Topics

1

General Discussion / Adios

« on: October 20, 2008, 12:15:09 am »

Well, I have to say it has been an adventure.  I got my first Zaurus, a 5500, in maybe 2004, and my 3100 in 2006.  I had been using them fairly regularly as my only portable machine.  

The crunch came last Spring (well, January, actually), when I went on sabbatical to Spain.  My Zaurus 3100 was my only computer for this trip.  I had thought that I'd have a computer in my office (at the University of Valencia), and I did, but it was not reliable, and did not have the software I wanted, so I usually just used my Z.  Aside from e-mail, banking, and usual web stuff, I used it two write 2 papers and several lectures.  

By the time I was back in the US, I was somewhat fried with the small screen and small keyboard, and with the limited software (especially internet software and mathematical software), so I got an eeepc.  I immediately stopped using the Z, and have been much happier with the physical setup of the eee (701) as well as software availability.

So, I have sold my Zauri, and am checking out of this community.

I have to say you guys have been great in terms of support and development for the Zaurus; truly selfless devotion of hundreds of hours to development of installation packages, special programs and scripts, custom kernels, and a huge amount of bug-chasing and hardware adaptation.  It has been great.  The development of software for these machines has really made great strides, and I have used nearly all of the various available systems, from the stock ROM through debian-eabi.  

So, thanks for all the help, and good-bye.   Keep up the good work.

2

For Sale / Wanted / For Sale: 3100 And 5500

« on: September 11, 2008, 05:15:27 pm »

I have, sad to say, abandoned the Zaurus world, seduced by the discrete charms of eee.  Oh well, my loss is your gain.

I have two Zauri for sale, both used but in good condition.  I also have several accessories.

#1:  Zaurus 3100.  This has cortez' kernel, 2.6.23 (in flash), and a completely functional debian sid distribution.  I've been using it from 2006 until this August when I got my eee.  This was my only machine while I was in Spain from January to June of 2008.  It worked like a charm, no problems.  It has a complete LaTeX distribution, LyX, icehamster (minimo with options), sylpheed, etc.  Lots of solid software.  I use an Ambicom 1100 wifi card that works, but lost part of its cover some time back and has tape to protect the innards.  I also have a cf LAN card, a cf modem, and a wifi card that was supposed to do b/g, but I could never get it to work.  It also comes with an extra battery, the charger, a replacement pointer since I don't know what happened to the original.  It won't come with any memory cards unless you really want the 64meg sd...

I also have two usb converters, one with the mini-A jack so you can plug in a keychain drive or a mouse (except the mouse has to be held sideways...).

I want $250 US plus shipping, including all these accessories.

#2:  Zaurus 5500.  Works fine.  I have OZ on it from about 2006, and I haven't touched it since.  It has a cradle (I think), charger, extra battery, and a car charger.  The car charger does not, I don't think, work on the 3100.

I only want $50 for this with the accessories.  If the person buying the 3100 doesn't want one of the cf devices I'll throw it in.

Pictures will be on http://www.lehigh.edu/~dlj0/zauri when I can get them uploaded.  They will just be the jpg files without additional explanation, but they are pretty obvious.  Both machines are shown while running.

Contact me off this forum at  david.johnson@lehigh.edu.  As the e-mail suggests, I'm in the US, in Pennsylvania, to be precise.

3

Debian / Usb Mouse ?

« on: April 24, 2008, 05:21:17 am »

I want to see if using my usb mouse will make writing easier.  I'm using my Z for everything now, office and home.  But I am in the midst of writing a bunch of stuf, and I think the mouse will make things a bit easier.

I used to have it working, although I have to hold it sideways because it thinks right-left is up-down.  I'll deal with that.  But now I can't get it running at all.  ISTR blacklisting mousedev to cut down jitter with the touchscreen, but manually adding it does not help.  The mouse is just not recognized.

I have a 3100, using debian eabi, started with titchy but am using youngen's 2.6.23 kernrl (I believe -- that was a while back).  Usb works fine for flash drives, and like I said it used to work with the mouse, but no longer.

Any hints appreciated.

4

Debian / Telephone?

« on: January 08, 2008, 04:55:09 pm »

I was wondering if there was a skype or clone thereof that would allow me to make internet phone calls through my Z.  And, if it is available, does it work OK?  I am using debian eabi.

5

Debian / Midori Browser

« on: December 08, 2007, 11:23:59 am »

I noticed the uploading of the midori browser, and tried it out.  

Both this and epiphany-webkit have some significant bugs, but they are also quite fast and can handle my bank's evil website.  

