OpenZaurus, OZ on the 6000

[AsLan^]

Well I certainly appreciate you putting out a new ROM. This is my first time running openzaurus so perhaps there are a few tricks that regular users are used to. Thank you for developing this for the 6000.

Now on to the bad stuff which Im sure you're just dying to hear...

I will try both opie and and gpe, first I tried opie.

The flashing process was not detailed in the readme (in the 6000 folder of the downloads section) but after reviewing the ZUG forums I was able to figure it out, no problems.

After successfully flashing (which was painless and I liked the interface) I rebooted with the CF card still in the Z. Everything loaded and I was confronted with a screen asking me about my CF card and what I wanted to do with it, the only problem was my stylus didnt work and using the keyboard provided no opportunity to exit and the power button didnt work. So I reset with the stylus, removed the CF card and powered back on.

This time, much better, after everything loaded I was given the opporunity to calibrate my stylus (which worked this time) and go through some menus, easy enough, and I made it to the desktop.

Small nitpick here... it would have been nice to have seen a 640x480 background rather than four 320x240s.

No problems, took a look around, looks pretty good, off to network configuration to get it hooked up to the wire. I bring up the wlan0 config menu and attempt to key in my ip address, but my number keys dont work. I try in the terminal and also the text editor but they dont seem to work at all. So I inputed my settings with the onscreen keyboard. Then I tried to bring wlan0 up again, but it just wouldnt. So I restarted.to see if that had any effect but unfortuneatley it didnt. Then I tried checking bring interface up automatically and rebooting, this worked ! and I was able to ping www.apple.com successfully.

On to the package manager to download a web browser and maybe some other software. I havnt used opie before so I wasnt familiar with the format of the package manager after playing with it for a bit I finally found a browser... konqeuror embedded... and tried to install it. Everything looked like it was going well until it told me that I was missing a library or something. It didnt stop long enough for me to get a good look at it so that I could download the library and try again.

One other thing that I noticed didnt work in my playing around was the screen brightness applet.

Now off to install the gpe rom. Once again, I'd like to thank whomever was involved in the development of this rom for the 6000.

[AsLan^]

Just a quick reply this time...

I loaded gpe using the same method as opie, and it installed with no problems.

It then booted and the gpe splash screen came up. I was a little worried because I thought the system had hung ! although that wasnt the case it just took about five minutes (maybe, I wasnt actually keeping time) to get past the splash. I was prompted for a root password and and to set up a user account. Very nice.

Then into gpe, which is running X. First appearances were good and I checked out some of the games, they werent exactly optimized for the 6000's screen but they worked nonetheless. The other applications seemed work if I clicked on them but I wasnt exactly thorough. I was interested in networking...

The rather bare and cryptic network configuration program wasnt really much help so I fired up rxvt and started browsing though the forums for information on how to do it with the command line. Well after about half an hour of hacking away at the command line I still wasnt able to get my wlan0 up and connected. I did actually manage to get it up but I dont use dhcp on my home network so that was no good. I edited the interfaces file with my correct information (using vi no less) and tried to connect again, this time ifconfig revealed that the settings had in fact been configured but I still was unable to connect to my lan, I suspect it may have been on the wrong channel or some other wifi related thing because the wifi light never stopped blinking (it goes solid when you are connected to a network). Unfortunately Ive had to give up as I have some other things to do tonight.

Other things of note, the numbers work ! although the numlock button doesnt. The underscore "_" doesnt seem to work for some reason although that could be related to rxvt. I didnt check it against any of the text editors.

I couldnt find any way to suspend or shutdown the unit which was a little odd although I must admit I didnt look *too * hard.

X worked fine and I saw a minimium number of artifacts (described in the other thread) as I worked on the Z.

The gpe rom seems like a good foundation for running your Z as a little linux computer rather than a half pda / half workstation kind of thing (like how I think of mine).

Thanks again    gotta run.

