biggest SD card I could find (512 megs) and created a large swapfile (16 megs on the SD card).  With it I can use qpdf2 to view codes, CAD files, information requests, project specifications and whatever as long as I can get it into PDF format.

What I cannot do is view large images, bigger than 1600 x 1024 pixels. I do not need to view the whole image at once, but I do need to be able to scan around them like one would do with a web driving direction map.  Many of these images are of urban zoning maps and aerial photos.  Right now I have a written simple c program that splits large images into a bunch of smaller files. Unfortunately this is much like using a road atlas that doesn’t tell you what page the adjoining maps are on.

I have tried TxImage (great for small to medium size files), ZImage (my favorite so far), QIV (refused to install), and ImageBrowser ( installed fine but refused to work and had to be manually uninstalled) What else is out there?

File formats do not seem to make much of a difference, though I have had better luck with GIF and PNG files and not so good luck with JPG and TIF files. Qpdf2 will sometimes display large images put into PDF format, but you cannot zoom in on them without the program just giving up and quitting with no explanation.  The other image viewers I have tried, if they can even open the image, do the same as well.   I assume that I am out of memory, because before I created the swapfile I got out-of-memory errors when trying to view large images.

Are there modifications (software , firmware or hardware) that I can do to the SL5600 that will make large images viewable?  I know I am pushing this little guy way beyond what it was supposed to do, but my digital camera will do what I am trying to do just fine with 18 meg TIF files.

3

Linux Issues / Busybox - Are there easy ways to make it more robust?

« on: February 29, 2004, 01:14:46 am »

I am not sure if this is a  Zaurus Linux 101 refresher question or a question about the philosophy of the compromises in Busybox. 60.4  in the Sharp SL-5600 ROM.  What are people doing when they find the version of Busybox on the Zaurus too stripped down to be comfortable?

It looks like there are some older versions of Busybox with more features. If one of these is newly installed on the Zaurus, are the links automatically created or set to the wanted version of Busybox, or do you have to link Busybox and each command individually with a script?  What if it is only certain commands where you need flexibility such as this combination command: find  / -type f –exec grep –H filename {} ;   that will not work on the Zaurus?

Are people recompiling Busybox for their own purposes (seems like a lot of work) or are there easier ways to install and substitute more full-bodied commands as you need them?

Also usage aids for Busybox commands seems lacking on the Zaurus.  Man pages , info , whatis, --help, etc.. don’t exist.    So you must force an error to see what options and parameters can be used.  http://www.busybox.net/ seems to be describing a much more robust product than on the Zaurus.