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More Linux / Palm fun

19 08 06 - 13:52 Swapfile:
Oops, forgot one thing last time.

After doing the dd if=/dev/zero of=swap.fs bs=1m count=32 (cd'd to the card directory of course), you need to then open a shell on the Palm Linux side.

cd to /media/mmc1 and run
mkswap swap.fs
swapon swap.fs

and your swapfile will now actually be used. Ensure it is enabled in linux.boot.cfg.

GPE or OPIE?

OPIE is more like what you'd expect in a handheld Linux machine, and is what the Sharp Zaurus used. It's faster, and simpler. It draws straight to the framebuffer and uses up far less RAM. However, it's a far simpler system than GPE.

GPE is a lot more powerful than OPIE - it has a full X server, and is more like a greatly stripped-down desktop distro. It NEEDS a swapfile, or it's just unusably slow and incredibly on the TX.
Update: I've been told that it has reasonable performance without one. That isn't my experience, but maybe there's something that I've done/not done - my install instructions are in the previous post.

OPIE has handwriting recognition in addition to the onscreen keyboard. GPE only has an onscreen keyboard.
Update: I am told that there is handwriting recognition for GPE- install Rosetta.

On OPIE, everything runs as root. GPE has different user accounts. Although on a PDA, I guess... this isn't incredibly important.
Update: I am also told that OPIE does have some modifications that can be made to make it have user and root accounts.

TX specs:
Linux runs inside the 32MB of RAM on the TX, and ignores the 128MB of flash entirely. The TX has a 316MHZ ARM CPU and a 320x480 touchscreen. Linux boots and runs off a SD card (I use a 256MB SD card for Linux - i recommend you don't use the same one you use for your palmos stuff - something nasty might happen, so backup your stuff if it is the same card, and still back it up if it's a different one...)