Midori is actually better with the bank; it's quite usable.

It does lack a few things, like you can't load a webpage into a running version of it, you can only run it as "midori http://www.bankofamerica.com" or whatever.  But it does navigate pretty well.  Neither of these saves the cookie it needs to in order to remember who I am from login to login.  

epiphany-webkit ignores commands (either button-presses or menu selections) for back/forward, or quit, things like that, nor will it navigate with the arrow keys; you have to use the scrollbars.  These are known problems with webkit, apparently, according to what I read.  Midori does respond to the back and quit buttons, but can't be convinced to use the arrow keys except to scroll among its buttons.  

Epiphany-webkit seems to have imported bookmarks from either epiphany-gecko or possibly from firefox (leftover from when I had titchy on the machine; re-loading my home directory put the config files back).

6

Debian / Key Repeat Speed

« on: December 04, 2007, 10:24:11 pm »

I vaguely recall being able to set the keyboard repeat speed in either titchy or Angstom.  It is too fast for my taste in debian; I'd like to slow it down.  Holding a key down even a small fraction of a second (much faster than on my desktop) causes the key to repeat.  How do you do that?

7

Debian / Browser Update - Epiphany (eabi)

« on: November 28, 2007, 10:24:20 pm »

In my obsessive quest for a decent browser, I have re-discovered epiphany --- and have had one.

I apt-got ephiphany-webkit.  Now it looks great and runs well.


This is a _lot_ better than it was (for me at least) when last I tried it.  It has been working like a champ on all of my test sites: bank, weather site, this one.  

Something must have been fixed in my latest upgrade.  Until something goes wrong, I will recommend this.  It is not as fast as dillo, but handles complicated pages a lot bettr.  I have yet to try youtube, of course.  

I did switch to the angstrom version of dillo, and noticed some improvement.  I also upgraded iceweasel --- it takes longer to segfault now, but still does before it actually shows up on-screen.

But try epiphany again --- and upgrade.  BTW, upgrading replaced Zdevil's gnumeric, but the new one seems to be free of that excel-file bug.

8

Debian / More Help With Marvel Chipset Wifi Card

« on: November 18, 2007, 11:35:43 pm »

I have upgraded to kernel 2.6.23, which has the libertas module available.  My card is recognized as:

Socket 1:
  product info: "Marvell", "802.11 CF", "ID: 04", ""
  manfid: 0x02df, 0x8103
  function: 6 (network)

It's a sparklan  WCFM-100 card. with a Marvel chip.  dmesg reported the card as

pccard: PCMCIA card inserted into slot 1
pcmcia: registering new device pcmcia1.0

I installed pcmciautils, since it seems to think it's a pcmcia card.  

Has anyone had any success with this card?  My other wifi card works witout any configuration; but it is not long for the world.  This should work, but nothing happens.  Lights do not go on, nothing finds the card except pccardctl ident, which gave me the message above.  

How do I configure this?  Does anyone have any pcmcia wifi config files that might help?

9

Debian / Problem #2 -- Remote Display With Ssh

« on: November 18, 2007, 11:24:49 pm »

I used to do this all the time, and with my upgrade to debian armel/sid, it no longer works.  I ssh into the Z from my (debian) desktop, and run an x program on the Z, such as xclock.  Used to be, ssh and sshd were set up so that it would display on the desktop.  It did that with titchy, angstrom, etc.  I have poured over the /etc/ssh/ssh_config and /set/ssh/sshd_config files, and as far as I can tell they are identical on the two computers, and identical to my old config files from titchy.  I can display programs on the Z that are running from the desktop just fine, but not the other way around.  It seems that the DISPLAY environment variable does not get set, even though the sshd_config file says:

X11Forwarding yes
X11DisplayOffset 10

it is listening on port 22, protocol 2.  

Anyone else?  Any clues?  It's more annoyance than anything else, but I would like to fix it.

SOLVED!  

I had not bothered to configure /etc/network/interfaces, since dhclient brought up the link without it.  All I needed to do was configure the loopback X interface (lo) and it now works.  This makes sense because ssh pipes from the loopback interface to the remote server.

10

Debian / Font Problems -- How To Add?

