[jornada] Familiar 0.8.2/OPIE on Jornada 720, first impressions

Hi All,

here are some first impressions from a new user of OPIE / Familiar 0.8.2
on a HP Jornada 720. I was going to try Familiar 0.8.4-rc but there
don't appear to be any images for the Jornada in the download directory
:-(

I installed OPIE according to the instructions by Adam Pribyl on
http://www.lowlevel.cz/log/pivot/entry.php?id=41, with the difference
that I used the latest 2.4 kernel for the Jornada, specifically
http://wwwcip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/~simigern/jornada-7xx/linux-2.4.32-j720-10/.

I'm not sure if this is the correct kernel version to use, but it's more
recent than the 2.4 kernel mentioned in the above instructions, and
(also according to Adam's page) 2.6 does not appear to be supported by
linexec / is only supported on Jornada 720 with a flashboard?

The Jornada booted on the first try with no problems, which is nice.
Immediate issues/first impressions:

- Modules relevant for the J720 are not loaded at boot, and I had to
  move the 2.4 modules around in /lib/modules manually before I could
  get modprobe to find anything.

  Modules that should get loaded are: sa1100_ir, sa1111-uda1341,
  j720_control, apm, ircomm, ircomm-tty.

  I also had to start apmd and irattach manually after loading the
  relevant modules. Restarting OPIE after starting apmd made the batter
  meter work.

- The touchscreen appears to be "flaky" even after several tries at
  calibration. I'm not quite sure how to describe the flakiness but I
  can't seem to be able to tap on anything precisely.

- UI for controlling screen brightness/contrast does not work. "echo X
> /proc/jornada/{brightness,contrast}" does.

- Fonts are generally too small for my taste, and unusably so in the
  console (which also doesn't appear to offer a way of making them
  bigger). Also, antialiased fonts are "cute" but IMO hurt readability.
  I'd like a way to turn them off.

- Most modal input windows/dialogs come up too small / with an
  unneccessary scrollbar (e.g. the Date/Time settings show the date and
  time, but the timezone is not visible without scrolling).

- Tapping on the Q doesn't seem to "stick". I.e. the menu comes up only
  if I hold the pen down. Not sure if this is intended or part of the
  touchscreen problems I am seeing. The same happens when tapping on
  e.g. the date button in the Time/Date setting dialog.

- IRDA could find my phone but trying the "Query Modem" button in
  network settings would hang the app. Some flakiness here, since also
  the IRDA applet would randomly keep coming up with "Found: R520" and "Lost:
  R520". Irdaping in a console shows excessive packet loss. Again,
  may be an issue with the 2.4 kernel?

- Settings/Appearance applet doesn't appear to do anything (comes up
  with a modal window showing what things should look like but no
  visible controls for changing anything). This is where I went looking
  for some way to make the fonts bigger.

I'm happy to help with fixing these issues -- just not quite sure where
to get started.

If someone could clear up the actual status of the Jornada 720 port that
would be great. I'd like to start with building an image of the latest
Familiar distribution, OPIE and a 2.6 kernel that works. Any pointers
would be appreciated.

Thanks,

-mato
Received on Tue Jun 27 2006 - 21:32:50 EDT