Pdaxii13v2: First Collection Of Experiences

[walkman]

Hi,
I do not want to start a blog somewhere just because of summarizing my Z experience, so I decided to start this thread to which I will probably contribute to in the future myself.

Before I forget I would like to summarize here my experiences, hurdles, issues, contributions and feature requests collected in the course of last week when I went from the first touch with Zaurus SL-C1000 to now, when I am trying to set it up as a blend between a ultra-mobile laptop and PDA. Maybe some of the solutions posted here will help others as well, and maybe I get feedback on some of the issues itching me.

[size=]Installation[/size]
Installation of pdaXii13 was smooth. Right after that I tried to install some applications. That's where issues started.

No space left on the device.
The Zaurus was set to use 64MB NAND space, pdaXii13 installed without a problem but no space was left on /. After installing few apps it started to complain about lack of space and only re-install helps. And of course during re-installation, it is necessary to change the size allocated for / to 121MB.
Suggestion: Maybe the installer could detect that automagically and at least complain to the user.

Instaling apps on vanilla pdaXii13
Package manager is configured to read also pdaxiiv2 feed at tyrannozaurus.com. Of course this causes problems on plain pdaXii13. And as there's no way to see to each package from which repository it comes, the only solution is to remove that feed (after already trying to install something what failed then). The other solution is to upgrade to pdaXii13v2.

Upgrade to pdaXii13v2
I simply ran
$ ipkg install http://www.tyrannozaurus.com/feed/beta3/pd...a1_armv5tel.ipk

Worked quite well, although I was afraid it will consume again the whole space on /. It did not.

Request: Why is this package not in a feed? Would make sense to install it directly from package manager.
Request: It would be nice if the package manager held the default install location. I am installing all the apps by default to the SD card as my C1000 has no enough space on the NAND any more. When I accidentally do not switch it for some package, I am always sweating whether it won't consume my whole rest of NAND / space. For this also showing the package size in the package view would help...
Request: When package manager does not succeed with some package it does not complain. Only in the log tab. Would be nice if it said something.

[size=]WLAN[/size]
I tried to download some complete feeds to the USB stick and install it from there. However, in order to install anything in a reasonable fashion, the network should work, right? Setting up the WLAN is obviously not easy. Here my experience:

Orinoco vs. HostAP clash
Old problem, but for a newbie to figure it out is a hell. So if your WLAN card uses Prism 2 chipset (or higher) and does not work out of the box, check the output of "lsmod". If you see orinoco and hostap loaded at the same time there you are (this issue was also on r198). My solution was simply to uninstall orinoco driver using package manager.

WPA/PSK
Most people here around (central EU) have WLAN DSL boxes at home which are configured to use a static WEP key. For that you need to configure your card to work with that.
First the low-level solution:
1.- open System Tools/Lan & Wifi
2.- create and save a profile for your WLAN network and fill everything to your best knowledge
3.- edit /etc/pcmcia/network.opts and add WPA="y" to the entry corresponding to your network
4.- run "$ wpa_passphrase SSID WEP >> /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf", replacing the SSID and WEP with SSID of your network and the key to be used.
5.- edit /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf and add all the other configuration to the entry of your access point created by wpa_passphrase command. Most probably you do not have to modify it at all.
6.- execute this sequence of commands"
$ ifconfig wlan0 down
$ iwconfig wlan0 essid YOUR_SSID
$ iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed
$ iwconfig wlan0 enc off
$ ifconfig wlan0 up
It sets some basic WLAN info to the card and brings up the network interface.
6.- Then run "$ wpa_supplicant -iwlan0 -Dhostap -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -d". Now the supplicant is running in the foreground and you can read all the debug info. If you are successful to connect to your network, you can probably read it from the debug msgs. Try to fiddle with this until you make it. Most problems I had came from not having the device up. That can be seen running ifconfig and iwconfig. First should show an entry wlan0 and the second should show correct settings on it.
7.- Once you are connected you want to get IP address if your WLAN is configured to DHCP. Run
$ dhcpcd -t 30 -h HOSTNAME wlan0, where HOSTNAME is what is written in your /etc/HOSTNAME
8.- Normally, you should run wpa_supplicant with "-B" option instead of "-d" option. It will put it into background and in a good case, it won't issue any debug log.

If that succeeds, you are a happy WLAN user and you can proceed to installation of packages from network.

