Topics

1

C1000/3x00 General discussions / Might Want To Avoid The C1000

« on: May 26, 2005, 09:12:36 am »

A few days ago the C1000 crashed with a 'memory low' error and wouldn't reboot.  The maintenance menus wouldn't work properly.  Selecting option '4' would reload the kernel, but selecting any other option just rebooted it.  No way to do a NAND restore or even restore the factory initrd.bin.  Eventually we were able to get an 'updater.sh' script going that would get us to a console, which showed us that /home wasn't mounting. Apparently it couldn't find the part of the flash that /home is on, or possibly that part of the flash had been scrambled by something.  

Today we experienced the issue discussed in this thread. Plug it in, get no light.  Won't start.  Swapping batteries with the C3000 has no effect.  That is, the C1000 (with the battery from the C3000 in it) is still dead and the C3000 (with the battery from the C1000) still runs fine.  

From looking at the above referenced thread, and some others, this looks like a not too uncommon problem.

2

C1000/3x00 General discussions / Yet Another Bricked C1000

« on: May 23, 2005, 10:30:00 am »

Different symptoms than described in this thread.

We're playing around with custom kernels to do hings with loopback filesystems (mainly mods to loop.c and loop.h) so that we can store user data (bookmarks, mail account config, and the like) on a loopback.  

The loopback is mounted to /home.

Mounted the loopback, started a few other programs, started the mail program, and the Z gave a low memory warning.

Then it died screaming.  Screens rotating, error messages, so we rebooted.  It shut down, but wouldn't reboot.  Hangs at the Sharp screen.  B+D boot hangs.  Reflashing the kernel (option 4 in the maintenance menu) hangs.  Any other option in the maintenance menu just boots it, then it hangs.  EX: Normally, when restoring to factory state, you do option 3, then option 1.  On this Z you hit option 3 and it boots.

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C1000/3x00 General discussions / Preliminary Eval Of Oe On C3000

« on: May 04, 2005, 10:46:51 am »

Here

In a couple of months we'll probably take another look at it, as it seems to be just what we're looking for.  Kudos to the team for getting it to the point it's at.

4

Angstrom & OpenZaurus / 3.5.3 On Sl-c3000 Preliminary Eval

« on: May 04, 2005, 10:38:31 am »

Here at $BigDefenseContractor we're looking at the Zaurus for use in the field in a number of applications where a laptop would be too expensive, too big, or too obvious.  We want to use Linux for reasons of cost and security.  We need it to be easy to use.  I'm comfortable on the command line, and have been using Linux for about 7 years, but the end user must be assumed to not be comfortable on the command line.  

The Zaurus looks like exactly the sort of device we need.  So we're evaluating the C3000 and C1000.  This is an R&D project, so I can go off on various tangents if I want to.  Open Embedded was one such tangent.

What follows is a preliminary evaluation (for management):

OpenZaurus 3.5.3, Opie image, on SL-C3000 (Spitz) Preliminary eval.

Install went fine.  Instructions (http://openzaurus.org/wordpress/installation/sl-c3000/) on the OpenZaurus website were clear, easy to follow, and complete. Especially compared to instructions available for reflashing with the stock Sharp ROM and much better than the OpenBSD instructions, which are terrifying.

Looks very nice.  The Opie GUI makes good use of the 640X480 screen.  It has many useful applications (especially the file manager and text editor) installed 'out of the box'.  No MP3 player, image viewer, or sound recorder but those may be available for later installation. Menus, icons, and fonts are clear and readable. More so than with the stock Sharp setup.

Issues:
Eats the battery.  Suspend from the main menu and it seems to suspend, but I suspect it just turns the screen off.  Fully charged at 7PM, dead by 8AM.  May be related to known problems with it not booting properly when a card is in the CF slot as I had an 802.11 card in the CF slot when I suspended.

No GUI applet for configuring 802.11 (wlan0). I have no idea which configuration file I need to edit to configure wlan0, or how to stop/start it from the command line. Therefore, we can't network it at this time.

Major problem: Keyboard mapping.  The Fn key (apparently a known bug) doesn't work.  Therefore no @, *, |, <, or > keys.  This makes it, effectively, impossible to use the command line.  It also makes it impossible to use most of the applications we use.  If there's no ":" key, how do you SSH?  Answer:  You don't.  Can't use 'more' without '|'.  Can't email without the '@' key.  Etc. Etc. Etc.  They do work from the terminal (menu->Terminal, this shuts down X). However: The esc and alt keys aren't mapped or, if they are, it's a non-obvious mapping.  To get out of vi I had to unplug the Zaurus, pull the battery, and reboot. 

