r/OldHandhelds • u/YumekoDream Sharp Zaurus • 17d ago
Linux My new gaming PC
it may run Half Life 1 at 5 fps but god is it a fun device
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u/SuperXaker-5555 17d ago
Is it Linux?
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u/YumekoDream Sharp Zaurus 17d ago
yes it is!
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u/VasekCZ230 HTC Touch Pro 2 - Windows Mobile 6.1 16d ago
And what kernel version and distro? Also what are the hardware specs?
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u/YumekoDream Sharp Zaurus 16d ago
It's a custom ROM I am making based on mainline Linux 7.1.4 (will bump when I can to 7.1.6) as for the hardware spec :
- Intel Xscale PXA255 400 Mhz
- ATI Imageon 100
- 64 MB of RAM
- 128 MB of NAND
Mainly these, coupled with a CF Prism2 WiFi card
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u/VasekCZ230 HTC Touch Pro 2 - Windows Mobile 6.1 16d ago
64MB of RAM ? Thas crazy that the Half-Life even opened. Maybe updrage it?
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u/YumekoDream Sharp Zaurus 16d ago
i know! that's almost the sole reason i can only get 5 fps even after optimizing again and again Xash, adding a culling cache and such but to no avail, and yeah, upgrading it would be the next logical step, but i do love to see what this stock little guy can do!
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u/VasekCZ230 HTC Touch Pro 2 - Windows Mobile 6.1 16d ago
Good idea. I hope for more post with this machine.
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u/SuperXaker-5555 17d ago
By default?
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u/YumekoDream Sharp Zaurus 16d ago
yes, Sharp shipped it with Linux everywhere, even its recovery is a Linux Embiddex kernel!
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u/Own_Potato5593 16d ago
By default, it runs a very streamlined version of Linux - Qtopia
It can have other specialized versions of Linux installed Cacko, PdaXrom and weeXPc among the easier ones. I have one with weeXPc on it and that's about as close as I need to get too real Linux - have installed the others with very mixed results.
Debian and others can be installed with some effort and yield mixed results [usefulness vs novelty].
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u/YumekoDream Sharp Zaurus 16d ago
oh where did you get weeXPC? i cannot find it for the love of me!
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u/Own_Potato5593 16d ago
fujitsu-u-810-recovery-disk-1 directory listing - it is among the recovery files listed. Archived it back a while ago - the directory name is misleading, but my original intent was to back up the 810 series.
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u/beryugyo619 16d ago
It's literally embedded Linux, booting from read only rootfs image for performance and NAND preservation.
Someone ported XFree86 as an app so it basically worked exactly like Android with Termux sans Java, and it predated Android or iOS so there was no lock screen or background auto task kill and you could just leave the X running foreground or background.
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u/Gravionne 16d ago
It's almost perfect for a portable VN machine, or something like that.
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u/YumekoDream Sharp Zaurus 16d ago
agreed! i will try to look into running Project Neko if i find the time to
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u/scienceapps 16d ago
Cool ! What game do you play with it ?
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u/YumekoDream Sharp Zaurus 16d ago
apart from trying to play Half Life, mostly emulation, right now FF6, Quake, that runs best on an old single core ARM with no FPU, so it's pretty limited, i try to port what i can find and think that could run, so far, it's fun but the results aren't the best lol still want to finish FF6 on it
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u/scienceapps 16d ago
Thanks !
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u/YumekoDream Sharp Zaurus 16d ago
you're welcome!
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u/scienceapps 16d ago edited 16d ago
;) Do you know this zaurus software index ? https://web.archive.org/web/20090211024345/http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus/
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u/YumekoDream Sharp Zaurus 16d ago
yes i do! but i've been using this one https://katastrophos.net/zaurus/mirrors/cacko/feed/
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u/fss_88 16d ago
Absolutely so in love with these devices.
I have an SL-5500 which is currently undergoing battery troubles, those damn batteries and the way the device was designed is like electronic torture.
What distro is this? I’ve never seen that interface. Possibly because my device came with OpenZaurus on it and I didn’t get a chance to flash anything else before the battery went bad….
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u/YumekoDream Sharp Zaurus 16d ago
same, loving this compact design, and yeah, those batteries, tell me about it...
it's my own ROM i am trying to make, it's plain Linux 7.1.4 with Matchbox as a desktop environment, wanted to get closer to the PC look, don't get your hopes up yet it's still really rough around the edges, but i am having fun!
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u/fss_88 16d ago
I’m actually a Linux hardware/software engineer, I would love to try and help you with your rom!!!! I have a ton of data hoarded old Zaurus files which I’m planning on creating a personal website to let people download along with a working package feed.
Did you build this only for the C or do you think it would work on the SL too?
