Debian z50 - Help needed

Hi,

First the good news is that I managed to get a sort of Debian working in my z50.

But I like to share with you my experience, and please note I am just a noobie playing with this HPC. The usual tools did not work I have to use the old P.S.B.B. system that worked OK. So my comments:
- As you all know the z50 is a HPC, with a MIPS VR4121 processor an wince 2.11, nice piece of hardware, lovely kbd, but slow processor an outdated software.
- I failed to recompile the linux-vr kernel to update it and add some more functionality, even trying differente toolchains: from SDE (linux-mips, an rpm), to the toolchain from linux for B-300, to the one from openembeded and so on.
- I compiled several times a linux-2.4.32 kernel but did not boot in the z50 using hpcboot. The bootloader goes OK until stage 10 where should jump to 0x83b60c00, but freezes and need a reset.
- I did not manage to build initramfs, needed for the kernel 2.6.18, because could not reproduce the procedure from http://linux-mcr700.sourceforge.net. Emailed the author for help but got no answer.
- With help from Alexei that was part of the team that produced the Wiki for NEC MobilePro 780 in handhelds.org, he managed to recompile the old linux-vr kernel for the z50 (using quemu ) and added some more functionality and this kernel boots without any problems (other than being old and lack functionality). He also compiled a couple of modern 2.4.32 and 2.6.18 kernels but neither booted. Unfortunately his website is down and he seems to be awol because did not answer emails
- I followed the usual steps to boot linux in an HPC, well described in many places but the summary is:
· fdisk the Microdrive creating hda1: 48MB fat partition ( big enough to save my z50 settings), hda2: 939MB linux partition and hda3: 64MB linux swap partiton
· Copied vmlinux-Z50 and hpcboot.exe to hda1
· Tar –xzvf sarge-mipsel-…………..tar.gz (from: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://linux4sig2.sourceforge.jp/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=7&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dlinux4sig2%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GBfficial_s%26sa%3DG and http://sourceforge.jp/projects/linux4sig2/ ) into hda2, adjusted the /etc/resolv.conf /etc/network/interfaces and created /etc/hosts to suit my needs for LAN connection using static ip. (dhcp and other niceties like dhclient, apparently can not be used because CONF_FILTER was not selected during kernel compilation)
· Microdrive into z50 adjust machine selection and add extra kernel option root=/dev/hda2 and voila!! Debian is there. Just ignore the usual fsck problem and continue loading!!

I need help from the wise men in this forum ( failed to get any constructive
answer in the linux-mips forum!!!!)in the following issues:
Problem with apt-get update that gives error 64 nevertheless the Packages.gz for mipsel debian is there. So I can not add packages using apt-get install and doing it manually will be a nightmare with the dependencies

Where to find a mipsel compiled Kdrive,fbdev,tinyx ot whatever, I do not think I will be able to compile it and Xfree86 will be a too big xserver for my 16MB memory (do not know how the people of netbsd-hpcmips managed to get the 32NB that I have recognised!!)

Konq-emb for mipsel? Other browser more functional than Dillo?

More testing and improving what I have done.

Compiling bootable 2.4.xx and 2.6.xx kernels.

ANY HELP, COMMENTS, OR SUGGESTIONS, WILL BE MUCH APPRECIATED.

oski

sorry can not get out of the bold thingie!!!