New Sl-5500 Owner Needs Upgrade Help...

[sstrungis]

Hi Folks and Members and Experts,

I recently acquired an SL-5500 on eBay.  As near as I can figure, it's stock.  It shows ROM 2.37 and seems to be running Qtopia desktop.

Since getting the Z, I have also picked up an SD card and a CF card.  For some reason the SD card will not stay mounted after a suspend, while the CF card stays put.  Why is this?

I have installed various ipk files for readers, and other apps.

Since receiving my CF card I am contemplating an overall upgrade; but I am getting lost in the terminology.

Does the ROM encompass the OS, the GUI, or both?

If it is just the OS (kernel, drivers, etc), then how does one switch to a new GUI?

Because of this confusion, I really don't know where to start.  I have read about OZ, OPIE, GPE, Cacko, and PDAX.  None of their faqs seem to cover this newbie stuff that I am trying to figure.

Please, any patient advice would be good to read about!

Thanks,
Scott Strungis

[loc4me]

Hi,

First I would recomend flashing to a the new sharp rom 3.13 which can be found in the downloads section of www.zaurususergroup.org. Instructions for flashing can be found on oesf.org under 5500. If, after you have tried the sharp rom and you find it has some features missing you could try the TKC rom or cacko's rom both of which you can put your home directory on the SD for more flash memory space on the 5500. Both of these roms can be found in the downloads section of ZUG. Inforation about cacko's rom for the 5500 can be found in the model specific forums of oesf.org/forums.

Personally on my 5500 i like the TKC alpha 3 rom, but i have not tried cacko's. They all are based on the sharp rom, so all software is compatable. You could give OZ look too. It is a great rom. It is more linux like compared to the sharp varients. Check out hentges version for a easy way to get started with lots of essential programs preinstalled. I believe it is hentges.net. Check out cacko.biz for some nice software for the 5500 and more info on cacko's rom. Read the forums there is an incredible amount of great information. Congratulations on your new zaurus. i hope you dont aquire the Z fever like many members here. haha     I got my first Z for X-mas last year from my dad and have since bought 4 more. It is an addiction.

-Mark

[sstrungis]

I took the plunge after finding a newbie friendly OZ flasher tutorial.  Right now the latest OZ ROM is installed on my Z along with GPE.  I like the GUI, but now I have no idea how to get additional software installed.  I noticed that there is a package management system built in.  Can these packages be installed from media, rather than a net connection as I do not have an ethernet card available?

Again, does installing another ROM preclude the use of an environment like OPIE, or GPE?  It seems like I have more linux like features under GPE than under Sharp's version of QTopia.

Plus, if I realize that I am not happy with anything but Qtopia, can I flash to Sharp's last ROM and install Trolltech's QTopia?

Sorry for the question flood, but I am a little overwhelmed with reading material.

Speaking of reading material...Is there a decent ebook reader for GPE?

Thanks,
Scott

[lardman]

Again, does installing another ROM preclude the use of an environment like OPIE, or GPE? It seems like I have more linux like features under GPE than under Sharp's version of QTopia.

The GUIs tend to come with the flash image; there are so many deps & versioning issues that it makes it difficult to do otherwise.

Plus, if I realize that I am not happy with anything but Qtopia, can I flash to Sharp's last ROM and install Trolltech's QTopia?

No; though Trolltech have released an image of their latest version so you could just flash that.

I like the GUI, but now I have no idea how to get additional software installed. I noticed that there is a package management system built in. Can these packages be installed from media, rather than a net connection as I do not have an ethernet card available?

Yes you can install local packages, but then you don't get the benefits of the automatic dependency checking & installation - I'd create a local feed on a storage card (copy the files from the remote feeds on oz.org, make sure you copy the Packages file as this is what's read by the ipkg program to decide what's available, etc.).

I'd also use ipkg from the command line rather than the GUI tool.

Speaking of reading material...Is there a decent ebook reader for GPE?

There's a plucker reader, or fbreader iirc.


Si

[sstrungis]

I gather that a feed is similar to Debian's repositories.  I have gotten used to grabbing ipk's from the www and using Qtopia's installer to take care of things.

I have tried Plucker as a reader.  It will not open my current book (plain text file).  I have not tried the other title yet as I have not yet figured out packages.

I have also realized that the CLI ipkg command is loads more successful than any GUI interface.  Does this mean that I can use .IPK files?