« on: November 18, 2007, 11:13:33 pm »

I'm using cortez' kernel, and the X server he packaged up, but AFAICT it's a standard kdrive Xfbdev server.  The machine is an SL3100 running debian armel (sid).  So, with this server there are no config files, and in particular no font paths.  So even though the install put a lot of fonts in more or less standard places, I don't think the server knows about them.  xlsfonts only lists:

-misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--0-0-75-75-c-0-iso8859-1
-misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-100-100-100-c-60-iso8859-1
-misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-120-75-75-c-60-iso8859-1
6x13
cursor
fixed

I have no idea which font files it is reading, or whether they are compiled into the kernel somehow.  

But tgif (a really nice drawing program that I have used for years) won't run without its default font.  Maybe I could change its resources, but I would rather add more fonts.  Heck, they are all over the hard drive, but not used.

I also had chimera2 crap out with a complaint about fonts, and nedit whines, although it does run.

What can I do to add fonts?  The usual stuff, as far as I can tell, does not work.

11

Debian / 2.6.22 Kernel And Libertas Module

« on: October 21, 2007, 10:18:58 pm »

I have been trying to find a way to get my new Marvel wifi card working.  I poked around and found out that this libertas kernel module is supposed to support it.  But that module is not available with the "stock" titchy kernel.

So, someone who has switched to the 2.6.22 kernel, could you please check to see whether or not you have this module, or maybe download it (there is a debian version for 2.6.22-2) and see whether or not you can at least load the module.

If so, then I would need to know how to install said kernel.  I seem to recall there is an updater.sh we can use; it may be just the Angstrom one, but a little guidance would be nice.

Of course, if someone who has this kernel actually also has this wifi card, and can test that out, that would be even better, but I don't imagine I'd be that lucky.

The card I actually have is a Sparklan WCFM-100 card, with the marvell 8385 chip.  

I actually contacted them to see about drivers; but they only have source for 2.4 drivers, and no clue about 2.6 kernels, much less arm machines.

12

Debian / Wifi Dilemma, Help!

« on: October 05, 2007, 02:37:32 pm »

OK, here is my story.  I have an Ambicom WL1100-C CF card, which works, albeit without wpa and with limited range.

But, it will fail real soon now.  The top is coming loose, and I risk tearing it apart each time I pull it out of the slot.  

Well, I already went out and found another card, which bragged about linux support, and works with b/g.  It is a Sparklan with a Marvel 8385 chip. It came with source code to compile two  kernel modules, cfio.o  and mcf25.o, along with their own version of wlanconfig.  With the current kernel modules the card just sits there, won't even turn on the power light.

So, I grabbed the 2.6.20 kernel sources they needed, and tried to compile these.  But I have run into a long list of error messages.  I sispect this will not compile with a 2.6 kernel (they recommended a 2.4 kernel).

There is another project, using a libertas kernel module which I think might be for a 2.6.23 kernel.

So, my dilemma:  What do I do when the Ambicom dies?

1)  Buy another card -- which one?
2)  Find a way, or a person, who can manage to compile the Marvel driver modules for the current kernel??  help?? Volunteers?
3)  Upgrade the kernel to 2.6.23 and use libertas?  Will that really work?  Where is the 2.6.23 kernel for this beast?  Will that fix the other problems I have with my Z, the jitters and the mouse rotation?
4)  Any other suggestion??

Oh, of course, I am using titchy/debian lenny on my 3100.

13

C1000/3x00 Hardware / Good Prce On A Replacement Battery For The 3100?

« on: September 29, 2007, 09:28:23 am »

Anyone have a source for a replacement battery for the 3100 that has a good price?  I will be depending on my Zaurus for some months as my sole access, and want to be sure I have a good battery.  But US $90+ is a bit steep.  

Obviously I want something that will not fry the beast as well.

14

C1000/3x00 Hardware / Mouse Directions Rotated (xfbdev)

« on: September 16, 2007, 05:07:57 pm »

I'm currently using titchy linux, which provides a kernerl (2.6.20), some utilities including the Xfbdev kdriver Xserver, and then I installed debian-arm (now testing, originally etch) on top of it.  I have a borzoi (Zaurus 3100).

The X server is started with
exec /opt/kdrive/Xfbdev -screen 480x640@270 "$@"
because without the rotation it starts in portrait mode.  But, I want to connect a mouse to it, to make it a bit easier to use as my only computer while I am on sabbatical next semester.  The mouse works, but ignores the screen rotation, whether I set it like the above, or change the orientation to 0 and rotate with xrandr.  I can only use the mouse naturally by holding it rotated 90 degrees, which of course makes it awkward to push the buttons.  

I imagine someone using Angstrom with the e17 window manager would have the same problem, since for that we have to rotate the screen as well.

