[NBLUG/talk] zaurus 5500

[troy]

On Tue, May 06, 2003 at 05:45:49AM -0700, error wrote:
> So yesterday I bought a (super cool) zaurus 5500.
> 
> I got the 128 meg sd card and I also got the wireless card from netgear.
> 
> It's pretty cool stuff.
> 
> I have been able to get online via the wifi but I swear that I cannot
> get my laptop to talk to the device.
> 
> I recompiled the kernel like this said
> ()http://docs.zaurus.com/lc_generic.shtml()

First off, for reliable usb networking, you're going to need to get
yourself a 2.4.21pre3 or later kernel (rc1 is out).  It has usbnet (NOT,
usbDnet) built in and that's much more reliable.  The only thing
reliable about usbdnet is that it has the bad habit of causing kernel
panics on the desktop.  There's a usbnet patch around for earlier
kernels but it's flaky and slow.  At least it doesn't hang the box
though.  I've been happily running 2.4.21-pre3-ac5 for 3 months now...

I keep up on some Z mailing lists, and while I don't use it myself,
qtopia desktop is apparently unreliable.  Keep your data backed up if
you do use it.  Unison is a great tool for backups.  For syncing,
there's a KDE package called kitchensync, but I'm not sure of its
reliability either.  

Couple other tips:
symlink /root/Documents,Applications and Settings to your SD card.  That
way if you have to hard reset, all that stuff is still around.  

There's a bug where if you reboot twice without suspend in between,
you'll need to hard reset, so get in the habit of suspending immediately
after any reboot.

Last, OpenZaurus!
http://openzaurus.org
Debian based, need I say more?  

Just as you've gotten used to 'apt-get install' on the desktop, you can
'ipkg install' on oz.  (o.k., i think there are probably feeds for the
Sharp ROM too)

Wireless on oz3.2 seems to just 'work'

I know you a little bit from this mailing list, and I can pretty much
guarantee you'd be far happier hacking on OZ.

Have fun, let me know if you have any other ?'s

-t