OpenZaurus 3.5.3 released

mickeyl April 13th, 2005

On behalf of the OpenEmbedded, OpenZaurus, Opie and GPE teams, I am proud to present to you the third OpenZaurus release based on the BitBake build system and the OpenEmbedded metadata repository.

The highlights of this release are:

  • Linux Kernel 2.6.11 for Opie and Bootstrap images for C7×0
  • Updated many packages, and greater package selection
  • Changed ipkg destinations:
    Packages are now installed into a ‘packages’ subdirectory on external media. /etc/ipkg.conf can be altered if this behaviour is not desired
  • ipkg-link now reads /etc/ipkg.conf:
    No longer a need to edit ipkg-link when destination paths are changed in /etc/ipkg.conf
  • Corrected error in c7×0 fstab:
    Booting on a c7×0 with an SD or MMC card inserted should work correctly
  • Various corrections to keymaps for all machines have been made:
    More keys should function correctly
  • Suspend/resume issues on collie when using GPE have been fixed:
    collie now resumes correctly after suspending via the On/Off button
  • Improved SD and MMC card mounting:
    Cards with multiple partitions are supported and should mount correctly
  • Improved boot process:
    Less unintelligible messages during startup
  • oz-compat has been renamed to sharp-compat-libs
  • Many more improvements specifically in C7×0 and SL6000 support in Opie and GPE, see gpe.handhelds.org and opie.handhelds.org for details

This release supports the following Sharp Zaurus models:

5000,5500,5600,6000
B500
C700,C750,C760,C860

C3000 and C1000 support is under construction and scheduled for OpenZaurus 3.5.4. You can help to speed it up by donating money and/or devices to our developers. Compare to other open source projects we receive very few donations although we spend a lot of precious spare time and deliver a lot of good work. So if you are regularly using OpenZaurus, consider to donate developers.

See the ChangeLog for an overwhelming list of changes since OpenZaurus 3.5.2. See the ReleaseNotes for important notes before you install OpenZaurus 3.5.3. See also Installation for Installation instructions. More information about the overall project status and roadmap can be found in the next edition of the OOO Newsletter coming in May 2005. Cheers, Michael ‘Mickey’ Lauer OpenZaurus ReleaseMeister

45 Responses to “OpenZaurus 3.5.3 released”

  1. digitalwulfon 18 Apr 2005 at 21:01

    Hello,

    I’m a SL-5500 zaurus user, I can’t wait to try openzaurus 3.5.3
    Does it really have kernel 2.6? ;)

    digitalwulf

  2. infoapeon 18 Apr 2005 at 21:34

    Not for the sl-5500. see the forums.

  3. Clauson 20 Apr 2005 at 11:26

    I’m glad that a new version is available. The last release have caused several problems on my SL5600 with the usb networking device until the Zaurus doesn’t boot anymore.
    Let’s try this release.

  4. Perfectoon 20 Apr 2005 at 18:06

    I would like to download all the feed as one file compressed, could it be possible?
    I flash without problems opie and also gpe, but I have lots of problems installings apps (iqnotes, keyring, opie-sheet, knights, zuc, …).

  5. Hrwon 20 Apr 2005 at 21:08

    perfecto: no it is not possible - grab all files and pack it by yourself. Whole feed takes ~600MiB.

  6. rgrochaon 20 Apr 2005 at 23:41

    I tried to build OZ 3.5.3 from sources using OE repository following OpenZaurus352 instructions (replacing 352 with 353, of course) but seems like this distribution is not yet defined.

    How can I build it?

    thank you for your great job.

  7. snowchiefon 21 Apr 2005 at 16:06

    Downloaded and installed 3.5.3 on a 5500. Everything seemed
    to be OK but when I turn off the PDA for anything more than
    a few minutes it doesn’t come back on unless I reboot. Any
    ideas? I’m using opie-image and zimage-collie-40-24

  8. egnon 22 Apr 2005 at 01:54

    3.5.3 is not working for me. I have a 5600. Downloaded all I needed, flashed a perfectly good 5600 with 3.5.3 with GPE. Freezes on splash screen. Reflashed with opie; panics after a few secs of startup. Flashed with the bootstrap image. That worked! But that is not the interface I want.

