Newbie Question: Which Rom?

[walkman]

Hello,
I am very sorry for this question. I am sure I am going to get a lot of RTFM replies. Anyway...

Today I received my new C1000 Akita. In the last weeks I already tried to study as much as I could about software and variety of ROMs for Zaurus. Unfortunately, I have to admit, that I got completely lost in the ZOO of all the distros, their pro's and con's etc. I am completely confused. Please let me briefly state 2) what I want from my Zaurus in the close future 1) what I already know about different distros, and 3) please tell me what's wrong with my expectations and what I am actually missing. In the end, I would like to find out which distro do I want.

* Expectations:
1.- I want a standard PDA user experience. Under standard I mean, that I am migrating from Palm OS (>7 years and I like the interface very much: quick and easy to handle) and in the past I had a lot of experience with Windows CE devices (network drivers development - yet I do not learn to like these gadgets).
2.- I want a semi-standard Linux user experience (I am Ubuntu user what should say what kind of guy I am), i.e. in the end I want to *use* applications, not spending years only configuring my computer. Reasonable time (few days, or a week or so) spent on configuring and tuning the computer is alright.
3.- Applications I want (MUST have!) and I know it is possible to get them on Zaurus: TeX, LyX, *good* PIM (KO/PI?), vim/gvim, ssh, xterm+UTF8 support, xpdf, ruby interpreter, Guile, Subversion + otherwise all the standard command line stuff. If possible a reasonable browser (currently I am using Firefox, but I am not sure if that's a good option on a small device - however syncing bookmarks/RSS feeds might be a nice option to have) and OpenOffice would be nice, although I do not care that much for this.
4.- I want a durable solution. Reinstalling image once a year is acceptable if I will trade a great enhancement for it in the future. I.e. I want a distro which is still developed and for which there are packages being ported (if I will learn how to cross-compile, I might contribute as well one day).

* What I know (this is a confused one):
1.- Seems like I have basically 2 choices to go for: Cacko+some machinery to run X apps (X/Qt?) vs. PdaXRom (do I actually want PdaXii13?).
2.- It seems that having Cacko, I will be able to run most (?) X-applications using X/Qt. I am not sure about this.
3.- It also seems that having PdaXRom I loose possibility to run the Qtopia apps from the original Sharp ROM.
4.- Obviously some flavour of PdaXRom would fill my needs (I found this: http://yonggun.googlepages.com/scientificpdaxrom).
5.- It does not seem to be probable that running Cacko I will be able to run what I want (Tex+Lyx).
6.- On the other hand, Cacko is built from the original Sharp ROM, so I would expect it to work in the Zaurus a little bit better than anything else.
7.- No clue in which stage Angstrom is. They have LyX package, but there's a complete lack of information on the status of Angstrom and how it supports the Akita HW.
8.- There seems to be this Titchy Debian distro. It does not seem to run on Akita, but if it is as good as you guys seems to suggest on these pages, then I guess it won't take too long till it matures.
9.- I read most of the Hd Luc's pages on Zaurus (http://www.users.on.net/~hluc/myZaurus/), I think I got the message, however I would like to know some recommendations. This is what I did not get from those pages.

* Questions:
1.- Why is there such a flood of IPKG feeds? Aren't the binaries not cross-distribution compatible? And if not (as I suspect) what is the main problem? I am completely lost in this realm.
2.- Why are there so many flavours of PdaXRom and how to choose from them (PdaXQtRom, *beta-xyz)?
3.- Are there any benefit to run Debian on Zaurus vs. Cacko, or PdaXRom? Or is it only a techie joy to have it?
4.- Which are indispensable applications on Sharp ROM which can turn me to go for Cacko? Are there any (I did not try yet, but allegedly PIM is no good in comparison with e.g. advanced Palm tools (like e.g. Agendus SW) on standard Sharp ROM)? And similarly about PdaXRom?
4.- What else do I need to know?

Thank you very much for useful hints and *constructive* comments.

[Capn_Fish]

If you want the "PDA" experience, you more or less have to go with Sharp/Cacko. It's the only "PDA-like" ROM out there AFAIK.

pdaXrom is definately pretty close to a standard Linux distro. Some things are in different places, but it's not too bad.

I believe all the apps you listed work on pdaX (FF is slow, however. There are many other browsers to try, should FF not be suitable).

pdaXrom develoment, if anything, is speeding up. I don't see it stopping in the foreseeable future.