Wifi-radar
The same can be achieved by using wifi-radar. However, few things have to be configured in it first.
1.- Preferences:
     - set autodetect to false
     - set the device to wlan0
     - switch on commit required and ifup required options. It seemed to turned out to help stability of the application, even though I do not understand them fully.
2.- Add a profile for your network (after it is detected in the list)
     - WiFi options - set mode to managed
     - WPA - set the driver to hostap
     - connection commands - set before to "ifconfig wlan0 up"
3.- Anyway, you have to add your WEP key to the /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf as described above.
4.- Now you can hopefully connect with the wifi-radar. However you won't get a lot of debug info out of it. It will tell you that it got no IP address, even though it is obvious it didn't manage to get through the AP association phase.

Request: Why is wifi-radar sorted under menu item Internet? It is more a system tool, isn't it?

BUGS:
Wifi-radar erases the config!!!: I have no clue why, but after some use, wifi-radar always manages to loose the content of /etc/wifi-radar.conf. Then it does not start anymore. It crashes with an error on line 1580: "Attribute error: 'list' object has no attribute split". Removing that file makes wifi-radar to start again, even though preferences can be edited only after trying to add a new configuration.

Wifi-radar does not connect properly: even though I am able to connect manually with the procedure described above, wifi-radar sometimes is unable to connect. Most of the time, after such a case wlan0 device is down. Also when it connects, after a while (10seconds) it shuts down wlan0 device for some reason.

Wifi-radar hangs: Sometimes Wifi-radar hangs forever when trying to get the IP address. Even sometimes when it gets it (it says so), it stays hanging forever. In the meantime it shuts the wlan0 device down .

Actually wifi-radar seems to be a tool on a right track, even though it is buggy and has problems. Unfortunately I do not speak python, so I am not able to help with it right away :|.
Also taking a look at the network-cfg tool is worth, although I did not manage to make it work correctly. It seems that I will end up with scripts automatizing the connection process and pinning them to the desktop. That seems to be the best solution, because WLAN is difficult to configure anyway... And I am connecting to a network with 802.1x + EAP-TTLS & PAP authentication (for any of you in EU universities, if your Uni uses the eduroam network - http://www.eduroam.org/, this is it - I know there are some people who asked here on the forum few years ago about exactly this network and did not succeed - it seems to use some Radius auth, or that kind of stuff). That is hard to configure with any of those tools anyway...

[size=]Desktop environment[/size]
I very much like how the system looks out of the box. Those icons are nice and usage is also quite nice. I tried to install ROX to see what that actually is.

Desktop applications
1.- some packages do not appear in the menu and the corresponding folder. For example links.
2.- When wifi-radar is launched from app launcher menu/ or from the folder Internet. it works properly. The same when launched mnually from the command line. However, when I add a launcher forit to the menu, it hangs.
3. Cellwriter app launcher has no icon and thus cannot be added to the taskbar.

All the above have comments from Meanie here

FireFox and Swapfile
Seems to work, but crashes. I found that using a swapfile is worth and makes FF more stable.

ROX
After X restart it replaces my background image. Obviously more than a file manager comes with it. But how can I put it into a plain file manager mode and keep the standard openbox desktop? I'll have to work on this in the close future.

BUG: After first attemtp to launch rox-filer it opened however without few icons. It displayed some question marks instead. When started from command line, it spit out this:
** (ROX-Filer:1760): WARNING **: Couldn't recognize the image file format for file ...
I googled around and found the problem described here. However running "$ gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders > /etc/gtk-2.0/gdk-pixbuf.loaders" did not help!!! Later I found the problem was with how libpng is installed. Some applications (apart from Rox) do not find the libpng library. Solution was to simply provide a correct symbolic link /usr/lib/libpng12.so.0 to the correct .so file. This seems to be a distribution issue.


[size=]IrDA keyboard[/size]
To my old Handspring Visor Edge I own also an IrDA keyboard. As typing on the Z keyboard is a bit tiring, I was looking how to connect that keyboard to it. I found zkbdd by kopsis of this board. I tried to use my irda keyboard with it but did not succeed. Obviously I had no correct driver for it. I found that my X-Tensions XP-950 Universal PDA Keyboard is probably compatible with SnapNType T806. At least they use the same driver on Palm OS. So I tried to reverse engineer my keyboard and produced a Lua plug-in for the zbkdd keyboard driver for it. It is attached to this post below.

