Debian On Pdaxrom

[freebird]

great work chero thanks


and thanks to you all guys

[Xumbi]

Woohoo!  I followed these instructions and now I can install packages and run them right from within matchbox.

However, I have a very strange problem now.  When I'm at the command prompt in X, my caps lock keeps toggling on and off, it seems to do it by itself, and I can't figure out why.  This makes it take forever to do anything on the command line.

Does this process modify anything to do with the keyboard mappings?

[scoutme]

little detail question: do I really need to use the gnu-tar.tgz file? Isn't the pdaxrom tar good? I think it should. Am I wrong?

[scoutme]

Woohoo!  I followed these instructions and now I can install packages and run them right from within matchbox.

However, I have a very strange problem now.  When I'm at the command prompt in X, my caps lock keeps toggling on and off, it seems to do it by itself, and I can't figure out why.  This makes it take forever to do anything on the command line.

Does this process modify anything to do with the keyboard mappings?

had the same problem with kb mapping... caps is getting me crazy

[scoutme]

this mapping problem sux!!! need to solve it
linux without tab correctly working... USELESS

[stbrock]

little detail question: do I really need to use the gnu-tar.tgz file? Isn't the pdaxrom tar good? I think it should. Am I wrong?

I *think* I read that the problem was with the busybox tar, which did not have a necessary option to expand the directory structure exactly the right way. RC8 has a full tar, so it might be okay.


As to keyboard mapping, I agree 100% that this is a continuing problem in a number of different projects and circumstances. The fix itself is often fairly easy, though sometimes mysterious if seemingly correct settings don't work for some keys or some programs.  The thing that really makes it frustrating is that you often can't use your usual editors etc. to fix the keyboard map because *the keyboard map is broken* --  a classic Catch-22.  Like one time the supplied editor was vi and the colon key didn't work.  I've spent hours getting a tool that will work and then a few minutes on the fix.

So everyone -- PLEASE POST YOUR KEYBOARD MAP FIXES.  

[pgas]

keymapping:

maybe pocketworkstation is mapping the key in a different way as it was set up for starting in a non-x environnement.

you could try to do

Code: [Select]

xmodmap /etc/X11/kb/corgi.xmodmap
in a new terminal, but NOT in the chrooted environement.
(eventually the same with /etc/X11/kb/userdefined.xmodmap if you had modified something)

Note that I don't use it, but if what I say is true a definitive fix would be to look into the init scripts for calls to xmodmap  for instance and remove them.

gnu.tar.gz:
When you run debian as described here you are running in a chrooted environement, meaning that you in fact use another root files system. Ie if you unpack the debian distrib in /mnt/card/debian in the chrooted environement the applications will think that the files in /lib are the files in /mnt/card/debian/lib. Hence the applications use a completely different sets of libs and not the one that comes with pdaxrom.

As debian is a distribution, this ensure that the applications are using the correct version of the libs, that they find their config files in the right place etc etc...: maximum compatibility

The drawbacks are:
- it's a bit slower
- some applications do not behave correctly in a chrooted applications
- the kernel is still the pdaxrom ones and such might not be compatible with the debian distribution.

Now can you get rid of the gnu.tar.gz?, it depends, some applications built for debian might still be running (and some reports in this forum seems to indicate that some really do) with the libs that comes with pdaxrom because the libraries are not that different from one version to another.
But you have to try.  

I think .deb are like ipk tar or ar archive, meaning that you can easily decompress them and copy the files over.

I hope it clarifies things  a little bit (and that what is say is not total bullshit ;-), in this
 case please please correct me )

[scoutme]

the gnu-tar question referred to the need of tar during installation of chrooted debian tar, nothing to do with debian execution - I didn't explain as due.
I already tried the xmodmap thing, and that's not helpfull  basically there's a CAPS-LOCK mapped in tab key, instead of fn-tab.
I'm trying to correct init files and mapping files, but no way to correct it
Quite frustrating

[ScottYelich]

the gnu-tar thing may be related to an issue I was having where the system that I was
using was not able to untar the debian-big file... and I think I used the ipaq cluster to
compile a static gnutar.

in any case, if a tar works, it works... if one doesn't, try the gnu-tar....

