This is a small readme for the packages on my site. UPDATE : now some of the packages are done by Kevin Boone (When mentioned), and I use his own readme text in this file.
The first thing is : I haven't written any of these applications. Well I wrote one ( NTFSmount ), which is actually only a bash script, and it's heavily based on the kernel module provided by the Linux NTFS Project http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/. So all these apps are the property of their respective owners. You can check who they are with a simple search on google, or by following my instructions on how to unpack a package, and look at the control file. If you need to contact me, go ahead at yannickd AT gmail DOT com or if you're a gmail hater, try for yannick.dutertre AT enst-bretagne DOT fr (spam is evil).
Note that there is a big problem coming again and again on the PMA for Zaurus programs : the PMA frame-buffer is very different from the Zaurus frame-buffer, so that programs which are not using the Qtopia libraries usually do not work properly.
Small description of the programs. For more information, a quick search on google should do the trick :
SafeDee : this is the demo version of a commercial application. In its original state, the app wouldn't launch using the installed icon, and wouldn't uninstall. It's fixed with this package.
aliens : this one worked out of the box. I just changed the filename to make in clear it works on the PMA.
blackdown-jdk and blackdownlibs : [Was broken before. Now works] a Java 3 virtual machine on your PMA ! At install time, make sure the PMA stays ON. The simplest way to do that is to tap the screen regularly to prevent the screen from shutting down. After installing both packages blackdown-jdk and blackdownlibs, you have to download rt.jar (part of the blackdown jdk) in the root of your PMA430 hard drive. Then type in a PMA console :
rm /progfs/usr/local/j2re1.3.1/lib/rt.jar (ignore any error message)
cp /media/rt.jar /progfs/usr/local/j2re1.3.1/lib/
Then, each time you'll want to execute a Java program, you'll have to type in first in the PMA console :
export
JAVA_HOME=/progfs/usr/local/j2re1.3.1/
export
PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin
then execute in the same console :
java NameOfTheProgram
curl : a program needed by ogg123.
dviviewer : a viewer of DVI files (most notably created by LaTeX) , which are files looking closely like PDF files, only more open.
esd : a sound deamon for the PMA. It supposedly enable you to stream audio files from your computer to your PMA, via a Wi-Fi connection. I haven't tested it out just yet, but at least the deamon seems to be launching fine. You can launch it in a terminal with :
esd -nobeeps -tcp -public&
More info on http://zaurus.frontgarden.net/esd.html
FreeNoteQt : a small but good drawing program. I don't know why, but sometimes it says it fails to install (but in reality it doesn't). So install it. It might say it has failed to install but it hasn't. Just reboot your device and you should see the right icons in Settings and in Applications. If ever you want to uninstall FreeNoteQt, simply download my script (freenoteqtuninstall.sh) and put it into the root of your PMA430 hard drive. Then in a terminal on your PMA, you should execute the following command :
/media/freenoteqtuninstall.sh , and then reboot the device.
froot : a Frozen Bubble like game for the PMA. The problem is, it launches in Portrait mode so we lose half of the image...
gbz : a game boy emulator. It installs and launches properly, but when trying to launch a ROM, it can't manage to connect well to the frame-buffer and promptly dies.
ipkg-build.sh : That's not for the PMA, it's a Linux bash script which enables you to build an installable PMA/Zaurus package. More info in my HOWTO (available in French only for the moment : http://elelome.files5.free.fr/Applicationsmodif/HOWTOFR.htm )
justreader : an e-book reader for the PMA. Great one :)
korganizer : a very good PIM application. It actually worked right out of the box, I just changed the extension so that it's clear that it works on the PMA.
latex : a latex compiler for the PMA. To install, first install the package. Then download the file texmf.tar.gz and untar it. A directory called texmf should appear. Just copy this directory onto the root of the PMA400 hard drive. Then the latex suite should work quite well. The main commands will be latex and dvipdfm.
libcurl : a library needed by ogg123
libffmpeg : I made this one PMA-comaptible just in case someone wanted to write a plugin for the PMA to support MPEG4-ASP
libglib : this was needed by xmms, but it's not true anymore. Now it is included within my package of xmms. Do not install unless needed.
libmad : a library needed by scummvm ( at least by the scummvm the package which doesn't have libSDL nor libmad of course).
libopie1 : this one worked out of the box on the PMA. It is needed by opie-reader and zaurus-vlc.
libSDL : a library needed by scummvm (the package which doesn't have libSDL nor libmad of course).
libvorbisidec : library needed by a few programs. It's almost impossible to find it on the Internet outside the OpenZaurus feeds (which I never managed to install nor adapt on the PMA)
mahjongg : worked out of the box on the PMA, I just changed the package name so that it includes pma400.
mplayer : the well-known multimedia player for Linux. I only managed to make it read MP3 files, and even that wasn't too good (the MP3 were playing too slowly). As all the other video players I tried, it doesn't support video, because it can't show it on the PMA400 screen.
To make it work nonetheless, after installing the package, you have to each time you launch a new console write in it:
export HOME=/progfs/opt/QtPalmtop/lib/
before launching mplayer.
ntfsmount : my own application. It enables the user to mount and unmount external NTFS-formatted on the PMA. If a powered external hard drive doesn't seem to work with the PMA, it's probably because it's formatted in NTFS. You should then try this program.
