3 ms·

OMG WANT. Miss my old Sharp Zaurus.

pengaru 4y ago
I still have quite a collection of Sharp Zauruses (Zaurii?) in a box somewhere. It's so hard to believe how badly Intel fucked that up, first omitting floating point altogether when they replaced StrongARM w/XScale, then selling it off to Marvell just when mobile was becoming interesting. I digress...
- ornornor 4y ago
  I do too, a C860, pretty much new in its box. But I can’t find where to download software for it as it doesn’t have a working OS anymore. Any tips appreciated.
  - pengaru 4y ago
    That's something I've been meaning to spend time on eventually but never get around to. Maybe post somewhere on https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?board=179.0 https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?board=179.0 and see if anyone is still paying attention?
  - numpad0 4y ago
    You have an SL-C with corrupt firmware in 2022!? That's hard mode. There is a service menu that can be loaded by removing the battery and then plugging in AC while D + M is pressed down[1]. That lets NAND backups made and restored. This menu was brickable too. If that menu wouldn't load, an alternate pinout serial cable in conjunction with a command prompt flash tool can be plugged into Option Port 16 to load software, or so I think I heard in 2ch, definitely more than a decade ago. I vaguely remember the tool had camelcased name with an H, like HummingBird or HamsterWheel or something like that. If you need the full NAND files, they were not openly shared, nor the stock ROM loads were publicly distributed. Maybe pdaXrom custom firmware still has mirrors somewhere? Another factoid I remember is that the internal NAND was NOT wear leveled and the device could become unbootable if Kernel section of it become worn and unerasable(not unwritable, but erased bits comes back down apparently). The recommendation was to not touch the Kernel unless absolutely necessary, and a special minimal chainloader was used to relocate the Kernel if it's too late... that chainloader is probably lost to the Aether long ago. If "working OS" is so meant that the stock GUI and 2.4 kernel is simply outdated and no longer relevant, there were X/Qt XFree86 server app, Debian and Gentoo chroot filesystem zip somewhere, VNC and RDP client apps, PPP supports and few other options. swapon/swapoff binaries existed and worked. There could have been total replacement ROMs like a Maemo or Gtk-based GUIs but I don't remember any details about them. At best they must have been incomplete. 1: https://mobile.k05.biz/e/2015/08/service-menu.html https://mobile.k05.biz/e/2015/08/service-menu.html
    - pengaru 4y ago
      trisoft still hosts ROMs: https://trisoft.de/en_c860howto.htm https://trisoft.de/en_c860howto.htm Find other models linked in the left sidebar.
  - rmrfchik 4y ago
    I used to use pdaXrom distribution on my C860. Brings classic linux experience. Seems like pdaxrom.org doesn't not provide images anymore. Quick googling gives https://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download https://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download
usrn 4y ago
Everything since the Zaurus has been a regression.

I still have quite a collection of Sharp Zauruses (Zaurii?) in a box somewhere. It's so hard to believe how badly Intel fucked that up, first omitting floating point altogether when they replaced StrongARM w/XScale, then selling it off to Marvell just when mobile was becoming interesting. I digress...

ornornor 4y ago
I do too, a C860, pretty much new in its box. But I can’t find where to download software for it as it doesn’t have a working OS anymore. Any tips appreciated.
- pengaru 4y ago
  That's something I've been meaning to spend time on eventually but never get around to. Maybe post somewhere on https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?board=179.0 https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?board=179.0 and see if anyone is still paying attention?
- numpad0 4y ago
  You have an SL-C with corrupt firmware in 2022!? That's hard mode. There is a service menu that can be loaded by removing the battery and then plugging in AC while D + M is pressed down[1]. That lets NAND backups made and restored. This menu was brickable too. If that menu wouldn't load, an alternate pinout serial cable in conjunction with a command prompt flash tool can be plugged into Option Port 16 to load software, or so I think I heard in 2ch, definitely more than a decade ago. I vaguely remember the tool had camelcased name with an H, like HummingBird or HamsterWheel or something like that. If you need the full NAND files, they were not openly shared, nor the stock ROM loads were publicly distributed. Maybe pdaXrom custom firmware still has mirrors somewhere? Another factoid I remember is that the internal NAND was NOT wear leveled and the device could become unbootable if Kernel section of it become worn and unerasable(not unwritable, but erased bits comes back down apparently). The recommendation was to not touch the Kernel unless absolutely necessary, and a special minimal chainloader was used to relocate the Kernel if it's too late... that chainloader is probably lost to the Aether long ago. If "working OS" is so meant that the stock GUI and 2.4 kernel is simply outdated and no longer relevant, there were X/Qt XFree86 server app, Debian and Gentoo chroot filesystem zip somewhere, VNC and RDP client apps, PPP supports and few other options. swapon/swapoff binaries existed and worked. There could have been total replacement ROMs like a Maemo or Gtk-based GUIs but I don't remember any details about them. At best they must have been incomplete. 1: https://mobile.k05.biz/e/2015/08/service-menu.html https://mobile.k05.biz/e/2015/08/service-menu.html
  - pengaru 4y ago
    trisoft still hosts ROMs: https://trisoft.de/en_c860howto.htm https://trisoft.de/en_c860howto.htm Find other models linked in the left sidebar.
- rmrfchik 4y ago
  I used to use pdaXrom distribution on my C860. Brings classic linux experience. Seems like pdaxrom.org doesn't not provide images anymore. Quick googling gives https://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download https://distro.ibiblio.org/pdaxrom/download

usrn 4y ago

Everything since the Zaurus has been a regression.