ALARM on Sharp Zaurus C3x00

Install Arch Linux ARM on other devices.

ALARM on Sharp Zaurus C3x00

Postby greguu » Wed Oct 14, 2015 9:38 am

Hi all,

I know this topic has been posted before, but has been locked since.

If anyone has a Sharp Zaurus C3x00 and wants to give ALARM a go, please let me know.

It is a bit of a rare ARM xscale handheld/PDA and there are currently only two users left at oesf.org/forums that use ALARM.

All we want is to keep it running and I am happy to post basic instructions, if there are any requests at all.

We got a stable kernel 3.11.3 with Zaurus C3x00 specific patches, working reasonable well with latest armv5tel alarm.

I will put some effort in to get a 4.x series kernel going.

For the curious : https://github.com/greguu/linux-3.11.3- ... s/tag/v0.4

(Please do not lock this thread, just in case someone responds. :)

Cheers!
greguu
 
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2012 8:42 pm

Re: ALARM on Sharp Zaurus C3x00

Postby TheWalt » Fri Oct 30, 2015 1:22 pm

Lot of progress on this for those interested. Following the instructions linked below I also have a full install working on my C3100 and am very happy. +1 for the effort put into resurrecting these great little machines.

https://github.com/danboid/ZALARM-install
TheWalt
 
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri Feb 17, 2012 12:22 am

Re: ALARM on Sharp Zaurus C3x00

Postby greguu » Tue Nov 10, 2015 6:47 am

TheWalt : great you made it ! Arch is definitely running well on the Z so far.

There is now a 4.2.3 kernel available, we got still minor issues but looking good.

Also a basic rootfs for running of a SD card. ( Can be tweaked to run of the internal CF microdrive )

https://github.com/greguu/alarm-zaurus-c3x00

https://github.com/greguu/linux-4.2.3-c3x00/tree/v0.3

Cheers!
greguu
 
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2012 8:42 pm

Re: ALARM on Sharp Zaurus C3x00

Postby Diesel1 » Mon Nov 23, 2015 12:04 am

Hi,
I have a Zaurus SL-C860 and have been wondering if I can run Arch ARM on it. Will this version work?

Diesel1.
Diesel1
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Nov 23, 2015 12:01 am

Re: ALARM on Sharp Zaurus C3x00

Postby greguu » Tue Dec 08, 2015 10:05 am

Diesel1:

sorry to disappoint.

The ALARM port does only work on C3x00 series, although C1000 should work, too.

I do not have a C8xx or C7xx series Zaurus and can not support this platform.

There might be some other distributions out there that may still support this series, but not sure.
greguu
 
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2012 8:42 pm

Re: ALARM on Sharp Zaurus C3x00

Postby greguu » Tue Dec 15, 2015 7:50 am

Just a note :

We got a working Xorg on the Zaurus C3x00 with proper keymap now.

However the 64M ram are quite a limitation for running memory hungry applications.

Also the software rotation in FBDEV is a bottleneck, but it does work.

Cheers!
greguu
 
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2012 8:42 pm

Re: ALARM on Sharp Zaurus C3x00

Postby slaanesh » Thu Jan 07, 2016 6:03 am

I'm interested in ALARM as I enjoy porting MAME to various handhelds.

I've test various other Sharp Zaurus distributions on my C1000 and C860 and found them all lacking in one or two areas.
The best distro so far I thought was pdaXrom, however it's lack of support for power management was a show stopper. The battery would run down very quickly.
Cacko is solid but i've found that being limited to gcc 2.95 makes for inefficient code compared to later versions of gcc due to the lack of support for the PXA270 CPU.

So if I may ask, how much of the hardware on the Zaurus is supported?

You mention that the "software rotation in FBDEV is a bottleneck, but it does work."
Can this be switched off or is it always active? Can I access native "480x640" screen modes?
slaanesh
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jan 07, 2016 5:47 am

Re: ALARM on Sharp Zaurus C3x00

Postby greguu » Tue Jan 12, 2016 9:49 am

Hi slaanesh,

The kernels support only the Sharp Zaurus Cxx00 Series, so C1000 should be supported, but we did not have any testers yet.

I do not have 860/760 models.

It does suspend, but online charging is broken (Zaurus charges only when turned off)

Yes, you can access 480x640 mode. MAME has been tested successfully in 320x240 so far.

With DirectFB we had success switching to 240x320 and also rotate to 320x240.

However some iWMMXt optimizations for the pxa framebuffer would be good (rotation, SRAM).

You might find some more info on the oesf.org/forum.

A new kernel and rootfs was just released today:

Kernel : https://github.com/greguu/linux-4.4-cxx00/releases
RootFS : https://github.com/greguu/alarm-zaurus-c3x00/releases

Any feedback / support welcome !

Cheers!
greguu
 
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2012 8:42 pm

Re: ALARM on Sharp Zaurus C3x00

Postby Trevorr » Sun Feb 28, 2016 10:29 am

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 's')orry to disappoint about the https://skinnyexpress.com/the-3-week-diet-review new 3 week diet.

The ALARM port does only work on C3x00 series, although C1000 should work, too.

I do not have a C8xx or C7xx series Zaurus and can not support this platform.

There might be some other distributions out there that may still support this series, but not sure.


Does the alarm port definitely work on the C1000? I need to know before I buy one. Many thanks.
Last edited by Trevorr on Fri Jun 03, 2016 8:46 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Trevorr
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Feb 27, 2016 11:12 am

Re: ALARM on Sharp Zaurus C3x00

Postby greguu » Mon Feb 29, 2016 5:23 am

Hi Trevorr,

I can not give you a 100% positive answer to this as there has been a lack of users with a C1000 Zaurus.

There had been some initial testing but the user disappeared and discontinued giving feedback.

In theory it should work but I would prefer to have some testing done before confirming.

If you do not have a Zaurus yet, aim to get a C3x00 series to be on the safe side.

Cheers!
greguu
 
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2012 8:42 pm

Next

Return to [Please read announcement] Community-Supported Devices

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests