Picked up one of these Zaurus SL-5500 the other day. Had time to play with and have some questions for other Zaurus users. Note some of my questions can be to hard to understand. I hope you can. Help on any questions will be of great help.

Info about system
Using Prostar Notebook and all is working. I see any USB keyboard, mouse, thumbdrive, harddrive, and IEEE1394 devices as well.
Running mostly a FC3 with current updates through Apt/Synaptic.
Running kernel 2.6.11-rc3 custom compiled.

Zaurus is a SL-5500
Running OpenZaurus 3.5.2
Have a Dlink DCF-650W Wireless Card in it and running fine.
Used sd and compact flash cards with no problems.

Can ping the Zaurus through the wireless card from notebook and vice a vrsa.

1. How do you setup Zaurus to communicate through the USB cradle?
This is what I have done so far. I have edit /etc/hotplug/blacklist and added ' cdcether ' to the end and restarted hotplug. When I insert Zaurus into cradle ' tail -f /var/log/messages ' I get the following.
Mar 4 20:54:34 lcomp58 kernel: usb 6-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 7

And when I unplug I get this.
usb 6-1: USB disconnect, address 7

Now the only other thing I have done is ' modprobe usbnet ' on the notebook.

If I do a ifconfig -a there is no usb0 like I keep reading about.

What am I missing?

2. What is the best way to install software?
Use the Package Manager ( so far a few apps do not install, they error for some reason.)

3. What is the best way to install apps?
When using the Package Manager, one can choose ram, root, sd, cf. Is this where the software is installed to?
This is the way it looks to me when I remove the sdcard the apps disappear. Then reappear when I insert the sdcard. I assume this is the best way for apps.
What packages would require using the ram or root options?
I assume root is / not root' home folder?
If install non package apps what is the best way to install them to the sdcard and not use the zaurus memory. Unless something is smart and installs all files to /mnt/card/usr or whatever?

4. Would firefox run on this device?
If so would I just download the source code and compile it like normal on a linux box.
Would I be missing any compiler software?

5. If not firefox then what other gui browser works well?

6. In the network config section there is one called WLAN and one called WIFI. What's the difference? I just configured WLAN one for wireless setup.

7. What does it take to setup SSH on the Zaurus?
I see the port is open to it from nmap.

Thank you to all for your time and help.
Brian1

Brian,

I have a Z and can answer a few, but not all questions.

Have a look at my page

http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/~purschke/zaurus/

that describes hooking up via infrared. I have not bothered with the cradle, back in kernel 2.4 I would get system freezes and I use IrDA.

In the original OS version that Sharp ships with the unit, the flash Eprom is read-only. That's where the OS itself is installed. Then there is the battery-backed ramdisk where you could install you apps (or, optionally, on one of the two cards, but then, as you point out, the apps disappear when you remove the cards). OpenZaurus makes that original read-only ram area (whihc is not part of the 64MB ram) writeable, and that's what "root" means, it's just an additional area. Now you can install OpenZaurus from various images that divide the 64M in different size chunks between ramdisk and actual Ram (32-32, 24-48, etc). I installed the 24-48 (I think I did) and then populated /root with smaller utils until it had almost no more space and then started with ram, to max out the space I have.

You need to get the "Zen" of the packageManager first, it takes some getting used to, but it works for me and gets the job done.

Also, ssh works, you can just connect once teh Z is on teh network.

If you have more questions, just ask, I left the PDA at work so I can't look at things right now.

mlp

Thanks for the relpy. I never got the cradle working yet. Don't think it will with the 2.6 kernel structure. Be compiling the newest and have more issues trying to see it.

But I got it to sync over the network using a dlink wireless card. Wireless card was easy to setup. Using Qtopia 1.7 to make backup of contacts. Only main reason. I beleive it can be used with kpim or something. Still studying that one.

Now I have been playing with using the Package Manager but many apps give this error ' libstdc++6(.=3.4.2). I also read on the openzaurus site it has issues using package manager for maybe more than 3 installed apps. It can lockup.

I will look into the Zen and see what it is all about. Also will check out the link as well. Also was looking to see how to install apps in a terminal screen.

Do you have a web browser installed and if so which one is it.