[neuroshock]

Thanks AsLan for the good input. You've pointed out the one thing that I was sure would be the first thing commented about right now- It has a pretty steep learning curve and documentation is weak for 6000 installation and issues.

This was definitely a good start but remember what we really need is OPINIONS OPINIONS OPINIONS! You know how you get tired of not being able to express an opinion in most threads without being gunned down?? Well this is the one thread where OPINIONS are welcome! It doesn't matter how caustic or how flattering, your opinion counts here and we want to hear it!

So follow AsLan's example and tell us how your experience went in trying to get OZ installed and then tell us what you liked and disliked along the way but when you're done don't forget to tell us if you think it was worth doing and if you plan to stick with OZ or go back to the original Sharp Rom.

Regardless if ya LOVE it or HATE it- we wanna hear about it!    

-NeuroShock

[AsLan^]

My opinion...

Opie and gpe need quite a bit of work to become usable. I wont be using either in their current incarnation simply because as it stands neither provide enough new features that I can see to offset the time cost involved in setting it up and getting it working.

I am interested in trying both again at a later stage especially gpe, I like the idea of running X on the Z and look forward to using it as my main windowing system in the future.

I would also like to see a decent overclocked kernel (I couldnt get the other one to work) and perhaps a 2.6 kernel, Im not sure why but I like the idea of running a cutting edge kernel.

On the applications side, in my opinion a web browser is a must. gpe comes with minimo but of course I never got networking working to give it a try and I didnt see too many browsers in the feed to give any a try on opie (well I did try konqueror).  

Could some other people give these a try and tell us about your experiences, I'm not personally involved in the development of openzaurus but I sure do want to see more development for our 6000's and neuroshock needs our feedback.

nevarrie, BarryW, gab74, kmatthew, I know you guys arent afraid to try something, why not give this a try and (re?)document your thoughts here.

Cheers

[oyku]

Having bought an SL-6000 recently I've read lots of messages and the first thing I felt for flashing the ROM was FEAR. Fear of not being able to revert to original state.

So as a new Z user I'm eager to trying OZ. Here are my thoughs. But before writing anything else I really suspect most people don't know what opie and gpe are.

Well here are my thoughts..

There must be an SL-6000 specific documentation for how to install OZ. Taking the possibility to do that either from SD or CF. I myself have not tried OZ yet. It is a time issue but I still have some fears.

Sharp ROM comes with commercial apps, and I think there must be some means of extracting them from Sharp ROM to OZ installation. There would of course be licencing issues, but I would like to be able o create ipk packages from my existing Sharp ROM and be able to install them on OZ. Those applications must cover Opera, Hancom Word and Hancom Sheet at least. Since all are includedin the price, all SL-6000 users must be eligible to use those software on their Zs.

I think this is a great opportunity for an open source project. I think almost all of the SL-6000 owners have the very same machine at their hands. SL-6000 with WiFi without Bluetooth. Can you imagine all the hardware is homogenous !!! That's not the case for SL-5X00. There are 5500 users and 5600 users.

My OPINION is the first thing to do is to encourage users to test OZ by providing necessary documentation to do testing without harming their original ROMs. And I think this is the first barrier to overcome. The FEAR of losing what already is present.

If I'm not mistaken There is no SL-6000 specific OZ website/section anywhere, or at least I could not find it.

Cheers.

[adf]

I got these, I think from a link to neavarrie's stuff. I haven't tried it, I can't guarzntee I have the right author. I am waiting for my 6k. nonrthelss I put it them in my 6k stuff and Think they sound reasonable. hope it helps

Installation of OpenZaurus 3.5.2

1.  Extract the 2 files - tools.cramfs updater.sh - to the root of your CF or SD/MMC card.
2.  plug in AC power.
3.  Press and hold the "OK" button on the keyboard.
4.  Turn the power on, you should see the service menu.
5.  Select option 4 (flash/update).
6.  You then have four options (1. USB, 2. CF, 3. SD, 4. Back)
7.  Choose either option 2 or 3, depending on which media you put the files on.
8.  Now select "1 Install new ROM"
9.  Now select the rom you wish to install(OPIE, GPE, PdaXrom, or initrd.bin/zImage.bin in root of media)OPIE is the current Usable.
10. When it has finished flashing the Kernel and rom image it will ask to format the /home partition.
11. Then choice reboot from the main menu.

