Sl-c3100 Pdaxrom Install Suggestions Needed

[TheWalt]

Ok, I am not new to any of this so although it seems like a newb post I'm really just trying to save myself time trying everything out.

I have a 3100.  Ran pdaXrom on my old 860, had OZ on the new 3100 for a long time, then went back to Cacko because 'it just worked' better for my needs.

Since then, my Z has sat in a drawer for months, can't even remember how long actually.  Needless to say that is a lot of investment doing nothing.  I want to use it again, but don't need a PDA ... I want it to be a mini-laptop.  Not a test machine, but something actually useable that I can count on working.

Enter pdaXrom beta3.  Not ready to plunge into the new boot loader, and this seems to be the best/last stable.  So here are my questions:

First, best partition scheme?  My current thougths were 121meg nand root, 128meg swap on HD, and rest of HD one big ext2 volume.  Default mounting puts /mnt/ide for the HD.  Does anyone recomend any symbolic links to folders (like home or opt) so that application installs are better/easier?  Or has the ipkg -d ide install option been made more stable?  I am very used to OZ loading to HD and having the full 4gig as root so need to see how you pdaXrom guys do it.

And second, best window manager replacement?  I really wanted to run xfce4 as I use that on a lot of my desktop/servers, plus it would wow my co-workers.  However, I see fluxbox is getting popular, as is icewm ... or even just adding Rox desktop to default install.  All I really need is something where editing menus isnt' too hard and that provides a window list.  I know it's opinionated but any feedback would help.

Thanks in advance to everyone, hopefully with a little learning and some time my Z will be back at being productive once again.

[InSearchOf]

I use on my Z... C1000...

121mb - root - "/" on NAND

750mb - home - /home/ on SD

256mb - swap

but I didnt setup symlinks though... I actually mount my /home to the full partition...

the issue you might run into it I havent figured out how to create new devices... because right now... /dev/mmcda1 and /dev/mmcda2 are all I can get... if you can determine how to create more... you could prolly add in another so you dont have an almost 4gb /home

Windows managers...  I would say XFCE all the way... with the rox pinboard... Feels like a full blown Linux Box in my pocket... I use my Z for fulltime use...  my p4 3.2 box doesnt get touched anymore... everything I need is avaliable on my Z...

Late

[Chero]

Hi,

Just my setup :

- big root (121Mb)
- swap on SD (128Mb)
- ide(1) : 1Gb ext2 to install apps
- ide2 : 2Gb ext2 for data and compiling
- ide3 : 1Gb fat exchange data with my Win2K

Window manager : xfce4.4beta2 (= quite stable : up for about a month now without reboot)

If I want to flash and make sure all apps get reinstalled, I erase all in ide(1) then I flash. All apps are gone, all data is safe.

BTW : icewm and fluxbox have always been popular, they just didn't talk about it as much as I talked about xfce (I'm quite a chatterbox once I get started).  

Have fun,
Chero.

[Capn_Fish]

I personally suggest ICEWM, as it's relatively light, can look like whatever you want, has a taskbar, CPU chart, and power monitor built in, and it lets you make anything full screen. XFCE is a bit nicer looking, but a bit heavier (not at all unusable, though). I personally don't use it because I don't want swap  on my SD card, and don't want my microdrive in all the time. I like having as much RAM free for programs that need it (compiling, games, etc.). If you want nice looks, go with XFCE, for more RAM and a relatively good-looking desktop, go with ICEWM. You may want to note that for both to be fully used (in my opinion) you also need ROX installed.

[zi99y]

I have a C3200 with the 6Gb disk, 2 partitions :

5.6Gb ext3 on /mnt/ide
128Mb swap

/home is a symlink of /mnt/ide/home
/storage is a symlink of /mnt/ide/storage to separate my files from system folders

My opinion regarding WM:

Openbox - UGLY! and not the fastest, Rox will take up extra memory too
XFCE - Great looking but flawed, I gave up trying to get it working. Also it's memory heavy compared to other choices
E17 - Nice but hard to customize, feels rather unfinished
Fluxbox - Perfect for my needs, very fast, easy to customize, great looking themes with fast transparency

Any config you go for you will find it taking a while to get it just how you like it, but thats the nature of the beast!

[webslngr]

I use beta 3 on my 3100, with Chero's xfce4.4beta2 (thx for the work, btw).

121mb /
64mb swap on sd (haven't needed more yet) automounted on boot via an init script I wrote

My hdd setup is 2 partitions:
3gb ext2 on /mnt/ide
1gb vfat on /mnt/fat

I try to only install libs and WM to /
everything else goes to /mnt/ide

/home is a symlink to /mnt/ide/home

I have a dir on ide called stor (/mnt/ide/stor) that I keep all of "my" data on

Once I get my latest config to a "stable point", I take a NAND backup and make a tarball of ide and save them both to my sd and fat.

Hope this helps.
--webslngr

[TheWalt]

Thanks for the info, I'll probably go with something similar for partitions.  

I'm really torn between xfce and fluxbox still, as I like different things of both.  Having never used fluxbox though I'm doing my homework before making my final/clean install.  It will probably come down to preference as I can't find functionality fault in either (thanks to those who helped with the install guides).

One question I do have is why put swap on a SD card if you have the microdrive (3x00 model)?

[InSearchOf]

One question I do have is why put swap on a SD card if you have the microdrive (3x00 model)?

No.. you can have it on the microdrive...

Late

[webslngr]

One question I do have is why put swap on a SD card if you have the microdrive (3x00 model)?
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The mechanical microdrive puts more of a drain on the batteries than the solid state sd card. If there were excesive swapping, you would probably notice the battery life decrease.
Technically, there is nothing stopping you from using a swap file or swap partition on the microdrive.

--webslngr

[TheWalt]

The mechanical microdrive puts more of a drain on the batteries than the solid state sd card. If there were excesive swapping, you would probably notice the battery life decrease.
Technically, there is nothing stopping you from using a swap file or swap partition on the microdrive.

--webslngr
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=145512\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

That is what I thought, and appreciate the confirmation.

[TheWalt]

One last question, then I'll be out of your hair (at least on this thread).  I ended up doing something like this:

121meg / (os stuff)
1gig /ide ext2 (install ipks)
2gig /ide2 ext2 (my data)
.9gig /ide3 fat
128meg swap

Then, I setup a symlink for /home to /mnt/ide2/home.  Everything works fine, but I noticed a few errors upon boot where something gets checked before the symlink is available.  Any worries with this?

Thanks in adavnce,

- Thewalt

[Capn_Fish]

I would assume not. I get two or more errors every time I start my C750, but they don't seem to lead to anything. If everything works, I'd say that it's not a problem.

Somebody who has an SL-C3100 may be able to shed more light on this, though. Mine hasn't come yet.  

[webslngr]

Everything works fine, but I noticed a few errors upon boot where something gets checked before the symlink is available. Any worries with this?[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=145613\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

mine has the errors too... no worries.

--webslngr