    So I went back and downloaded 3.5.2. That seemed to start up OK, created the root password, and a new user. But this version seems to be very mixed up with the power button and in reality, will all of them! Sometimes it will power off and then it is impossible to power on. The Buttons diagram doesn’t even agree with the 5600 layout! This proved to be very unstable. So I gave up on it.

    I downloaded a zynergy ROM, flashed with that and everything worked perfectly. And zynergy is an “oldie”; 2003. Even my wifi card worked.

    I’ve reflashed I don’t know how many times and no OZ versions work on my 5600. Only the original SHARP rom and zynergy work ok. I bet the TKC rom will also work ok (as it has before). So, is it me or OZ?

  9. Mickeyon 22 Apr 2005 at 09:11

    It is you. A lot of people confirm that OZ 3.5.3 works very good on their 5600. You probably made file rename errors when flashing.

  10. Michaelon 22 Apr 2005 at 14:58

    I have the same problem as snowchief. Zaurus dies when powered down with opie-image and the 64-0 kernel.

  11. tapoon 22 Apr 2005 at 21:51

    I just flashed my SL-5500 with 48-16 kernel and GPE image.
    GPE crashed serveral times without reacting to any actions.
    I had to do full resets. And I had to set up date and time
    evert time. Very annoying.

    terminal emulation crashed with full window hiding gpe bar.

    It looked like “light off” key shut SL-5500 off instead of
    just the light.

  12. Marteenon 23 Apr 2005 at 03:51

    Hey, OZ i so cool. You rule guys, thanks.

    I love my 6K with OZ.

  13. Dougon 25 Apr 2005 at 21:01

    Installed OZ-3.5.3 on pxa250 based SL-5600 and had a few issues. Suspend( Power off ) required reset button push to start back up. Effectively rebooting.

    It was strange that the system worked fine for about a dozen cycles and then wouldn’t restart, so I went so far as to reinstall the Sharp ROM, reformat internal memory( OZ flash wouldn’t do this ), and then reinstall OZ-3.5.3. The same thing happened two more times so I had to go back to the Sharp ROM. I feel that if it was a hardware problem, the Sharp ROM would not work either.

    It’s too bad because after seeing QtopiaDesktop sync with the 5600, I was willing to figure out how to get my Sharp Camera, Symbol WiFi card working and port our apps to OPIE.

    Very nice work so far though. Unfortunately, since the 5xxx series is a deadend, I doubt it’ll get much attention.

  14. Alonon 27 Apr 2005 at 12:06

    gpe buttons setup are not correct for the SL-5600.
    timezones are wrong ( at least in the case of IST)
    I fixed the timezones by editing the !/.profile to:
    export TZ=IST-2:3IDT

    and copying /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Jerusalem from a working debian install

  15. pekon 27 Apr 2005 at 20:44

    3.5.3 work great on my 5600, much better than 3.5.2, thanks!

    I would like to look at the kernel source, where is that kept?

    PEK

  16. Alonsoon 29 Apr 2005 at 06:35

    Hi! I installed 3.5.3 on my 5600, and at the begining it worked very fine, but later it gave me some errors with some software, p.e zbedic the error is that cannot locate the folder /usr/mnt.rom/card/QtPalmtop/s, and when I push some buttons (not the cancel button) the zaurus enters in suspend mode.

    Also I have the problems that some configuration file are kept after the flashing and formating, for example for keyring, xmms and other, it doesn’t like, how can I erase all my zaurus before flash it? and the time zones are not included. Thank you!

  17. Hrwon 29 Apr 2005 at 07:20

    Alonso: on Z other then 5500 you have /home/ partition which is not cleared during flash procedure. There you have some stuff from previous system install. You can backup it and then delete if you want clean install.

    And zbedic works for me very nice - grab version 0.9.4 from “upgrades” feed.

  18. Sonal Santanon 29 Apr 2005 at 16:29

    I installed new kernel and opie image on my C700 from –
    http://www.openzaurus.org/official/unstable/3.5.3/c7×0,c8×0/opie/
    and updater.sh from
    http://www.openzaurus.org/official/unstable/3.5.3/c7×0,c8×0/

    When flashing I get messages that the new kernel and opie have been successfully installed.

    However when the new kernel boots, I get a white screen. If I look at the screen very carefully at an angle, I see the kernel booting messages in a slightly different white and can even see the Welcome to Opie graphics at the end of boot, but again in a slightly different white. Since nothing is legible the new image is unusable for me.