Problems: I always have to create the /dev/misc/uinput node and manually load uinput module before running the zkbdd driver - which anyway has to be launched manually (for details see here). Wouldn't it be possible to include this into the pdaXii13 config application?

Request: I tried to contact kopsis, but got no response yet. Anyway, it might be useful if (after zbkdd package maintainer agrees) my driver plug-in was packaged to the zkbdd IPK package.


[size=]Migration from Palm OS[/size]
I want to migrate from Handspring Visor to Zaurus. First problem was which PIM to use. I finally found that I probably want to end up with KO/Pi and KA/Pi because of the ease of sync with the desktop PC apps. Now the problem was how to migrate the databases as I keep my whole life-journal in there. I found that it is possible to beam contacts and todos. That turned out to be the first problem.

IrDA vs. Palm
It seems that many people were trying to make it work, but I did not find any solution on the Net. Finally I managed to find out how to do it. Corresponding post is here.

After beaming my contacts and todos I still did not have a clue how to convert the datebook. KOrganizer reads vcal and ical files, but none of Palm Desktop and Agendus which I am using does not export such formats. I found two solutions for this:
1.- Free+limited: use an on-line calendar like Yahoo! Calendar, or Google calendar to upload the Palm database and then export it to iCalendar format. I found that the best one would be AirSet. However after giving it a try, it handles only the last 12 months . I have about 6 years of my life in there. So no good solution...
2.- I finally purchased the DIMEX by LinkeSoft . The demo worked well, so I hope the full version will be worth the 19 bucks. BTW, why they charge 19.- EUR as well as 19.- U$D? With todays exchange rate I shouldn't pay that much in EUR!!!

[size=]Misc[/size]
As is probably obvious from above, I am seeking a PDA experience with my Zaurus (with a possibility to use it as a mini laptop). So I will to my best to configure it so, that I can use it well in the PDA mode. Some apps are obviously not built for such a use. E.g. KO/Pi lacks some points. E.g. font size is always an issue and too rich GUI. In PDA mode I want to switch off everything and have only the basic usage at hand. Palm got it perfectly right in those old days when they were flying high on usability and community support. I have to make my way with cellwriter and desktop customization... I will try to post my solutions to some problems I encounter and goodies I develop in this thread in the future.

overclocking the CPU causes screen flickering
I was frustrated by 20 sec. start-up time of KO/Pi so I tried to overclock the CPU. The screen started to flicker. There obviously are some posts about this (here and here): I have to check the solution.

BUG: vim complains about missing /usr/share/vim/syntax/syntax.vim on startup. This is obviously a distribution problem.

Complaint: Even though this is a forum for Z users, it is not very Z friendly. For example the upload thingy is Java-script based (or that kind of thing) and so does not work in Dillo, nor in Links. And Firefox reliably crashes on clicking "Manage current attachments" combo box. Not nice .

[size=]Future outlooks[/size]
As I am a scientific writer, I rely on LaTeX and LyX. In the next few weeks (when some deadlines are over) I hope to install the newest versions of these two guys. I am sure it won't be straightforward. BTW, why none of these found its place in the official feeds?

Synchronisation:
I do keep my $HOME directory + all the private data in a subversion repository to be able to share configs between several Win32 and Linux boxes I have. Ultimately this is not a huge issue for me as far as I have enough SD/disk space and a network connection.

If you have any comments or suggestions to issues I have, I would be happy to hear about that.

P.S.
Finally I want to raise one positive point (as I am a notorious complainer): I am very pleased by this community. You guys seem to be very helpful and quite patient with newbiees. Thanks for help till now...

P.P.S.
Oh, I forgot. I am seeking any advice/comments on how to configure my Z as a PDA. What I am interested in currently is how to configure the WM to behave well. I very much like how those openbox things in pdaxrom work. It does not have to be openbox. Actually I do not care what it is as far as it has that nice behaviour of the default pdaxrom system. That is really nice. I would like to keep that behaviour in the future.

Please if you have any comments to the following in particular, you will make me happier Z user:
1.- I would like to pin some new icons to the desktop (does not seem to be straightforward with openbox),
2.- have the taskbar/panel autohiding if possible (with a small token to open it somewhere),
3.- have the panel available in all the desktops,
4.- be able to switch desktops without using the keyboard in some unobtrusive way (so no hanging windows on the desktop - rather an applet in the tray/panel),
5.- have some file manager similar to rox. However I do not like that rox screws up that nice icon navigation I like so much,
6.- improve my WLAN connecting/disconnecting experience
7.- comments on PIM apps?

