<b>Pocket Workstation - Debian on Handhelds</b>
taken from:
http://www.pocketworkstation.org/
Let me know how you get on!this is the road im going down when i get a
zaurus;)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are some of the features of what I'm currently running on my
Zaurus:

    *

      Full Debian GNU/Linux operating environment, with easy access to
the many GB of available software. Want the Konqueror web browser and
have 50MB free space on your SD card? Run "apt-get install konqueror",
go eat lunch and come back to find it ready to run. No porting needed.
    *

      includes X11 able to run most Linux applications - it supports
virtual screens larger than the physical screen, realtime anti-aliased
scaling and rotation, 3-mouse-button emulation and a full keyboard
(useful i.e. if you need to send Ctrl-Alt-Del to an application).
    *

      VNC client fbvnc (same features as X11 above) - remote administer
your NT box from your Zaurus.
    *

      Runs completely out of a single directory (a 256MB SD card is
ideal), no re-flashing or modification of the existing operating system
is required.
    *

      Switch between qtopia and X11 whenever you like without rebooting
or needing to stop any of your X11 applications. This currently still
requires waiting half a minute for QPE to load, but I'm working on
making it near-instantaneous.

Requirements
You need:

    *

      A storage card with a Unix filesystem (ext2 works, FAT doesn't)
and 95MB free space (125MB if you also need to put the archive on it)
for the "base" archive, 200/280MB for the "big" one. SD/MMC cards are
most useful due to keeping the CF slot free for network cards, but CF
cards and microdrives also work.
    *

      Approximately 20 MB free RAM on the handheld. This is only really
relevant for the SL-5000D with the Sharp ROM which has less than 32MB
available - don't try to run Qtopia at the same time as Debian in that
case.

Supported platforms:

    *

      Sharp SL-5000D or SL-5500 running the Crow ROM is recommended.
OpenZaurus and the original Sharp ROM also work, but please refer to
'known bugs' below.
    *

      The Japan-only C700 and C750 models also work, and are highly
recommended (here's a comparison between the c700 and 5600. See 'known
bugs' section below for further instructions.
    *

      Compaq iPAQ color handheld running Familiar Linux. (NOT Windows
CE, and it isn't officially supported yet and needs some tweaking, see
'known bugs' below. Send me mail if you want to try it.)
    *

      Other comparable handhelds running Linux might also work with
some porting, let me know if you have one you want supported.

Installation

NOTE: I haven't had time recently to update the installation software
or instructions. Please take a look at these user-contributed
instructions:
The PocketWorkstation page in the Debian.net Wiki
Installing on a SL-C700 (Paolo)
Running Tcl/Tk on a SL-5500 (Kurt Yungel)

For general Debian issues on handheld computers, please use the
debian-handheld mailing list. But please make sure to check out the
"known bugs" section below first.

Get the most current zaurus-debian-*.tgz archive from the download
section. The '-base-' package contains a minimal environment and needs
95 MB when unpacked, the '-big-' package contains additional software
and needs 195 MB. You only need one of them, the contents of the 'base'
package are completely contained in the 'big' one. See below for a full
content listing. (Alternatively, you can use chroot-debian-bootstrap to
create a customized package yourself from the Debian FTP servers, but
this is a lot more complicated and time-consuming.)

If you can plug the target SD/MMC/CF card into a Linux computer (i.e.
using a SD-to-PCMCIA adapter on a notebook, or a USB card writer), it's
fastest to unpack it there. Otherwise transfer the archive to the
Zaurus.

Make sure that the card is mounted using ext2 on the Zaurus (automatic
mounting sometimes gets this wrong - edit /etc/fstab and use 'ext2'
instead of 'auto' for the filesystem type).

Important: ensure that the filesystem is mounted with device files
enabled - current OpenZaurus versions mount with the 'nodev' option
which completely breaks the chroot environment. See 'known bugs' below.