    I also tried the kernel image from http://www.rpsys.net/openzaurus/packages/ and got a similar effect.

    Any ideas why the screen is not turning black with white fonts?

  19. Rafaelon 29 Apr 2005 at 21:50

    I’ve downloaded complete oz-3.5.3 feed, and flashed 64-0 image on my SL-5500.

    After that I have installed task-opie-pim and task-opie-games.
    It’s great, but I’ve found a few annoying things, some commented in previous posts:
    1- Almost every time it goes to suspend mode by itself, it requires rebooting by sliding back and forth battery switch, and pushing Cancel key.
    2- Almost every time it is suspended by pushing Cancel key, it requires rebooting by sliding back and forth battery switch, and pushing Cancel key again.
    3- When trying to switch light off by pushing Menu key some seconds, it goes to suspend mode, and… it requires rebooting by sliding back and forth battery switch, and pushing Cancel.
    4- Funny thing: when I hold Right cursor in any Desktop tab (say, Games) and it goes fast forward through the icons, when it reaches the bottom right visible icon and needs to scroll up to show the next one… it goes to suspend mode! and… it requires rebooting by sliding back and forth battery switch, and pushing Cancel
    5- Not less funny: when I hold Right cursor in Console and it goes fast forward through the line characters, when it reaches the rightmost character visible… it goes to suspend mode! and… it requires rebooting by sliding back and forth battery switch, and pushing Cancel

    Any idea?

  20. Rafaelon 29 Apr 2005 at 22:08


    I’ve also installed sharp-compat-libs…
    and have pivoted-root to 1 GB SD card, following instructions site I specified in post#3 at http://openzaurus.org/wordpress/howto/root-on-sd/

  21. Perfectoon 02 May 2005 at 22:40

    I flashed my Z5500-S (spanish keypad) with a 64-0 without problems until I want to install applications. Until now it has been impossible. I can install them but they don’t run or if I install some and later I do a reset the Z hangs up, it doesn’t show anything and I have to flash again.
    I want to make more tests but it is very boring to be always on the net and wait… This is the reason because I want the ipks on my CF. I don’t really need a zip file with all, but is it possible to connect with FileZilla as ftp and download all the files?
    I have a SD and a CF both of 500MB, I want to have all the system on the SD card and reboot from it. With de 3.5.2 it worked very good but now… I don’t know if I will be able of doing it because at this point, I couldn’t install anything. I will not try to pass all the system to the SD until I will be able to install some apps into internal memory (not SD or CF).

    ExperiWEB

  22. SL5000D Useron 04 May 2005 at 08:41

    Die Installation der Images

    zImage-collie-32-0-20050407102515.bin
    opie-image-collie-20050407173817.rootfs.jffs2

    auf einem SL5000D war für mich unbrauchbar. Die Hauptprobleme:

    • Der Resume-Button (On) funktioniert oft nicht (Reboot erforderlich)
    • Die Uhr (Zeit/Datum) ging nach einiger Zeit falsch??
    • Und das problematischste: Der Restore von meiner Backupdatei hat nicht funktioniert. Weder meine Termine noch meine Adressen wurden eingefügt.
  23. Richard Neillon 05 May 2005 at 00:35

    I’ve installed GPE on my SL5500, and it’s great: this is the first time I’ve ever felt that the Zaurus could actually be useful to me! However, one really weird thing happens: If I start the shell, and then use the onscreen keyboard to enter Ctrl-C, the effect is that the calendar application is started! Any thoughts how I might fix this? Also, a really stupid question (but I can’t find the answer!) - how can I install extra applications? The OZ feeds don’t seem to have any applications besides the base system; where might I find eg Dillo, Konqueror, Xmms, bash, telnet…?
    Thanks a lot for your hard work!

  24. Olafon 05 May 2005 at 16:05

    I tried to install opie-image on C760 .
    It hangs immediatly after reboot, showing splash-screen and blinking cursor.

    If I’m using bootstrap-image for C760, booting is just perfectly !

    What could be wrong ?
    Can I manually mount or copy opie-image after booting with bootstrap-image ?

  25. toarneyon 05 May 2005 at 19:45

    Using OZ 3.5.3 on a 5600 I am also having the suspend/resume problems as described here.

    Suspend/resume using the Cancel/On/Off button seems to work for several cycles, then will shutdown and require a reset to turn back on.

