Devin Butterfield wrote:
> Well, I have now had a chance to install the Familiar Project's iPAQ Dist.
> images and I must say that I'm very impressed. Alexander and Edward have done
> some very nice work, and I really hope that the Familiar distribution is
> adopted by handhelds.org as the standard.
I havn't got around to flashing it yet, but I'll throw my comments
into the mix anyway. BTW, I agree that this is a strong (only?)
candidate for replacing/merging with the handhelds distro. This
is leaps ahead of the .18 release I last tried.
> 1. I would be nice if CF cards where automatically mounted when they are
> inserted to some standard mount point like /mnt/ide.
I agree with the idea, but more work needs to go into the naming
scheme, eg /mnt/hd[abcd...]/[1234...] since it will be possible to
have multiple CF/Flash devices, each with possibly multiple partitions.
The dual PCMCIA bacPAQ is an obvious example.
> Of course, then the default is to expect msdos formatted CF cards, but this
> is likely the best choice anyway since all the major OS's (Linux, *BSD,
> windoze) can read/write them. The msdos fs should work fine for the typical
> user who just wants to store data and mp3's. If people want to use ext2fs
> then they can easily change it and backupToFlash. :)
There could be a default shipped with the cramfs, then when the ramdisk
is backed up to flash, any custom changes are saved till next boot. This
could be done through the GUI "system configurator". More on that later.
> 2. All the convenient mount points are gone. There isn't any /mnt/hda,
> /mnt/ide, or /skiff.
Again, have a default shipped with the images, and let the user
customize them, deleting unused points and adding appropriate ones
for their system.
> 5. It would be nice if there was a simple utility that prompts the user the
> first time Familiar is run which guides him/her to configure basic things.
> This should be a VERY simple tool that will be intuitive to newbies, and very
> quick to use for the more experienced user. I think Ed Muller's python based
> config app is the right place to start.
I agree totally, the configurator looks like a real compeditor
to the Windows Control Panel, which we all know is the epitome of
system configuration and customization. <grin>
Also, if a card is mounted and a config backup is found, an alert could
popup asking if the user would like to replace the current config with the
one on the card, with an option to save the existing config.
Having the ability to save multiple named configs to a backup device
and the reload them would allow multiple user configs, development and
user configs, home, work, holiday, whatever. Imagine an office/research
lab with a pool of devices. A person could take out a device set up to
download data from remote data loggers, take one to a meeting with PIM
and email apps, and have different <cringe> themes for different user
levels: "hacker", "techie", "manager"/"technophobe". No shell for the
manager, but there for the hacker.
> Well, I can't think of any others right now, but I would encourage other
> people to voice their opinions as well. Working cooperatively with a7r and
> Ed, we should be able to create a linux dist for the iPAQ that blows winCE
> out of the water, and clearly we're already off to a great start!
Well, one which jumps to mind is to stop saving the config changes
to /dev/mtdblock6. I have a 32Mb unit, and you can't have that Flash,
dammit!!! Save to CF, I have an 8Mb CF card that came with my camera
and if you manage to fill it, well, good luck to you! That saved info
can then be transported to a different system easily and used as an
off-device backup in the event of loss or catastrophic failure.
> Thanks again to a7r, Ed Muller, and the all the folks at handhelds.org for
> the excellent work.
Well done people, I am seriously impressed with what has been done
in so short a time.
Once the power problem is resolved and the configurator comes up to
speed, I would say that this would make a viable replacement for CE.
glen.
_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
Received on Sat Jan 20 00:08:27 2001
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Tue May 04 2004 - 09:43:50 EDT