probleming seeing and installing packages

[asfrank16]

First I have a C700 with Cacko rom  - I am not able to see some of the ipk in the gui installer, including some ipks specifically compiled for the C700 (for example the libSDL).  I did try to use ipkg install, but it said they were not in the right format.

In addition, a couple of programs I have installed (nethack, JABP) when I tap the icon, it begins to launch, but then it quits (although the icon still appears as though it was tapped).

Any help on either issue?  ( I did attempt to look through previous posts, but could not find anything (may have missed it).

[keef]

Did find that if I download ipk on a mac they could not be seen by Z.
Redownloaded on a pc and they were ok.
Dont know if this helps.

keef

[Miami_Bob]

asfrank16 - There are two different \"major flavors\" of IPK files. One is recognized by the Sharp GUI \"Add/Remove Software\" utility. The other is ignored by same.

You can quickly tell them apart no matter what OS or platform you are using by simply checking the first handfull of bytes with a hex viewer or editor (Midnight Commander works well on my C860 for this puropse).

The Sharp \"flavor\" IPKs all start with (hex) 1F 8B 08 - followed by either (Hex) 00 or 08.

The OPIE \"flavor\" all start with (Hex) 21 3C 61 72 63 68 3E 0A [ ACSII = !<ARCH> ].

There is a well documented \"religious\" war on going regarding these two IPK formats. Search IPKG for starters here.

The Sharp IPKs are composed of files & directories wrapped in TAR balls, the TAR balls then GZIP\'d, the results wrapped in another TAR ball and that TAR again GZIP\'d.

The OPIE IPKs are identical to the Sharps throught the first two steps but, instead of TAR & Gzip, they are wrapped using the AR utility. Which is almost unavailable under non-Unix based OSs, BTW. <Geeee! .... G>

Eero Heinonen\'s SH Archive Identifier v2.70 recognizes about 250 cross OS & cross platform archive formats. It identifies the Sharp IPKs as Type 63 - X1.TAR.GZ, if the last Hex characters are 00, or as Type 65 - True.TAR.GZ when the last Hex characters are 08.

It identifies the OPIE IPKs as either Type 77 TAR balls or as unknown format. SH ArchID recognizes a Type 151 AR format but neither of the OPIE IPK formats are found as ARs <this is under Windows, BTW>.

AR files produced under Windows with Haruhiko Okumura & Terran Melconian\'s AR utility ARE recognized by SU ArchID as valid AR files but their structures are nothing like those of the OPIE IPKs.

The AR utility from the binutils package installed on my C860 sees both types of the OPIE IPK format as AR files. SO there is a major diffeence between the Linux ARs and the AR files produced by the , to my best knowledge, ONLY WIndows AR utility. Hummmmm <G>.

You can unpackage the OPIE IPKs with AR on your Z or on a Linux box and either install the DATA.TAR.GZ contents manually, or repackage the 3 files from the AR back into TAR.GZ IPKs, compatible with the SHARP IPK format.

I have seen posts that flashing different ROMs also solves this problem, but I haven\'t tried this myself. NONE of the IPKG versions, GUI or command line, that I have tried have been able to install the OPIE flavor IPKs on my C860, btw.

Hope this is of some help. Holler if you need more info.


Bob W
Miami FL

[Miami_Bob]

<< In addition, a couple of programs I have installed (nethack, JABP) when I tap the icon, it begins to launch, but then it quits (although the icon still appears as though it was tapped). >>


I have frequently had this same problem on my C860. Try starting the program from the command line in a console. The error messages, which you can\'t see when launching by icon, can often tell you what is missing or going wrong. Even though the results may look the same in the GUI, my experience is that there is usually no single uniform reason that programs crash like this. Almost every case that I have seen has different causes. SOmetimes they can be corrected; sometimes not.

BTW - the name of the program at the icon may not be the executable\'s name. I often use Tab Setting or Tab Manager apps to snoop out what executable the icon is really opening.


Bob W
Miami FL

[waalkman]

I have frequently had this same problem on my C860. Try starting the program from the command line in a console.

That\'s the one that isn\'t working anymore

I added a bunch of programs and Konsole doesn\'t want to work anymore.

Of ALL the programs that had to die...

BTW - the name of the program at the icon may not be the executable\'s name. I often use Tab Setting or Tab Manager apps to snoop out what executable the icon is really opening.

Thanks for the tip, how do you get it to look for programs that don\'t appear on the browse list? For instance, I installed mc and it didn\'t show up on the list of available programs.


I\'m off to reflash...


John

[Miami_Bob]

That\'s the one that isn\'t working anymore

I added a bunch of programs and Konsole doesn\'t want to work anymore.

Of ALL the programs that had to die...

Ouch!

Thanks for the tip, how do you get it to look for programs that don\'t appear on the browse list? For instance, I installed mc and it didn\'t show up on the list of available programs.

MC won\'t show automatically on a desktop tab (this is what you mean by browser, I perhaps mistakenly assume?) because it expects to be run from console command line. However, if you

 - open Tab Setting from Settings tab
 - select any app in the right side list & click the edit pencil
 - click the \"...\" to the right of \"program\"

you will get a long list of all the apps that can be attached to a Qt icon. MC still isn\'t listed since its a command line app, though. Click the \'x\' repeatedly to back out without making changes.

If I had just installed a package & the executable didn\'t show up anywhere, I think that I would first look in

 /home/root/usr/lib/ipkg/info/

and check the *.list file with a text editor. For example, mc-german installs 4 executables under /usr/bin/ one of them being mc. Nano, another command line app, just installs one, nano, in /home/root/usr/bin/.

I\'m off to reflash...

Luck to you, friend.


Bob W

[waalkman]

That\'s the one that isn\'t working anymore

I added a bunch of programs and Konsole doesn\'t want to work anymore.

Of ALL the programs that had to die...

Ouch!

And the darn thing is gone again! I tracked the problem down to installing a opie package, so I avoided opie ipks. But it evaporated this time (before it simply got the \"houglass of doom\").

The good news is that it was replaced by \"Terminal\" So I\'m in good shape.

So what\'s a good source for Cxxx specific packages? And like you, I find the state of packaging for the Z to be rather poor.

Getting a \"Sorry, something went wrong\" or a \"Files are missing, please install required files\" (or some such message) is lame. How about a:

\"Abort, Retry, Guess?\" box to go with it.

Thanks for the tip, how do you get it to look for programs that don\'t appear on the browse list? For instance, I installed mc and it didn\'t show up on the list of available programs.

MC won\'t show automatically on a desktop tab (this is what you mean by browser, I perhaps mistakenly assume?) because it expects to be run from console command line. However, if you

Okay, that explains it.

and check the *.list file with a text editor. For example, mc-german installs 4 executables under /usr/bin/ one of them being mc. Nano, another command line app, just installs one, nano, in /home/root/usr/bin/.

Cool, thanks

I\'m off to reflash...

Luck to you, friend

Bob W

It got a bit hairy when the silly thing wouldn\'t get past the initial splash screen. Suspecting a bad file, I looked at what was on the card and found that initrd.bin was a zero-length file. I suspect Microsoft tried to do me in when copied the files over. Re-copying them fixed me right up.


Thanks again


John