Debian with Xqt

[MSC_Geek]

hwkeye,
    If you upgraded debian after the 17th of November, icewm seems to have been changed significantly.  If you go to /etc/X11/icewm (after chrooting) you will find a file named preferences.  Copy that file to your /home/root/.icewm/ directory and then you need to edit it.  Towards the end of the file you will find a bunch of entries like TitleFontNameXft="sans-serif:size=12"  If you change those so that size =1, the fonts become almost usable.  I am going to try size=.5 tomorrow, and I will let you know if that gets it closer to the original sizes.  This only works for icewm stuff.  I am still working on where to change mozilla and things like that.

Nothing like blazing a new trail.

[gab74]

Can anyone send me his impressions about Debain on SL6000

is it usable or is it too slow ? How it works on a microdrive ?

What are the bes apps to install  with best performance?
i.e : WebBrowser, Mail Client, Word processor.....

[MSC_Geek]

Ok,
     First off, I tried size=.5 (that's POINT 5) in the icewm preferences file and now that looks great.  

     Next, I found where to modify mozilla's font sizes.  goto ~/.mozilla/firefox/<hashcode>.default/chrome
and create a file called userChrome.css (or copy userChrome-example.css to userChrome.css) and then enter the following:

* {
font-size: .5pt !important;
font-family: sans-serif !important;
font-weight: normal !important;
}

      That will make all your fonts look the same in mozilla, and make them something that fits on the screen.  If you want you can use different fonts for different items, but I'll leave that up to you.  (more info is easily available by doing a google search on userChrome.css).

     If you use thunderbird just copy the file you made above to ~/.mozilla-thunderbird/<hashcode>.default/chrome/

     It would probably be more elegant to link to the first file, so you only have to change on, but I did it this way.  Hope it helps.

[hwkeye]

Hi MSC Geek,

Thanks a lot with your help.

I do vi /home/root/.icewm/preferences
uncomment and change all lines with ....FontNameXft = "........:size=10:..." to size 1 and it works.

By the same way, after changing all size to 1, I do

:1,$s/:size=1/:size=.5/g

It means search from line 1 to end string ":size=1" and replace by ":size=.5"
Maybe can replace directly but you can find some FontName with size=10 or size=12....

Thanks a lot MSC Geek.

I think for Mozilla and others programs maybe we could try where fontname for Xft are declared.

cheers.

[smuelas]

Hi guys,
Just a few words to explain my last experiences with Debian and Xqt. Tbis last week I've tring all other possible combinations using the same "chroot" philosophy. I have tried Gentoo and GPE. Also, I have tried new applications from Debian.
After all this work I have to say that the only combination that works with no one problem is this one.
In fact, I don't know what is inside Xqt, as the explanations are none. But it works.
I also think that this combination is for those that search an small and (relatively) cheap handcomputer. A kind of OQO, a little bit slower but with two great advantages: one can have four SL6000 for the price of one OQO and our wonder Zaurus DOESN't RUN THE WINDOW$ from Gates. Too big advantages to forget.
Actually I am running in the 6000 such programs as Emacs, Scite, Latex, Maxima, TeXmacs (yes, TeXmacs), XMMS(just perfect), gimp, evolution...just to mention a few. I use IceWM or fluxbox, depending on the mood. I use SSH to conect to my School Server and usb in old is flavours. What can I ask after that?
If Sharp launched the same model with the last Xscale chip and 128 of ram, that would be the perfect hand-computer for the time being.
Cheers
smuelas

[chaosteo]

Hi all,

I am a newbie who just ordered SL-6000 from Amazon for 380. For the same price as Dell X50V, I decide I should enter the world with more programming and less Microsoft. However, I had no experice with Linux before. I did only have some programming experiernce with C and Java.

so Could someone kinda walk me through the steps of installing Debian and using its application on SL-6000 since by reading all the threads, I know you have to upload Debian to a 512mb or larger card to a SD or CF card first.. other than that ... I have no idea... (sorry for the stupid question).. ( if someone can help me out, much appreciated)

chaosteo

[smuelas]

Hi chaosteo,
Count on me to help you as much as I can. Just the first thing is to advice you not to expend any money on SD or CF cards, but buy a cheap microdrive (The smallest Hitachi that you can find. 1 Gh. should be enough. If 2 Gh. more than needed);
If you need bhelp, no doubt in contact me, but don't forget that I think always in term of "handcomputer" that, perhaps, is not the same as a perfect PDA.
Regards
smuelas

[chaosteo]

Hi smuelas

before I received my unit on wednesday, just have some short questions

1) Can you run default operating system shipped with Zaurus while running Debian on Zaurus? if not, can you revert it back if it fails?