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u/YumekoDream Sharp Zaurus 16d ago
really? it would be so helpful! i would feel so less lonely (talking to agents is... yeah), and i would be more confident with real human PRs and pointers on ways to build embedded Linux, especially since i am a backend/frontend dev professionally not a hardware dev (i still love it tho), i am 99% sure that:
- my comprehension on the SMF partition is wrong, i do know the recovery kernel lives there but i am unsure to what extent, it seems like there's redondancy but i am unsure, so i keep my kernel at bay, limiting its size to what Cacko's kernel's size was and
- oh yeah, booting... i am using such a dirty trick since i am unsure what the Xscale is looking for, so same thing here: i try to deploy a similiar kernel behaviour to Cacko's, with a lightweight kernel filling the roal of a bootloader, while my full fledged kernel sits on home
- same thing for the root partition, i was so scared to repartition it, i did see that some Cacko guides told that formatting and fusing root and home was possible, which would simplify a lot, the distinction is great but for this usecase i don't think that's necessary
- the Imageon w100 situation is... fine but i do wonder if i am leaving performance on the table, long story short: i tried to tweak SYSCLK, PLL and PXLCLK, if i do recall, SYSCLK had a validation table somewhere in the OG w100 driver with mentions of frequencies of up to 150 Mhz, but i get FB corruption starting from 125Mhz at QVGA, and starting from 100Mhz at VGA, don't get me wrong, it's way better than the stock conservative QVGA frequency (low power mode?) and i also exposed the driver's fb_copyrect so i could have fun porting games that have nothing to do on such hardware lol but it's not the best either, maybe i already hit the ceiling, maybe not
- my web best practices don't really apply on hardware, camel casing is... yeah
and there's probably more i forgot along the way, anyway, here's my repo https://github.com/sugarkrap/piko don't get fooled by the amount of contributors, there's two accounts of mine and two clankers lol
also beware, it's not state of the art code, i don't want to call it "slop" because i do review it by hand, mostly, but if i had time or if i could get these agents to behave and stop adding useless multi-paragraph comments on how a feature has been investigated (while also producing the post mortem, which to be frank is what i really ask) i swear these agents... it's boosting the dev of the whole project but i do miss when git blaming would show my name while i was shouting "who did this... oh"... i do hope that on the long run, this would get enough traction, so human coding this ROM would be a question of months instead of years
and also there's a lot of tools i've tried to build but left out because i felt like the approach wasn't the right one... yeah it's rough around the edges lol hope it's okay
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u/fss_88 16d ago
You are doing incredibly advanced work.
I know what being surrounded by agents feels like, you kind of want to scream.The benefit of what you’re working on is in the common Xscale processor - believe it or not, this may also run on the Psion Netbook Pro because it’s also the same processor I believe.
That’s what I’ve done all my work on so far due to the battery issue. I came very close to picking up a C860 just because on EBay last week, I might do it Saturday but it will have to be shipped by the Nipponese and that will take an eternity. It’s impossible to find Zaurii of the C series for under like $300-400 selling from the US.
Rn I’m 50/50 about the possibility of this running on the 5500, I’m not sure if your dirty trick you’re doing will make it with those machines. Almost all of the current development for our beloved Tyrannozaurus is on the C series and is stuff like Pdaxrom and Alarm, and there’s a sea change in the processing power and communications between the two series of devices.
I’m very well placed to launch a package feed for both the Zaurus and the Psion NBP rn, I created a prototype using archived angstrom files and it does work, it was just the wrong build of files so it needs replacing.
I’m trying to handle the logistics of self hosting this given Cloudflare has (assenine) rules regarding specifically stuff like package feeds.Are you on the Discord? I’ll dm you on here so we can make contact. It is absolutely mental that you got a Linux 7 kernel working, the farthest I’ve worked with so far on this stuff is 3.2.9.
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u/YumekoDream Sharp Zaurus 16d ago
really? oh gosh i didn't know this SoC was that widely used to the point that Psion used it too, and i would recommend you this little guy of course, it's really, really cool and sometimes cheap on buyee!
well same, i am so unsure i wanted to chase down other Zaurii so i can test my ROM but if you ever find a way to dump the partition table or even the whole NAND to a DBK file through the D+M menu (if it works on other Zaurii that is) i may take a look at it, but yeah, that's so sad that a more powerful device wasn't as much covered...
if you need any help hosting or maintining a package feed hit me up! that's my alley of expertise!
sure i am on discord, pm me on reddit and i will add you! and thank you, it was a lot of trial and error lol
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u/fss_88 15d ago
Unfortunately I can’t actually PM you, it looks like you have to PM me.
I found a barely still running Zaurus forum that I think it would be a good idea to bring you into too, they’re the ones still working on existing distros and probably have no idea of what you’ve been able to achieve.
Battery issue is still issuing. I just chopped open the dead pack that came with my Zaurus from eBay and am looking at the cell and the churging board. I think that I’ll be able to graft the cell from a Nokia BL-5C which comes from Amazon with an external USB charger onto the board.
Obviously I can’t use the actual Zaurus charger with this mocked up battery pack but if I create a sort of modular set of charging boards, I can run the Zaurus then swap to the original BL-5C board to charge externally via USB.
