Thank you. My post was sort of a helpless cry of frustration - not unlike, oh, tagging subway cars, for example - but I appreciate all the offers of help. You really got to love the Zaurus community spirit.
Yeah, I've read about the damaged package manager. I've scanned sundry posts and web pages for advice. I've followed cookbook install instructions as slavishly as possible. All good clean fun. There are just too many gotchas. Who can keep track?
I copied the main feeds I needed to a large CF card, and modified the ipkg.conf to point to the feeds using the file:// syntax, since I have never never never gotten any kind of connectivity to my desktop and the net working. That also by following all kinds of helpful roadmaps. It don't work. But that's another thread.
I used ipkg from the command line to try to install the opie-reader. Essential software because I need it to read Doc Savage thrillers in checkout lines. I tried to install it to the SD card using the approach of adding a
dest card /mnt/card
line in the configuration file. Sometimes it seems to install, most recently I just get a lot of back-chit from ipkg about how "opie-reader wants to install foo but that file is already provided opie-reader..." Finally flat-lined with error 56. No matter, when I tried to install it before I couldn't get it to appear on the Opie desktop. Ran
ipkg-link add opie-reader
of course. Sometimes it claims success, some times it claims the package doesn't exist. Even when it thinks it's succeeded, no desktop reader. Tried the same sort of thing to install opie-aqpkg. Same results.
Once had opie-reader actually running!!! Woo hoo! Tried to install the latest Pi-Sync addressbook and datebook apps. Complete floop - apparently they try to install all their links and desktop files to an entirely different directory tree than Opie looks at. Tried to symlink to them. Utter floop. In the process, somehow, the opie-reader went south.
Pity about that package manager. You know, say what you will about Micro$oft, but they rarely release an OS where the user application install software is broken. You've got to admire them for that.
Windrose