Re: [tlug] Linux Zaurus is very cool

[Al Hoang <hoanga@example.com>]

Hi,

	I guess since my name was quoted in this thread I should eventually
say something on Zaurii....

On Thu, Oct 26, 2006 at 10:58:34AM +0900, Joseph Essertier wrote:
> Below is a summary of what information I was able to gather from
> previous posts that relate to my 1st question.  None of them completely
> answer it, although they all help a little.   
> 
> My 1st question was:
> 1. Has anyone successfully installed a Linux distribution on one, or set
> > it up to double-boot?  How complicated is that?  I looked at the Wiki
> > page on Zaurii, and a few of the Zaurus-compatible distributions

  Short Answers to question 1:
1a.  Yes
1b.  No

  Long winded answers...
1a. Edward and I have been able to get pdaXrom and OZ running on
    a Zaurus 860/760.  I've also been able to get the Cacko ROM installed
    on a 760.  After a bout of pain, I now have pdaXrom 1.1.0r121 on my
    760.  I consider that a resounding success to actually having an
    alternate Linux distribution on a Zaurus.  Now if you're inquiring 
    specifically on the 3200 and alternate distributions.  Congratulations
    on becoming the HOWTO maintainer for that ;)
1b.  The process for dual-boot looks complicated and annoying if you're not
     already familiar with the process of flashing your Zaurus to the point
     that is as natural as flushing the toilet.  I also want to 
     pre-congratulate you on volunteering to write a dual-boot guide to
     Zaurus that doesn't suck  ;-)
     I have zero interest in dual-booting a Zaurus since the models I have
     are far too space limited to get them to do anything useful with them
     besides claim that it can be done. [1]

> 
> If you look at what I copied and pasted in below, you'll see that no one
> says that they have actually been successful or been completely
> satisfied with their dual boot setup, and no one tells us how hard it
> was (at least not in terms that semi-newbies like me can understand).

	See 1b.

> Alain has had some success with KO/PI, but that's not a dual boot set
> up, is it?  It's an alternative PIM that runs on the Sharp Zaurus
> distribution of Linux.  In other words, I think that my question has not
> been answered before.  I looked for an article that surveys the present
[snip]

	KO/PI is an application not a Linux distribution for the Zaurus.
In regards to Q#3 in your original post...
Q: Good sync software for the Zaurus?
A: Don't know.   Sharp has been pretty bad about documenting the data format
   for their PIM suite and have been known to change it.  I think it was XML
   in one series of the Zaurii (5x00?) then it changed to a binary format.
   I wouldn't be surprised if there were multiple binary versions floating
   around.  While, you're more than welcome to reverse engineer the data format
   (for probably only one series of the Zaurus) and gain the praise of the 
   Zaurus community everywhere it'll probably take a non-trivial amount of 
   time (unless you eat binary data formats for breakfast).
   I've found KO/PI your best bet if you want share data back and forth 
   without having a Sunday hacking project to work on.
   And remember, beneath all that gloss it's a Linux box.  You could just
   dump a textfile of important data and scp that back and forth :)
   Secure and (sorta) robust syncing on the cheap!

[snip]
> ------
> Alain let us know this:
> OZ has been making progress but if you want a stable PDA I'm not sure OZ is at that stage yet.
> 
> And this:
> If you can get KO/PI up and running, I have found that to be your best option.

	Actually the KO/PI suggestion is not something I found.  Actually
that was Michael Cooper and based on my brief experiments with KO/PI it's
far better than dealing with the aggravation that is the Sharp PIM suite.


> --------
> 
> Based on what Stu and Alain said, it sounds like there aren't yet any Linux distributions 
> that run on the 3200 in a stable way, but I'd like to confirm that, and get a sense of how 
> unstable they are.  I mean, if there's a good chance of them breaking the hardware, I won't 
	I'm not sure I said that exactly.  I think you're extrapolating.
But I think it's safe to be wary that the 3200 can easily run any of 
the alternative distributions.  However, based on my knowledge of the 
specs of the 3200 (20 second glance at Bikku) it is basically a beefed 
up 3100 which means that getting an alternate distro to install on it 
should not be that difficult in theory.
	The people who really are in a rut when it comes to flashing the Zaurus
with a different distro are the 3000 owners.  The 16MB flash is really a 
critical limiting factor as most of the Linux distros for the Zaurii 
make assumptions on how much Flash space they have to play with when
installing themselves on the Zaurus.  I believe the 3200 has 128MB, right?
If that's the case, you can probably install something like OpenZaurus /
pdaXrom / Cacko and be snapping along.
	What you will probably lose are any proprietary drivers that came
with the 3200 Sharp ROM and of course the bundled apps.  For example,
there seems to be a driver for the 3200 that allows >1GB SD Cards to work
properly. [3]

	One page that I've found very helpful and quite thorough in regards
to Sl-C3x00 and getting it to do anything resembling useful is Luc's
Zaurus page [3] (It's even Net{Af}Front friendly!)


[1] Sometimes that is a good enough reason. [2]
[2] Just not for me
[3] Hd Luc's Zaurus Page,  http://www.users.on.net/~hluc/myZaurus/