Recent Posts

61

Zaurus - Other distros support / Re: Back after many years - and finally tried Zubuntu

« Last post by MaBo on April 13, 2025, 10:01:43 am »

Hi All,
Working on multiple options for reviving my Zaurus. zUbuntu is one of them, void another (looking forward to the new release, varti), netBSD as "new kid on the block" (for me).

zUbuntu (jaunty updates) was working when I stored the Zaurus a while ago, but now there are issues.  After some forum archaeology, I think that the largest chance of success is the combination of
zubuntu-desktop-jaunty-rootfs_feb.2009-rev-armel.tar.bz2 and spitz-root-addition.tar.gz (from first zubuntu release).
Source is https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?topic=26510.msg184114#msg184114 stating:

so you want to stick with the spitz-root-addition.tar.gz used with 1.0RC for use with  zubuntu-desktop-jaunty-rootfs_feb.2009-rev-armel.tar.bz2

However, my boot.cfg is incomplete, resulting in kernel panic, and a message about missing "root=" boot option.
Can anyone share a working boot.cfg with me?

Another question:
Is it worth installing the latest kexecboot from https://github.com/LinuxPDA/linux-kexecboot/tree/master ? It has a kernel-4.4.8 version...

Thanks,
Maarten

62

Astro Slide - Hardware / Re: changed my battery now with video

« Last post by slide on April 10, 2025, 07:35:38 am »

I guess the flexible flat cable has three conductors: minus, plus, and NTC. The NTC is probably on the BMS board, connected to the minus and NTC conductors. Probably, the NTC is a 10 kΩ one.

That is, there are two wires between the battery proper and the BMS board, and three wires between the BMS board and the battery connector.

I assume that the right tool is a soldering iron, not a spot welder. You need a spot welder for round cells, but not for Lipo cells.

63

Astro Slide - Hardware / Re: changed my battery now with video

« Last post by cam1965 on April 10, 2025, 06:01:02 am »

Ok, one last thing - does the Astro battery have three or four terminals once you open it up? Does it have a data terminal for battery status? Or just +, - and temp?

If it has four, are you getting accurate indications on battery capacity (SoC, percentage)?

I really don´t know.
I left the astro to a technician sometimes ago to solder the battery   and don´t remember.
Maybe searching in google you can find the answer. I only know about gemini and cosmo batteries that I have oppened recently. They have in it the marks ID, +, - and T. Maybe the battery astro is similar.But I really don´t know. I will try to attach a photo to  a battery terminal similar to gemini, but I think this forum as I said before are not letting me to attach photos.
Confirmed this ( The attachments upload directory is not writable. Your attachment or avatar cannot be saved. )

64

Astro Slide - Hardware / Re: changed my battery now with video

« Last post by Zarhan on April 10, 2025, 01:41:12 am »

Ok, one last thing - does the Astro battery have three or four terminals once you open it up? Does it have a data terminal for battery status? Or just +, - and temp?

If it has four, are you getting accurate indications on battery capacity (SoC, percentage)?

65

Astro Slide - Hardware / Re: changed my battery now with video

« Last post by cam1965 on April 09, 2025, 12:29:53 pm »

Yes, the bms was removed from the replacement cameron sino  battery. I soldered the BMS from the original astro battery onto the replacement battery

Ok, thanks for confirming. I guess once you remove some of the covers you can see all three terminals (or four?) and then can solder the Astro BMS in there.

With that in mind, I'll wait for the Astro battery to degrade a bit more before (e.g. where it no longer holds even a half-a-day charge), meaning that the battery replacement is mandatory to keep the device usable as a daily driver, in case I break things.

OK. Good luck. Only another link ( But for gemini and cosmo ). In this case it is not necessary to remove the BMS from the replacement battery. Check the polarity befory connecting. https://electronicsera.eu/2024/01/04/planetbatteries/ . I have changed my battery in gemini for this Hsabat battery ( https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/1005007976621754.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.5.295fcaa4HQTq2Y&gatewayAdapt=glo2bra ) . The battery cable must be twisted to put the battery in place.

66

Astro Slide - Hardware / Re: changed my battery now with video

« Last post by Zarhan on April 09, 2025, 09:54:29 am »

Yes, the bms was removed from the replacement cameron sino  battery. I soldered the BMS from the original astro battery onto the replacement battery

Ok, thanks for confirming. I guess once you remove some of the covers you can see all three terminals (or four?) and then can solder the Astro BMS in there.

With that in mind, I'll wait for the Astro battery to degrade a bit more before (e.g. where it no longer holds even a half-a-day charge), meaning that the battery replacement is mandatory to keep the device usable as a daily driver, in case I break things.

67

Astro Slide - Hardware / Re: changed my battery now with video

« Last post by cam1965 on April 09, 2025, 09:05:12 am »

Ok, found a video of a phone that uses the same type of battery that your replacement - natively. So looks like, that "single" connector actually has all the terminals required in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD1Lw9CI4vc

Astro probably does not use same connector (or does it?!), so opening up the battery is most likely needed. But I'll hold off opening the phone until the Astro battery performance has really gone down enough to make it unusable as a daily driver...

Yes, the bms was removed from the replacement cameron sino  battery. I soldered the BMS from the original astro battery onto the replacement battery

68

Astro Slide - Hardware / Re: changed my battery now with video

« Last post by cam1965 on April 09, 2025, 08:57:50 am »

...I just got the battery. Cam, do you know if the installer had to open up the battery pack to get this installed? I'm confused about the fact that there is only that one external connector on the battery. Or is that a temp sensor or something?

It's visible in your video too, but looks like the texts of the battery are a bit...crumpled? Just wondering if the battery pack's has to be opened (carefully) to get direct access to the terminals (and for replacing the BMS).

Hi Zarhan.
The BMS is from the original battery. It was soldered onto  the replacement battery. I didn´t use the BMS from the replacement cameron battery.

69

Astro Slide - Hardware / Re: changed my battery now with video

« Last post by Zarhan on April 08, 2025, 01:37:34 am »

Ok, found a video of a phone that uses the same type of battery that your replacement - natively. So looks like, that "single" connector actually has all the terminals required in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD1Lw9CI4vc

Astro probably does not use same connector (or does it?!), so opening up the battery is most likely needed. But I'll hold off opening the phone until the Astro battery performance has really gone down enough to make it unusable as a daily driver...

70

Zaurus - Void Linux support / Re: Void Linux Packages

« Last post by glu on April 06, 2025, 02:50:56 pm »

Hi,

I am running Kernel 4.19.0 from build-008 and I have a question regarding power management. It seems that (compared to NetBSD but also older kernels from e.g. Cacko) the power management code has issues when I use it with USB Wi-Fi dongle. It very often reads low/critical battery voltage (probably due to a short term peak power draw from the dongle) and forces standby - while not turning on offline charging mode. So once in standby, device can't be charged because charger hasn't been put to offline mode.

The problem also appears in the kexecboot 3.x kernel. This usually manifests itself so that when device reaches kexecboots, the power management code reads low battery and forces it into standby - while again not enabling offline charging. Once in this mode, devices can be woken up for a second, only to go back into standby again.

Has anyone noticed this too? Did the power management code for zaurus get any updates in the 5.x kernels?