Thanks.

[ZDevil]

Wow. Even though you are saying you are asking questions, you post is actually very informative!  Thank you!
I forgot that the screen flickering issue caused by overclocking has been fixed. I am also experiencing this in Debian (but it seems to be fixed in Angstrom kernel 2.6.22) Will check that out anyway.

Not enough time now to write much. Just a quick response to your feature request for WM:
Just give IceWM a try. It is totally unobstructive and customizable. AFAICS what you are asking for can be done with this WM. You can use Rox desktop (more gnome eyecandies) or iDesk (more manual script writing involved) to have icons on the desktop.
A quick reference to IceWM: http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=7774
Also the official manual is actually very well written and clear.

PIM & TeX: a real pain for most Z distros (do hackers use PIM at all?). Perhaps there are more possibilities in Debian and OpenBSD, because they are full-blown standard distros across different architectures.

[scheck.r]

1.- I would like to pin some new icons to the desktop (does not seem to be straightforward with openbox),

on an default pdaxrom install, openbox is only the window manager, openbox doesn't handle the background, icons, ... this is the task of matchbox-desktop and there is no way for it to pin new icons(no pinboard). On pdaxii13(v2 or not) you can choose to use matchbox-desktop or rox to handle the desktop with pdaxcfg.

2.- have the taskbar/panel autohiding if possible (with a small token to open it somewhere),

Similarly, the panel is handheld by matchbox-panel, so no autohiding feature

3.- have the panel available in all the desktops,

Same as above, I don't know of any way to have it on all desktops

4.- be able to switch desktops without using the keyboard in some unobtrusive way (so no hanging windows on the desktop - rather an applet in the tray/panel),

there is a plugin called matchbox-pager that sits in the panel and when you click on it you can see the pager(4 desktops in a minimized window)

5.- have some file manager similar to rox. However I do not like that rox screws up that nice icon navigation I like so much,

Again, On pdaxii13(v2 or not) you can choose to use matchbox-desktop or rox to handle the desktop with pdaxcfg. Another file manager that can handle icons, background on the desktop is pcman file manager(so that it replaces matchbox-desktop and rox-filer), other file managers are xfe(needs libfox), emelfm2, thunar(needs xfce libs).

6.- improve my WLAN connecting/disconnecting experience

I don't know

7.- comments on PIM apps?

Clearly, we are switching to using the Pimlico suite but it's still in an early stage of development. KDE-pim is too heavy, slow, not pda friendly-gui in my opinion

I think you should try Icewm to answer many of your requests:
autohiding panel, pager and taskbar integrated in the panel
It is already polished by meanie, if you have it installed, just run xdm from the cli before starting X session to choose your window manager and change it to icewm instead of openbox.
And combine it with rox or pcmanfm to get icons on the desktop and a pretty, fast file manager.

[raduga]

Hm.

Nobody responded last time I asked, so I guess I can try again:

is there a FULL installer for pdaXii13v2 from nand/initrd?
If not yet, is one planned?

Its a little of a pain to have to wipe, then install 5.4.9. then update to v2.

[ZDevil]

@walkman
PIM & Palm apps:

I think JPilot is for you in pdaXrom. You can sync the data freely between visor and the Z. The great plus is as an old Palm user you will feel home working with the interface. It's available in the feeds.

And of course in Debian and OpenBSD you have a bigger variety of Palm-friendly programs: JPilot, KPilot, Gnome pilot, Evolution, etc.

Off topic: ;P
BTW, Visor Prism is my 2nd PDA and it has retired resting in my desk drawer. The Visor (shall we call it "V" ) line is nice. But for PDAs  nothing beats Handera 330 (besides the Z for sure), which sports two card slots (CF/SD) (the CF slot can take CF lan, wifi and even microdrive!), 3.7 QVGA inches 8 greyscale screen w/ virtual graffiti, microphone & speaker, jog wheel and a lithium rechargeable battery swappable with 4 AAA, fully compatible with Palm III accessories including external keyboard (IR keyboards work of course), ROM flashable to Palm OS 4.1.... even better than the latter Sony Clie line!  The surprising fact is that it's a product 6 years ago! http://the-gadgeteer.com/review/handera_330_review, http://www.pdacortex.com/handera_review.htm

[walkman]

I think JPilot is for you in pdaXrom. You can sync the data freely between visor and the Z. The great plus is as an old Palm user you will feel home working with the interface. It's available in the feeds.

