Topics

1

Software / Copying The Text-to-speech Program From The 3200?

« on: May 02, 2006, 04:21:46 am »

Apparently one of the new programs that comes with the 3200 is an English Text-To-Speech program. I think that would be pretty fun to play around with, and I would think it would run on my 3100 if someone could figure out how to copy it. Is there an installer on the CD that comes with the 3200?

2

Software / Anyone Used The Einstein Newton Os Emulator?

« on: April 15, 2006, 10:22:09 am »

This project looks promising for fans of the Newton, like myself. I no longer have a Newton, so I can't get a Newton rom to try this emulator out, but I'm interested in how it works. I'm sure it's probably not at a really usable stage yet, but it would be really cool to be able to boot both the Mac OS and the Newton on my Zaurus!

http://www.kallisys.com/newton/einstein/

3

X/Qt / Problems Getting Cramfs Images To Mount For Xqt

« on: April 12, 2006, 03:41:00 am »

I'm following Meanie's instructions and using his packages so that I can use XQT and a variety of applications. I want to use the following cramfs images:

xqt-apps.cramfs
xqt-gtk-jumbo.cramfs
xqt-mozilla.cramfs
xqt-openoffice.cramfs

However, when I run the xqt-install script, it will only work with the first two cramfs images (whatever they may be) and for the others it will say:

Warning: ambiguous entry for <image name> (this is also displayed for the images that work)
mount: Could not find a spare loop device

Sure enough, when I look in /dev there are only two loop devices. I notice that the xqt-install script is running mknod, which I assume is to create the additional loop devices necessary. When I try running one of the lines from the script (like "mknod /dev/loop2 b 7 2") I get the error "mknod: /dev/loop2: No space left on device". I'm not sure what this means. I do know that I have plenty of free space on the device, however.

Can anyone help me with this? Aside from the fact that I can only mount two of these images at once, these cramfs images have been working very well, and I'd love to be able to use them all at once. Note that I am still pretty much a linux newbie, so I may very well be overlooking something very basic.

One other possibly related issue is that the script says that automounter is not installed, even though I have definitely installed it.

4

Deals and Great Z Buys / 4gb Sd For $99 After Rebate 4/11 Only

« on: April 11, 2006, 11:18:45 am »

Seems like a pretty good deal. I like how they're limited "20 to a customer."  

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...uctCode=83135-1

Rebate is here:

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/rebate/83135-1_032806.pdf

5

Software / Can Anyone Fix Basilisk Ii For Z?

« on: April 04, 2006, 07:33:02 pm »

As I noted in this thread from a while ago, Basilisk II on the Zaurus works surprisingly well, except for the fact that the mouse pointer seems to "drag" all the time (at least I think that's what it's doing -- in any case, the mouse pointer cannot be used reliably). This is very frustrating, because the program seems to work very well otherwise, and would be genuinely useful for a lot of things if you could actually use the mouse.

Are there any developers who would be interested in taking a look at this? I'm not even sure if it's possible to fix this (whether the source code is available, etc) but I would like to make it clear that at least one person is (VERY) interested in having a usable version of Basilisk II for the Zaurus. I'd be willing to contribute $50 to a bounty to see that this is done. Not much, but it's a start. My only real requirements are that it work on the 3100 in its native resolution and that the mouse cursor allow normal operation of the Mac OS. Any ideas about this?

6

Mac Issues / Print From Your Zaurus Through Your Mac!

« on: September 29, 2005, 11:38:48 am »

I was thinking the other day that it'd be nice to be able to print from my Zaurus, but it seems pretty complicated to enable printing in Linux. But then it hit me -- I have a Mac that's on all the time, always connected to a printer and ready to print. Why couldn't I somehow use my existing setup to print from the Zaurus? Obviously, you can manually copy the file you want to print over to your Mac and print it, assuming that it's in a format that the Mac will recognize. But this is a little clumsy and time consuming.

In order to use this method, you have to have some kind of network connection to your Mac. I've used it both with a wi-fi card and with my bluetooth card connected to the Mac (see this thread for information about setting that up). All you have to do is be able to send files to a certain folder on your Mac. You could use samba, but I use ftp.

You need to make a folder (we'll call it "Print") and attach the following folder action script.