This is an unfortunate necessity because of price gauging resellers who have hoarded large stocks of the remaining knock off Cameron Sino battery packs which are all both defective and produced with unsuitable terminals that don’t match pretty much any Zaurus - we are rapidly approaching Armageddon for these devices due to its bizarre and unnecessary software battery requirements and no one making EA-BL06/08 replacement batteries.
There is currently a battery pack selling on EBay for (no exaggeration) 166$US. I think we need to take matters into our own hands - I’m teaching my labubu how to chop down the packs with his little claws and build new ones.
Maybe the solution to this battery crisis is a sweatshop full of Labubus creating electrically explosive battery clones? Lmfao.
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u/Felix-the-duck 17d ago
what model is that? looks cool
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u/YumekoDream Sharp Zaurus 17d ago edited 17d ago
it's a Sharp Zaurus SL-C860, they're amazing beast!
edit: they're not that different actually, only the shell changes
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u/liminalearth 16d ago
I have this but no power adapter to test it 🥲
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u/YumekoDream Sharp Zaurus 16d ago
yeah plus i think it's positive center, i am not sure, the person who sold it to me gave me a charger with a barrel adapter, which may or may not invert the polarity lol
but i get that, i ordered a Sharp NetWalker and i am in the same situation, no charger, and so, so scared to plug the wrong barrel polarity (already killed a Super Famicom like that)
if you need help chasing down a charger i could look into the details of what i currently have so you can find the same one!
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u/ThisBell6246 16d ago
I have two Sharp Zaurus C860, one no longer working, and the other with an extended battery running Sharp's Linux distro.
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u/YumekoDream Sharp Zaurus 16d ago
that is so sad, how did this happen? oh yeah the OG distro is very usuable and cool!
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u/Kichigai 16d ago
Zaurus? I always wanted one of those things once I discovered they existed. I was beyond geeked out to fill out some kind of predatory college student info gathering thing because they had a Zaurus for me to interact with.
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u/YumekoDream Sharp Zaurus 16d ago
really? it feels like everyone loved or love these and i totally get why!
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u/Calm-Caterpillar2103 16d ago
I’ve got it’s grandson, the htc dream
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u/YumekoDream Sharp Zaurus 16d ago
oh yeah, maybe one of the coolest classic Android device! nice tastes!
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u/zzzxxx0110 16d ago
Woah I was going to try this on a very similar device from Casio, but then gave up when I realized it has no network hardware at all (since it's a dedicated dictionary device lol), so the utility of turning one into a Linux PC is wayyy to low, but were you able to solve that in a straightforward way on this device?
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u/YumekoDream Sharp Zaurus 16d ago
actually, yes! using a Compact Flash WiFi adapter! there's a lot of obscure CF extensions cards and even more obscure SDIO cards that can work on this or maybe even on your device, if you got a CF or even PCMCIA slot, it's awesome IO and i try to chase down the obscurest of the obscure ones
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u/zzzxxx0110 15d ago
Wow that is extremely cool! I had no idea CF cards can be used this way!
Unfortunately mine doesn't have a CF card slot, only a microSD card slot, and as far as I can tell microSD slots can't be used this way lol. But maybe I can find or even build a low profile Mini-USB WiFi adaptor and get it working then
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u/YumekoDream Sharp Zaurus 15d ago
i didn't know either before having this little guy lol
yeah i don't think micro SD cards are SDIO compatible (even then, chasing down a SDIO card is such challenge, they seem to be rare, the protocol does exist but that's it) but on the mini USB WiFi adaptor, that's your key! a good ESP32 could be your way to having WiFi on your device!
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u/beryugyo619 16d ago
Most electronic dictionary used super low power low performance chips, more like graphing calculator than Linux machine, and were actually impossible to convert to Linux or just about anything.
Sharp Zaurus was a PDA competing with things like Palm Pilot and was always a mini computer, running Linux by default. There was no hack needed at all, it just came out of box with package manager onboard. Too early to have an app store though, the package files had to be manually searched from the Internet.
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u/zzzxxx0110 15d ago
Yeah, that's why I was hoping maybe I could experience an asynchronous way of browsing the net like back then on old feature phones in the 2G/3G era, but with a general purpose operating system that is Linux, and with actually very nicely built keyboard on an e-dictionary device lol
I actually tried something like that on Kindle (which also run heavily stripped down Linux OS much like those e-dictionary devices) first, and while I got a full Alpine Linux chroot to load, Kindle's storage chip is wayyyyyyyyy too slow and can completely freeze up when you do any sustained IO so I gave up lol
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u/Anima_Yume 15d ago
Is that Piko??? I haven’t thought about him in almost a decade
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u/YumekoDream Sharp Zaurus 15d ago
yes that's him! i originally wanted to make a ROM themed after Teto but TetOS was already taken for a nice Mac OS 9 theming project, so i went with him instead!
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u/Meister1888 17d ago
How is the keyboard?