Cacko with pdaXQTrom will be slow running X apps. It's also older than the current pdaXroms. PdaXii13 may be good if you don't want to fiddle (I donit have many/any problems with r1xx, but others apparently do). It uses a 2.4 kernel (pdaX uses 2.6 now), FWIW, and many people are happy with it.

I know some X apps run under X/QT in cacko, but I don't know how many.

PdaX cannot run QT apps from Sharp/Cacko.

Cacko works and is stable, but it's not going anywhere, so if you want a system with more of a future, I'd look elsewhere.

Angstrom is more of a RTFM type of place/ROM. If you want more of a "user" environment, pdaX is better, IMO.

I had issues getting it to install the first few times, after that it worked fine. After reinstalling it, however, it had odd issues, so I say pdaX is still better on the Zaurus. But if you need a lot of packages that mostly "just work," and it supports Akita eventually, it may be something to look at.

There are official feeds for each ROM and user feeds. While binaries may work on different ROMs, the libs they were compiled against may not be the same version on different distros. SO while you may be able to install Angstrom libs and stuff on pdaX and have it work, it will probably break some pdaX thing. It's generally not a good thing to do.

2.- Why are there so many flavours of PdaXRom and how to choose from them (PdaXQtRom, *beta-xyz)?
The quick breakdown:

Betas 1 & 3 are the "stable" for Cxx0 and Cxx00, respectively. They used the 2.4 kernel, and are pretty stable.

pdaXii13 is a customized beta 3 that installs on the C3000, and also hs many fixes/improvements. It is currently being updated & is supported. It is currently compatible with beta 1 & 3 stuff (same lib versions), but the new releases that are to come out soon will (I think) have updated libs making backwards-compatibility not work. It's unofficial-ish, and made by Meanie (Hd Luc).

See the above on Debian. It does not work on C1000 ATM.

Cacko/Sharp will Sync with the cable to your computer (Outlook? IDK) pdaXrom will not. You can install the KDE PIM stuff, and copy database files back and forth, though. If you set up SSH or something, that will be easier.

Other stuff to know:

-pdaX is awesome (IMO)
-Asking questions that could have been answered by RTFM in the Angstrom forum is a BAD idea. You will get flamed at excruciatingly.
-For pdaXrom browsers, FF is slow, Links2 works well for me, and we'll hopefully have a good browser in the new version of pdaX that's slated to be out around Christmas IIRC.
-You can PM me, at least, with pdaX questions, should you so desire. I'm usually pretty happy to help out newbies.
-Stuff in some feeds (talking about pdaXrom now) will only work in one version or another. kkazakov's feed has stuff that depends on his other packages, my feed is for r198 (I've heard that some of it works on ii13, but YMMV), etc. So check which version of pdaX the feed is for before installing stuff willy-nilly. If you're using r198, it's probably safe to use most pdaX feeds.
-Feel free to try a few ROMs for a bit. You can always flash another (at least until you do it the hundreds of thousands of times it takes to kill your NAND)

Hope that helps.

EDIT: A few more things:

-Don't flash with an SD card over 1GB, and make sure any card you try to flash with or backup/restore to/from is FAT16 formatted.
-If you try to flash pdaXrom r198, read and follow the directions very carefully. If you have issues, see the pinned "pdaX killed my Z" thread
-Learning to compile stuff is a good thing. If you want an app, just build it  (and share it with everybody) Check out the Tyrannozaurus docs on pdaXrom compiling and ipk making.

[walkman]

@ Capn_Fish: thanks a lot for your very helpful reply. After browsing this forum, I am excited to see that the Zaurus community seems to be quite helpful and opened.

As far as PDA experience: under this I meant basically handwriting recognition and applications built for small devices. I.e. for touch screen and kbd shortcuts, rather then menus. It seems that pdaXrom stuff can help me with this (does CellWriter work well with Z?).

Distro: It seems then that what I need lies somewhere in direction of pdaXii13, pr r198. However there are things which are still unclear to me. It seems that the device memory layout is an important thing. I want to use the Z with CF WLAN card (D-Link DCF 660W) with 2GB SD card. Some of the personal data can be on other CF, or USB storages. From what I understand, I probably want to install the kernel+vital stuff like modules to NAND (128MB) and applications + home directory/partition to the SD card. From what I read on Meanie's site I understand that something like this is possible, but it is unclear to me how. Probably I need Xii13(v2?) base install to NAND, but then can I choose where to install packages (to SD!)? With a bit of configuration I can imagine even having 2+ SDs with different application sets.

