Pdaxrom On Sl-5500 For Dummies

[Stathgar]

Hello,

After about 24 hours worth of struggle spread out over a week, I finally have things working reasonably well. There are still convenience issues, but I'm at the point where I can actually install XMMS with a graphical package manager and use it to successfully play MP3s.

So, here's how I did it:
First off, I started with a 128MB CompactFlash card, a 128MB Secure Digital card, and a D-Link DCF-650W CompactFlash wireless card. You could do this without the SD card, but I'd rather not go into explaining alternate routes unless someone wants to ask me something specific.

1. Make sure the CompactFlash card is formatted as FAT16, and format the Secure Digital card as ext2.

2. Copy initrd.bin and zImage.5500 to the CF card, and follow flashing instructions from here: OpenZaurus's flashing instructions

3. Move your home directory onto the SD card so you don't run out of space (seems only about 1MB of internal storage is free?)

mkdir /mnt/card/home
cd /home
cp -rs * /mnt/card/home
cd /
rm -r /home
ln -s /mnt/card/home home

4. Set up wireless:
Go ahead and put in your wireless card.

Depending on your network, you may have to do some configuration with iwconfig. Some good info on that can be found here: http://linuxcommand.org/man_pages/iwconfig8.html

In my case I had to specify essid, WEP key, and "key on".

Run "dchpcd", and if you're lucky your wireless will work now. You could test this using wget to download a file at a known URL. Due to space issues, I suggest only downloading files to SD.

5. Fix ipkg's configuration - hopefully you know how to use vi.

vi /etc/ipkg.conf

Change the first line in the file to the current correct feed URL for the 5500.
At the time of writing this, it's: http://mail.pdaxrom.org/1.1.0beta1/Zaurus-5000D-5500/feed/

6. Install qt-mt and packagemanager to your SD card

ipkg update
ipkg -d sd install qt-mt
ipkg -d sd install packagemanager

7. Start the GUI

startx

8. Find the packagemanager under System Tools, and run it. It may be a little annoying to use the interface on the low-resolution screen of the 5500, but it's possible.

Be sure to install everything to SD of course, or you'll most likely be out of room before you finish installing the first package.

---

I hope that helps somebody, and if something doesn't work I may have made an error in typing this so please feel free to ask about it.

[pgas]

some more packages for 5500 (compiled using the builder, I don't know which are and which are not in the "official feed", I think mplayer at least is not in the beta1 feed) :
http://mail.pdaxrom.org/contrib/

(under the 5000D-5500 title)

All the xxxx.armv5tel.ipk won't work for the 5500

[telemetric_au]

update:

vi  does work fine from the root terminal prompt you get on boot up, but not from within pdaxrom (x) as mentioned must be due to screen size as the base terminal uses a smaller font...

is there a way to adjust the pdaxrom aterm font size ??

[microsoft/linux]

following those instructions didn't seem to work. I renamed the zimage, and it still didn't work. Originally it would start to boot OZ(what I had previously), and not get anywhere. Now it won't even light up the charge light. It won't turn onl. I'm pretty sure I haven't bricked it, because a reflash does the same thing, but the lights do come on. Suggestions?

[miskinis]

following those instructions didn't seem to work.... /  Suggestions?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=130630\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Hi,

I just noticed your post, since I am thinking about putting pdaXrom on
my 5500 again.  In order to find out what your issues are, perhaps you
could answer a few questions:

1 - When trying to flash, do both LEDs stay lit for a couple minutes?

2 - Have you tried reformatting the CF card again (FAT not ext2 of course!)

3 - Have you done an MD5 check on the files to ensure they were downloaded OK?

John

[miskinis]

UPDATE 1

It appears the link to the SL-5500 and SL-5000D kernels is not valid as posted on
the pdaXrom page  http://www.pdaxrom.org/index.php?showid=8&menuid=11 ...

If that is what you are trying to use, (like I just did), you will be downloading a
6.8K text file that is the web page HTML code that states that the page is not found!

