Zaurus Tips and Tricks

For taking screenshots in Cacko you simply press Fn+Shift+C. The shots are generated as bmp-files in the directory Screen_Files in the root of either CF-Card, SD-Card or Internal Flash. The decision where they get saved follows a simple rule: CF has the highest priority, followed by SD and then Flash. This means, If a CF-Card is present, the shots will get saved there, If no CF is there they will get saved on the SD and if no card is there at all they will end up in Flash.

Like on desktops its possible in cacko to bind certain filetypes to a specific application. Lets see how to do this with an example: lets bind *.pdb files (ebooks) to FBReader. In Cacko binding works through mimetypes, so lets create an ebook-mimetype first. This is done in /home/QtPalmtop/etc/mime.types. We add a new line there which looks like this:

application/pdb pdb

the first part (application/pdb) is the name of our new mimetype and the second (pdb) is the file-extension of the files we want to bind. So now we have our new mime-type and bound it to files with the extension *.pdb. How do we tell Cacko to launch this files with FBReader? For this part we have to edit FBReaders .desktop file, /opt/QtPalmtop/apps/Applications/FBReader.desktop here we add 2 new lines:

MimeType=application/pdb
MimeTypeIcon=FBReader 

The first line tells FBReader to open for all files of type application/pdb (we could add more mimetypes seperated by semicolon). The second line sets FBReaders Icon for all files we associated with FBReader. So finally we have to restart QTopia for the changes to take effect (possible from the Shutdown-app in the Settings-Tab)

All things in this section can seriously damage your Zaurus, delete all your data or do other horrible things. Use this at your own risk! I can not be held responsible for any damage caused by the tips written here

The service menu is normally not made for the end user, so be careful when using it. It holds all kind of hardware tests, along with one really usefull feature: The NAND Backup. As the name suggests, this makes a backup of the whole internal Flash memory, including partitioning and all data. But before we use this lets see how we get into the Service Menu:

1. Remove Battery and AC-Power
2. Press and hold D+M
3. Replug Battery and/or AC while still holding the buttons
4. Continue holding them until the menu shows up
5. To leave the menu, simply unplug AC/Battery, replug them, press On/Off and wait until the Zaurus has booted

So now lets see how to make a NAND-Backup:

1. Remove AC and Battery
2. Plug in a FAT-Formated CF or SD-Card with at least 134MB of free space
3. Do steps 2 to 4 from above
4. Press up 2 times (you should see “2. BACKUP RESTORE MENU” highlighted in yellow)
5. Press OK (now “2. NAND Flash Back Up” should be selected)
6. Press OK again (a screen appears which says “NAND Backup to CF” (or SD instead of CF) and has “Execute Backup?” at the end)
7. Press OK again (“Backup…” and a green progressbar appear)
8. Wait until “Backup…” changes into “Backup…OK” (this may take a while)
9. If “OK” appeared remove AC/Battery and the CF/SD-Card, your Backup is now complete. You should have a file SYSC100.DBK in the root of your CF/SD with the size of 132MB

and now how to restore a NAND-Backup WARNING! this deletes all data currently in the Internal Flash!:

1. Follow step 1 to 5 from “How to make a NAND-Backup”
2. Inside the “BACKUP RESTORE MENU” press right once (“NAND Flash Restore” gets highlighted)
3. Press OK (a screen appears which says “NAND Restore to CF” (or SD instead of CF) and has “Execute restore?” at the end)
4. Press OK (“Delete all flash data?” appears)
5. Press OK again (“Restore…” and a progressbar appear)
6. Wait until “Restore…” changes into “Restore…OK” (this may take a while)
7. Remove AC/Battery and the CF/SD-Card