Author Topic: Special Kernel and OZ on 5600? (Read 4147 times)

lanninmi · « **on:** March 24, 2004, 01:04:55 pm »

Has anyone tried installing the Special Kernel v1.3 with OpenZaurus on a SL-5600? If so, what are your impressions? Is it worth trying?

Thanks,
lanninmi

wolfman · « **Reply #1 on:** March 24, 2004, 04:24:25 pm »

Well from what I have been able to garner from other posts I have seen using the special kernel that is ment to be used with the stock sharp rom or others based on the sharp rom. Is that there may be certain things within OZ that are expecting things to be compiled either in the kernel or in a module or other requirements.

AFAIK the OZ kernel for the 5600 already has the PXA250 bug fix disabled.

catachresis · « **Reply #2 on:** March 27, 2004, 06:46:37 am »

\"AFAIK the OZ kernel for the 5600 already has the PXA250 bug fix disabled.\"

Terrific, but could I get a confirmation on this? In other words, if you plan on installing the most recent version of Open Zaurus for the 5600 there is no need to install the Special Kernel beforehand? Thanks!

Mickeyl · « **Reply #3 on:** March 27, 2004, 08:23:49 am »

OZ 3.3.6-pre1 for poodle doesn\'t have the PXA250 bug fix disabled. We are not yet convinced that disabling it has no effect on stability. We may reconsider this after some more reports from users of the \"special kernel\".

catachresis · « **Reply #4 on:** March 27, 2004, 04:55:30 pm »

Thanks Mickeyl! Word from the MAN himself - I\'m honoured. Mickey, I\'m getting set to install 3.3.5: would you recommend 3.3.6-pre1? Thanks for your time. Cheers!

Mickeyl · « **Reply #5 on:** March 27, 2004, 07:37:15 pm »

Yes, 3.3.6-pre1 gives probably the better experience. There are some issues, but for most of them there are workarounds which have been discussed in detail in this forum.

Nightruler · « **Reply #6 on:** March 30, 2004, 08:58:29 pm »

Is there any chance of getting a kernel for teh 5600 that would split the RAM up better? I got a 5600 and a 512mb SD card and would like to use the full 64mb for ram since I will no longer need to use the internal storage. I\'m guessing the 5500 kernel will not work with the 5600, is this correct?

If not, what have other 5600 users done to claim more ram? Would just using the /home as a one big swap file work as a work-around untill a kernel is released?

tumnus · « **Reply #7 on:** March 31, 2004, 02:11:56 am »

The 5600 only has 32MB of RAM. The internal storage in the 5600 is separate flash memory, unlike the 5500 where it is split with the RAM, so you cannot change the split in the 5600.

Nightruler · « **Reply #8 on:** March 31, 2004, 02:46:41 pm »

Tumnus thanks for that tidbit.

I heard that CF cards have a small (well like 15,000 writes or something) life span, does anyone know if the same is for SD and the internal flash for the 5600? If I can\'t \'expand\' the ram, I want to put like a 32mb swap someplace. A swap file in flash memory I would think would give me about the same results, allthough a bit slower. I also figured a 32 swap on the SD card could give me another memory boost, but I don\'t want to kill the SD card with a lot of writes. If I move everything off the /home part of the 5600, can I use the whole thing for a swap device? My 512mb SD should be enough for any installs I need to do.

tumnus · « **Reply #9 on:** March 31, 2004, 05:22:06 pm »

You cannot use the 5600\'s internal memory for a swapfile because the filesystem it uses (JFFS2) does not support it and you cannot change the filesystem either I\'m afraid.

But I\'ve heard that most CF and SD cards can survive 100,000+ writes and I think a few people on these forums have swapfiles on a SD/CF card. I don\'t do this myself simply because of the speed issue. I only have my Calendar and Addressbook set to Fast Load and generally don\'t have a problem with memory. Opera is always going to run out of memory because it has huge memory leaks.

tapjpa · « **Reply #10 on:** March 31, 2004, 05:37:57 pm »

Quote

Opera is always going to run out of memory because it has huge memory leaks.

I\'m using Opera ver 7.30 from the downloads area here and seems to be better on the memory leaks.
Also never did say great job on the Special Kernel that along with the overclocking tips definitly made my 5600 more responsive.
To date no problems even with VNC. Keep up the great work tumnus!

Jim

Nightruler · « **Reply #11 on:** March 31, 2004, 07:24:42 pm »

Ok I\'m starting to understand this a bit more... this sucks, lol.

I either try to put this swap on the SD card and \'hope for the best\', or I live with the 32mb of ram. I\'m surpised you can\'t re-partation the /home disk, is this a limitation with the type of memory that\'s being used or with the Sharp ROM in the way it boots and looks for a filesystem?

From what I understand you have to leave \'some\' of the /home on internel memory, but I would have thought one could have re-sized the JFFS2 part to something very small to only what\'s needed by the zaurus on internel. Link everything else to an SD card, then what space is left turn into a swap device. That would be to easy though huh?

I know this has probably allready been proven many times over that it doesn\'t work, but I can\'t find anything but \'you can\'t do it\' or like you said about \"JFFS2 doesn\'t support swap\" on the sites, with nothing stating why a re-paration wouldn\'t work.

tumnus · « **Reply #12 on:** April 01, 2004, 02:18:56 am »

Internal memory in the 5600 is NAND flash. As far as I know this cannot be used as a swap file. NAND flash also has a limited life, like CF and SD cards, but JFFS2 is especially designed to spread the writes evenly so it takes quite a while for it to die with this. However, even if you could create a swapfile on internal memory, it could burn it out fairly quickly and you can\'t replace it like you could a CF/SD card.

tapjpa, you don\'t have any problem with the VNC server while using the special kernel? Which version of the VNC server are you using?

Nightruler · « **Reply #13 on:** April 01, 2004, 02:34:03 am »

Quote

Internal memory in the 5600 is NAND flash. As far as I know this cannot be used as a swap file. NAND flash also has a limited life, like CF and SD cards, but JFFS2 is especially designed to spread the writes evenly so it takes quite a while for it to die with this. However, even if you could create a swapfile on internal memory, it could burn it out fairly quickly and you can\'t replace it like you could a CF/SD card.

Ahh, now that would make a lot of sence of why \'not\' to do it, and why people havn\'t dug far enough to do it. ) I had thought the internal memory would have had a longer life span. Would it be wise then to format all but the section i\'m going to use for swap on my SD card as JFFS2 I don\'t plan on removing this card from the 5600, thus why I bought such a large card.

Also would it be better to place the swap at the end of the SD card incase this section goes bad, or if one section goes bad the whole card goes out kinda thing? I would rather loose an 8mb-32mb section at the end of the SD card then the whole thing.... does flash even have an \'end\' like a normal HD would, or am I mixing two technologys to much together here?

tapjpa · « **Reply #14 on:** April 01, 2004, 07:46:12 am »

Quote

tapjpa, you don\'t have any problem with the VNC server while using the special kernel? Which version of the VNC server are you using?

I\'m using this fbvncserver-sl5600_0.9.4_arm.ipk from http://www.sdgsystems.com/download.html

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Author Topic: Special Kernel and OZ on 5600? (Read 4147 times)

tapjpa

tapjpa