Question: What gain do I get with kernel 2.6 on Zaurus? I do not care that much for a pure joy of having the newest kernel, I rather want to have all the HW/SW working.

Feeds: I see... Thanks for your explanation. But that basically means that the community has to maintain separate package feeds for each slightly different distro it produces. Well, it doesn't sound very good. Why isn't there a framework to keep different versions of libraries on the device? (Space?) That would allow different package sets to co-exist on the same device like we have it in big Linux distros.

Issue/feature request: Obviously distros differ mainly in the memory layout, kernel of the choice and library versions they use. Wouldn't it be possible to come up with a distro-builder which allows to pre-configure, or configure in the install time what belongs where? I mean saying that I want to use 100MB of NAND for kernel + apps and the rest to CF, or SD. Or everything to NAND/microdrive etc. Is there any difficulty in doing this?

Debian: As I understood the discussions, why it doesn't work on Akita is the memory limitations. It needs network during install time so CF is occupied, SD contains all the installation images etc. so nothing can be stored there so what remains is the microdrive. Now, why isn't there a way to load a preconfigured image to Akita NAND which is configured to use SD partition for all the user-space apps. The installation would be: 1) load image to NAND, 2) shutdown, 3) replace the SD with the one with pre-loaded disk image, 4) boot into the system. Hm. Did I miss something?


PC Sync: I do not need this one. I keep my whole $HOME in Subversion so it is accessible from anywhere. I only need sv+ssh to sync with all my other computers/servers.

PM offer: thanks. I will probably do it when I will fall into some technical traps ;-). For now, I have to put this on ice as I am busy in my real-life work.

Thanks again for your helpful advices.

[Capn_Fish]

Cellwriter works with the Z quite well AFAIK.

For memory layout, you can pretty much do what you want. I'm not sure what ii13 does by default on Akita, but I (using r198) have one big NAND partition (121MB) for installing stuff to, then keep all my data on my microdrive. You could probably do more or less the same thing with an SD card.

You can install apps to SD, but it needs to be EXT2/EXT3 formatted (EXT2 is better for flash, IIRC). Just make sure to run "ipkg-link" when you insert it, and the counterpart (can't remember it off the top of my head) when you want to remove it.

I believe you gain speed from using a 2.6 kernel, but you may lose something, I can't remember. I personally really like having the latest, but YMMV.

The base system (~60MB for pdaXrom) is installed to NANO. You can then remove maybe 15MB of stuff from that, and install the rest to SD/CF. It will be slower, but if that's what you want, feel free to do so.

I don't think putting Debian on the C1000 would be so difficult, it's just that nobody has done it yet. I think with uBoot, you could get a fresh install off of a C3x00 microdrive, flash the Titchy kernel. then hold 1 or whatever it is to boot from SD. The issue is getting the image, so far as I know. I'd still recommend pdaXrom over Debian on the Z, though.

Hopefully that clears some of it up.

[Meanie]

As far as PDA experience: under this I meant basically handwriting recognition and applications built for small devices. I.e. for touch screen and kbd shortcuts, rather then menus. It seems that pdaXrom stuff can help me with this (does CellWriter work well with Z?).

cellwriter works fine once you trained it to recognisse your handwriting, though the one that comes with Sharp ROM appears to be better, but that is just my opinion, and probably because i am slightly biased towards it since it can also recognise japanese...

Distro: It seems then that what I need lies somewhere in direction of pdaXii13, pr r198. However there are things which are still unclear to me. It seems that the device memory layout is an important thing. I want to use the Z with CF WLAN card (D-Link DCF 660W) with 2GB SD card. Some of the personal data can be on other CF, or USB storages. From what I understand, I probably want to install the kernel+vital stuff like modules to NAND (128MB) and applications + home directory/partition to the SD card. From what I read on Meanie's site I understand that something like this is possible, but it is unclear to me how. Probably I need Xii13(v2?) base install to NAND, but then can I choose where to install packages (to SD!)? With a bit of configuration I can imagine even having 2+ SDs with different application sets.

Tha package manager lets you choose the destination when you install packages and hence it is not mentioned because it is just so simple ...