Scott
ps: sorrry, no idea on the caps issue.

[CyberWolf]

Hello everyone...

About this problem with key mapping... well, I don't seem to have it. But my config it's a lot hacked, so maybe I corrected it when I used pocketworkstation with Sharp rom and I forgot it... or maybe my base install of pocketworkstation was different than the one avaiable now (btw, now that I think of it, I didn't use the debian-big or debian-standard tar.gz files, I created them with deb-bootstrap).

Anyway, there are two places when pocketworkstation can mess up with your modmap (I'm both referrring to path inside the chroot):

1) init scripts (as pgas already suggested). There could be something in /etc/init.d whiich changes mapping. You can check what's started in /etc/init.d by checking /etc/debroot.conf (outside the chroot) at the line DEB_RUN_SERVICES or similar)

2) .profile, .bashrc in the home your chrooted user, or /etc/profile or similar. Basically check for shell scripts (the ones who set the prompt, basic alias, and such).

I can't think of any other way pocketworkstation can mess things up... it's basically inoffensive  

Hope this helps somewhat!

Ciao,

Andrea

P.S. About openoffice: not enough space to check it in debian... I'll wait till I get a 1Gb SD...

[pgas]

see this PocketWorkstationKeymaps

perhaps looking for .xmodmaprc in the /root of the debian root might help

[Chero]

P.S. About openoffice: not enough space to check it in debian... I'll wait till I get a 1Gb SD...

I've been playing a bit with the installation of openoffice.
Especially the .deb files from the link I mentioned earlier.

This doesn't improve the installation. I tried to install the "bin" package,
- it needed an extra lib (libneon...), which I found and installed.
- it needed some packages from the feed (openoffice.org, openoffice-debian-files), i downloaded those too and had to install them with the "force" option.

This installs a totally seperate version of openoffice, but, as the packages come from different sources, they are from different versions (1.1.2 and 1.1.3)

After changing .sversionrc I was able to start "ooffice" from command prompt. This gives me openoffice 1.1.2 (not too sure about this, it's what's in the title bar)
It seems to have less options than the version from the "tar.gz"(1.1.4), and i think it is a bit slower.

I think I'll stick to the "tar.gz" for now and uninstall the .deb packages, so I can use apt-get again. (For the moment is says I need to run the -f install option and remove the openoffice* packages before it can proceed - not very pretty).
The "tar.gz" gives a clean install and working version to experiment.

About the decimal values:
This is a bit strange, it accepts some and changes others. I have no clue why and there doesn't seem to be any logic in it, except from the fact that it just doesn't accept certain values (e.g. "0.21")
The behaviour is different when I format the cells before entering the values.
Then it accept more values.
(Gnumeric in pdaX also does strange things to my reals, dates, ... when I import from .xls or vice versa. (Gnumeric in Debian doesn't))

Does anyone know what to change or can think of a workaround ?
Could this be due to the chrooted system ?
Could the behaviour be different when I run the sharp-rom instead of pdaX ?

All hints are welcome.

Cheers,
Chero.

[Xumbi]

Hello everyone...

About this problem with key mapping... well, I don't seem to have it. But my config it's a lot hacked, so maybe I corrected it when I used pocketworkstation with Sharp rom and I forgot it... or maybe my base install of pocketworkstation was different than the one avaiable now (btw, now that I think of it, I didn't use the debian-big or debian-standard tar.gz files, I created them with deb-bootstrap).

Anyway, there are two places when pocketworkstation can mess up with your modmap (I'm both referrring to path inside the chroot):

1) init scripts (as pgas already suggested). There could be something in /etc/init.d whiich changes mapping. You can check what's started in /etc/init.d by checking /etc/debroot.conf (outside the chroot) at the line DEB_RUN_SERVICES or similar)

2) .profile, .bashrc in the home your chrooted user, or /etc/profile or similar. Basically check for shell scripts (the ones who set the prompt, basic alias, and such).

