Launch Applications from CF at Startup

In my experience with my J720, almost all applications are happy to run from CF. Although many need to be installed to ram to begin with, most can be moved over to flash afterwards. I have managed to get my allocated ram storage down to a little over 4 MB, so even leaving a little wiggle room, I have 25+ MB of ram for running program. With that much ram free, why do I care? Firstly, I do a lot of multitasking and secondly, it looks like Minimo will take up 20+ MB if it can ever be backported to HPC. I was looking at ways of shaving off a bit more space and have hit a few barriers:

- Background image takes up ~450 KB, due to support for only bmp format.
- Applications that you want to automatically start after a soft reset need to be located in ram. If you try to use shortcuts pointing to CF, inconsistent results will occur, as it tends to take a few seconds after a soft reset for the CF to be initialized/mounted. Thus, sometimes the shortcut will be run before the target it is pointing to is available to the system.

I tried addressing the first problem by using a poorly documented/translated japanese program called SQ.exe. This program does let you use jpeg images (if you install the right program plugin and can extract the stupid lzh archive) for backgrounds, but only if you use their desktop/shell replacement mode. You can switch back and forth between the SQ desktop/shell and the original one very easily, but the jpeg image will only appear on the SQ desktop. There are enough deficiencies in the SQ desktop/shell that it pains me to use it just to get jpeg background support.

The second problem could be addressed with a simple application launcher program, but I haven't found one that does what I want. The application launcher would be a small stub of an executable (no more than 5-10 KB) whose sole function would be to wait 5 or so seconds after it is launched, execute a list of programs (located on CF) and the terminate itself. This is such a simple program, yet it would help me free up at least another 500 KB. I could easily write it, but it would mean going through the whole process of setting up a build environment. I wonder if HPC supports batch files that could be used for the same purpose.

yes, if i remember correctly, you can setup batch files.. someone wrote about it a lot, do a search for it here

but i think 1 MB doesn't really matter.. 25 or 26 MB.. what's the difference

until chiark finishes minimo , you can try netfront, good as an alternative browser to IE4. it consumes quite some memory but not 20+.

I will take a look at the possibilities of using batch files. If I come up with something, I will certainly share.

Yeah, I currently use Netfront, IE and FTX for browsing. I also frequently RDP into one of my server boxes and browse from there, as well. Netfront is definitely the best of the 3 on the HPC, but it has some odd quirks. When I start Netfront, it sits at a splash screen that says "constructing the environment file. Please wait..." for a while and then I get "File Write Error - Cannot Save File" I can click the ok button and Netfront then starts right up and operates normally. Once started, Netfront works really well for me. The only major quirk I have noticed is that every once in a while punctuation characters ('s in particular) get replaced by little hollow box characters. Anyone got any ideas on these two errors?

Here you go ...

http://www.jlime.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=24&highlight=autorun



[autorun.sh3]
open=shlo-hp680.exe

For 720, it prob is

[autorun.arm]
open=runMyapp.exe

hehe this is exactly my setup too

you're getting the error message because you installed netfront on CF. you don't need to care about it, but if you would like Netfront to start faster, install it in RAM and then copy it to CF. maybe you won't get the error messages either then.

punctuation characters.. no idea, never experienced it.

I tried the autorun.inf thing and couldn't get it to execute anything. I placed a file named "autorun.inf" in the root of the CF card. The contents of the file were:

[autorun.arm]
open=lf.exe

where lf.exe was the executable I was testing with. The executable was in the root directory too.

What about J690 (2.11) can I install and run applications from CF card? Please advise ...

I have a partial solution, still working on it.

Contents of my autoexec.cmd.ink in \windows\startup

31#"cmd" /c "\Windows\autoexec.cmd"

Don't ask me anything about the number of the meaning of it.CE placed it there when I created the shortcut to \windows\autoexec.cmd

Contents of \windows\autoexec.cmd

:top
if not exist \"storage card\mips\calcnote.exe" goto top
\"storage card\mips\calcnote"
exit

It is an alpha for demonstration purposes. The first line is a label. The second line is a test to see if the executable on the storage card is available, ie, is the CF card initialized. If it's not jump to :top and check again. If the .exe. is there then execute the next line, which in the alpha is calcnote.

Bug: Major bug, once everything is done the command console is still open and has to be manually closed. Everything else works fine, there is no delay in booting or error messages about things on the CF that are missing.

And cmonex, 25 or 26mb? isa *big* deal. I can list a hundred progams that will run nicely within that meg of space and the same number that won't if the ram isn't available

you can

in theory the number is the number of the letters in the command, but in practice you can use any other number there.




ok, can you list them? or i don't get what you mean

Ooops, my guess is it could be an in correct cpu naming ...

[autorun.arm4] or

[autorun.arm3] or

[autorun.arm2]

EDIT: I assume you removed and re-inserted the CF card while it is powered on?

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think placing shortcuts in \windows\startup will only run when there is a soft or hard reset.

Edited by Snappy! 2005-07-27 10:35 PM

cmonex, you're pulling my leg on this one aren't you?

I can't run any program if there's no ram left, hence I'll take an extra free meg any way I can get it.

naah i wasn't

anyway.. it never made a difference to me if there was 25 or 26 MB ram available after a reset.. it is really rare that this 1 MB would matter, isn't it
though i remember now trying to run destinator on my 720 without a CF (in fact i had a CF card but didn't know how to put the maps there). destinator needs 9 MB ram to run, the executable and maps etc occupied 19 MB, the system needs another 2.5 MB after a soft reset, and there are some hundred KB's-1 MB inevitably occupied in the storage ram too. so after i started destinator, 200-500 KB was left out of the whole 32 MB ram still the program worked wonderfully, no slowdown or running out of ram. (fortunately i found out soon how to put the maps on CF )
but in this case nothing would have helped if there hadn't been enough free ram..

Ah, cmonex, sounds like your "dumbest hpc moment" there

I'm bummed, still can't get the command window to close after everything is done. I'm too tired to google or read docs. I'm hoping someone just steps in with the answer.

Beta: Changelog
autoexec.cmd.ink , unchanged

\windows\autoexec.cmd
:top
if not exist \"storage card\mips\cfboot.cmd" goto top
\"storage card\mips\cfboot.cmd"
exit

This time I'm testing for and transferring control to the .cmd file on the cf card. cfboot.cmd is my batch file with the programs I want executed from the CF card at boot time.

\storage card\mips\cfboot.cmd
\"storage card\mips\soundwidget.m"
\other programs one per line I want to execute.....

It might come to me in my sleep, doubt it tho'

Edited by wallythacker 2005-07-27 11:31 PM

try quit command,
i was just going through some screenshots in wince history here, when i saw this:
http://www.hpcfactor.com/support/windowsce/wince211/0024-cmd.gif

or doesn't it help?