[neuroshock]

My OPINION is the first thing to do is to encourage users to test OZ by providing necessary documentation to do testing without harming their original ROMs. And I think this is the first barrier to overcome. The FEAR of losing what already is present.

If I'm not mistaken There is no SL-6000 specific OZ website/section anywhere, or at least I could not find it.

VERY good point oyku! Strong opinion based on good reasoning- EXACTLY the kind of opinion prospective 6000/OZ users will want to know and that will help the OZ team improve their ROM in the future.

-NeuroShock

PS - Oyku, this Link to adf's Dec 19 2004, 06:40 AM post in the Main OZ/6000 thread should be helpful.

PSS - Please insure when posting here that you include an opinion as those without one will be moved to the more appropriate Main 6000/OZ thread.  If you wish to point posters of this forum to places where the answers are provided feel free to provide a link as I just did above, but also include/discuss some opinion that will help this thread move forward and stay on-topic.  

Dec 19 2004, 06:40 AM

[chapster]

Greetings people. I'm new to the Z forums - being in the UK, it's not been easy to get hold of a 6k, but now I have one and have flashed it with OZ-GPE 3.5.2.

I have worked my way through most of the problems that I've come across but am stuck on the whole suspend/resume thing and I've noticed it referred to previously but with no posted solution.

Symptoms are;

GPE running, battery power, press power button - nothing happens - won't suspend
GPE running, battery power, leave untouched - powers down
GPE running - mains power - nothing happens [this is OK]

Z powered down, press power button - nothing happens
Z powered down, press reset, press power button - reboots [sometimes]

So, in essence, if I leave the Z on battery power and let it power down, I can't get it to resume and it's difficult to presuade it to reboot. Has anyone else seen this on the SL-6000L?

I think that when I try and resume the Z, it is resuming sometimes [ I can ssh in via usbnet ] but the display isn't starting.

I've a fair bit of Linux under my belt and would be interested in helping out with the whole OZ debug thing, but this power problem is making OZ-GPE very difficult for me to use.

Any suggestions?

[chapster]

Well, I'll chip in here. The 6000 was my first foray away from the trusty Psions which I've used for years. This is the first machine I've felt confident could do what I wanted - everything the Psion could do but updated to colour [sic - I'm in the UK!] screen and WiFi. Having worked on Unix since Version 7 on PDP-11, I really wanted to bring Linux to my palmtop. As a result, Sharp-Qtopia clearly was not for me and OZ-GPE was [short of doing it myself]. Having run OZ-GPE for about a week now, my comments are;

The installation docs are very sparse, I flashed from the SD and had a few failures until I realised I was missing a file. The README in the OZ directory doesn't mention that you need zImage.bin!!

As mentioned elsewhere, the GPE/OE splash screen gives the appearance of having hung. I reset a few times before I got to the calibration screen. Either a message to this effect or fixing this problem would be wise. It's a worrying time as you start to think you've bricked your new toy.

Being a unix dude through and through, the first thing I did is fire up the terminal. Shame it's only rxvt and that the default shell has no command line recall - hard to bootstrap yourself with so few facilities - but I pressed on. It was a voyage of discovery finding out where the keys where. I still haven't found CTRL-C! A README or motd could go a long way to addressing this.

Both my 1Gb CF and 1Gb SD were recognised no problem which helps installing apps when you've got no networking. I think a gzip of some optional apps would be nice - a bit like

usbnet was a breeze to get going [well done], which gave me access from the desktop. It also let me install bash and sshd which went in flawlessly.

