iPAQ stuff

On this page... Here are some files for iPAQ/Linux:

useful files for your iPAQ
-= Small dial in script which does everything described on Connecting to an ISP with your iPAQ and a Nokia 8210 and a bit more. Give it a try (and change default values and/or start it with any argument to get interactive version).
dial_in.sh.txt 1.1 Kb

semi-working (a.k.a. development or unstable) files
-= rdesktop 1.1.0 client
It doesn't really work well. Strange colors on screen are normal (or should I call that a bug?).
Usage: rdesktop -g 240x320 server
rdesktop_1.1.0-1_arm.ipk 38 Kb
-= microcom 1.02 Serial Terminal Emulator
It does work for serial port and not for /dev/ircomm0 which was my intended usage in the first place. I don't know why.
microcom_1.02-1_arm.ipk 7.8 Kb

software ported from Agenda

Compiling software written for Agenda is not as easy as it sounds.

Agenda uses FLTK toolkit together with some other libraries, so I had to compile and install following libraries: fltk-1.0.9 (specially patched for Agenda), flek-0.2-20010903 and flpda-0.4. All sources came from Agenda Computing FTP server.

I had to install native version (on i386 Debian box) and to cross-compile libraries for iPAQ. Anyway, here is a screen shot from my i386 box showing Agenda's calculator in action...

You might ask yourself why should I port anything from Agenda to iPAQ (which is more powerful, has bigger screen and well, color. The answer is simple: because I can. Agenda uses Linux, and has most of software in Open Source. Actually I stumbled upon AgToys and VRFig which I liked a lot. But, I have iPAQ and not Agenda, so...

Next good candidate for porting is xspread.

Agenda's calculator screen shot

software ported from Agenda VR
If you need anything else for your iPAQ, and you don't want to compile it, try IpkgFind.

APM and battery

APM on iPAQ is bad. It guess wrongly percentage of battery, especially when discharging. I should state that tests where done on iPAQ 3630 with Li-ion battery (which was wrongly reported as Li-Polymer).

Li-Polymer discharge

As you can see, percentage reported by /proc/hal/battery (and all application which display that value) is wrong. So don't panic if your battery life seems much shorter under Linux. It's just reported wrongly.

Raw data file apm_3630_discharge.log.bz2 is also available if you want to draw your own graphs.

Total time to discharge was 8873 s which is 2:27:53. That's with low LCD back-light and with no load (other than apm.sh script running).

Li-Polymer charging

When charging situation is much better.

Total charging time was 9418 s which is 2:36:58. Raw data is in apm_3630_charge.log.bz2.

My problem: when iPAQ is plugged in cradle (or via cable to AC adapter) it won't charge every time (orange led should blink) nor it will turn to AC power when battery is fully charged (orange led should be on). It seems that it keeps battery charged at 80%, but it never charges it completely nor turns to AC power.

After two weeks of nightmares with my iPAQ I decided to restore Windows CE on it and return it. So I did. There is no hope for new releases on iPAQ until I get another unit.