In creating a local feed I need to grab all from an OZ feed and duplicate the directory structure on my CF card, yes?  Then I can assign that feed to the package manager?

Is there a reader that is comparable to Just Reader or Opie Reader available for GPE?

Thanks!
Scott Strungis

[lardman]

I have also realized that the CLI ipkg command is loads more successful than any GUI interface. Does this mean that I can use .IPK files?

Yes, but you should note that OZ tends to be more strict about the contents of the control file in the .ipk so some (not from OZ) may fail to install unless they are massaged (though everything from the oz feeds will work fine).

In creating a local feed I need to grab all from an OZ feed and duplicate the directory structure on my CF card, yes? Then I can assign that feed to the package manager?

Yes; though you don't need all of the feeds, just those you want to use, etc.

Is there a reader that is comparable to Just Reader or Opie Reader available for GPE?

There was some talk about adding opie-reader, but I'm not sure what happened about it. I can't really help as I don't use ebooks, anyone? (or you could ask on #gpe)


Si

[sstrungis]

I was able to use the Package Manager to install a local copy of Just Reader and it now shows up in my PM's list of installed packages.  Problem is, I have no way to run this under GPE.  It does not show up in any menu and I cannot figure out what the appropriate CLI command is for launching it, so I cannot even create a shell script for it.

I may look into Cacko or TKC or Henges this evening, though it DOES sound like a net connection is required.  I have no net card.  I can try puzzling out USB networking on my PC based box in my office.  I am not ready to try Mac connectivity yet.

Scott Strungis

[lardman]

Where did you install the package?

If it was to a storage card, then you need to run 'ipkg-link' (e.g. 'ipkg-link mount /media/card') to create the symlinks so that the icon will appear, etc.

FYI With ipkg you can run 'ipkg files <packagename>' to see what it's installed and where.


Si

P.S.

though it DOES sound like a net connection is required

You need one to download the images & feeds, but after that you can run quite happily without having your Z attached to the net - I've done this for ages, I hardly ever have my Z up on the net.

[chal]

I may look into Cacko or TKC or Henges this evening, though it DOES sound like a net connection is required.  I have no net card.  I can try puzzling out USB networking on my PC based box in my office.  I am not ready to try Mac connectivity yet.

Scott Strungis
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I have been running tKc and in the past run Cacko Crow, YAR as well as several stock Zaurus ROM versions, without the benefit of a connection on my Zaurus. I download all the ROMs packages, etc on my PC, copy them to the CF card and go from there. The drawback to this method, as has been pointed out, is that you have to check on your own for dependancies. I have even run an older OPIE 3.2, I think it was) like this, but must admit that it was a little harder gathering dependancies. I tried a few of the newer OPIEs and Henteges OPIEs, which are really nice, but ran into too much problem installing packages. I even tried GPE, but couldn't seem to find the wealth of ipks that are available for the stock based ROMs.

[lardman]

but couldn't seem to find the wealth of ipks that are available for the stock based ROMs

In the feed on oz.org: http://ewi546.ewi.utwente.nl/mirror/www.op...ble/3.5.3/feed/ etc.


Si

[chal]

but couldn't seem to find the wealth of ipks that are available for the stock based ROMs

In the feed on oz.org: http://ewi546.ewi.utwente.nl/mirror/www.op...ble/3.5.3/feed/ etc.


Si
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Thanks, if (IOW when) I get adventurous and decide to re-flash, that will help a lot.

[sstrungis]

Hi all,

Last night I re-flashed to OZ / OPIE.  I like the environment a lot.  I am not sure about which environment will work better for me in the longrun.  GPE is way more Linux Like, but I am not sure it is particularly suited to a 5x00 machine.  Maybe when I get my hands on a clamshell model, I will consider it as a longterm option.  

I found an OPIE reader app last night that installed without any troubles.  The FB reader  program needed two libraries as deps and I could not locate one of them.  Today I found Just Reader on the above linked feed.  I will try it later.

If I decided to go back to GPE, (actually, this question works for OPIE as well) how do I mirror a feed to a CF card?  How can I grab an entire directory and get it local?  I am using OS X and can also boot into Ubuntu Linux on the same laptop if the tools are more powerful on that side of things.

OPIE is way more customizable and workable than Sharp's stock offerings.  Is there an NES or SNES package available for emulation under OZ/OPIE?

Thanks for the ipk command line codes as well as the linker code.  I will keep that one in mind.

Scott Strungis