Unpack the archive:

        cd /mnt/card    # SD/MMC card, Sharp or OpenZaurus ROM
        cd /home        # SD/MMC card, Crow ROM
        cd /mnt/cf      # CompactFlash or Microdrive

        # download and decompress GNU tar, busybox tar is broken in
some
        # versions and messes up the archive contents
        wget http://pocketworkstation.org/files/gnu-tar.gz
        gunzip gnu-tar.gz

        # create the destination directory
        mkdir debroot

        # Unpack if you haven't done so already.
        # Don't forget the 'p' switch, or you'll get wrong permissions.
        ./gnu-tar -C debroot -xvzpf zaurus-debian-*.tgz

        # Configure and integrate into native system
        ./debroot/INSTALL.d/postinst.sh

Please read the fbvnc documentation for more information about the
VNC-based GUI.

You can edit the file /etc/debroot.conf to control the integration into
the native system and startup options. If you don't select automatic
startup, just run the following commands on the text console to launch
it manually:

        Vncserver   # it backgrounds, hit ENTER to get the prompt back
        Fbvnc

To get out of the Debian environment, use <Fn>-<Shift>-<Q> on the
virtual keyboard, or [Action]-<Shift>-<Q> on the real keyboard. This
quits fbvnc, which will return you to the command line, but Xvnc will
keep running in the background. Kill the 'Xvnc' process to shut down
all X11 applications.
Known bugs

Please refer to the Wiki page:
The PocketWorkstation page in the Debian.net Wiki
Package contents

Because the dependencies are determined automatically and the contents
of the Debian 'testing' release change fairly frequently, the exact
list of packages may differ. The lists below apply to the 0.16 release.
-base-

EXTRA_PACKAGES=xbase-clients xserver-common xfonts-base xlibs aterm
unclutter imlib1 libjpeg62 libpng2 libtiff3g libungif4g icewm[stable]
29045 kB packages, 82196 kB after installation
adduser apt aterm awk base-files base-passwd bash bsdmainutils bsdutils
coreutils cpp-3.2 debconf debconf-i18n debianutils diff dpkg dselect
e2fslibs e2fsprogs file findutils ftp gcc-3.2-base gcc-3.3-base grep
gzip hostname ifupdown imlib-base imlib1 initscripts ipchains
iputils-ping less libacl1 libattr1 libblkid1 libc6 libcap1 libcomerr2
libdb1-compat libdb3 libdps1 libfreetype6 libgcc1 libjpeg62
liblocale-gettext-perl libmagic1 libncurses5 libpam-modules
libpam-runtime libpam0g libpng10-0 libpng2 libreadline4 libss2
libssl0.9.7 libstdc++5 libtext-charwidth-perl libtext-iconv-perl
libtext-wrapi18n-perl libtiff3g libungif4g libuuid1 libwrap0 libxaw7
login makedev mawk mount ncurses-base ncurses-bin net-tools netbase
netkit-inetd nvi passwd perl-base perlapi-5.8.0 sed slang1a-utf8
sysv-rc sysvinit tar tcpd unclutter util-linux wget xbase-clients
xfonts-base xfree86-common xlibs xserver-common xutils zlib1g
-big-