    Can’t say for sure, but I think it is related to how long the Cancel button is held down.

    Other than that, OZ 3.5.3 is great!

  26. Felipeon 06 May 2005 at 23:58

    Not playing too much time with 3.5.3 but for now i’m having terrible sound quality and wi-fi performance SOCKET “low power card”.

    any hint ?

    thnx.

  27. Felipeon 06 May 2005 at 23:59

    sorry, my zaurus is sl-5500

  28. Ilkka Nieminenon 08 May 2005 at 22:07

    “WORKAROUND” for suspend/reboot problem
    My SL-5000D with oz-3.5.3 wasn’t working either, oz-3.5.1 works. Same as #9, #12, #13, #15, #21, #24, #27 and additionally it also suspends if Toggle Menu is pressed more than 2 secs (1 sec jest shuts backlight off). I found this workaround: kill apmd (Applications -> System Info -> Process -> find PID of apmd and send SIGHUP). Now when SL suspends accidentally just wake it up normally pressing On/off switch, no rebooting required! Note! this apmd-kill procedure repeated after every reboot.
    I believe this is a kernel bug, not OZ/OPIE bug

  29. Rodon 10 May 2005 at 03:05

    I have been having a whole bunch of issues with OZ over the past few days. First, I attempted to install OZ 3.5.3. It claimed to flash successfully, but the dots only went 2/3 of the way to 100%. It then refused to boot any further than the splash screen in the boot process.(The one when it should start to load linux) I then decided to go back a version and I loaded OZ 3.5.2 successfully. However, my wifi card, a Socket Low Power WLAN Card, not only doesn’t work with it, but whenever it’s in the CF slot and I go to “Network”, the PDA needs a hard reset to get it going again. Does anyone know anything I can do to get my PDA running OZ with wifi?

    Thanks much,

    –Rod

  30. Rodon 10 May 2005 at 03:12

    Oops, forgot to mention, I have a 5600 and I believe the files I used were correct.

    OZ 3.5.3

    opie-image-poodle-20050409140246.rootfs.jffs2.bin renamed to initrd.bin
    zImage-poodle-20050409140246.bin renamed to zImage.bin
    updater.sh not renamed

    All loaded and executed from a CF card(32 MB FAT)

  31. James Brownon 10 May 2005 at 10:59

    Hi!
    The release of the kernel for the SL5600-PXA255 is very fast. The only problem with it is that Wi-Fi cards are not detected (at least CF Wi-Fi Cards - don’t know aboute SD cards).
    C u

  32. Mikeon 10 May 2005 at 13:44

    The fbvncserver package will not install on collie. It is failing to install a required package fbvncserver_kmodule that is located in the machine/collie feed but it fails to find and install the dependency.

  33. Trilokon 20 May 2005 at 10:29

    Hi,

    Where is the kernel source ? Can anybody give the link through which I can broswe or download the same.

  34. Grahamon 22 May 2005 at 10:13

    I’ve got a SL-5500 with 64-0 like Raphael, and I have also come across issues 1,2,3 and 5. Haven’t tried 4. I’m also having problems formatting and mounting my 1GB SD card, but that might just be me. I keep formatting it to ext2, and fdisk keeps reporting it as FAT16.

  35. Florianon 25 May 2005 at 14:37

    Hi,
    For me the Zaurus is unusuable since I tried to flash to OZ 3.5.2 and 3.5.3!

    I am owning a 5500 collie with the 32-32 image.

    It is not possible to do an ipkg upgrade, beacause there is not enough space left on / (about 180k) - whe moving /usr/lib/ipkg to ram it seems to work - maybe.

    In all addressbook entries synced from evolution I get \n instead of a linebreak and \, instead of a comma - maybe a multisync issue.

    In the Adressbook german Umlauts are shown as multibyte-squares / the font used to display the name in the heading can not handle unicode?

    the package-manager keeps on crashing opie - updating or installing software via the opie packagemanager is impossible. useless.

    I reflashed about 10 times 3.5.3 until now, one update of ipkg crashed, afterwards ipkg was gone :(

    I am sorry - but the Zaurus seems to be useless - I invested several whole days in trying to get something like a working zaurus - i am very frustrated.

