Messages

91

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Xcas

« on: October 04, 2005, 03:04:07 pm »

Well, it doesn't seem many people are as interested in a good calculator for pdaXrom as I am (nobody was able to help me with my "Blit combination not supported" error in TiEMU), but if you are, it would be nice if we can figure out how to at least get Xcas working. I downloaded the only package I could find from http://www-fourier.ujf-grenoble.fr/~parisse/giac.html,  but it seems pretty old and fussy; not wanting to work with the newest version of pdaXrom. After it complaining about softfloat.so missing (and installing the package), I now get the "undefined symbol: __divsi3" error message, and can't figure out what to do. Some other threads recommended doing an "export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libgcc_s.so" before executing (these were for other programs, but the same error message), but I just get an error saying the libgcc_s.so is not found.

I'm pretty much a n00b when it comes to linux, so your patience is appreciated. Is there any chance someone is interested in compiling a new version, or at least knows of a workaround to get Xcas to function. It would be really nice to have a solid, GUI'd CAS for pdaXrom (and a working TiEMU would be awesome as well). Any help is much appreciated.

92

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Tiemu Error

« on: October 02, 2005, 05:03:53 am »

Well, my Ti-89 finally crapped out on me after all these years (got it the day it was released... how big of a dork do you have to be to wait at Staples until the truck comes in to get a calculator?). Anyways, there is a package of TiEMU available in the feed, but I've been having some problems getting it to run. First off, the package does not have all of the requisite files, so I had to download another version of it and copy over some files (skins, pixmaps and the like). After converting the ROM, the program seems to starting up normally, then a window outline will pop up breifly, then crash. Running from the terminal shows all goes well, getting to the point where it says the skin was loaded, then dies with the following error: "Problem: Blit combination not supported." I know this has something to do with libSDL, but I'm far from sure what is causing the error. Any guesses? It would be really nice to have a working TiEMU, as it would help out a bunch in school, not to mention make all my friends drool over seeing it. Thanks.

93

Themes, Icons, and Backgrounds / Desktop screenshot thread!

« on: September 29, 2005, 09:28:22 pm »

Stuffman, What Z you have there? Seems you're using your Z a lot by the looks of what you got going on that desktop... have you run into any snags with pdaxrom? I've got a C3100 and really have to use it for work and what not so I've been leery about going to pdaxrom. 
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I have a good 'ol C860 (soon to celebrate it's second birthday, and still to be surpassed by any other non-Zaurus PDA). I usually don't do all that stuff at any one time, it was just that way to show off the desktop. So far, pdaXrom has been pretty impressive, and even more so with Xfce. If you use the default desktop manager, things are pretty nice and stable, and for the short time I was using it I had no problems whatsoever. Xfce is really nice, and things seem to work well also, but there are a few issues when using the ROX filemanager (the most annoying being that if you forget to close any windows showing what you have on removable media before you eject it, the whole thing crashes and you have to start it up again with the terminal. Other than that, being able to use KO/Pi and Ka/Pi are wonderful, and running Firefox is awesome, though it's a somewhat old package and really needs a going-through to slim it down as much as possible (it's pretty slow and a memory hog). pdaXrom has come a long way, so I'd recommend giving it a shot. Just do a Flash backup before you install, so if you don't like it you can always go back to your previous configuration.

94

Themes, Icons, and Backgrounds / Desktop screenshot thread!

« on: September 29, 2005, 02:07:53 am »

Wow... pdaXrom has come a long way since the last time I tried it. With Xfce and ROX, I finally  can have a functional desktop on my pda- and killer apps to run on it. I used to have a lot of people tell me how cool my Zaurus was, but now when they see it running a real X desktop, their jaws drop. I've been working on a custom theme, it's come a long way but still has a bit of tweaking to do. I'm using the NOX (Noia on ROX) icon set, and a custom skin which was inspired by H20-gtk2-Saphire. I'll try to get the whole works bundled up for anyone who is interested. With pdaXrom as good as it is now, I have no reason to go back to the other ROMs.

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95

General Discussion / Battery or recharge circuit problem - C860

« on: March 27, 2005, 11:40:21 am »

Well, my 860 is not charging, but for a different reason entirely. The cute little power adaptor that came with it seems to only want to put out about 2.1vdc to the Z (it's rated at 5vdc output). I can probably go to Rat Shack and get an adaptor to replace it, but I'm quite fond of its easy portability. Has anyone taken one of these apart? It seems like it's just snaped/glued together, and shouldn't be too hard, but it feels like I'm going to break it before it opens. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

96

6000 - Tosa / Microdrive Problems

« on: March 12, 2005, 12:24:23 am »

I had a few problems initially with my Seagate ST1 (ripped from a Rio Carbon), but everything seems to work well after fdisk-ing it to use Win95 FAT32 (LBA) (I think it's hex C), and using mkfs.vfat -F 32. Things seem to work much better now, as before I would copy files and get that "out of space" message, or the drive would stop responding. Occasionally, when the Zaurus "sleeps," it will stop responding, but a quick cardctl eject followed by cardctl insert get things back on track. Probably should add that to the suspend script...

97

Sharp ROMs / Cacko Rom 1.22 Is Available!

« on: January 07, 2005, 01:22:32 am »

I went about installing a crappier version of libSDL on my 860; now I want the old one back! What version is it and where can I find it? Piro's page is a bit hard for me to read...

Thanks for all the answers, mas, very nice. Would you (or anyone else who feels confident on the subject) recommend a particular codec set for encoding video to play with kino2?

