From non-standard partitioning back to OpenZaurus

PdaXrom won't do forever. I wanted OZ/OPIE. However when I tried before the installation failed and I'm not at home, no linux PC, no card reader; only a WinXP notebook (not mine) and my Zaurus. (XP's "new USB device detected sound" got on my nerves, but everything else worked.) Quite a challange, but I had nothing else to do.

My initial plan, plan A, was:

• Full NAND Backup to CF
• Copy OZ installation files and Sharp ROM image from TRIsoft to CF using Zaurus as USB Mass storage.
• Full NAND Restore
• OZ installation

• pdaXrom install files on SD card.
• `halt`, remove battery and USB/AC, reinstall both, OK+Power
• Menu 4 / 3: Update from SD, Y
• resise root to 64M(i)B
• Reboot while holding OK
• Menu 4 / 2: Update from CF, Y (It's getting interesting)

  --- Zaurus CF updater ---
  MODEL:SL-C860
  kernel
  [progress bar]
  Success!
  RO file system
  Flash erasing..done
  [progress bar]
  Success!
  --- Finish ---
  Rebooting

  Looks great, I never got that far.
• "OpenZaurus w/ kernel 2.6" boot logo, cursor blinks, for ages nothing happens. The read-on-blue progress bar is on the very beginning. Nothing happens.
• Remove CF, battey, USB; replace battery, Power on, same problem

Back to plan A:

• Remove battery and USB/AC, press M and D while reinstalling battery, connect USB/AC
• Diagnotics Menu: NAND Restore to Sharp ROM from TRIsoft:

  NAND Restore from CF
  file:SYSTC860.DBK
  Execute Restore? OK
  Delete all flash data? OK
  Resotre...OK Cancel

  (Italics are keys pressed)
• Extra Menu / Reset = shutdown
• Remove CF card, Power On, Sharp boot screen, Japanese, cursor blinks. Zaraus boots into GUI. Doesn't look too bad at all.
• Insert CF card, execute md5sum and check with source, just to make sure I didn't make a stupid mistake again:

  298b4adb5851abda23eb68047163da4e  zImage.bin
  c1f5d9cd2e09cbaf662f1723a853b289  initrd.bin
  f5aa58e71c73f4b5151b8b33967bb27f  updater.sh

  I delete all the other files on CF. (Maybe OZ doesn't like them.)
• From df I learn /dev/root=/ is 54272KiB=53.0MiB, /dev/mtdblock3=/home is 69632KiB=68.0MiB
• Reboot from Qt menu, holding OK.
• Menu 4 / 2: Update from CF, Y
• same procedure as above. Remove CF when it says rebooting.
• OZ red-on-blue progress bar moves. Messages that are not errors! Wow! Welcome to OPIE!
• First step, first mistake: Clicked on terminal 1, got a text console, didn't know how to go back, but searching OESF Forum helped.
• Found opie-console (like xterm). Happy.

OK. No usbnet here. (No, I'm not even trying to setup IP MASQ or USB/Ethernet bridging on XP.) Thus, I need wireless. My cheap ADTEC card gets recognized as "D-Link DCF660". The network here doesn't do DHCP, but manual setup is simple (if you know gateway and DNS, of course). Now it's time to install additional software and give it a test...

problems: In OZ it's possible to turn the backlight completely off (0%), plus Fn + 4 doesn't work, so I had to plug USB power to change light settings, quite annoying. The package manager segfaults from time to time. GAIM works for me but not perfect (random segfaults). I think icons and some software was designed for screen resolutions less than 640x480: The launcher bar and fonts (default settings) are a bit too small for me. OM/PI (email) doesn'T work for me, I couldn't find any documentation nor any help in forums; sad.

pros: OPIE PIM, that is Ko/PI and Ka/PI, are OK. Unless you are already in love with some other PIM suite, you get everything you'd have ever possibly asked for: Today applet tells you what's on now. With Todo and Calender you enter what's on for the future. Multisync works for OPIE and Evolution via sftp. (This requires openssh and friends on Z.)