New Rom Gentoo On Zaurus

[gen2]

Gentoo on Z would rock assuming it is something like as "painless" as it is on a pc. what about the limited disk space? any way to build packages on a network mount, or somthing like that?
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By painless I mean 99% of builds working, 450 pkgs in a row (actually 500+ now), not chasing after a single dependency, everything on full autopilot, set it and walk away...which is (to me) impressive on a Z.

Builds happen over NFS, check out my link for the procedure.
[a href=\"http://www.planetofidiots.com/zaurus/#ports]http://www.planetofidiots.com/zaurus/#ports[/url]

Course there's always folks posting pre-rolled packages, too (heh).

[adf]

Got a link on where and how to get started?
(and can it be done on a 6000, or just the newer clamshells?)

[gen2]

Got a link on where and how to get started?
(and can it be done on a 6000, or just the newer clamshells?)
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[a href=\"http://www.planetofidiots.com/zaurus/]http://www.planetofidiots.com/zaurus/[/url]

The links I've posted already tell the entire story, but there is more if you like:

https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showforum=148

Regrettably, I bear no good news for cXXX and below, as far as OpenBSD is concerned. I am not running Gentoo on my zaurus (just getin the news here!), but the switch freak in me has goggles on. Sounds like a Gentoo Z forum at OESF has officially become a necessity. Excellent!

OpenBSD isn't likely to be banished from my 3200 anytime soon though...

[Capn_Fish]

Has anybody tried Gentoo on the Z? I don't think I have even heard of anybody even trying.

[gen2]

Has anybody tried Gentoo on the Z? I don't think I have even heard of anybody even trying.
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Well if you type "gentoo zaurus" into google, I have a sawbuck that says you may have an answer to that question...not to mention the very theme of this thread...

I'd venture to guess that any gentoo port to the Z is going to be a bit on the bloody edge for a while yet, but it'll be a treat to watch developments unfold.

OpenBSD is as close as you can get today (Illuminati would rightly kick my ass for ever suggesting gentoo is "better than" OpenBSD on any platform).

I think the main thing you want, the thing that delivers long term stability and happiness, is a mature package management system (not to mention a comprehensive approach to the entire OS ala obsd). Gentoo portage is a child of BSD ports. It's all really good stuff, bears learning. Yes it hurts up front, you have to read a bit to "master" ports and/or portage, but in the long run, it will save you time and headache.

Best to remember that package management is utterly non-trivial. There is no way to give you the intrinsic flexibilities that abound (and save one from nightmares) AND make it punter-simple. Meeting Linux or BSDs half way is almost gauranteed to pay off (presuming you get a thrill from this stuff in the first place), but I'm preachin to the choir...y'all are leaning hard-core or you wouldn't be reading this...

"Not having to wait for someone to build a pkg for me...priceless."

[speculatrix]

if you really really want an OS on zaurus which is "natively" built, then you really want to use distcc and a cross-compiler on a nearby server so that the Z doesn't have to do any compiling, and the PC does the heavy lifting.

[gen2]

if you really really want an OS on zaurus which is "natively" built, then you really want to use distcc and a cross-compiler on a nearby server so that the Z doesn't have to do any compiling, and the PC does the heavy lifting.
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That is indeed how it's usually done around here (save for the distcc maybe), I'm just saying that from the perspective of one who does compile on the Z, I've found the process more reliable and less involved than cross compiling (cross toolchain maintenance does not enjoy a happy reputation), and nowhere near as painful as people claim around here.

And we're ignoring the fact that cross compiling means you have to address each package one at a time, and handle all of your dependency issues manually, correct me if I'm wrong.

"If you really really want an OS on zaurus which is "natively" built..."

Native isn't really really the point, per se. And I'm not trying to "rice up" my Z with compiler flags; just after simple things like stability, manageability, sanity. In fact, OpenBSD developers compile zaurus releases on their Z's because of the simplicity of it, not to mention it eliminates a slew of possible (subtle, and not so subtle) integration issues. Check out OpenBSD.org.

In my world, I create a batch list of packages I want (simple text file list), point ports at that, and everything automagically builds, hands-free, go play golf or whatever, come back tomorrow and you have a bunch of fresh packages that actually WORK. I'm calling that easier by several orders of magnitude, and fully accessible to non-gurus.

And you don't HAVE TO compile anything, or even deal with ports at all; just like all the other ROMs, many nice people have already posted pre-compiled package repositories. That you easily CAN is just pure gravy.

have at it if you dont believe.
[a href=\"http://www.planetofidiots.com/zaurus/]http://www.planetofidiots.com/zaurus/[/url]

Also check in on iamasmith and mathmajickian, very competent and helpful folks if you want to get into it.
https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showforum=148

maybe even see this first:
http://www.openbsd.org/zaurus.html

[Capn_Fish]

I guess I meant "Has anybody here tried Gentoo on the Zaurus?"

