Familiar Linux is a
distribution of the famous operating system designed to run on HP/Compaq
iPAQ handheld computers.
This FAQ is intended to provide the answers to some questions that a
frequently asked on the Familiar mailing
list. There are only a couple of questions here so far, but I will add
more as time permits.
1) How do I upgrade my kernel?
2) What are the URL's for the various feeds?
Q. How do I upgrade my kernel?
A. Add this line to /etc/ipkg.conf
src kernel http://www.handhelds.org/feeds/2.4.19
and comment out your other feeds (unless you want to upgrade from them
too). Now run
ipkg update && ipkg upgrade
The latest kernel is also in the unstable
feed, so upgrading from that feed will also upgrade your kernel.
When upgrading your kernel and modules you will often get some "error
messages" due to the installed modules not matching your running (old)
kernel. You can safely ignore these. They should go away when you reboot
to load the new kernel.
Q. What are the URL's for the various feeds?
A. The "base" feed for Familiar 0.7.2 (current version
at time of writing) is at
http://familiar.handhelds.org/releases/v0.7.2/base/armv4l
so a line like this should appear for it in /etc/ipkg.conf or in one of
the .conf files in the /etc/ipkg directory
src base
http://familiar.handhelds.org/releases/v0.7.2/base/armv4l
The base feeds for other versions are similar: only the "v0.7.2" part
changes to match the Familiar version for the feed.
As I understand it, this feed contains all the packages that are part of
the install image, as well as some other "fundamental" packages.
For GPE users and anyone else running an X server, some X
Window System related packages are at
http://familiar.handhelds.org/releases/v0.7.2/x/armv4l
I'm not certain if this feed is being actively maintained or not,
however.
Unstable/testing packages can be found at
http://familiar.handhelds.org/familiar/feeds/unstable/packages/armv4l
This feed (and probably some others by now) has a gzipped
Packages file available as well the usual unzipped one. This means that
if you have a version of ipkg later than about 0.99.100 (I'm not sure
exactly when this feature was added), you can use a .conf line like
this
src/gz unstable
http://familiar.handhelds.org/familiar/feeds/unstable/packages/armv4l
instead of the "old-fashioned"
src unstable
http://familiar.handhelds.org/familiar/feeds/unstable/packages/armv4l
Kernel and modules packages for the latest in
the version 2.4.19 series of Familiar kernels can be found here
http://www.handhelds.org/feeds/2.4.19
similar feeds exist for other kernel versions (and presumably new feeds
will be added for future kernel versions), but I suspect that only the
feed for the current official Familiar kernel is kept properly
updated.
There are various other feeds under http://familiar.handhelds.org/feeds/
but it seems that many of them are no longer in active use.
Some -dev pacakges, for example, are at
http://www.handhelds.org/feeds/devel
but some of them seem a little old. Another feed here is the one with
packages for the ruby scripting language
http://www.handhelds.org/feeds/ruby
The Opie GUI packages are kept separately from the
other Familiar packages (unlike the GPE packages). As I am no longer an
Opie user I have not kept up with these feeds. I think you can get at
all the official ones by starting from http://opie.handhelds.org/feed/.
For example, for iPAQs there is the stable feed
http://opie.handhelds.org/feed/ipaq/stable
the unstable feed
http://opie.handhelds.org/feed/ipaq/unstable
the unstable feed compiled with gcc version 3.x
http://opie.handhelds.org/feed/ipaq/unstable-gcc3
the fifth toe feed
http://opie.handhelds.org/feed/ipaq/5thtoe
and the chicken feed
http://opie.handhelds.org/feed/ipaq/chicken
as well as various version-based feeds (1.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.2, and 1.0.3
at the time of this writing). Apparently the unstable feeds are
basically snapshots of the CVS HEAD, and are not guaranteed to work
properly.
Finally, there are various third-party feeds. I do not use any of these
at the moment. One that I will mention is the Yargy Bot feed. I use this
to put up kernel packages patched or configured in non-standard ways
from time to time. Like the ruby feed mentioned above, the following URL
can be used as a feed as well as entered into a browser. If you enter
the URL into your browser, the final paragraph(s) on the page displayed
will tell you what is currently in the feed.
http://www.yargybot.com/Familiar