Question: What gain do I get with kernel 2.6 on Zaurus? I do not care that much for a pure joy of having the newest kernel, I rather want to have all the HW/SW working.

besides a small boost in speed, its just a matter of mainly having the latest kernel. some hardware support is also missing...

Feeds: I see... Thanks for your explanation. But that basically means that the community has to maintain separate package feeds for each slightly different distro it produces. Well, it doesn't sound very good. Why isn't there a framework to keep different versions of libraries on the device? (Space?) That would allow different package sets to co-exist on the same device like we have it in big Linux distros.

i think you misunderstand here. you can use different feeds provided they come from similar distros. for example, pdaXrom r198 can use both the r198 feed as well as the r197 feed and even the beta3 and beta1 feeds. however, you cannot use a Cacko feed with pdaXrom or vice versa. Same applies to OpenZaurus feeds. You can mix Hentges and the various OpenZaurus feeds provided they are the same major versions, ie OpenZaurus feeds 3.5.4 and 3.5.4.1 are compatible but 3.3.x might not be.

Issue/feature request: Obviously distros differ mainly in the memory layout, kernel of the choice and library versions they use. Wouldn't it be possible to come up with a distro-builder which allows to pre-configure, or configure in the install time what belongs where? I mean saying that I want to use 100MB of NAND for kernel + apps and the rest to CF, or SD. Or everything to NAND/microdrive etc. Is there any difficulty in doing this?

this is a wrong assumption. the memory layout has nothing to do with distros. both pdaXrom and OpenZaurus have various versions with 2.4.x and 2.6.x kernels. It just depends on when it was build and the kernel that was stable at that time. pdaXrom builder allows you to tailor make your own pdaXrom layout and pre-installed packages. there are a few limitations with the boot loader that restricts how kernels are installed and the NAND is laid out. there have been a few different hacks to get around those. creating a distro which would allow you to choose the destination would theoretically be possible, but who has all the different Zaurus models and time to test all the possible combinations?

Debian: As I understood the discussions, why it doesn't work on Akita is the memory limitations. It needs network during install time so CF is occupied, SD contains all the installation images etc. so nothing can be stored there so what remains is the microdrive. Now, why isn't there a way to load a preconfigured image to Akita NAND which is configured to use SD partition for all the user-space apps. The installation would be: 1) load image to NAND, 2) shutdown, 3) replace the SD with the one with pre-loaded disk image, 4) boot into the system. Hm. Did I miss something?

nope, the reason is that the person who made the installer does not have a c1000 and thus cannot build an installer for the c1000. what you want is possible, but someone needs to build such an install image first. maybe you can volunteer to do it. using a metaphor, running Debian on a C3x00 (with a MicroDrive) would be like running Debian on a PC with a HardDrive, while running Debian on a C1000 would be like running Debian on a PC that has no HardDrive but only a ZIP drive.

[walkman]

@Meanie:
Thanks a lot for your informative reply. I am definitely learning a lot about these gadgets from this discussion ;-).

> Tha package manager lets you choose the destination when you install packages and hence it is not mentioned because it is just so simple ...

Aha. Nice. This was not obvious from all the pages I read... Obviously all the manuals about distros are meant for people with an experience in changing distros already.

Library versions issue:
> i think you misunderstand here.

Definitely ;-). But also I have to admit that I am not smarter after your explanation either... You write that with r198 I can use r197 feeds. Why can't I use pdaXii13 feeds? Apart from HW-related pieces like drivers which depend on kernel, I do not see the reason. As a person with desktop experience, it seems to me as if Firefox was distributed for different versions of Linux kernels. But it is not. As I do not expect pdaXrom family of distros to have e.g. different philosophy w.r.t. module loading, or /etc/ configs, the only thing mentioned also here is difference in libraries used to compile the software. But why can't I keep several versions of those? Speaking about binary compatibility, they would work, wouldn't they? I also do not understand why it is technically impossible to run Qt apps on X11 based systems. I am definitely missing something essential...

> this is a wrong assumption. the memory layout has nothing to do with distros. both pdaXrom and OpenZaurus have various versions with 2.4.x and 2.6.x kernels. It just depends on when it was build and the kernel that was stable at that time.

I see... Hmmm. But then why I need to take programs which do not use HW from separate feeds? Like e.g. Firefox... I am lost.

As far as Debian is concerned, unless it works out of a box on Zaurus with everything it should have, I am not going to get into it. But I see your point. Definitely if I will have a need and a solution for it as well for something one day, I won't hesitate and contribute. You can be sure about it 0 I already did with other pieces of SW ;-).

