Random mumblings of ARM developer
From time to time I see people asking what to use instead of original charger to charge Zaurus palmtops. Some suggest using Sony PSP chargers, some recommends sync-and-charge USB cables.
I have simpler solution — USB Hub chargers. Recently I bought another powered USB Hub and it’s charger does not fit in any of my left sockets (due to size of plug) so I charge it with original Sharp Zaurus charger. Other way is of course proper too — Zaurus power plug is compatible with many devices ;)
It is nearly a year since I got 770 tablet. Currently it is used mostly by my wife as platform for Mahjongg and few other games. Still OS2006 installed as os2007on770 project failed for me — device became even slower (yes — it is possible to make 770 slower then it is) and more often display “no enough memory” requester.
Recently I noticed that “RSS Feed Reader” (pre-installed one) do not want to launch so there is no way to add/edit list of feeds. I did not checked which other applications also stopped working. The worst thing is that it has to stay in such state…
Why? Few reasons:
I will leave it just like it is now — few things still work so maybe it will be usable for some time…
During last month I did testing how building Poky Linux works under few commercial GNU/Linux distributions. Due to costs I used their free versions (CentOS instead of RHEL and OpenSUSE instead of SLED).
First was CentOS 5.1 as someone asked does Poky works under newest RHEL distribution. With VirtualBox it was easy to start with. But CentOS installation over network is total CRAP. You have to enter HTTP mirror name by hand, then (also by hand) enter path on server… Doing such installations on real hardware definitely require having second machine or long preparation. Of course you can also use CDs as install media. But then better burn all 6 of them or be surprised that #2 is needed for few packages…
But finally I installed it and landed in 2006 software… Out of box CentOS does not have required packages or have them in so old versions that search for unofficial repositories or compile software by hand is required.
Two days later (time of build) I had “poky-image-sato” and “poky-image-sdk” built. But QEmu does not want to work on this distribution so I had to say goodbye to binary locales generation.
Second one was OpenSUSE 10.3 version. This one also has network install CD which require entering name of HTTP mirror and path. But here I got few new surprises… First it ask for IP address of server but accept normal name. Second was that when I made mistake in path it ask them again but gave me old values so I only had to fix instead of typing whole path.
After installation I had to add some packages but this time no extra repositories were needed. OpenSUSE lack gcc 3.x so we added gcc-native 3.4.4 into Poky and QEmu binary locale generation was working.
Free versions of commercial distributions require a bit of time to install all required packages but then building Poky Linux under them is working like it should (except QEmu problem under CentOS).
Few days ago I shared my thoughts on replacing Zaurus palmtop with other device. According to comments few people do not understand why hardware keyboard is so important for me.
Nearly 4 years ago I bought my first Linux powered PDA — Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 (codename: “collie”). One of nice features was hardware keyboard:
It is thumb operated keyboard but usable after a bit of learning. You have everything needed to operate in console, writing text — even Vi is usable (“Cancel” key works as Esc).
Time passed and I got another Zaurus — this time it was clamshell model — c760 (codename: “husky” or “c7x0”). This device has great keyboard. Keys are small but there is separate row with numerical keys so it is improvement from “collie” one.
Those Japanese keys right to “Fn” one are mapped as “Control” and “Alt” so user can even try to use Emacs :) For Vi lovers there is “Cancel” key which works as Esc.
Another months passed and another Zaurus arrived at my place — this time is was SL-6000L (codename: “tosa”). It has keyboard similar to “collie”: but more comfortable due to size of keys:
“Esc” is on “Cancel” like it is in collie.
Recently one Finnish company released new product from their line of tablets: N810. It was their first tablet with integrated keyboard. Thanks to photos provided by Koen I can comment a bit on it too. It it similar to “collie” and “tosa” keyboards when it comes to mapping (no numeric keys, lot of symbols available only with “Fn” key) but it also lack “Tab” key which can make shell using a bit harder.
There is “Esc” key — one of side keys works as one (not visible on photo).
For now the best keyboard is “c7x0” one — all needed keys are available, lot of others can be made available by editing keymap. And when I have to hack something on device good keyboard is one of most important things. I can not count how many times I ended with having 3-4 consoles running on my c760 with miscellaneous applications started due to amount of hacking required by projects.
UPDATE: Matthias ‘CoreDump’ Hentges reminded me about Zaurus SL-Cxx00 keyboards (used in c1000/c3000/c3100/c3200 models):
Yes — they are similar to “c760” one but have changed cursors into 4-pad and each key is separate one — they are no longer parts of membrane. Many people found that one more comfortable then “c7x0” one but I am not one of them — used both and still prefer older one.
Few months ago I switched my website to“Big Blue” theme created by Bob. Then did some changes to it:
Also CSS changes:
quotes are italic
Download archive is no longer available.
There is lot of talk about reading books for children. In Poland there is a big campaign on that subject called “Read your child for 20 minutes, daily” (which has some rhymes in Polish language).
I started reading very early and have no problems with reading (even in languages which I do not fully understand which was useful during our trip to Slovakia in 2005). And I plan to read books for my daughter.
But I wonder what kind of child she would be if I would read computer books instead of children books…
My Zaurus c760 is nice ARM based palmtop. I use it for testing miscellaneous things during my work days.
It was device where I hacked some Python based applications to fit in 10 megabytes of flash (it was fully working console system with Python and those apps). I test Ångström and Poky on it, tested different combinations of software etc…
But it shows age — batteries (950mAh and 1700mAh ones) started to lose capacity (one of them gives less then 60%) so sooner or later this device will stop booting (as battery is needed to boot even on AC).
But how to replace this device? There are lot of ARM palmtops in a world but most of it lack one or more features which c7x0 has:
Due to first one all devices powered by Samsung S3Cxxxx processor can be ignored. Most of today WindowsMobile powered devices lack VGA screen (not to mention that they also usually lack Linux support). But at least those ones are available in normal shops in Poland.
I already considered few options but each of them has minuses:
In worst situation I will slowly switch to using QEmu ARM emulation instead of real device.
During holidays I found another usage for my current phone (SonyEricsson k750i). It is Bluetooth Remote Control functionality.
Basically it turn phone into HID device but the good thing is that user can create own profile for this. There is a tool for it (Microsoft Windows executable) and also those files can be created by hand (instructions are provided by Stefan ‘tommie’ Tomanek as part of his excellent guide about using this cellphone with Linux).
I do not know does it is possible on Neo1973 (IIRC BlueZ only has HID daemon) but I will miss it if it is not…