2) Is microdrive stable? should I get hitachi, ibm or magicstor ones? I still cannot decide to get SD or microdrive. Since 1GB SD is going around 70 on ebay and 2GB Micodrive is around 110, I still cannot decide since one advantage of sd is that I can use a CF GPS and SD at the same time if needed.

3) Does your desktop need to run Linux for your Zaurus to run with Debian? since I have all windows machines

thank you so much

chaosteo
 

[Tehas]

You're right, if you use your SD slot for storage, then you have the CF available for other features which cannot be done with SD.  That's the approach I"ve taken with my 5600, dedicate the SD card for storage (in ext2 format) and then swap the CF card for what I need at the moment...  additional storage for a backup or music, a WiFi connection, an ethernet connection, or GPS, or ...

[smuelas]

Hi chaosteo, I answer to your questions:
1) Yes. You can run at the same time Debian and Qtopia. No need to do anything "strange".
2) Microdrive is totally stable. Better Hitachi. Much better than SD, a lot slower. On the other side, if you use swap, as you should, your Zaurus will be writting and reading all the time from SD. They say those cards accept up to 10.000 operations of this nature. If you want to use the slot from the microdrive, just take it out. You will lose Debian but will maintain the original Qtopia.
3) I use always Linux. Can conect zaurus trough VNC or SSH. The same should be true with Windows.
Regards      smuelas

[freshroastedpeanut]

Great work Smuelas on helping get this set up.

I am to the point of having a useable Debian installation, and am working on the icewm font thing. Maybe a change to fvwm is the fix...

I am having a bit of difficulty with the Zaurus stock ROM keyboard/handwriting app and the X implementation. If I use a USB keyboard text input works great (good work ont he xmodmap), but as I am temporarily stuck with the GoldX USB adaptor, and I don't have wireless at work so I need to leave the Z in the cradle for USB-networking. The GoldX is too big to use while the Z is in its' cradle, so I have to type using the on-screen apps, and they seem goofed up inside XQt. nothing on the right side of the keyboard works- any ideas?

Secondly, does anyone have any ideas on setting up vncserver inside the debroot? I apt-get installed vncserver, but upon running it I get a "xauth not found" error. I'd love to be able to vnc into my deb installation from a bigger monitor....

Lastly, on the subject of swap, I'm currently using a CF file for swap as I cannot get swap over NFS to work. I've setup a swapfile on my host linux box, (trying both a ramdisk and Hdd-based file), I can mount it inside Debian, but swapon gives me a "invalid argument" error. I have run mkswap on the NFS file, both from inside the Debian chroot and from the native Sharp rom, to no avail. If I use the CF file though, everything works as planned. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance, and thanks to all who are figuring out how to run this great package!!!

Cheers, JJ

[smuelas]

Hi JJ,
I think that I have good news for you. The trick for using Debian and VNC is to launch VNC from Qtopia. You will see your Z-screen clearly bigger in size and the mouse/keyboard of your desktop will do all the needed work.
Just launch Startx as usual and icewm or fluxbox and if you are running Debian on Desktop you will be able to compare the same application on both computers... :-)
Shortly I will include an improved version of .xmodmaprc in the web-page.
smuelas

[verk]

dumb question,

after chroot command how do you guys accessing all other files above /mnt/~your_card~/debroot/ folder ?
i.e. how do you read /mnt/~your_another_card/* from debian ?

[freshroastedpeanut]

After a chroot you cannot access the other files.

Except swap, buit I think this is cause swap is done at the kernel level. I set up a swap partition on a USB drive (/dev/sda2) and am using:
swapon /dev/usb2
at the zaurus root, THEN chrooting into the debian environment. So far no crashes, and running "free" from time to time shows that the swapfile is being used quite a bit.

Dunno if this helps anyone, but I had to try it....

I also tried the chrooted deb environment under the Opie/OZ 3.5.2 ROM, but it was incredibly slow and I seem to be having problems with mounting/unmounting cf cards in OZ. Opie hangs randomly if I ahve a CF card in either slot...argh...

Oh well, deb/xqt rocks!

Cheers all!

JJ

[dtruchan]

how do you read /mnt/~your_another_card/* from debian

From a Qtopia terminal I mount my CF to /mnt/card/debroot/mnt/cf
Then I can see it in Debian.

I could have been more creative, but that's what I do.