The networking and keymap issues render OpenEmbedded unusable for us at this time.  Once those issues are resolved the C3000 with OpenZaurus will be a viable platform for our uses.

Yes, the keymap problem with the Fn key is mentioned in the wiki.  The esc key being missing (it's missing on the Sharp ROM, too) is not mentioned.  Searching through the forums for information on howto setup wifi turned up nothing of use.  Lots of returns, but all on the lines of 'I got wifi working!' and none on 'Here's how I did it!'

I really like the Z (we're also looking at the C1000) and OE+Opie looks like it will (eventually) be very useful.  

The real problem (for us) is one of timing.  If we'd started this last July we'd have been able to get some 860's to play with and would've had OE on those, running fine.  If we'd started next July OE for the C3000 would probably be running fine.  Starting in January meant we were too late to take advantage of all the work that's been done with the 860, and too early for the C3000.

5

C1000/3x00 General discussions / Getting The Z On A Vpn

« on: April 26, 2005, 10:32:49 am »

Trying to get the Zaurii (C1000 and C3000) on a VPN using PPTP (thanks, Slasckwaresupport, for the binary).  So, do we configure it to use PPPoE (/usr/sbin/adsl-connect) (which, btw, may have PPTP built in) or PPP?  

"Reply hazy, ask again later."  

In the past, when I've been trying to get a configuration running on a device, I've had a known working configuration to test against.  This time, I don't.  Is it the server that's the problem?  The client?  Which communication layer is broken?  And how is it broken?  Which (of many) config scripts do I need to configure, and how?  It's been 7 years since I've configured PPP scripts by hand, and I've never done PPPoE.  Oh, and the ethernet device is a wireless card.  Which adds to the fun.  

Even more fun:  The server is a Windows 2003 box.  My test box at home is a Debian box.  Does Debian even have PPP or PPPoE server daemons? If so, how do I configure them?  Going to be a fun week.

Unless some kind soul here has already done this and can tell me how...

6

C1000/3x00 General discussions / Pptp On Zaurus?

« on: April 19, 2005, 10:12:39 am »

Anyone know where I can get a port of the Sourceforge PPTP for Linux client compiler for the Zaurus? The one listed at killefiz.de links to a Yahoo Japan 404  

If I can't find one I'll have to port it myself and, since it's for Corporate Use, I might not be able to post the port.

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C1000/3x00 General discussions / Cross-compilers?

« on: April 10, 2005, 03:18:20 pm »

Anyone know where I can find cross-compilers for the Z? I know that I need:
gcc-cross-sa1100-2.95.2-0.i386.rpm (gcc compiler for ARM architecture)
binutils-cross-arm-2.11.2-0.i386.rpm (binary utilities for ARM architecture)
glibc-arm-2.2.2-0.i386.rpm (GNU C libraries for ARM architecture)
linux-headers-arm-sa1100-2.4.6-3.i386.rpm (linux header files for ARM architecture)

Every link here at OE, or at ZaurusUserGroup, or Google(!) that I've followed leads to a 404.  Since I want to get OpenSwan running on the Z I need to rebuild it, and (probably) a 2.6 kernel.  

Help!

wiredog.

8

C1000/3x00 General discussions / Got Windows 3.1 Running On My C3000!

« on: April 01, 2005, 09:48:05 am »

In other news...

Anyone gotten a wifi card working with PocketWorkstation on the 3000?  

Also, what is the Esc key mapped to?  Sometimes FN+ the Kanji character two to the right of Ctrl seems to work, but sometimes not.  Very anoying when trying to use vi.

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C1000/3x00 General discussions / Booting Without Qtopia

« on: March 18, 2005, 10:39:38 am »

Extracted from instructions found in this thread.

To boot without Qtopia:
Edit /root/etc/rc.d/rc.rofilesys. Comment out the last line in the file:
<code>echo $LAUNCH > /home/sharp/etc/launch.default</code>
and add the following line below it:
<code>cat /home/zaurus/launch.default > /home/sharp/etc/launch.default</code>

This will allow you to choose to boot either to QTopia or to a console from the command line:
To boot QTopia: <code>echo q > /home/zaurus/launch.default</code>,
To run the console:<code>echo a > /home/zaurus/launch.default</code>

At the next reboot you'll have the selected system.  (Going to have to write a some scripts to automate that.)

Be aware that the console is mildly messed up, in that once you hit the last line it stops scrolling.  This means that commands that return more than a screen's worth of output tend to stop scrolling.  more, ls, ps -ax, and such look broken, but aren't, they've just stopped scrolling.


I'm also going to have to figure out how to do html in the forum.  Not like posting to a Scoop site at all, is it.