Squeak for the Zaurus SL-5500?
Nevin Pratt
nevin at smalltalkpro.com
Sun Nov 24 01:18:53 UTC 2002
I also have the SL-5500.
If you put X-Windows on it (with the included ICE window manager with
the X-Windows package), the standard StrongARM Squeak VM runs fine.
There is otherwise no port (that I know of) that "goes to the metal" or
otherwise doesn't require X. Note, however, that this is *not* true for
the Japanese version of the Zaurus-- it has a "to the metal" port
available for it.
The RAM of the Zaurus SL-5500 is normally configured as a 32MB RAM Linux
box with the other 32MB as a "hard drive". The default configuration
also doesn't define a swap partition. I suggest you add an SD card (or
else CF card) with more RAM, and use it as the "hard drive", and then
define a 10 to 20 MB swap partition in the internal RAM "hard drive".
You don't want to create the swap on the SD (or CF) card, as this will
prematurely wear the memory card out. Instead do it on the internal RAM
"hard drive".
Doing this will increase the effective RAM for your Linux programs to
about 50 MB or so. Actually, the effective RAM will be a bit more than
this, because the Zaurus also has Flash ROM from which part of the
operating system runs, so almost all of the effective RAM from this
scheme can be used by your user programs. However, that is still a bit
on the small side, so you've got to be careful what you try running.
I have a 256 MB SD card for my Zaurus. However, I was never able to get
X and ICE to install on anything but the internal RAM "hard drive".
Since X and ICE are rather large, this took a lot of the internal RAM
"hard drive".
Furthermore, running X and ICE takes a lot of the main program RAM when
it is running, so you will again run into limits. For Squeak, you need
to find and run small images only, and then start them with a command
line switch like "-memory 10m" or something similar.
Another problem: the power management software for X conflicts with the
internal power management. What will happen is that the Zaurus will go
to sleep because of no activity, but then you won't be able to wake it
up without a hard reboot, which will wipe out your entire configuration
in the process. The solution is to disable the X-Windows power
management daemon (it's called something like "apmd", or something like
that-- you'll have to google it to make sure).
Also, if you have an SD card of 128MB or larger, you will need to flash
in the newer version of the ROM's. However, in the newer version
they've "hardened" some of the ports, supposedly for security reasons.
The net result is that the Zaurus will only accept ftp and telnet from
either an IP that it handed out via it's DHCP server, or else from the
IP that is used for wired syncing. If you have an 802.11b wireless CF
card on it, the new ROM version will also break the network syncing
capability.
In my case, because I have a 256MB SD card (plus an 802.11b wireless CF
card), I was forced to flash in the newer ROM version. Then, I just
don't use telnet-- I instead use ssh. I also don't use ftp-- I instead
NFS mount from my other machines in my office, and then transfer files
over NFS. And when I sync, I used the wired sync (i.e., using the cradle).
All in all, I think the Zaurus SL-5500 is an interesting machine, but if
you really only need the classic PDA functions, I find the Palm Pilot to
be a better unit. If you want to run Squeak on it, I'm inclined to
think an iPAQ is better.
But, you can certainly run Squeak on the SL-5500. I've done it.
Nevin
Stefan Matthias Aust wrote:
> Hi!
>
> Yesterday, I bought myself a Sharp Zaurus SL-5500G (a Linux based PDA
> with the usual pocket PC stats and a small extending-keyboard). Now,
> I'd love to put a Squeak on that machine, if only to impress some Java
> co-developer ;-) On squeak.org I found a reference to ZauChu (Squeak
> for Sharp Zaurus), but it seems that's for a quite different machine.
>
> So, is there an installable version of Squeak for the SL-5500?
>
>
> PS: Is a 206MHz ARM processor capable of running the current version
> of Squeak - which I barely recognize after a year of absense? Is
> there a special PDA image perhaps?
>
>
> bye
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