I've had great success combining DivX 5.1.1 video with ogg vorbis audio into an .ogm file.  The problem was Kino 0.30's MIME filter didn't allow me to open the .ogm files, so I had to use 0.22, but it worked fine. The vorbis stream seemed to take a lot less cpu time than the mp3 audio, hence, video playback was much smoother. I haven't had a chance to put any of my video files on to experiment with 0.40, but I'm sure I can now do 640x480 video with all the speedups. My website (which hasn't been updated in ages) has a walkthrough to make .ogm files under Windows, though you can pretty much leave out all the stuff with oggmuxer as the newest VirtualDubMod can transcode the stream to ogg vorbis. Hope it helps.

Btw, Cacko just keeps getting better and better. Keep up the good work, and hopefully some of these minor buggies can be worked out soon- but othewise it is just fantastic. My PocketPC friends just more jealous day by day... heh  

How about taking some time off and and playing with FPSE and/or fpsece and getting us a nice working Playstation emulator? Well, just a suggestion. Thanks for your time and effort on making the best Z UI even better!

98

Software / Scilab/octave/maxima Progress?

« on: December 14, 2004, 12:24:04 pm »

Xcas is pretty nice, but it pales in comparison to what Maxima could do. Since it really shouldn't be all that hard (albeit a lot of work) to get Maxima/Scilab working, it seems disappointing to settle for less than the best (and getting the best was the whole reason I got the Zaurus). If I knew what I were doing, I'd definately work on this now that I'm on winter break from school, but I just don't have the skills necessary. Do you have any of your Zaurus binaries for Maxima and Scilab? I seemed to have misplaced the ones I've used in the past.

Thanks

99

Software / Scilab/octave/maxima Progress?

« on: December 13, 2004, 09:58:10 pm »

With the recent Slashdot article about open-source mathematics programs, my interest in getting a good CAS for my Zaurus is once again quite high.

The commercial software available just doesn't seem to cut it. Searching through the threads here, I noticed there was a bit of work done on Maxima (by lardman), but things just seemed to drop off a few months ago. Right now, it's console-only, which makes use a bit more complicated for quick calculations. If someone could get Texmacs working under Qt, and get some nice little function-entry toolbars (a la Mathematica / Maple) to speed input (and allow use in non-clamshell mode), it would be pretty nice. Problem is, my Linux skills are weak, and my knowledge of compiling stuff is even weaker. I'm sure many other people are interested in a good CAS for thier Zaurus, and there are definately enough talented people around here to work out any issues in porting. To me, this would be a killer app to have in school. Sometimes the TI-89 doesn't cut it, and a workstation with Mathematica is too far away or impractical to use.

Scilab would also be a killer app; Octave is nice too, but a working Scilab would nearly preclude the need for it. Even though I use Cacko right now, I would have no problem switching to pdaXrom to run any of these programs with a nice graphical environment.

Last I heard, "cgillot" got xmaxima working working under pdaXrom, but no instructions for compiling or .ipks have appeared yet.

100

General Discussion / What to Do With 2.5in Hard Drives?

« on: July 25, 2004, 01:32:28 am »

Any other suggestions?

101

General Discussion / What to Do With 2.5in Hard Drives?

« on: July 01, 2004, 05:59:16 pm »

My Rio Riot 20GB MP3 player died a few weeks ago (fried the system board when I hooked it up to my home-made car adaptor). It's got a 20GB 2.5in laptop drive, just begging to be used for a project, along with a battery that seems good enough to power it for a few hours.

My question is, is there any way to attach this to the Zaurus. I know that Compact Flash is just an extension of the ATA IDE interface, so theoretically it should be possible to attach the drive to the Z. The problem is, I cannot find anyone who manufactures an IDE-to-CF adaptor, although CF-to-IDE are quite abundant (remember the iOpener; it ran off of a CF card acting as a HD). The drive can easily be powered from battery I have, so power consumption should not be too much of an issue.

The only major obstacles I see is the phyical interface and any potential memory limit on the OS side (i.e., is > 4GB ok?). Any ideas or suggestions?

102

General Discussion / Encoding Video for Zaurus...

« on: July 01, 2004, 05:36:52 pm »

I have a tutorial for good quality movies (using .ogm files) for Kino2 at my website, www.dylanpowell.net/zaurus. I've found a more efficient way using VirtualDubMod, which eliminates the separate steps required for the Ogg Vorbis processing. I have no problems running 320x240 video fullscreen with sound and full framerate from an SD card. Take a look and tell me what you think.

103

Software / maps/travel software

« on: May 30, 2004, 04:37:23 pm »

alright... well, the GPS was working, however, my location shows up as a black square on the display. In fact, all waypoints/endpoints/other stuff always shows up as a black square. I tried changing the preferences for each, but nothing changes. Also, even though I can navigate with the GPS (i.e., it tells me what street I am approaching and rotates/centers the map), it does not leave a \"trail\" of where I have been. I\'ll keep playing with it, but any suggestions are appreciated.

104

Software / maps/travel software

« on: May 29, 2004, 01:14:08 am »

I\'m having some difficulty getting zRoadMap to display my position with GPS. I\'ve got all the maps for my area (which are very very out of date), and have it centered approximately where I am. I start the gpsd daemon with gpsd -p /dev/ttyS3 -s 4800. It starts up and works fine (verified by qpeGPS), and the roadgps program will track the satilites. However, no markers of any sort appear on my screen in zRoadMap... Any suggestions?