EXTRA_PACKAGES=xbase-clients xserver-common xfonts-base xlibs aterm
unclutter imlib1 libjpeg62 libpng2 libtiff3g libungif4g dillo icewm
menu gpppon pppconfig gsfonts-x11 gv xpdf-reader madplay vorbis-tools
setmixer ssh rsync gnupg nmap netcat tcpdump xvncviewer xli procps
psmisc apt-utils bzip2 unzip calcoo rpncalc man-db openobex-apps
gsm-utils sylpheed-claws jpilot lpr sysklogd ace-of-penguins
libgtk-perl
58112 kB packages, 170381 kB after installation
ace-of-penguins adduser apt apt-utils aterm awk base-files base-passwd
bash bsdmainutils bsdutils bzip2 calcoo coreutils cpp-3.2 debconf
debconf-i18n debianutils defoma diff dillo dpkg dselect e2fslibs
e2fsprogs esound-common file findutils fontconfig ftp gcc-3.2-base
gcc-3.3-base gnupg gpppon grep groff-base gs gs-common gsfonts
gsfonts-x11 gsm-utils gv gzip hostname icewm icewm-common ifupdown
imlib-base imlib1 initscripts ipchains iputils-ping jpilot klogd less
lesstif2 libacl1 libao2 libapt-pkg-libc6.3-5-3.3 libaspell15 libattr1
libaudiofile0 libblkid1 libbluetooth1 libbz2-1.0 libc6 libcap1
libcomerr2 libcompfaceg1 libcurl2 libdb1-compat libdb2 libdb3 libdb4.0
libdps1 libesd0 libexpat1 libflac4 libfontconfig1 libfreetype6 libgcc1
libgcrypt1 libgcrypt7 libgdbm3 libgimpprint1 libglib1.2 libgnutls7
libgpg-error0 libgpgme6 libgsmme1c102 libgtk-perl libgtk1.2
libgtk1.2-common libid3tag0 libjpeg62 libldap2 liblocale-gettext-perl
liblzo1 libmad0 libmagic1 libncurses5 libnewt0.51 libogg0 liboggflac1
libopencdk8 libopenobex-1.0-0 libpam-modules libpam-runtime libpam0g
libpaper1 libpcap0.7 libpcre3 libpisock8 libpng10-0 libpng12-0 libpng2
libpopt0 libreadline4 libsasl2 libspeex1 libss2 libssl0.9.7 libstdc++5
libtasn1-0 libtext-charwidth-perl libtext-iconv-perl
libtext-wrapi18n-perl libtiff3g libungif4g libuuid1 libvorbis0a
libvorbisenc2 libvorbisfile3 libwrap0 libxaw7 libxft2 libxrender1 login
lpr madplay makedev man-db mawk menu metamail mount ncurses-base
ncurses-bin net-tools netbase netcat netkit-inetd nmap nvi
openobex-apps passwd perl perl-base perl-modules perlapi-5.8.0
perlapi-5.8.2 ppp pppconfig procps psmisc rpncalc rsync sed setmixer
slang1a-utf8 ssh sylpheed-claws sysklogd sysv-rc sysvinit t1lib1 tar
tcpd tcpdump ucf unclutter unzip util-linux vnc-common vorbis-tools
wget whiptail xaw3dg xbase-clients xfonts-base xfree86-common xli xlibs
xpdf-common xpdf-reader xserver-common xutils xvncviewer zlib1g
Wishlist
If you can help with any of these issues, please let me know:

    Klaus Weidner k...@w-m-p.com

    *

      Feedback! I won't continue releasing this if I don't hear from
you (yes, this means you). If you try it, let me know what you did and
how it turned out. If you decided not to try it out, please tell me
what should have been different. Also, tell me if I should add you to
the (very low-volume) announcement mailing list to tell you about new
versions.
    *

      Help on setting up power management properly on the various ROMs
(suspend/resume, backlight, hardware clock, alarm function) - please
let me know what works and what doesn't. I'd like to phase out the
zapmd hacks if possible.
    *

      A fix for the crashes when writing (see above, probably buggy
SD/MMC driver)
    *

      jffs2 file system on flash cards using the blkmtd driver - this
would offer compression and better write performance. Anyone have a
working Zaurus-compatible version?

      $Id: index.html,v 1.31 2005/03/17 07:12:07 kw Exp $

Update 2005-03-16: updated the sarge/testing snapshots (0.18), they now
include the fbvnc v1.6 and xf4vnc combination featuring noninteger
scaling and fast shared memory communication, along with the
intermediate updates since 0.17 mentioned below.

Update 2004-11-19: Started move of documentation to the
PocketWorkstation page in the Debian.net Wiki. Please contribute!

Update 2004-07-22: New support for Sharp SL-6000 in fbvnc, but not yet
in the base/big tarballs. See download section for binary.

Update 2004-04-13: updated instructions on this page - thanks to Hans
Halvorson for the C7x0 console mode tip.

Update 2004-04-06: updated zvncserver script - copy this to
/usr/local/bin in the debroot to activate it. Now autoselects more
reasonable default settings for the 640x480 SL-Cxxx models. Also, it
now reads $HOME/.Xserverrc and $HOME/.Xclients for customizations
without needing to edit the script, see comments in script for details.

Update 2004-04-04: updated the sarge/testing snapshots (0.17), and
fixed reported bugs (0.16 was missing many packages that should have
been in it).