Code: [Select]

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving these_items
    try
  tell application "Finder"
      repeat with i from 1 to number of items in these_items
    try
        set this_item to item i of these_items
        set the path_string to this_item as string
        set the final_path to POSIX path of the path_string
        do shell script "/usr/bin/lp '" & final_path & "'"
    on error error_message
        tell application "Finder"
      display dialog "Error for item " & (this_item as string) ¬
          & ": " & error_message buttons {"Continue", "Cancel"} ¬
          default button 1 giving up after 120
        end tell
    end try
      end repeat
  end tell
    on error error_message
  tell application "Finder"
      display dialog error_message buttons {"Cancel"} ¬
    default button 1 giving up after 120
  end tell
    end try
end adding folder items to
I've attached a premade version of this script if you want to download it.

Just control-click (or right click) on the "Print" folder and assign this script to it. Then every time a new file appears in the folder, even via ftp, it will be printed automatically. It won't work with Word or Excel files, but generic file formats like txt, rtf, and jpg work. Now I can print from the Zaurus wirelessly. It's actually pretty cool.

7

C1000/3x00 General discussions / 3100 Won't Boot -- Read-only File System

« on: September 28, 2005, 11:33:06 am »

I don't think I did anything unusual to it, but my 3100 now won't boot. I get a lot of messages like "tar: dev/rmidi1: Cannot mknod: Read-only file system" and the booting process stalls at "mkdir: Cannot create directory `/dev/shm/run/usb`: No such file or directory". If I press Ctrl+C the booting process continues, but it just gives me more errors and then automatically reboots.

I have a recent backup, but in order to use it I have to format the device, which erases the contents of the microdrive. I don't keep anything irreplaceable on there, but still it's at least a couple of hours of work to copy everything back that I had on there. Is there any other alternative to a format? And why did this happen in the first place?

8

Accessories / Thinkoutside Bluetooth Keyboard Working With 3100

« on: September 21, 2005, 10:20:02 pm »

I had asked a while ago about using a bluetooth keyboard and mouse on the Zaurus, but the response I got was a little discouraging. However, on the strength of this Japanese web site I ordered the ThinkOutside Bluetooth Keyboard from Amazon, thinking that I could always return or sell it if it turned out to be a total bust.

It wasn't too hard to get it to work (easier than I had thought anyway). All together it probably took about an hour to figure everything out (not including fine-tuning). I ended up using a combination of the Bluez_zaurus package and some of the packages on the website above. I can give details if anyone is interested. I don't have time right this moment. The most important thing is to install the bluez-hidp_mh18_arm.ipk.C1000 package that will correct the keymapping. I didn't try it, but I imagine that without this package, the keyboard would just input garbage like guylhem mentioned in the first thread I posted about this.

Once you install the proper software and determine the MAC address of the keyboard, it's just a matter of pressing ctrl + left Fn + right Fn on the keyboard and running:

Code: [Select]

# hidd --connect XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
to connect (the Xs are the address of the keyboard, obviously). I have made a script that does this and linked it to a key combination with Keyhelper, so I just need to press Address + K to connect to the keyboard.

The guy on the Japanese web site said that he was able to get the keyboard to connect just by opening it, but because my install procedure was a bit different than his, the contents of my /etc/rc.d/init.d/bluetooth file don't match his, and I couldn't figure out how to do it. Still, it's not that big of a deal to press a couple of buttons.

The ThinkOutside keyboard is quite nice, and is definitely a better solution than a USB keyboard (smaller, no cables). Plus, I can use the bluetooth keyboard and be connected to the Internet via my bluetooth cellphone at the same time. I've even figured out which key combinations on the keyboard correspond to the shortcut keys on the Z (like "Mail" and "Home") so I can launch programs and so forth right from the keyboard. I think I may try using a bluetooth mouse next.

9

Mac Issues / Sharing Mac's Internet Connection Via Bluetooth?

« on: September 18, 2005, 06:13:16 am »

I have some applescripts that will allow me to share my Mac's internet connection via bluetooth (basically rerouting the Airport or Ethernet connection so that it can also be used with a bluetooth device). This works fine with my Palm. I set up a bluetooth connection as detailed on this page and it works fine. (I have attached the scripts to this post because the web site that originally created them is apparently no longer around).