Well, I tried the V (as you would call it  ) with Linux, but I found the Windows user experience better. Anyway, the idea with Zaurus is, as you can guess from what I wrote above, to replace the V thingy. In the end, I want to carry around just one gadget, right? I mean, I like Visor experience very much. It is just built for me . Practical, durable, minimalistic and sexy design (although that's a matter of taste of course). However, I never went into programming experience with it. Just installing Metrowerks CodeWarrior and learning to play with it was a bit too much. Not that I did not try... And then a kind of frustration with limited applications (and the most of the SW scene anyway is based on payed stuff  ) and of course the network conectivity... And as I used to be Pocket PC coder, I knew very well why I do not want to fall for those this time. Not that those gadgets are bad. But I would never make the complicated WLAN settings I need (some EAP-TTLS-PAP stuff) work. "Configurability and customization" is the name of the game. But all of you know that way better then me  - a Z newcomer   .

Off topic: ;P
BTW, Visor Prism is my 2nd PDA and it has retired resting in my desk drawer. The Visor (shall we call it "V" ) line is nice. But for PDAs  nothing beats Handera 330 (besides the Z for sure)

Thanks for a pointer. Interesting gadget... But what I really believe is that it is user experience which makes a device successful. And it's Palm OS who got it right first. Now with this whole ZOO of Linux distros for Zaurus which are new for me, none seems to provide that level of user experience (efficient, perfectly thought through and fast). I know, I am paying here for a plethora of apps and great configurability. But somehow, I have to admit that I feel it will take some time and a lot of frustration/tests to find a viable modus operandi. I am looking forward to all the new projects which seem to pop up here around (Angstrom, Poky Linux, new pdaXrom, etc.).

[walkman]

@ sheck.r/ZDevil:
Thanks for the pointer to IceWM. One more thing which needs explanation... How will I make that WM to recognize those categories in /usr/share/applications/*.desktop which so nicely build this icon navigation I like so much? Is there a way to have both, i.e. this allegedly highly configurable IceWM (let's give it a try) and that navigation style?

So you say that navigation & e.g. background is done with matchbox-desktop... Hmmm... It is indeed possible to put stuff on desktop. Although in a very  organized manner, which in the end is not that bad... I like the concept. I will give it still a try.

[Meanie]

wow, this is very comprehensive and useful feedback. thanks!


On installation, pdaXii13 was originally developed for C3000 which uses the MicroDrive and support for NAND based models was only added afterwards (and I don't actually have a C1000 to test with either). The idea of checking for the correct nand partition size is a good idea and would be helpful, but I actually don't know how to implement it  That's why in the akita installation section for pdaXii13 there is a line that tells you to resize your nand root to 121. Maybe it needs to be in big bold letters.


The pdaXii13v2 feed was added to make upgrading to pdaXiiv2 easier, but it seems it caused an undesired side effect.


Upgrading to pdaXii13v2 can be done by installing the pdaXiiv2 upgrade package. It is currently at version alpha2. It is not in the feed because it is still in the alpha stage.

The package manager is a GUI to ipkg which I hacked to make it support upgrading better, but I have not had time yet to enhance the package manager gui tool. ideas on what should be added to it or changed are welcome but wont be implemented until i have some time...

unfortunately, even if you knew the package size, it may still clobber up your nand because the package might depend on other packages which might push it over the limit. in this case, since i install everything to my microdrive by default (c3x00 models have that luxury), this problem never manifests itself for me and i always forget that it can cause some headaches on c1000 but it is very hard for me to prevent such things from happening. it really is a hardware limitation of the c1000.

although one way of installing is via WLAN, you can also download complete feeds and put them on USB stick, SD card or CF card and install from your local feeds and thus bypass the requirement for a network connection. I do almost all my installs this way. I got all the feeds mirrored on my SD card.

