OpenZaurus 3.5.1 Released

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Posted by timothy on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @10:28AM from the ahead-of-its-time dept.

toarney writes "This is a few days old, but I just noticed that OpenZaurus 3.5.1 was released on 9/19/04. It is the first release based on the OpenEmbedded build system. You can get it in Opie or GPE Palmtop Environment flavors. Now if I could just get that 'magic bullet' program to compile on my Zaurus."

17 comments

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

GPE is really cool. by caseih · 2004-09-28 10:37 · Score: 1

I was really impressed with Qtopia and OPIE when I first saw them, but was immediately put off by the reliance on the QT toolkit and the framebuffer. Then I found GPE (which, by the way, can run many qtopia apps recompiled for QT/X11), which runs on a miniature X server (kdrive). This combined with a special window manager and desktop environment designed for small screens works really well. I like it better overall than OPIE, although it currently has some bugs, and Zaurus 5600 support is still not so good. It is amazing how well an X11-based environment works in an embedded environment. Although most X11s can't run well on such a small screen, I can easily adapt apps to run, whether they are qt, gtk, or whatever.

Give it a try. It's cool.
1. Re:GPE is really cool. by RevAaron · 2004-09-28 11:19 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  but was immediately put off by the reliance on the QT toolkit and the framebuffer.
  
  I was really interested in running BeOS, but I was immediately put off by the need to have a videocard to see the GUI.
  
  I mean, there has to be some way to push the pixels onto the screen, where you can see them.
  
  I'd second the suggestion- GPE sucks, but so does OPIE. No offense to the developers, both aren't
  the best soil from which to grow mature PDA apps, and hopefully things will get better. Sharp's Qtopia and Opie have a lot of little problems and immaturity leaking out of it, and in some ways GPE is no worse, and in a few ways it's better. And it's definately fun. ;)
  
  --
  
  Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
Support for Debian on the Zaurus. by Dan+Aloni · 2004-09-28 10:53 · Score: 1

Recently I received a Zaurus machine and reflashed it with the pdaxrom image. However, I find almost every image for the Zaurus a bit inadequate - getting used to Debian on the desktop makes it frustrating not to have 10000 apps apt-get'able at your fingertips.

However, I did manage to manually bootstrap a ARM-port of the Debian system over NFS and later downloaded it to a sundisk. I simply chroot to it, and then I have all I need including apt-get.

There are some web pages that describe how to use Debian on the Zaurus, but I haven't found yet anything that has ready images and easy installation.

--
0x2b or not 0x2b, the answer is -1
1. Re:Support for Debian on the Zaurus. by Karora · 2004-09-28 22:09 · Score: 1
  
  In fact Familiar is partly based on Debian, using ipkg rather than apt / dpkg and command like:
  ipkg update
  ipkg upgrade
  will do exactly what you expect them to, coming from a Debian environment. It's true that there aren't as many packages though - around 800-odd in the current unstable feed I think, which includes gpe, opie, and a fair amount of other stuff.
  I'm very impressed with the OpenEmbedded build system too - it seems to be a very well-thought-out environment for cross-compiling to a customised image.
  It may also be possible to go from a Familiar installation to a Debian one with a dchroot. I recently did that to convert from i386/woody to sarge/pure64 on an Opteron box, and it worked well.
  
  --
  
  ...heellpppp! I've been captured by little green penguins!
2. Re:Support for Debian on the Zaurus. by NoMercy · 2004-09-29 01:56 · Score: 1
  
  I installed 3.5.1 on monday, and I'm still having hastle with it, numerous things which should be done which arn't little oversights from software which hasn't had the chance to mature yet.
  
  The idea of puting debian on feels a lot nicer after having so much hastle just trying to get xmms to start, and having it segfault all over the shop :/
3. Re:Support for Debian on the Zaurus. by kcurrie · 2004-09-29 12:05 · Score: 1
  
  Long ago I install PocketWorkstation which is a debian install for the Z. It seemed great, but the SD/MMC driver at the time always crashed whenever there were heavy writes, which was anytime you tried to install a package :-(
  In recent times I haven't had any similar crashes, so maybe it's time to scrap the latest OZ which I just stumbled upon a few days ago and just go straight back to Debian :-) ..bought a new 1GB SD card at Fry's for $80 (after rebate) recently, so disk space shouldn't be an issue!
  
  --
  -- I speak only for myself.
I tried it... by brilinux · 2004-09-28 10:56 · Score: 1

I have a Zaurus Sl-5600; I have been waiting for them to release this for a while. I tried the GPE version first, it was really nice, but of course, as a beta, there are some problems. I then went to try the OPIE version, but accidentally overwrote the kernel instead of the root image on my flash card. Without realizing this, I flashed it, and now have an unusable $400 PDA. Any suggestions, other than not to be so stupid? It is a great OS, for a great PDA, though, when the owner is not an idiot.
1. Re:I tried it... by Enucite · 2004-09-28 11:05 · Score: 1
  
  Reflash it?
2. Re:I tried it... by the_maddman · 2004-09-28 11:10 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  You should be able to reflash it even with a dead kernel, you'll just need a CF card and reader for your PC. I've flashed the wrong kernel into my SL-5500 before and it keeps coming back for more, if you want to get rid of the 5600, just let me know.
3. Re:I tried it... by mikecron · 2004-09-28 11:47 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Follow these instructions: Link
4. Re:I tried it... by brilinux · 2004-09-28 13:09 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, I tried reflashing; it needs a kernel in order to run the flashing environment, and I overwrote the kernel, so that will not work. It is quite annoying.
5. Re:I tried it... by brilinux · 2004-09-28 13:11 · Score: 1
  
  The 5600 uses a different flashing system - it requires a kernel to reflash. This is nice because if you screw up an old flash, you can use the little environment to resore it. If, however, you overwrite the kernel, you are screwed.
6. Re:I tried it... by brilinux · 2004-09-28 13:14 · Score: 1
  
  I will try that, but if it needs a kernel to do, it will not work. I thank you very much though as I will try that; I suppose that I should not respond to everyone who comments on my posts.
7. Re:I tried it... by Enucite · 2004-09-28 14:19 · Score: 1
  
  That's odd, I've messed up flashing several times and it's always let me reflash it.
8. Re:I tried it... by brilinux · 2004-09-28 14:37 · Score: 1
  
  When I try to flash (sl-5600), it goes to the flash screen, I select a source medium (I use CF), and then it goes blank. It does not flash.
9. Re:I tried it... by the_maddman · 2004-09-28 14:51 · Score: 1
  
  Well, if that's true, and you can't get to the "maint screen" with the kernel messed up, I wonder what's up with the designers of this model. To build a system you can't recover from a bad flash... It's like the motherboards with soldered on bios chips. There's got to be a debug header inside the Zaurus somewhere, but finding the right tools would be tough. Good luck with it though, I know I'd hate to brick my 5500.
10. Re:I tried it... by Enucite · 2004-09-28 17:55 · Score: 1
  
  Oh, I've got a 5500. To flash it I just hold down C+D and hit reset. When I was first learning how to flash it, I used the wrong files several times. I once renamed the Ospack to zImage (first time flashing the sharp rom) and another time I copied an initrd file over the zImage.
  
  I'm actually surprised the 5500 is safer to flash than the 5600.