WiFi was pretty tough to get going. I had to understand the whole wlan-ng thing which is not nice. I think  this needs some work for general release. If you only have the Z's keyboard plus rxvt, poking around to get WiFi going will lose most people. I should mention that the network config gui doesn't seem to work.
It should be possible to ship with a couple of optional configs.

I think the run control scripts need a bit of work. Runlevel 2 is a weird one to chose - it's a multi-user machine with X running - sounds like 5 to me. Why is bluetooth started by default not WiFi?

I have major suspend/resume problems and, generally, support for the hardware buttons is non-existent which is a shame. I am planning to do VOIP, streaming media, and bespoke app dev when I've put together the toolchain. On this last point, a published 6000 toolchain would get more people bug fixing/porting. For example, I'd like to get a later gcc going (3.4 anyone) and a new kernel (2.6)

I can't comment on OPIE as I haven't installed - my experience with the Sharp ROM put me off ever going near it.

Generally, I should think anyone prepared to flash a new machine with stuff off the net is prepared to do a bit of work, but I think it's still too hard. There's some docs to write and  a few bugs to iron out but it's looking great - keep it up.

[chapster]

Following up on my own post, sorry

In GPE, the control characters can be sent using the calendar or contacts hotkey plus character.

[nevarrie]

I have worked my way through most of the problems that I've come across but am stuck on the whole suspend/resume thing and I've noticed it referred to previously but with no posted solution.

Any suggestions?

The way I may gpe suspend is by running "apm -s" from the console.  The only real issue I have with doign this is that it always logs me out, but that is better then rebooting every time.  Other then that I have not found much to get around the suspend problem.

[nevarrie]

Well since I am the brave sole that was willing to say I got OpenZaurus running on the SL-6000L Back in August I guess I shoudl put my opinions here...

My opinion would be that OZ on the SL-6000L is not ready for the common user.  I would not wish most of the troubles I go through on a daily basis on anyone unless they are willing to work with those problems.

Now with that said I would recommend anyone that is willing to take the time and try OZ go for it and find a problem and fix it.  This is what I did.  I just had no one to tell me that I was not going to turn my $600 handheld, one years worth a savings, into a brick.  I was willing to see if I could make X work on my Z so that I could run Firefox to be able to read my email through webmail on our exchange server at work(I never figured out how to make it work in Opera).

I have to admit that I flash from bootstrap to OZ/gpe to OZ/opie to Sharp to grantrom on a regular basis and can make all of them usable for me, but then again I run at console most of the time since ssh the the main thing I uses my Z for.

I guess the one thing people have to remeber is that OpenZaurus 3.5.x is a development version.  Hopefully most of the bugs will be fixed byt the time 3.6.0 comes out, but this requires people being willing to find those bugs and document them.  Though i also relieze that people like me need to document how those brave soles that are willing can backup their current Sharp rom, flash to the different OZ roms and then how to flash back to sharp rom and restore from backup(I will try to get this up on http://zaurus.thegrantclan.org over the holiday vacation)

So to state my opinion again, OpenZaurus is usable but not by the average person, opie is almost there but gpe needs alot of work.

[adf]

I'm wanting to go OZ gpe on my 6000 (when it arrives). Nevarrie, How does one schange clockspeeds in gpe--there is surely no qclockchange?

[byzantium]

Hi, this is moderator here .. please keep this topic for opinions on OZ only.  That means, if you can, try to keep the fact finding stuff in the regular thread OZ on 6000

Threads may be moved from here if they go too far off topic.

thanks
byz


Edit: this message was posted prior to the merging of the 'Final opinions thread' with the main OZ topic.  Feel free to put fact-finding stuff here!  -- byz

[adf]

surely one could make a "suspend" icon for apm -s?  it would be tidy, anyway.

can you change the clockspeed on a 6k in gpe?
adf