Howto use : you have to plug the external hard drive onto the PMA400, then click on NTFSmount in the Application tab. When You're finished, you can close ALL the applications which are making use of the external hard drive and then click on NTFSunmount, and then unplug the external hard drive.
WARNING : DO NOT TRY TO WRITE FILES TO THE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE, OR TO MODIFY YOUR FILES ON IT. THERE COULD BE SOME LOSS OF DATA ON THE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE. However, if you have saved all the files on your external hard drive and want to see if writing to the external hard drive is possible without damaging anything, please let me know the results.
WARNING Nb2 : DO NOT UNPLUG THE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE BEFORE HAVING CLOSED ALL THE APPS USING IT AND CLICKED ON NTFSUNMOUNT. THERE COULD BE SOME LOSS OF DATA ON THE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE.
ogg123 : the ogg vorbis audio file player for the PMA. Unfortunately, I haven't managed to make it output sound on the PMA. However, it is able to convert files in real time from ogg vorbis to wave format. ogg123 requires you to have ogglibs, curl, and libcurl installed.
opie-reader : an e-book reader on the PMA.
oz-compat : libraries I had to use when trying to run Hancom Office on the PMA. My attempts proved unsuccessful.
powermanga : a cool game but while it installs and uninstalls properly, it doesn't work on the PMA.
qboard
PACKAGE BY KEVIN BOONE : I have put QBoard and GnuChess into a single
package that is friendly to the PMA430's filesystem. The Zaurus
GnuChess package tries to write to /usr,
which is read-only on the PMA430.
I've tested the QBoard/GnuChess combination to the extent of being thrashed by the bloody thing several times. I don't know if every feature works on the PMA430. Ideally QBoard needs to be modified slightly to suit the landscape screen, but I don't have access to the source (it seems to have disappeared) so I can't do it. Anyway, it's playable if you choose an unpatterned board. By the way, QBoard does not shut down GnuChess when it exits. This makes QBoard faster to get started next time, but if you're done with chess for a while, you may want to get rid of GnuChess. At the console, enter the command
# killall gnuchess
qpegps and qpegpsmaps : a GPS program for the PMA. Haven't tested it with a GPS device yet. The homepage to qpe-gps is http://qpegps.sourceforge.net/index.html and the GPS units supposed to work with it are http://qpegps.sourceforge.net/gps_units.html
qpaint : a small paint program for the PMA. The problem is it launches in portrait mode so we lose half of the image.
rt.jar : an element of the blackdown-jdk (cf)
scummvm with libSDL and libmad : a LucasArts adventure game emulator. This package also includes libSDL and libmad. I would rather recommend that you installed scummvm, libSDL, and libmad separately.
scummvm : this time without libSDL and libmad, which have to be installed separately
sharpmpeg : it would work, but it requires libsl, a proprietary library, not available anywhere.
texfonts : some fonts for dviviewer. Required by dviviewer if it is to work properly.
TextMaker : the demo version of TextMaker, a Word-compatible word processor from the SoftMaker company.
Win4 : Works well
xmms-embedded and xmms-qtopia : the audio player for the PMA. Everything works but xmms fails to load the audio driver!!!
zaurus-libsdl : another library I used in my tests. It now is provided in the zaurus-vlc package, so you don't need it.
zaurus-vlc : the multimedia player VLC. unfortunately it wasn't able to read video, nor an ogg vorbis file I had encoded. But it managed to play wav and mp3 files flawlessly.
zbedic
PACKAGE BY KEVIN BOONE : ZBEDic is a viewer for dictionaries in BEDic
format. This format supports definitional and translational
dictionaries. A number of free translation dictionaries is available
from freedict.
For more information about BEDic
and ZBEDic, and links to other dictionaries, see the project
page at SourceForge.
The good thing about running ZBEDic on the PMA430 is that the PMA's
large disk makes it possible to store more dictionaries, and larger
dictionaries, than is practicable on any other handheld device. In
particular, the PMA version handles the enormous `Wikipedia'
encyclopedia, which contains a staggering 76 million words of text.
I have made a number of minor changes
to the PMA430 version. Most importantly, I've modified it to read
dictionaries from the directory /System/dictionaries
(as it appears from a PC) as well as the
Documents directory. The problem with using the Documents directory
is that Qtopia gets twitchy if you have large numbers of files in the
Documents directory (because it tries to display them all in
the Documents tab of the launcher). The use of a single directory to
store a large collection of unrelated data is hardly appropriate on a
machine with a 30GB hard disk. Nevertheless, the PMA430 version
continues to read from the Documents directory as well as
/System/dictionaries.
So, in short, my recommended
strategy for installing dictionaries is to mount the PMA430 as a USB
drive, create the directory /System/dictionaries,
and dump the dictionaries in there. Then start the ZBEDic
application, click the settings (spanner) icon, and chose `Search for
dictionaries' from the `Dictionaries' tab. Then you should see the
dictionaries you copied over.
zbedic-unicode-font : this is simply an auto-install package for the Zbedic unicode font. This font can probably be used with e-books readers too. You will need to reboot the PMA after installation.
zgcc : the gcc compiler for the PMA. Almost works, just needs a fix or two.