[iPAQ] packages...

Hello all,

I was wondering what people were doing with packages. It seems the ipaq is
mature enough to start adding packages. I have seen people discussing using
debian. This seems a logical choice, but I see some problems. Maybe I am a
"jonny come lately" and this has been discussed. I think the problem is
with the file system layout. When you install a package you get files
spread all over the filesystem. This is not a problem if you have fairly
static drives, but with the uDrives, the compact flash memory, and the
network connections you can have a very dynamic device. So, how can one
install a program using debian, or a similar solution, and then pull the
compact flash out and have the system not crash? Or the programs not show
up under the menu? And how do you install on a system that is not hooked
up? It would be rather slow to install a 50mb program across the serial
port. Another problem I can see is when you put in two, or more?, external
storage devices. How would this be handled? Something else that occured to
me, what if I want to install a package into the flash of my ipaq, or maybe
on the microdrive. How can we handle installing the program into multiple
places. The best I can come up with is to have everything installed under
/usr/local, or something similar, or a more radical solution is to have a
directory point to more than one place. I am willing to devote some time to
a solution.

Anthony Mills

P.S. I have nothing at all against debian; I think it is the best
distribution.
Received on Tue Apr 17 21:37:06 2001