  36. Uweon 07 Jun 2005 at 13:35

    ouch, I was planning to upgrade my sl550 D to 3.5.3 later this week, but reading these reports I guess I’ll hold on a bit longer (apart from having to reload the usb network modules every time I remove the Z from the cradle, 3.5.2 works ok, fingers crossed ;-)

    cheers, uwe

  37. B. Ross Ashleyon 11 Jun 2005 at 18:48

    Hi, I just installed V. 3.5.3 on my 5500 by flashing from a CF card; it’s running without a problem but I can’t get the PC I want to sync to by USB to recognise it. Uninstalling and reinstalling Qtopia 1.7.0 did not help … the PC does not want to recognise the Zaurus at all. (I’m running Windows XP Home on an old Dell Optiplex GN+, 20G harddrive, Pentium MMX 233 processor.)

  38. Phugedaboudeton 16 Jun 2005 at 18:04

    SL 5500 having the same suspend issues as reported above. killing the power managemment seems to be working, but leaving the device plugged in and running 24/7 ins’t an option. Shutting it down means losing all installed applications and data, and forcing s suspend with the on/off button requires a reset. The main reason I’m using OZ is because I have a Sandisk Connect Plus wireless card and I can’t find information on getting it to work with the Sharp ROM v3. I had this same suspend problem with another version of OZ a year ago. If anyone knows how to get it working with Sharp ROM please let me know? The Z is pretty much unusable if I can’t turn it off and on for travel and remote use.

  39. Jimon 20 Jun 2005 at 13:40

    I am having wifi problems with my SL6000. If followed the instructions on the 6000 install page, but still can’t connect to my AP. Any ideas?

  40. erik mallinsonon 02 Jul 2005 at 01:11

    I’m having the same problem as comment #37, but with Ubuntu linux on my pc side. I started a post of possible culprits on linuxquestions.org. I just bought my Zaurus and went directly to upgrade to openzaurus GPE, so I wasn’t sure if it was my computer, openzaurus, gpe, or I was just missing something. The only thing I can say is that it was working through a linux installation of Qtopia and after flashing there is a device error in linux. See the previous mentioned link for more info on that.

  41. Andy Hawkeson 06 Jul 2005 at 13:16

    Phugedaboudet - I’ve got an SL-5000D and a SanDisk ConnectPlus card, and am having a hell of a job getting the damned thing to work. I’m certainly no Linux guru and have followed a few FAQ’s that I’ve found, resulting in flashing with OZ 3.5.3 etc. but no dice.

    Really want to get the Z working properly as it’s a great bit of kit, just seems a shame that all the info I can find on it is geared towards people with a high level of Linux knowledge - how this is supposed to help a device to get mainstream acceptance, I don’t know. If iPaq’s were cheaper, I’d have got one of them and saved the hassle, but I’m an inquisitive gadget addict, so I thought the Z would be a fun way to learn - little did I know :(

    Anyone got any (readily understandable) info / suggestions that don’t require me to know the kerel on an intimate basis, and will help me get wifi up and running?

  42. Nakartion 10 Jul 2005 at 20:57

    Can live with the suspend issue if I don’t play any games.
    The feeds are imperfect: mainly not including more feeds by default, at least one app, konqueror-embedded, has bad dependency checking(for libqte2) and not all apps install icons(ie: frootz) but that’s probably less vital than the dead-suspend bug.
    Too bad I’m not a kernel hacker..

  43. Alistairon 02 Nov 2005 at 22:43

    Just bought a second hand 5600.
    Was thinking about updating it with OZ 3.5.3

    I have a D-Link DCF-650W CF wireless card - will it still work after flash?
    How about the suspend issues? Are these fixed yet?
    What is the general opinion for 5600? Flash or wait?

  44. Hrwon 05 Nov 2005 at 23:04

    Allstair: card will work, 3.5.3 has problem with kernel - use 3.5.4-rc

  45. Pascal DeMillyon 10 Jan 2006 at 20:41

    I have a Sharp Zaurus C860. I tried every single version on this website starting at 3.5.2 to 3.5.4-rc. None of the graphical (GPE or OPIE) works for me. I either get filesystems error or it gets stuck when loading X. I am starting to flash with bootstrap hoping that I could ipkg from there, but the default rootme password for root does work. What is the root password for 3.5.2 (bootstrap for boxer).

    Please help

    Thanks

    Pascal

    PS: Anybody had any success with C860 and OZ 3.5.3 or later?