I have two wifi cards, one uses orinoco and the other uses hostap. both work for me. the problem as i mentioned before is that some wifi cards have identical manfids even though they are very different cards and need different drivers. Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done for those wifi cards. It will always be working for some and not for others out of the box for wifi cards that have those conflicting manfids. removing the unwanted driver or manually fixing the config files is the only way to get those cards working...


wifi radar is a handy tool, but it does not always work. don't ask me why, i don't know myself either. it is written in python and i am no python expert. the reason i put wifi-radar under Internet instead of SystemTools is because system tools was a bit full while Internet wasn't and it could go either way so I decided for Internet. If you don't like it, just change the .desktop file.

as an alternate to wifi radar, i created network-cfg which is based on network.py but it has wpa options added. my aim was to have one tool which could configure all kinds of networking related things, but it is nowhere near finished yet and again my python is scratchy. I have never done python prior to hacking the python scripts in pdaXrom...

rox is both a file manager as well as a desktop manager when run in pinboard mode. in pdaXii13, if you install rox, it is by default used as the desktop manager and used in pinboard mode unless you disable it by using the pdaXcfg tool. rox uses its own wallpaper management subsystem and there is functionality to randomly change the background images as well as switch them during screen rotation.

the links package has been updated to include desktop file and icon.

what extra symlinks did you have to add for libpng?


send me the info about the irda keyboard and i will try to add it into the pdaXii13 config app next time I update it.


LaTeX and LyX are huge and take ages to build. Plus, the way the Makefile is written, it does not lend itself to easily create a package. it assumes whoever compiles it also will install it locally and not need to distribute it as a package... hence too difficult to package and way to big.

pinning icons on the desktop is easy if you switch to using the rox pinboard

autohiding of the taskbar is not supported in openbox but it is in icewm which is also available in pdaXii13

there is a hack that can be used with the matchbox-panel to have the panel in all desktops, but it uses up a bit of memory. uncomment the multi panel options in $HOME/.matchbox/autoexec

there are shortcuts to switch desktops. see the pdaXii13 keyboard shortcut section, alternatively, icewm allows you to configure these features in many different ways

you can disable the rox pinboard and just use rox as a filemanager

in pdaXii13, you can switch between window managers by using the xselect command once you exit X. You can have multiple window managers installed and switch between them in pdaXii13. On the Spitz edition, openbox, icewm and fluxbox are preinstalled, and enlightenment and kde can be added.

[Meanie]

Hm.

Nobody responded last time I asked, so I guess I can try again:

is there a FULL installer for pdaXii13v2 from nand/initrd?
If not yet, is one planned?

Its a little of a pain to have to wipe, then install 5.4.9. then update to v2.

there is no full installer for pdaXii13v2 yet since it is still in an experimental stage, ie alpha.

you do not have to wipe your existing pdaXii13 to upgrade to 5.4.9. there are several ways to upgrade to 5.4.9 from earlier versions without needing to wipe existing system...

[ZDevil]

Well, I tried the V (as you would call it  ) with Linux, but I found the Windows user experience better. Anyway, the idea with Zaurus is, as you can guess from what I wrote above, to replace the V thingy. In the end, I want to carry around just one gadget, right? I mean, I like Visor experience very much. It is just built for me . Practical, durable, minimalistic and sexy design (although that's a matter of taste of course). However, I never went into programming experience with it. Just installing Metrowerks CodeWarrior and learning to play with it was a bit too much. Not that I did not try... And then a kind of frustration with limited applications (and the most of the SW scene anyway is based on payed stuff  ) and of course the network conectivity... And as I used to be Pocket PC coder, I knew very well why I do not want to fall for those this time. Not that those gadgets are bad. But I would never make the complicated WLAN settings I need (some EAP-TTLS-PAP stuff) work. "Configurability and customization" is the name of the game. But all of you know that way better then me  - a Z newcomer   .

I am not sure if I misunderstood you. JPilot (and equivalent programs as well) is not just a syncing tool, but a real Palm Desktop, so on the Z (it's fast, trust me on this) you can just use Datebook, Address, ToDo and Memo (and exactly the same databases) in the same way as you do with the "V". So your Z can literally replace your "V" when running this interesting application.

[walkman]

@ Meanie:
Thanks a lot for your reply. There are obviuosly many hints which will make my search for solutions in the future easier. And of course thanks a lot for the hard work on this exciting distribution. Well, I have still some questions about the general idea behind various distros, but that probably belongs into another tread...

Actually I wrote my post here to basically write somewhere all I did to the poor gadget, so that when I reinstall it the next time, or it crashes for whatever reason, I will have some memory of all the solutions to the common problems out there...