Still playing but getting use to it. Thanks for any help.
Brian1

Also still not figured out how to get ssh connection. What does one need to do the setup a basic connection from linux to the zaurus. The zaurus is accepting ssh connections but requires password. Don't know if there is a default or what it takes to set this up. Haven't done any ssh before, just telnet and ftp along time ago. I wouldn't run these today.

Also is there any other editor program besides vi on the zaurus. I really don't care for vi.

Thanks for any help again
Brian1

I also didn't find usb0 when typing ifconfig. I was following these directions: http://www.openzaurus.org/web/index....d=29&Itemid=44

When it says that "...usb0 should definitely be there." keep reading!

This is a quote of the instructions:

First your Z:

Start 'Network' in your Settings dir. Click on the interface 'usbd0' and click configure.

Fill in the Following:

(X) Automatically bring up
( ) DHCP

Static Ip Configuration
IP Address 192.168.129.201
Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0

Leave the rest empty for now.

On your linux computer, as root, type the following:

ifconfig usb0 192.168.129.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

This should configure your USB network interface and bring it up. Now we'll try if we can reach the Z. On the console, we'll do this by pinging it's IP address:

bateau:~# ping -c 5 192.168.129.201
PING 192.168.129.201 (192.168.129.201) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.129.201: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=2.38 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.129.201: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=1.27 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.129.201: icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=1.15 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.129.201: icmp_seq=4 ttl=255 time=1.24 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.129.201: icmp_seq=5 ttl=255 time=1.22 ms

--- 192.168.129.201 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 4003ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1.150/1.453/2.382/0.467 ms

If you don't get the same message as above, you've probably screwed up in on of the steps above and go through them again.

end quote

I followed the above directions and was able to successfully ping my Z! woohoo!

My question now is: How do I use the usb cradle to allow my desktop to communicate with the Z? Do I need some kind of desktop software? If so, where could I find it?

Thank you very much.

Worked OK for me. Had to recompile the kernel for few other options. Still like the network sync setup. Just need to carry the power supply. Power suppply plugs right into the Z.

As far as what I have tried so far is the Qtopia version 1.7 from http://www.trolltech.com/download/qt...dex.html?cr=1. Select from the bootom list on the page. All I needed to do on the Z is on Settings > Security > Sync, change the Accept sync from Network to my IP structure. Had to add my there. The USB one is in the list. Just select that one. Then changed the Selct your favorite Software to Qtopia. Then start Qtopia on your Linux box and it ask for you to allow the connection on the Z. Click allow on Z and voila.

Here is a link to the other post for help for others to review.
http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/sho...577#post216577

Might give the Irda a try one of these days.

Found a SDG adapter that plugs my cell phone into the Z. Doesn't look to bad to do.

About the only thing lacking will the camera that works in it. See many cheap on Ebay.

I think at one time it can do gps as well. Anyone every do this. If so what hardware did you use as well as the software. Is it worth it?

Thanks for the help everyone. Getting closer.
Brian1

Here is an update: I reflashed the ROM, this time to the 3.5.2 version of OpenZaurus (OZ) and I chose GPE (which I like much better, incidentally) instead of Opie. Finally, I found these instructions on using SSH to communicate with the Z (Zaurus)!!

http://www.oesf.org/index.php?title=SSH_and_SCP

It worked like a charm. Now, all I have to do is type SSH the name of the file I want to upload to the Z and my username@IPaddress:location where location is the location on the Z I want the file saved to.

It is all text-based, no GUI. Nothing fancy, but at least it works! Now I can upload .ipk files to compile software on the Z, etc... and so forth.

Anybody know if Qtopia works with OpenZaurus??

Not sure about the gpe release. Under Opie it works well. I ended up syncing over my wireless nic. To get it going I did the following.

On the Z:
1. Goto Settings > Security > Sync
2. I had to add my netowrk setup Example 192.168.20.0/24
3. Syncing Software box below that I selected Qtopia.

On notebook running FC3:
1. Installed Qtopia 1.7
2. Started Qtopia and went to the configuration menu.
3. Enter the Z's IP address.

I seen a post on the OpenZaurus that shows how to have both opie and gpe. Might try that one day.

Brian1
" Google the Linux way @ http://www.google.com/linux "