What I want to know is, how can I connect to my Mac using my Zaurus to surf the Internet via Bluetooth in the same way? I've gotten part of the way. Using the instructions from the OESF Bluetooth How-To I was able to set up a connection to the Mac, but I'm not sure what to put in the file under /etc/ppp/peers. Does anyone know what the format for this file needs to be? After some playing with the addresses at the bottom of the file, I can make an apparently successful connection to the Mac, but when I try to use the Internet, it doesn't seem to be able to use the DNS server, and so can't actually access anything. I also can't ping anything on the network, including the Mac, so I'm not sure if I'm even connecting properly. Any ideas?

10

Security and Networking / Connecting To Cingular Gprs Via Bt

« on: September 10, 2005, 02:31:44 pm »

I think I have my bluetooth card (socket rev H) working now, but I can't get it to connect properly to my phone for browsing the internet. I have the zaurus and phone paired, and I've created a script according to the information here. When I try to connect, the phone will light up, so I know it's connecting to some extent. But it just says "dialing" on the zaurus for a while and stops. I think the problem may be that you're supposed to use the following information:

Telephone number:WAP.CINGULAR
User Name: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
Password: CINGULAR1

I think the fact that the telephone number is a string of alphabetic characters is messing things up. I can connect via my phone with my powerbook using the above information, though, so it does work. Does anyone know how to get this working?

11

C1000/3x00 General discussions / C3100 Microdrive Disappears

« on: September 10, 2005, 10:10:52 am »

I just got a socket bluetooth card that I have been trying to set up (only partial success so far) but since I started work on it, I've had a problem where my C3100's internal microdrive "disappears" for no apparent reason. I haven't been able to connect this directly to anything I'm doing with the BT card, but it started right after getting it, and even happened when I restored from a backup.

The symptoms are that the microdrive will no longer show up anywhere on the system and the "home" and "documents" screens will get very sluggish. A reboot solves it temporarily, but it's happened 4 times in the last hour or so (since I started trying to get the BT card to work). The last time it happened without even putting the BT card in the slot -- it happened when I put a microdrive in the CF slot. How can I solve this? I'd appreciate any ideas.

By the way, I also get an error message when trying to restart bluetooth or eject the card.

12

Accessories / Bluetooth Keyboard And Mouse Use

« on: August 29, 2005, 08:30:06 am »

I've been playing around with a USB optical mouse and USB keyboard with my Zaurus, and while they work pretty well, the wires are a problem. Especially if you want to have them both plugged in at once, you have to add a USB hub into the mix, and things start to get pretty cumbersome.

I never really understood the need for wireless mice and keyboards for desktop machines, but I'm beginning to think that getting a bluetooth keyboard and mouse for my Zaurus might not be such a bad idea. But I have a few questions. First of all, is it even possible for the Zaurus to access two bluetooth peripherals at once? What about using Bluetooth to access my cell phone? Would I be able to all of these at once (my guess is no)?

Second, is there anything I should know when picking out bluetooth accessories like this? I know that it can be a little tricky to find compatible CF cards, but I think I know which work and which don't. I'm not sure whether there are similar compatibility problems with the peripherals themselves, though.

I was thinking of getting the Think Outside Stowaway Bluetooth keyboard and maybe the Macally Bluetooth Micro Mouse, although I could probably do without a mouse, just using the mouse emulation in keyhelper.

Anyway, is there anyone out there who is regularly using these kinds of accessories who could give me some advice about the possible problems I could run into trying to set this kind of thing up?

13

Software / Keyhelper Help

« on: August 23, 2005, 01:25:36 pm »

I've been playing around with Keyhelper a bit and it's quite useful. But I can't seem to get the "launcher" feature to work. As I understand it, using the default keyhelper.xml and keyhelper.conf files, I should be able to launch programs using the Home key + another key. But pressing Home just brings me to the Home screen, no matter what other key I press with it. Any ideas where I'm going wrong? I think I have defined the application I want launched in the keyhelper.conf file, and I've reloaded keyhelper via the terminal, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. Everything else (task switching with Shift + Home, etc) works fine.

