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Familiar v0.7 Release Notes
The installation directions have been
completely rewritten and reorganized -- what you need to do to install
Familiar 0.7.
Boot loader
The boot loader we were using during the pre-release period, 2.20.1,
bricked some h3600's. They had different flash chips, which needed different
timing. We're using 2.20.4 for the release.
Also, the h3100 display isn't initialized correctly by 2.20.*,
so we're using 2.18.54 for the h3100.
- Bootldr can be installed now via:
- ActiveSync under Windows
- SynCE under Linux
- Using a CF/MMC/SD card
- Using an FTP daemon
- Using Pocket IE and a web server
- Familiar is inspired by the Debian
Linux distribution and can run Debian ARM binaries.
- Base system can be installed from:
- serial line
- CF card using a CF or PCMCIA sleeve
- Kernel - 2.4.19-rmk6-pxa1-hh13, glibc 2.3.2.
- Note that most common network cards are supported, but we do not
have an exhaustive list at this time. Please report both
successes and failures to the ipaq
at handhelds.org mailing list.
- Hardware specific Issues:
- There have been reports of boot loader installation failures on
Japanese language iPAQs. These seem unlikely to us, but to prevent
problems, anyone with Japanese language PocketPC iPAQ's
please get help on IRC before attempting an install,
until we have more data.
- H54xx is not yet supported: good progress is
being made.
- H39xx problems: The H39xx is supported for the first time in
Familiar 0.7,
but there are two remaining significant
bugs.
In particular, the system may not be ensuring all hardware is properly powered down on suspend
(bug 662),
causing very poor suspend lifetime.
Audio input also has trouble
(bug 786). We decided that since there was no release for
the H39xx at all, better to release something which mostly works than to
wait for perfection.
- H36xx, H37xx, H38xx: no specific issues
It is possible that the H39xx power issue may also affect
the H38xx (they share some logic design and drivers);
please report poor power consumption on suspend to the mailing list.
- H31xx: Bootloader 2.20.* is not initializing the screen! If you install,
you will end up with a blank screen. Consequently, we are shipping
2.18.54 with the h31xx tarballs.
Due to limited flash and RAM space, only the base
Familiar image can be installed initially; it can be upgraded to full
functionality either incrementally, or by installing the appropriate
task. Note that you may not have enough flash/ram for some
applications to be fully useful.
- H19xx: is not yet supported: good progress is
being made.
- SD is *NOT* supported in 0.7, however we have very recently received
a driver for unencrypted cards which will be in the next kernel build.
- IDE lost interrupt problem
(bug 856):
Following "cardctl suspend; cardctl resume", CF memory cards stop
working and just print errors about lost interrupts.
It isn't necessary to actually suspend the ipaq: just running the cardctl
command is enough to provoke the problem.
This bug
didn't exist in 0.6.1. As nobody was able to fix it, we have used
the work-around of doing a cardctl eject and cardctl insert.
- Major updates to both GPE and OPIE user environments.
- Many, Many, Many new features, too numerous to enumerate.
Enjoy!
- Synchronization of PIM applications not yet supported.
Soon... Please help!
- This release is based on GTK 2.2
and all core GPE applications now use it. Therefore all fonts are
anti-aliased.
- There is some problem causing automatic detection of
subpixel order to be broken. If you use your iPAQ mostly in one
orientation, you can edit /etc/fonts/local.conf and enable
subpixel decimation with the correct order. This will be fixed the
in next release, but not 0.7.
- Some applications in the unstable feed have not yet been upgraded to GTK
2.2, and if you install them, may force the installation of GTK 1.4.
Please help in updating any not yet converted. Note that systems
with limited (e.g. 16 meg) flash won't have space for more than
one toolkit.
- Bitstream Vera fonts are
used by default; the distribution no longer uses bitmap fonts by
default. Microsoft web fonts can also be installed if you insist,
or need wider I18N coverage. Unfortunately, a bug not yet tracked down
is inhibiting replacement of bitmap fonts with outline fonts, so if you
have an antique application, you may need to load the old bitmap font
set.
- The default font used by mbdesktop (the desktop manager in GPE)
is quite small, both for old fogies.
The reason for this is that if you install more applications
than will fit on the screen, you'll tickle a bug in mbdesktop where it
may not put up its paging buttons (which can be worked around by using
the button pad), but this workaround is not immediately obvious.
A new version of mbdesktop is expected
soon that will not have this problem, and allow users to customize
the font size.
- H31xx: Due to limited flash and RAM space, only the base Familiar
image can be installed initially (the full distribution won't fit into
RAM temporarily during install); it can be upgraded to full
functionality either incrementally, or by installing the appropriate
task. Note that you may not have enough RAM for some applications
to be fully useful (e.g. dillo, the web browser).
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The GPE keyboard configuration applet is not fully functional. It
installs the modules and support packages of the selected keyboard type
and writes a configuration file. The problem is that there is no script
that reads this file to bring the keyboard up so far... i don't think
this is hard to do, but i'm shure this won't come before the familiar
0.7 release.
- Lots of useful information for new GPE users is in the wiki.
- Many, Many, Many new features, too numerous to enumerate.
Enjoy!
- Updates to lots of applications
- Synchronization of PIM applications not yet supported.
Soon... Please help!
Jim
Gettys
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