I've been using the Cacko ROM on my Sharp Zaurus SL5500 (Collie) for several months as it provides a complete and stable PDA PIM environment (outlook compatible), office applications, GPS, media player, PDF and doc viewer, in addition of Linux tools and services.
Find enclosed my guide for installing Cacko in your Collie and fixing most configurations problems (that I'm aware). Sharp Zaurus SL5500-G (Collie)
Configuration Cacko ROM in SD
The Sharp Zaurus PDA's were a very nice device. They passed away in 2007.
I bought three of them from new old stock on e-Bay. As many, i'm still waiting for a better and cheap Linux on my pocket replacement (also with keyboard ). I've been using Cacko ROM -compatible as a derivative work of the original Sharp ROM 3.13- for several months after several tries with other ROM because it provides a complete and stable PIM environment (outlook compatible), office applications, GPS, media player, PDF and doc viewer, in addition of Linux tools and services. There are hundreds of programs that can be easily installed as packages (ipkg install ...).
Cacko has a poor implementation/maintenance of owner/rights in the home directory, dealing to too much problems in installations, file access, or several software operation in daily use. I managed to get my Collies' park running fine and healthy.
My How-To guide to Cacko Collie configuration with Cacko with Cacko-Crow ROM (modified Shap ROM 3.13 for system on SD) using a 1GB SD card.
Prepare a CF card with the new ROM Prepare a CF card (plain factory or fat16 formatted) with Initrd.bin and zImage files at the root (other files or directories are irrelevant). Flash as usual for a Sharp ROM Insert the CF in the slot Connect external power cable Slide the battery switch to replace battery and open battery door Press the recessed [Full Reset] button once.
Press simultaneusly 3 buttons once: [C]+[D]+[Full Reset]. I prefer to press and hold [C]+[D] with my 5th and 4th fingers tips and then, with the stylus press the [Full Reset] button. Power and mail LEDs will lit for 3 minutes. Just wait. Don't stop or unplug. LEDs will turn off when finished. The zaurus will remain off. 5. Press [Full Reset] once. Close battery lid and slide the battery switch to normal operation Push once the On/Off/Cancel.
The Zaurus will boot plain linux
On boot message: [Return]
Now follow the short instructions allowing to configure your SD card fdisk /dev/mmcda1 Delete partition 1 (Fat).
Create new partition 1 (as default will be linux) mkfs.ext2 /dev/mmcda1
Type exit and the system will reboot and build the cacko installation
Cacko 5500 Tuning
File system ownership File and directory ownership are not well set in /home/zaurus.
Too many are set to root (and group root) and cannot be written by default user zaurus (and group qpe). This will bear to many problems if you install software packages or simply try to create your own files. Bears to many problems in new file creation (just important new configuration files) or device mounts. It fails again if you make a full reboot. Full reboot preserves your data in the SD even it take minutes to rebuild the system (links).
Just relax.
So you need to modify rc.sysinit and rc.local: su cd /etc/rc.d vi rc.sysinit Near the bottom of the file uncomment the block of lines that launches rc.local vi rc.local just add chown -R zaurus:qpe /home/zaurus I added zaurus to qpe and user groups vi /etc/group just add zaurus and/or your user name as the last word in the line pe.: users:x:100:zaurus,quim qpe:x:500:zaurus Accelerate SD access $su #echo MOUNT_OPTIONS=\"async,noatime\">/home/root/.rom_options #reboot After the reboot the changes are active.
Packages to install
You may install any package compatible with original Sharp ROMS, and many other from other ROM's, but my preferred packages are: Cool Icons Usb management Hancom Office: Word, Sheet, Presentation Portabase Opera 7.3 Qpdf Qtopia 1.01 applets: battery, light, sound, ... QGPS ZRoadmap Glitches: SD cards die more early than expected. So, keep a backup. Backups are very slow. Remember to avoid saving your GPS maps !!