Angstrom Opie 1.2.3 Testing

[Blue Lightning]

Hi all,

I would like to announce that some testing images of the Angstrom Linux distribution containing the Opie user environment version 1.2.3 are now available. For most devices, this is the first time Opie 1.2.3 has been available in a distribution in any form, and once testing and debugging has finished we hope that this will give access to Opie to more users.

If you have one of the following listed devices, we would love to hear feedback on how well it works for you:

• Zaurus SL-5500
• Zaurus SL-5600
• Zaurus SL-C1000
• Zaurus SL-C3000
• Zaurus SL-C7x0
• Zaurus SL-6000
• iPAQ h2200 series
• iPAQ h3900 series
• iPAQ h4000 series
• iPAQ h5000 series
• iPAQ hx4700
• Motorola A780
• HTC Universal
• Siemens Simpad (see note [1])

The central point for information is the following wiki page:

  http://linuxtogo.org/gowiki/AngstromOpieTesting

From there you can find information on how to download and run an image on your device as well as some known issues.

Opie is now on the path to becoming a supported choice of environment within Angstrom, and we expect the testing period to last for at least a month, during which time we will be collecting information and fixing serious bugs where they are found.

We welcome all feedback, so if you can, please try one of the images and send your reports to .

Thanks,
Paul

[1] There is an image available for the Siemens Simpad, but there is a bug preventing Opie from starting on this device - some help debugging this problem would be welcome (see http://bugs.openembedded.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3681 for details).

[agosine]

I am really happy to see Opie available as I found it works better for my needs.  How is development coming along?  Is a browser available or any other packages?

[BarryW]

Looks good so far!  The only thing I've noticed is the d-pad is off while using opie-console.  Right is up, down is right, up is left, left is down.

[Blue Lightning]

Development is a little slow at the moment seeing as I'm pretty much the only person working on Opie. I haven't done much on it lately either as I'm moving to the UK in a week's time, but I hope to get back into it soon. There aren't any packages for the browser (Konqueror Embedded) but it probably wouldn't require much more work to produce them.

The rotated directional keys issue is known - Opie and Qt/E are both trying to handle rotating the keys. I really have to sit down and come up with a patch to disable Qt/E's code for this so we can move forward.

Thanks for the feedback

[zogs]

don't work wifi with wep 64/128/hex/ascii

angstrom base  is the same of the stable angstrom base ?
Because with angstrom stabel(pimlico, gpe, office, console, etc) wifi with wep work fine.

[zogs]

root@spitz:~$ iwconfig wlan0 key 0x1234567890
Error for wireless request "Set encode" (882A) :
invalid argument "0x1234567890"

with:
Angstrom-opie-image-glibc-ipk-2007.12-r13-spitz-installkit
64 bit wep hex

[speculatrix]

I'm moving to the UK in a week's time

welcome! whereabouts?

[Blue Lightning]

welcome! whereabouts?

Thanks! I'm in London staying with friends, will probably find somewhere of my own to live soon.

[Blue Lightning]

root@spitz:~$ iwconfig wlan0 key 0x1234567890
Error for wireless request "Set encode" (882A) :
invalid argument "0x1234567890"

This looks like a base system issue rather than Opie, best to ask on the angstrom-distro-users mailing list.

[ofels]

don't work wifi with wep 64/128/hex/ascii

angstrom base  is the same of the stable angstrom base ?
Because with angstrom stabel(pimlico, gpe, office, console, etc) wifi with wep work fine.

Which kernel did you use ?
Because in the opie images 2.6.24 is used which is broken with regard to WEP.
You must flash the 2.6.23 kernel image and install the 2.6.23 modules to get it working.

Oliver

[zogs]

which version have kernel-2.6.23 or which angstrom-opie version run better on sl-c3200?

[ofels]

which version have kernel-2.6.23 or which angstrom-opie version run better on sl-c3200?

The current opie images to the best of my knowledge all come with 2.6.24 as default.

So the following steps would be necessary:

1.) install the 2.6.23 kernel module packages via ipkg from the angstrom feed or unpack the 2.6.23 module tar.gz directly on /root. It can be downloaded from http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/unsta...utobuild/akita/ (put in your device instead of akita if necessary).
2.) Download the akita 2.6.23 kernel image from the angstrom autobuild directory (see above), put it on the CF or SD card from which you would like to flash and rename it to zImage.bin. Remove the initrd.bin file but keep updater.sh
3.) Start the flashing procedure. It will only reflash the kernel image (if no initrd.bin is on the card) and keep anything else on the Zaurus.

After rebooting it should be working out of the box. Check with "uname -a" the kernel version. You can then remove the 2.6.24 modules from /lib if anyhting is ok.

Hope this helps.

Oliver

[agosine]

I have not tried the most recent build, but everything looks great so far.  Curious to know if any other applications have been packaged for Opie yet?

Thank you for all your hard work.

[agosine]

I would like to see this project move forward as I prefer Opie over GPE.  Is there any published documentation on how to port or compile applications to Opie from the GPE builds?  Is this even required?

Thank you for your hard work.

[ofels]

I would like to see this project move forward as I prefer Opie over GPE.  Is there any published documentation on how to port or compile applications to Opie from the GPE builds?  Is this even required?

There is no easy way to port applications from GPE to Opie.
Opie is based on Qt/embedded (currently the outdated 2.3.x version) working directly on the framebuffer while GPE bases upon X and gtk libraries.

Most applications available for GPE are not even tied to GPE, but standard desktop applications like Sylpheed, Abiword, etc while Opie apps are often tailored to the Opie platform.

If you'd like to see Opie advance, there are plenty of tasks of which is the most important the port to Qt/Embedded 4.x.
Another task which is rather debatable is to build Opie upon Qt and X instead of Qt/Embedded which would allow running X apps and Opie apps together but for the price of a loss of performance.

Oliver