* Conclusion:
It seems that there are obviously still many things I do not get. But most probably the best way to sort everything out is to simply try it out (and hope I won't break the Z guy  ). Thanks again for your informative responses to my dumb questions. I learn a lot here...

[Meanie]

@Meanie:
Thanks a lot for your informative reply. I am definitely learning a lot about these gadgets from this discussion ;-).

> Tha package manager lets you choose the destination when you install packages and hence it is not mentioned because it is just so simple ...

Aha. Nice. This was not obvious from all the pages I read... Obviously all the manuals about distros are meant for people with an experience in changing distros already.

Library versions issue:
> i think you misunderstand here.

Definitely ;-). But also I have to admit that I am not smarter after your explanation either... You write that with r198 I can use r197 feeds. Why can't I use pdaXii13 feeds? Apart from HW-related pieces like drivers which depend on kernel, I do not see the reason. As a person with desktop experience, it seems to me as if Firefox was distributed for different versions of Linux kernels. But it is not. As I do not expect pdaXrom family of distros to have e.g. different philosophy w.r.t. module loading, or /etc/ configs, the only thing mentioned also here is difference in libraries used to compile the software. But why can't I keep several versions of those? Speaking about binary compatibility, they would work, wouldn't they? I also do not understand why it is technically impossible to run Qt apps on X11 based systems. I am definitely missing something essential...

> this is a wrong assumption. the memory layout has nothing to do with distros. both pdaXrom and OpenZaurus have various versions with 2.4.x and 2.6.x kernels. It just depends on when it was build and the kernel that was stable at that time.

I see... Hmmm. But then why I need to take programs which do not use HW from separate feeds? Like e.g. Firefox... I am lost.

As far as Debian is concerned, unless it works out of a box on Zaurus with everything it should have, I am not going to get into it. But I see your point. Definitely if I will have a need and a solution for it as well for something one day, I won't hesitate and contribute. You can be sure about it 0 I already did with other pieces of SW ;-).

* Conclusion:
It seems that there are obviously still many things I do not get. But most probably the best way to sort everything out is to simply try it out (and hope I won't break the Z guy  ). Thanks again for your informative responses to my dumb questions. I learn a lot here...

pdaXrom r198 can use packages from pdaXii13, in fact with pdaXii13v2, packages for r198 (latest) and pdaXii13v2 are theoretically interchangeable except for those that are kernel dependent...

when we talk about different versions of library, it is more about the way they are build. On PCs for example, everything is compiled for i386 and thus i486 can also run them. however, if you were to compile for amd64 specifically, it would not run on a i386.

similarly, there are several arm processors used by the various Zaurus models, with the C3x00 and C1000 using the xscale variant. they can run the older strongarm binaries, ie armv4, but the most optimally compiled binaries for these newer Z models is armv5tel which will not run on older models. with the Z, optimization is very important, much more than on PCs.

since the Z does not have a floating point processor either, there are several ways of emulating it and unfortunately, all of these ways are incompatible with each other. thus, if the developer chose one specific way, say hardfloat (which SharpROM and Cacko uses) then all binaries compiled for that distro have to be using the same way. it cannot be mix and match (except for the new EABI but it is incompatible with all the other older ways). naturally, each distro chose a different way of doing this floating point thing and thus they are all incompatible with each other in that regards. OpenZaurus uses a form of softfloat while pdaXrom uses another form of softfloat, vfp.

in addition to all this, there is the library version problem, in particular glibc. some distros use glibc 2.2 whereas others use glibc 2.3. baring the above mentioned incompatabilities, if a distro was using 2.3 it could run the 2.2 binaries, but not the other way around. most major PC linux distribution only have to deal with this  last problem.