[ZDevil]

I hate (did i say love?) to say that, but what gen2 says is really true after I start feeding my Terrier with Blowfish...

[Civil]

(and can it be done on a 6000, or just the newer clamshells?)

Any machine that have kernel 2.6 and u-boot working.

[Mesk]

New rootfs for SD card based on 2007.0 gentoo profile

ftp://gentoo.ru/projects/handhelds/zaurus...0070807.tar.bz2

Some preinstalled software:

xorg-server-1.1.1-r3 (custom, based on ebuild from http://projects.gentoo.ru/gentoo-pda/browser/portage )
matchbox-1.0
windowmaker-0.92.0-r3
fbreader-0.8.5a (from sources)
mc-4.6.1-r3
gqview-2.1.5
stardict-2.4.8
stardict-freedict-eng-rus-2.4.2
gpsdrive-2.09-r1
mpd-0.13.0/mpc-0.12.1/gmpc-0.15.1
mplayer-1.0_rc1-r90 (custom-flags, generally official ebuild r1)
pidgin-2.0.2 (icq/jabber/googletalk/msn/etc)
xchat-2.8.4-r1
dillo-0.8.6
links-2.1_pre28-r1
qt-4.3.0 (custom, Civil's ebuild)
rxvt-2.7.10-r3

some screenshots:
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/2715/001vv9.png
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/330/002ny9.png
http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/4122/003gl2.png
http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/3442/004hf4.png
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/6583/005yt0.png
http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/6440/006zt2.png
http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/1952/007rn8.png

some binary packages you can get at ftp://gentoo.ru/projects/handhelds/packages/eabi/iwmmxt/

Quick howto from Civil:

Requiments:
1. Zaurus C1000, C3x00 (in fact it can work on any device with iwmmxt - pxa27x but you need to adjust keymap)
2. 2GB+ on SD/MMC/CF/Microdrive working on any ROM with 2.6 kernel.
3. Hand
4. Time (aprox. 30 min)
It is recomended to have internet on zaurus. It'll make your life easier. And it is also recomended to have USB-Cardreader + Linux (you can use VMWare), but not necessary (it'll speedup unpacking of rootfs).

Installation how-to:
I'll asume that you have only your Zaurus, without internet and no PC box (or no cardreader), and that you install on mmcblk0p1 (to SD/MMC card). For example archive with rootfs is placed on CF card wich mounted to /mnt/cf.
1. umount /mnt/sd
2. mkfs.ext3 /dev/mmcblk0p1
3. mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/sd
4. tar -xjf /mnt/cf/gentooonZ_sd_20070807.tar.bz2 -C /mnt/sd
5. mcedit /mnt/sd/etc/fstab - you'll need to ajust fstab for your configuration (change device wich is mounted to /, etc. Step is optional, current /etc/fstab is correct for usual cases)
6. tar -xjf /mnt/cf/kernel-modules.tar.bz2 -C /mnt/sd (optional, c1k users don't need this)
7. If you don't have u-boot installed (using OZ, angstrom etc.): follow pdaXrom's guide.
8. Boot to pdaXrom emergency system and just press 'y' when it asks you about installing new kernel, or flash kernel for your device with command: nandlogical /dev/mtd1 WRITE 0x5a0000 0x160000 /mnt/cf/kernel.img (where kernel.img is name of kernel you've downloaded)
9. Reboot. now have gentoo 2007.0 EABI environment. Root password is 'qq'

[louigi600]

I want to give it a try ....
where is it that I can get the gentooonZ_sd_20070807.tar.bz2  ?

[Mesk]

I want to give it a try ....
where is it that I can get the gentooonZ_sd_20070807.tar.bz2  ?
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sorry,

[a href=\"ftp://gentoo.ru/projects/handhelds/zaurus-c1000/gentooonZ_sd_20070807.tar.bz2]ftp://gentoo.ru/projects/handhelds/zaurus...0070807.tar.bz2[/url]

i've fixed the post above

[adf]

very cool. how is the mlpayer performance, and that sort of thing (obviously, there is a big advantage in the current libraries and "big distro" softwaree)?

[louigi600]

Be brave and try yourself ... it will not hurt if you put it on the SD ....
if you do not like it just use the emerg system to flash bach the pdaxrom kernel and everything will be the same as before. ;-)