Does anyone know of a way to re-map the pointer axes?  xsetpointer seems to do nothing, xmodmap doesn't have such a setting.  I saw one commercial program, but it of course is not available for arm.

It might make life easier if the kdrive server used a config file (such configuration seems possible in xorg).  I don't know whether trying to use the xorg server would be worth it, since I imagine that takes up a lot more resources.  I even took the mouse apart to see if I could swap the wires around, but that would not be easy, and I don't know which goes where.

Any hints?

BTW, if anyone wants to know more about Titchy linux and how it works on my Z, I'll be glad to expound.  I am just pleased as punch with it, mostly because it has all the apps I want/need, and by gum they all work.  I'd like to see it done in armel rather than arm, but I could not get the suggested hack by Locutus to get debian armel up and running to work.

15

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Adieu -- No Joy With R198

« on: May 16, 2007, 02:23:28 pm »

I first want to say that I appreciate all the work you guys did in creating pdaXrom. I installed beta1 last year when I got my 3100, and, although there were a few problems and limitations, it has been very useful.

I was hoping that going to the latest beta r198 would be an improvement.  I had been afraid to try to upgrade, since the new uBoot and 2.6 kernels seemed to be causing some difficulties, but decided it was time to take the plunge.  Actually, I had been waiting for a long time for the next stable release....  Well, this resulted in 24 solid hours of nightmarish problems.

OK, things aren't really set up to go from beta1 to the new version.  Why not?  That is gripe #1.  I can understand not supporting people coming from oz or cacko, but...  In following the "quick install" instructions to install uBoot, doing a low-level flash, I semi-permanently bricked my Zaurus.  It took hours of trying the various Vulcan death grip boot sequences to get it to, one time, boot to the nand image.  Why?  I have no idea.  I then managed, thanks to www.trisoft.de to restore the original Sharp rom, so I could start over.  I re-loaded the uboot package, and found that OK+plugin would only boot the emergency image occasionally.  Usually the thing would just sit there, emulating a brick again.  

I then put a new image on the CF card, and managed to OK-start it eventually, and never, ever, got the question about whether I wanted to install.  Went back to Sharp rom, re-formatted the hard drive, tried again, same deal.  df indicated that /dev/hda1 was mounted on /mnt/cf, but it was the wrong size and unmount would not believe that it was mounted.  So, I mounted /dev/hdc1 (the cf card) on /mnt/card, went there, and tried to run the ./autoboot.sh script.  Never ran.  I looked at it, and it was pretty simple, so entered the lines directly.

This is where I should mention that the link from the downloads page for the 3100 was to an akita image (and was so labelled).  Anyway, it installed OK it seemed, and even booted.  Claimed to be a borzoi, which was correct.  But, df indicated only one partition, of size 128M.  What happened to the hard drive?  Well, duh, the script did exactly what it was supposed to do --- if I actually had a 1000.  It installed the system on the flash.  It ignored the existence of the hard drive.

Now, my hard drive was not a clean Sharp image.  I had resized and reformatted the partitions when I installed beta1.  But /dev/hda1 was formatted ext2, so it should have found that at least.  Besides, from what the script says, it would install on the flash no matter what.  Either remove 3000/3100/3200 from the link, or construct a new package that really can install on these machines.  When the script says        nandwrite /dev/mtd2 $file , it is probably going to write the image to the flash, not the hard drive.  

At this point, I began casting about for a way to end my frustration.  Unfortunately, I was unarmed, so instead of shooting something, I tried Angstrom.

From re-flash of the Sharp rom, re-format, etc., to a working system took maybe 45 minutes, and some of that was due to the fact that my hard drive was not formatted the way it was expected to be.   But Angstrom keeps its mount instructions in /etc/fstab, so I could change the default vfat partition of /dev/hda3 (why??) to ext2.  Next boot, no problem.

pdaXrom still has better feeds, which unfortunately don't run on Angstrom as far as I can determine.  But the keyboard works (one thing that made me upgrade was that I decided to change the definition of one of the shortcut keys, and so of course lost the . -- which I used to know how to fix, but...), and the keys mean the same thing in all modes.  Upgrade is trivial, just as it is in debian -- this is something that pdaXrom needs to fix.  Angstrom is not quite as full-fledged-computer feeling as is pdaXrom, with everything running in fullscreen mode, but then, after all, it is a small screen.

Oh, well.  Maybe someone else can tell me what stupid thing I did wrong.  But it'll take a bit of convincing to get me to try this again.

Sorry to rant, but some of these things are things people should know about.  Or, at least tall me where I went wrong.