[walkman]

pdaXrom r198 can use packages from pdaXii13, in fact with pdaXii13v2, packages for r198 (latest) and pdaXii13v2 are theoretically interchangeable except for those that are kernel dependent...

when we talk about different versions of library, it is more about the way they are build. On PCs for example, everything is compiled for i386 and thus i486 can also run them. however, if you were to compile for amd64 specifically, it would not run on a i386.

similarly, there are several arm processors used by the various Zaurus models, with the C3x00 and C1000 using the xscale variant. they can run the older strongarm binaries, ie armv4, but the most optimally compiled binaries for these newer Z models is armv5tel which will not run on older models. with the Z, optimization is very important, much more than on PCs.

since the Z does not have a floating point processor either, there are several ways of emulating it and unfortunately, all of these ways are incompatible with each other. thus, if the developer chose one specific way, say hardfloat (which SharpROM and Cacko uses) then all binaries compiled for that distro have to be using the same way. it cannot be mix and match (except for the new EABI but it is incompatible with all the other older ways). naturally, each distro chose a different way of doing this floating point thing and thus they are all incompatible with each other in that regards. OpenZaurus uses a form of softfloat while pdaXrom uses another form of softfloat, vfp.

in addition to all this, there is the library version problem, in particular glibc. some distros use glibc 2.2 whereas others use glibc 2.3. baring the above mentioned incompatabilities, if a distro was using 2.3 it could run the 2.2 binaries, but not the other way around. most major PC linux distribution only have to deal with this  last problem.

Alright. I see now. Thanks a lot for your explanation. I am finally starting to see the topology of the distro landscape . I had no clue about that floating point issue... So as I understand it, beta1/3 is the last stable release. Then two branches appeared pdaXii13 and the main branch towards r198 and further to the next stable. pdaXii13 was probably meant to polish user experience, while rXXX went for a new technology, i.e. new kernel. Probably this is close to reality, right?

I gave a try to r198 and I liked the interface a lot. However WPA for WLAN card was a show stopper (not speaking about the Orinoco WiFi driver stuff  ). Then I gave a try to pdaXii13 Akita. And I am very much impressed. It works, I even managed to get the WLAN with WPA working (although it would be nice if the wifi-radar was included in the base image as it is vital get the network connection). I am starting to like the Zaurus thingy ;-).

One more question... By playing, I ended up with "no space left on the device" message what stops me to even remove stuff with rm. Any idea what to do with it now? Do I have to reflash the image?

Thanks again for your support.

[Meanie]

Alright. I see now. Thanks a lot for your explanation. I am finally starting to see the topology of the distro landscape . I had no clue about that floating point issue... So as I understand it, beta1/3 is the last stable release. Then two branches appeared pdaXii13 and the main branch towards r198 and further to the next stable. pdaXii13 was probably meant to polish user experience, while rXXX went for a new technology, i.e. new kernel. Probably this is close to reality, right?

I gave a try to r198 and I liked the interface a lot. However WPA for WLAN card was a show stopper (not speaking about the Orinoco WiFi driver stuff  ). Then I gave a try to pdaXii13 Akita. And I am very much impressed. It works, I even managed to get the WLAN with WPA working (although it would be nice if the wifi-radar was included in the base image as it is vital get the network connection). I am starting to like the Zaurus thingy ;-).

One more question... By playing, I ended up with "no space left on the device" message what stops me to even remove stuff with rm. Any idea what to do with it now? Do I have to reflash the image?

Thanks again for your support.

you got it right this time

also good to know you got wpa working because i never tested it  should anyone complain about not being able to get wpa working, i will send them your way for you to tell them how you got it working

as for the "no space left on the device" error, well that one is bad. i once had such an error and could not remove any files to release any space either. i ended up having to reflash. that was on Sharp ROM though and you might get lucky and somehow manage to delete some files to free up some space. otherwise a reflash seems to be the only way around it. that's one reason i now prefer to put all my files on the microdrive rather than the nand....

[walkman]

also good to know you got wpa working because i never tested it  should anyone complain about not being able to get wpa working, i will send them your way for you to tell them how you got it working

No problem . I simply followed the advices in the forum: https://www.oesf.org/forums/lofiversion/ind...php/t24021.html. The method works almost smoothely (with some hickups here and there like replugging the card, or trying several times at the beginning etc.)

as for the "no space left on the device" error, well that one is bad.

Well, I can tell :-(. See my new post https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=24776&hl=. The good side is that this way I will train myself in how to reflash the gadget ad nauseum . Let's move this discussion to that thread... I think I already found my way through distros .

that's one reason i now prefer to put all my files on the microdrive rather than the nand....

Hmmm... So as an Akita user, what can I do? Is there a way to run everything from an SD card? Or so, that by no way there will be a danger to screw up something in NAND? What about patching df, or the whole system to complain about the missing space a bit sooner, so that emergency fixes can still be done?

Again, let's move this discussion to the new thread...

Thanks for your guidance Slowly I will find my way through this stuff.