OpenZaurus 3.5.2 has been released. Supported devices for this release are all available Sharp Linux Zaurus models except the SL-A300. It appears to be primarily for bugfixes and package updates.
OpenZaurus 3.5.2 Released
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Adam Scheinberg
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Never bothered with OpenZaurus because I didn’t want to mess up my PDA; however I rarely use it anymore so I thought it be fun to go ahead and try it out. However the instructions say I need zImage, update.sh and initrd.bin but there is no initrd.bin….just img files? Am I supposed to rename the img file to initrd.bin?
Yes. You probably will want the Opie one.
I’ve installed in my zaurus sl-5500 the openzaurus 3.5.2 with opie environment. Also, i expect to install in my zaurus the gpe version to see and give a try the gpe environment.
Linksys WCF12 wireless card still doesn’t work with an SL5500.
I’ve got that card and an SL5500 and it worked with the sharp rom (currently using crow /home on sd) and on openzaurus 3.5.1 (both gpe and opie additions, I think the kernel and drivers are part of open embedded) I had power usage problems with gpe otherwise everything worked great.
I installed it on my SL6000.
I was a great disapointment. Wireless was messed up and WEP or WPA did not work correctly. It was unstable and felt very slow. I replaced the OZ rom with the original 1.3 rom from Sharp. I sure have the xpdarom will be suited for my SL6000 soon.
What are the Benefits to going to Open Zaurus? Currently the sharp rom does everything I need. Is Open Zaurus that much better?
>What are the Benefits to going to Open Zaurus? Currently the
>sharp rom does everything I need. Is Open Zaurus that much
>better?
I think the most important points/benefits are that its open-source / free-software so that other can build software and or tools that work better with it, and if Sharp stops making roms platform will not be dead but instead will continue.OZ/Opie worked very nice on my SL5000D.
I have a 5600 and previously open zaurus was really buggy, anyone have any luck with it on the 5600?
… but not for me yet. I could not get opie player running, irk does not work for my palmtop keyboard, and no web browser that I know of. For now, Sharp’s rom will have to do.
One benefit of the OZ stuff is the availibilty of packages, and you can also split up your ram how you want. For example I have mine split up 48/16 and install most of my packages to sd.
I have it on my sl-5600 and am rather happy with it.
The opie environment seems to work faster than the original Sharp distro.
The GPE environment doesn’t make sense on a tiny device with 32M RAM. Sure, you can use remote X clients with it (gnomeicu worked nicely for me), but why would you carry a server around just to use the GIMP remotely on a 3″ display?
Wireless (Linksys WCF12) works flawlessly for me. The profiles are a bit odd compared to the Sharp “ROM”, though.
The documentation is nearly absent for now, which can be quite a concern.
Luckily, the important issues are discussed at
http://www.zaurususergroup.com/forums/index.php?showforum=69
and virtually every major installation/configuration question is answered there.