Archive for December, 2007
Monday, December 31st, 2007 by Marcin Juszkiewicz
Few days ago Ångström distribution was released. Currently machine mentors tests images and release them so their devices will be also supported and ready for users.
Users often have CompactFlash cards which we (developers) do not have. Some of them will be hit by miscellaneous problems. For example their WiFi card which was nicely working with HostAP driver now works only with Orinoco one so they can not connect to WPA encrypted access points.
How to solve that? Such users should report those cards. What report needs to contain:
pccardctl ident output- information does card was working with other distribution (it can be any Linux distribution — I test cards under Debian on my laptop)
What developer has to do then? Creation of patch to in-kernel driver is simple — there is one table per driver in source and few simple macros. Examples can be found in my submissions to kernel tree.
Tags: hostap linux orinoco 2 Comments »
Friday, December 28th, 2007 by Marcin Juszkiewicz
During last months I did few attempts to unify kernel configuration for all PXA Zaurus models (so no collie). As last one did not generate working ones and I do not have time to fix it (or devices for testing) I decided to release last version so maybe someone will look at it and try to get it fixed.
Download archive
To generate configuration files run make.
Tags: testing zaurus 2 Comments »
Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 by Marcin Juszkiewicz
Sharp Zaurus palmtops have separate flash ‘partition’ for keeping kernel. The problem is that it is only ~1.2 megabyte… It was good enough for 2.4.18 kernel which was used by vendor but with 2.6 kernel maintained by OE community it is really hard to fit there.
We started to remove some features from kernel. With 2.6.23 release we were forced to choose: SD/MMC support or PCMCIA/CF support goes into kernel. As many people keep rootfs on SD cards we moved CF into modules. To get 2.6.24 fit I had to choose another parts…
In near future we will probably end with a kernel which will be stripped from everything possible. This will leave only framebuffer and rootfs access support — Everything other moved to modules.
Other solution is to change a way of booting device. There are few solutions:
- Use kernel space for really minimal kernel + initramfs which will use “kexec” functionality to boot kernel stored in rootfs.
- Change Sharp bootloader into something more sane — like U-Boot, Apex or RedBoot.
First one require some patching to get rid of everything other then MTD + JFFS2 or CF + ext2 (for spitz). Then adding simple initramfs which will contain tool which will check rootfs for kernel and parameters. Then load/execute new kernel with “kexec”.
Second way… this one is more tricky as it also change a way of updating device to newer kernel/rootfs. We can get more space as Sharp “rescue” system used for updating can be replaced with much smaller one but this also require work. There is a patch from pdaXrom which adds c7×0 and akita/spitz support for 1.1.4 U-Boot. After few tweaks it applies to current version but need updating configuration and also adding some code for Flash operations. But this does not help for Tosa/Poodle devices as they would need more work.
Which way to choose… For now we will rather stick with removing all what can be removed. All other options require more work which require developers. But our Zaurus hackers usually moves to newer platforms now…
Tags: zaurus 17 Comments »
Monday, December 24th, 2007 by Marcin Juszkiewicz
Today is 24 December — a day when some people celebrate Christmas. Some will celebrate it tomorrow as it depends where you live and how your culture handle it.
I want to wish Merry Christmas to all my blog readers — spend them with the ones you love.
Due to flu I will spend this year Christmas at home only with my wife. It was not planned to be this way but I hope that we will not die from boredom ;)
Tags: xmas 4 Comments »
Saturday, December 22nd, 2007 by Marcin Juszkiewicz
I use tags on my blog for years. First it was done with UTW and when WordPress MU 1.3 got released I switched to native WP tags.
The first thing which I missed was nice Tag Cloud widget. Default WP one just printed all tags without giving any control to user about how it have to look. So I looked at source and wrote own version.
How to use it?
Fetch archive, unpack into wp-content/plugins/ directory and enable “Hrw Tag cloud widget” in “Plugins list”. Then go to “Presentation/Widgets” and replace “Tag cloud” widget with mine. You will see configuration options.
Download archive.
Tags: widgets wordpress 9 Comments »
Friday, December 21st, 2007 by Marcin Juszkiewicz
Today I got email from nokia care Europe:
Uprzejmie informujemy, że na dzień dzisiejszy nie posiadamy szczegółowych informacji na temat planowanych premier produktów. W przedstawionej przez Pana sprawie uprzejmie prosimy więc śledzić na bieżąco informacje, pojawiające się na naszych stronach internetowych.
W celu uzyskania szczegółów dotyczących możliwości zakupu telefonów lub akcesoriów oraz cen należy skontaktować się bezpośrednio z autoryzowanymi punktami sprzedaży Nokia. Podajemy link do adresów owych punktów: http://www.nokia.com.pl/A446706
For those which do not understand Polish:
Currently we do not have information about planned première. Please track our website.
If you want to get details about how to buy our phones or accessories or to know price please contact our authorized shops.
In other words — no plans to sell N800/N810 tablets in Poland :(
UPDATE: Matthew Allum told that N810 is available in UK online store. I know that but it is too insane to buy hardware there as if something break costs of sending/receiving device will be too high. Not to mention that I would have to learn how English law handle such things.
Tags: nokia 7 Comments »