linux

The Zipit Z2 has been around for a while now and is showing some age compared to the newest flashy ARM devices like the beagleboard and the soon to be released Raspberry Pi, but there's still plenty of life left in the Z2. You can now get a Z2 for as low as $10. In December 2010 rkdavis did a little blurb about what went on that year in the land of the Zipits. This is my blurb for what happened in 2011.

Early on in 2011, fanoush brought us a properly rotated uboot screen on the Zipit lcd as well as a more reliable uboot keypad driver. To go along with these changes I released a new flash that included fanoush's uboot patches and a "RecoveryOS" which contained a small/basic linux initramfs with some tools that (barely) fit into the Zipit's flash memory.

Update: It's come to my attention that Windows will not see a Fat partition on a card if the first partition is ext2. I have changed the instructions below to so that the fat partition is first on the card, thus allowing you to use it with Windows.

I've been playing around with the OpenWrt RecoveryOS a bit recently. I like it because it's small, fast and there's a good amount of packages available in Projectgus' repo. The problem with all these awesome packages and the RecoveryOS, though, is that there's not much space left in the Zipit's internal flash to store these goodies. 

I compiled the Linux 3.0.0+ kernel with some USB Wifi drivers. This should allow for some interesting things on the Zipit (hostap, wifi bridging, monitor mode, etc). Here's a list of the chipsets:

Broadcom 43xx (+legacy)
Atheros Based
Ralink rt2500, rt2501/rt73, rt27xx/rt28xx/rt30xx, rt2800usb
Realtek RTL8192CU/RTL8188CU
ZyDAS ZD1211/ZD1211B

You'll also need firmware for some of these. If you're using z2sid you can install them from the repos with apt-get. Here's a list of the Debian packages:
http://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=firmware&searchon=names&suite=unstable&section=all

I only tested with an Ralink rt73 stick and the Debian Sid firmware-ralink package. Have fun!

Wicknix has done it again with a light OS for the Zipit Z2, dubbed z2lite. There's a lot of goodies packed into this small OS. I just started trying out rc8 last week and it's quite nice. He's even compiled the links browser with graphical output so you can view webpages with pictures. Here's a few tweaks I've made so far:

Backlight Daemon:
Controls lcd and keyboard backlights. Changes from bright to dim and back when uplugged or plugged in. Also turns off backlights when lid is closed and back on when you reopen it. This is a combination of Russell Davis'/dtal's code. Download bl-uclibc to /usr/local/sbin/bl-uclibc and make it executable. then, add the following to /etc/rc.local:
#Start backlight daemon
/usr/local/sbin/bl-uclibc >/dev/tty1 &

Keymap:

New release of z2sid for u-boot/.29 Zipit's available, v6-rc3. I've made a new permanent page for my z2sid releases with a running changelog. Newest releases are highest in the list. It's permanent url is http://www.mozzwald.com/z2sid

wicknix from #zipit on irc.freenode.net has created a new rootfs based on Debian Sid. Looks like there's several versions already including the latest experimental version with X. Check them out here

UPDATE2: I like the setup wicknix has come up with for z2sid so I've started work on a u-boot compatible version. See my new post.

UPDATE: After several requests I have modified z2sidX to run on a u-booted zipit. This will still work for a 2.6.29 Zipit. You can download my version from here. These are the modified files: /etc/z2.local, /home/user/.xinitrc, /usr/local/bin/ewoc-z2sid.sh, /bin/z2mouse-2.6.35, /boot/uboot.script, /boot/uImage, /lib/modules/2.6.35-rc3+

zashi from #zipit has created a very useful program that allows you to map keys from an input device to run any program/script. This is handy for the Zipit as it has a special keyboard. I have used it already to create volume up/down keys and LCD brightness up/down keys.

http://home.vay8.net/doku.php?id=ebindkeys-zipit