[raduga]

Hm.

Its a little of a pain to have to wipe, then install 5.4.9. then update to v2.

there is no full installer for pdaXii13v2 yet since it is still in an experimental stage, ie alpha.

you do not have to wipe your existing pdaXii13 to upgrade to 5.4.9. there are several ways to upgrade to 5.4.9 from earlier versions without needing to wipe existing system...

LOL...

the most popular threads so far on v2, involve conflicts between apps, libraries, and files
of differing versions.  None of this is a showstopper,  but the hope would be that
by starting from a clean slate one could be assured that one has all the proper versions
and these sorts of conflicts would be minimized.

Wiping, then installing a fresh 5.4.9 seems to be the best way to be sure one has a known good 5.4.9.
From a clean 5.4.9, immediately updating to v2 seems (again) the best strategy to avoid
having unclear things break at uncertain points.  

Do you have any better ideas?

[Jon_J]

Wiping, then installing a fresh 5.4.9 seems to be the best way to be sure one has a known good 5.4.9.
From a clean 5.4.9, immediately updating to v2 seems (again) the best strategy to avoid
having unclear things break at uncertain points.  

Do you have any better ideas?

That's exactly what I did.
I Flashed 5.4.9, got my wifi working, then upgraded to 5.5
Make sure you have a good internet connection when upgrading from 5.4.9 to 5.5
I first tried using USB networking and my Z went into suspend. That resulted in my connection being lost. I couldn't re-connect.
I then flashed 5.4.9 again, and upgraded to 5.5 using my wifi connection.
First thing you should do before upgrading is make sure you disable suspend!
I also did a ipkg update, then removed the last 3 entries in ipkg.conf (I did it in the gui packagemanager)
They were paths that pointed to feeds in these 3 locations. SD Card, CF Card, and ide
I think this minimizes the error messages in the install because I have no local feeds on any of my media.

[walts]

That's exactly what I did.
I Flashed 5.4.9, got my wifi working, then upgraded to 5.5
Make sure you have a good internet connection when upgrading from 5.4.9 to 5.5
I first tried using USB networking and my Z went into suspend. That resulted in my connection being lost. I couldn't re-connect.
I then flashed 5.4.9 again, and upgraded to 5.5 using my wifi connection.
First thing you should do before upgrading is make sure you disable suspend!
I also did a ipkg update, then removed the last 3 entries in ipkg.conf (I did it in the gui packagemanager)
They were paths that pointed to feeds in these 3 locations. SD Card, CF Card, and ide
I think this minimizes the error messages in the install because I have no local feeds on any of my media.

I followed pretty much the same procedure.
On pdaXii13, I had things working well.  After setting up /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf, wifi-radar worked flawlessly, every time.  I could even run kismet (notorious for fouling up the network settings and not putting them back) and wifi-radar would connect to my AP and get a DHCP address within seconds.

After the upgrade to pdaXiiv2, wifi-radar only works intermittently.  Most of the time it sits trying to acquire a DCHP address for a really long time and then gives up.  I've written a script to manually start the network, and that works most of the time, but as others have reported, for some reason the card quits after a few minutes.  My network card is an AmbiCom WL1100CF but is incorrectly reported as a Z-Com XI300.  That's not new, I ignore it in pdaXii13 and it worked fine.

So, I seem to have good network connectivity only immediately after a reboot.  If I let the Z go to sleep and wake up again, it disconnects after a few seconds.  Removing and reinserting the card does not help.  Somehow we need to find a way to reset the network parameters to the state they are in after a reboot, before trying to start the card.

I know very litle Python, but I have uploaded wifi-radar to my PC so I can have a look at the code.  If I see anything interesting I will post it here, and perhaps a Python guru can help out.

Walt

[walkman]

So, I seem to have good network connectivity only immediately after a reboot.  If I let the Z go to sleep and wake up again, it disconnects after a few seconds.  Removing and reinserting the card does not help.  Somehow we need to find a way to reset the network parameters to the state they are in after a reboot, before trying to start the card.

To solve this, I found that I should simply kill all wpa_supplicant and dhcpd processes and reinsert the card (or enable/disable using e.g. powerctrl applet). Then things work fine for me. And my D-Link DCF660W is reported as that mess as well, but it doesn't seem to be any problem. Oh, and I use my own script to start/stop the network (described somewhere above).