[wplug] Life with Zaurus

[Coutch, Robert]

Hi all,

Just got my new Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 this past Friday.

I found mine on the net for $325 from buydig.com.

The thing is GREAT ! Once you dowload a few essentials into it, you have a
handheld computer.

I love working in the shell issuing standard Linux/UNIX commands. It's too
cool.

I put a 256Mb SDRAM card in it and a Netgear 802.11b CF card too. Tried some
old CF flash cards I had lying around and they work too.
I even formatted the SDRAM card from FAT16 to ext2 (ahhhhh).

I tried to install fdisk but this failed. Anybody out there got this to
work?

Just for laughs, I installed a java based webserver program on it and it
works great.
I have openSSH on it (server and client) to transfer files between it and my
Linux box at home.

That brings me to the down side of my situation.

The Zaurus syncs great with my Win2k laptop running intellisync for Outlook.

It was a nightmare to get my SuSE 7.3 system to sync and ended in failure so
far.
I found the Linux version of Qtopia desktop for Linux on Trolltech's
website.

I used google to find out how to get the Zaurus to "talk" to the Linux PC.
I couldn't find a kernel patch (or source code) for my 2.4.10 kernel to get
the usbdnet module working so I could do ethernet over USB.
Instead, I set the machine for serial over USB and established a ppp
connection between the Zaurus and the PC.

Qtopia desktop crash several times but finally sync'd after numerous
attempts.
Just when it seemed like it was finally working, another sync attempt
crashed my Zaurus and corrupted the filesystem.

After some checking, some important files were zapped (like /etc/passwd for
starters).
I finally had to restore the Zaurus back to factory setting and try again.

It's working again but I'm afraid to try to sync with my Linux PC via ppp
and Qtopia desktop.
I've been using SSH to transfer files to it over my home network and just
syncing it to my work laptop.

Anybody out there have any success syncing to a Linux PC ? I'd like to hear
from you.

The stylus top just broke off today so I wrote a note to Sharp.

Other than that, the Zaurus is GREAT, there seems to be lots of software for
it and the little hidden keyboard works pretty good.

If you're shopping for a PDA, give this unit a serious look.


-Bob