John

[microsoft/linux]

no, the lights don't  stay on. I'm assuming what's going on is that the two files aren't valid. I need to pick up a card reader today, in order to reformat and start over. Thanks

[miskinis]

UPDATE 2

I just flashed my SL-5500 with the files from:

  http://mail.pdaxrom.org/download/1.1.0beta...rus-5000D-5500/

It booted up fine.  Note that it runs the matchbox window manager, and that
only the aterm and dillo2 applications will appear in the various directory
icons on the "desktop".  This is correct, but may surprise some folks!

Also note that with only 816K free on the / partition, folks should move a
lot more than just the /home directory to external storage.  In the past I
moved many things, and typically could run with about 5MB free on the
/ partition.  Details will follow, as I proceed to do this again, if folks express
interest.

BUT, I'm confused as to one of the commands in STEP #3 which is:

   cp -rs * /mnt/card/home

Using the "s" option will just create symbolic links, but then 2 commands
later, the /home directory is erased.  Wouldn't this cause all the symlinks to
become broken?  Please correct me if I'm wrong!  Thanks!

John

[miskinis]

UPDATE 3

FYI - I believe the file feed.tar.gz at:

http://mail.pdaxrom.org/download/1.1.0beta...rus-5000D-5500/

is corrupted.  I have downloaded it twice, and see:

[...]
-rw-r--r-- sash/sash    459308 2005-12-22 12:56:11 feed/sylpheed-gtk2_2.0.2_arm.ipk
-rw-r--r-- sash/sash   8964162 2005-12-22 12:57:36 feed/timidity-patches_1.0.0_arm.ipk

gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file
tar: Unexpected EOF in archive
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

[microsoft/linux]

UPDATE: Yeah, you're right, it's the html file I downloaded. Is there another place to download it? Or does pdaxrom not support the 5500 any more?

[miskinis]

UPDATE: Yeah, you're right, it's the html file I downloaded. Is there another place to download it? Or does pdaxrom not support the 5500 any more?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=130865\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Yes, look a few posts back in my "update 3" message, I purposely put
the link there!

It seems that the "mail.pdaxrom.org" page has the correct links, and has
superceded the older pdaxrom.org web page.

Perhaps the maintainers should replace the old page with a page that
announces, and has a link to the new page.  AND, of course fix the
feed.tar.gz file!

John

[microsoft/linux]

yeah, sorry, I was posting from a page that hadn't been refreshed, so I didn't see your updates at all. I'll see if I can do this. I tried to go back to OZ, assuming pdaxrom had dropped support for the 5500, and now I can't get it to flash at atll, the lights don't turn on.

[miskinis]

Hmm, I just tried to setup WIFI, and the config files are not there.  I looked
in the filelist in the feed, and don't see wlancfg-DEFAULT listed.

Did WIFI setup change in the beta versions of pdaXrom?

I was expecting to find that file, and a directory named /etc/wlan or something like that.

John

[jerrytown]

So... has anybody been successful in implementing these steps to get pdaxrom working on their 5500?  This discussion ended about two months ago, and both participants seemed less than happy with the upgrade.  Would love to hear a success story before I embark on this adventure, I already have enough bricks .

Note: my reason for moving to pdaxrom is so that I can run Python, Vim, an internet browser and mp3 player.  Pdaxrom is the only one that seems to support all four.  Any other ideas???

Thanks.

[miskinis]

So... has anybody been successful in implementing these steps to get pdaxrom working on their 5500?

Hi,

I think I got WIFI working, by using the GUI, but it was a while back.  I lost interest
because of the lack of a complete feed.  I was confused, since I mainly use a 6000,
and was expecting the network setup to be the same.  It got too confusing trying to
remember the differences between the 5500 and 6000, and I stopped using the
5500 to run pdaXrom for the moment.

I would be willing to try to setup my 5500 again with pdaXrom if a complete feed
(and hopefully a tarball of all packages) was available.

I am currently without work, and have some extra time, but I get the feeling that
(much to my disappointment) the 5500 is falling way behind in support.  This seems
to be the case for OZ also.  I love my 5500 and prefer to carry it, since I ride a
motorbike most of the time, and I don't want to endanger my precious 6000.

I posted this mostly, in order to let the developers know that interest in the 5500
still exists!