I can't think of any other way pocketworkstation can mess things up... it's basically inoffensive   

Hope this helps somewhat!

Ciao,

Andrea

P.S. About openoffice: not enough space to check it in debian... I'll wait till I get a 1Gb SD...

1. I ran 'grep init /etc/debroot.conf', it didn't come back with anything.

2. Here's my .profile and .bashrc in /mnt/card/debian/home/root:

.bashrc

Code: [Select]

# ~/.bashrc: executed by bash(1) for non-login shells.

export PS1='\w\$ '
umask 002
unset HISTFILE

export PAGER=less
export LESS=-MCqi
export LESSCHARSET=latin1

export PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH
# You may uncomment the following lines if you want `ls' to be colorized:
# export LS_OPTIONS='--color=auto'
export LS_OPTIONS='--color=never'
# eval `dircolors`
# alias ls='ls $LS_OPTIONS'

alias ll='ls $LS_OPTIONS -lFGA'
alias l='ls $LS_OPTIONS -CF'
alias m=less

# Some more alias to avoid making mistakes:
# alias rm='rm -i'
# alias cp='cp -i'
# alias mv='mv -i'

nd () { mkdir -p "$1"; cd "$1"; }.profile

Code: [Select]

# ~/.profile: executed by Bourne-compatible login shells.

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
  . ~/.bashrc
fi

PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11
export PATH

mesg nI really hope we can figure this out.

[CyberWolf]

1. I ran 'grep init /etc/debroot.conf', it didn't come back with anything.

No, you have to search for the line which starts with "DEB_RUN_SERVICES" and check out if it contains strange stuff (i.e. different than ssh, lpd, inetd and such).

Anyway, I checked the zaurus-debian-base-v0.17.tar.gz I have download at the time (the one which can be used for a default install) and:

1) In DEB_RUN_SERVICES there isn't anything which mess up the modmap (so I doubt there will be in your system)

2) In the native enviroment init script, it's the same as above

3) In /root no .bashrc nor .profile contains stuff which can modify the modmap, neither I can find a .xmodmaprc

4) The same goes for /etc/profile

How are you running pocketworkstation? I've assumed all the time you wanted to run applications inside PdaXrom X server, but maybe you want to run it in the normal way of pocketworkstation...

So, have you started the Xvnc server (check with the "ps" command from an aterm) or Fbvnc? Maybe one of these is messing things up...

Otherwise I'm almost out of clues...

Bye,

Andrea

P.S. To simplify things (well, maybe): can you post the contents of your /etc/debroot.conf?

[CyberWolf]

Does anyone know what to change or can think of a workaround ?
Could this be due to the chrooted system ?
Could the behaviour be different when I run the sharp-rom instead of pdaX ?

Uhm... respectively: no idea, supposedly not and maybe.

More on the above:

For some kind of workaround, I don't have any idea... I can't test OO at the moment, and even in that case, I suspect I would be completely clueless  

About this behaviour being caused by the chrooted system, I doubt it... or better: I don't think it's caused from the fact that the system is chrooted, BUT it may be caused by the Debian libraries being buggy or something like it...

And finally, about trying another rom... are you crazy? This is the PdaXrom forum!!!!  

No, seriously... you can take a try, a different kernel could change things... I don't know... surely it can take some time and you must must consider if it's worth the effort (especially considering the fact that if you have success with the Sharp ROM, it's still a long way to understand why it doesn't work why PdaX and then fix things...    ).

Maybe one of the best things that can be done is sending a mail to the author of the OO packages for the arm and try to explain him or her the problem, maybe he/she can help...

Sorry if I can't be really useful...  

Bye,

Andrea

P.S. I never used so many emoticons in a message! Well... now that I'm at it...   (a ninja?)