14

C1000/3x00 General discussions / Experiences With My C3100

« on: August 16, 2005, 10:11:28 pm »

I got my c3100 about a week ago and have been doing a lot of experimenting with it. I was very interested in doing video, so I installed Tetsu's special kernel almost right away, and it seemed to be working OK. However, I had some problems that lead me to believe that the current version of the special kernel may not be stable (and admittedly Tetsu says that it may not be stable on his site). I am still a Linux newbie, so I'm not sure if what happened was due to my bungling or because of the special kernel. Maybe I can get some input on that from the gurus here  

Anyway, my first problem came when I mounted a shared folder to somewhere on /hdd3/ (I can't recall the exact location). I was trying to get things on the shared disk to show up in the Zaurus apps and file browser, and it did work until I opened up the pdf viewer. It seemed to hang the zaurus and so after a few minutes I decided to just remove the battery and reset the Z. When it rebooted, I got a error messages ending with "HDD1 ERROR!! Unable to open LED device" and the Z wouldn't boot any further. I eventually had to reboot the Z holding the OK button and do a factory restore. I was surprised to see that the internal microdrive is erased by this operation. There doesn't seem to be a way to restore the device to the factory settings while preserving the contents of the MD. But anyway, I was still in the middle of installing and experimenting, so I didn't have a backup, but all I lost was some time.

A couple of days later (today) I had another problem. This time I simply chose "reboot" from the QT menu and the Zaurus hung during booting, complaining about a disk being read-only or something (I neglected to write down the messages). I had mounted a shared folder a while before this happened, went offline and removed the network card to insert my CF microdrive. Could not unmounting the folder properly have this effect? I had to do a factory restore again, and again I lost what was on the internal MD, although I did have a backup of the internal memory.

Needless to say, this is disturbing to me. I have returned to the Sharp kernel for now to see if that affects things. Does anyone have any ideas about what might have caused these two problems?

______________________

A couple of notes about doing a NAND restore. I found several threads and web sites detailing the process for doing this, but I couldn't get it to work for the longest time. However, I finally figured it out, so I thought I would put it here in case anyone else has similar problems.

To restore the NAND, you first need a NAND backup file. I downloaded mine from conics.net, I believe, although you can do a backup yourself of course. You need to put the backup file (named SYSTC310.DBK) on a CF card. The card has to be big enough for the backup file, obviously, so it needs to be larger than a 128MB card (the file is around 132MB). I had some trouble here, because I had originally used a 2.2GB MAGICSTOR microdrive to install the special kernel, but it would not work for the NAND restore. I don't know why. It was FAT formatted and otherwise worked fine in the Zaurus. Anyway, I dug up an old 340MB IBM microdrive and put the backup file on that, which worked.

To do the NAND restore, you have to remove the battery, the power supply, and any memory cards and wait for a few seconds. (This is where I had a problem. The menu won't come up if you have the CF card in the Z while doing this.) Then hold down the D and M keys on the keyboard and put the battery back in. (Don't release the D and M buttons until the service menu appears.) Move the battery switch to the ON position and plug in the AC adapter. The service menu should have come up.

Press the "up" arrow twice to get to page 3 of the menu (it will appear to be the "right" button if you're holding the Zaurus vertically). Insert your CF card. Select the "NAND Flash Restore" option and press OK. It will say something like "NAND Flash Restore from CF" and then it will indicate that it has found the backup file. (When I was using the MAGICSTOR microdrive, it would hang at the "NAND Flash Restore from CF" message and do nothing.) Then press OK twice to confirm and watch the progress display at the bottom of the screen. When it says "Restore...OK" you can press cancel to get back to the service menu, and then remove the battery and power supply to reset. Put them back and power back on, and you should see the Zaurus boot.

So to sum up, make sure you don't have a CD card in the slot when trying to bring up the service menu, and if it doesn't find your backup file on the CF, try using a different card.

15

Security and Networking / An Easy Way To Mount Samba Shares?

« on: August 15, 2005, 04:29:26 am »

I'm a linux newbie, but I'm able to mount my windows machine's shared folder in the terminal with smbmount //computername/SharedDocs /mnt/smb.

But I'd like a quick and easy way to mount and unmount this. Smbmounter looked like it would be the answer, but it doesn't seem to work. The folders computername/SharedDocs/ will appear in the NetworkedFolders folder, but there is nothing inside. Yes, I have given the program root priveleges. Any ideas as to what is wrong? What other ways are there to mount these servers, aside from typing directly in the terminal?