Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!

This sounds good.
I got the Florian stuff going OK. Apologies if I've misread anything on the thread but I can't seem to work out where to get the LX version. Is the LX version available anywhere for download as I'd really like to compare it?
Cheers
Jub

Hi jubbathehat, you did not miss something. The link should be in your PM.

HI, well I had no luck with LX booting on the CF. The only progress I had when i used an nBkProOS.img file from /~anonymous, then it displayed the LX splash and hanged at the black screen with cross cursor. Paul what image exactly did you use to get LX running? So you did have the third partition?

Guys, it is hard to work when the serial output does not work in both Linux and widows, I see broken characters... Any Ideas? Thanks

I had a reply from Florian about LX... :
"
I guess patching up the
kernel up from 2.6.9 step by step should be not too complicated and iirc Koen
started to work on his a while ago. I'm just checking the archive - If it
contains the whole development stuff you have everything you need to wrap kernel
images to make them bootable with the Boost bootloader.
Do you know this text that contains some description of the bootloader images?
http://linuxtogo.org/~anonymous/netbook-booting.txt
If the tools are not there this text should make it possible to write a kernel
wrapper tool for someone with a little bit of experience.

Where do you have your cvs set up? I hope its not handhelds.org Is there
anything in progress already?

Greetings

Florian
"

I remember back in the old modem and slow connection days having to fiddle with the parameters on the serial connection when when I would get garbage on the connection. I use PUTTY which is a great telnet, ssh, ftp application available for linux as well as windows. Very easy to check these parameters. Make sure you have hardware control set which is "off" in Putty.

I used the Florian image with the cf extension. I renamed it to the proper nBkProOs.img. This is the only file in the first dos 16 partition. I created a second ext2 partition and formatted it with mkefs. I only created a third partition because there was space left on the disk. I had been having issues with the cards I had been trying and got fed up and was being rather anal (detailed) trying to leave nothing to chance having whipped through it numerous times already with failure at every turn. So , you only need two partitions. One for the image and one for the file structure that I expanded from the soho tarball.

Last night I read extensively the regular netbook linux setup pages. They have quite a bit on background which I found very interesting. Particularly, there was a discussion about the use of CF and the lack of a swap file. Currently, there is no swap file for my setup and the memory app shows very little left. (I'm getting off topic here; I think we need a wiki or something to go off on these tangents, as I think they are helpful.

Yeah i finally got the PsionLX image up and running, PsionTeklogix did a nice work, really sweet.
(I'd like to thank Marc for distributing me with the PsionLX image)

Here is what i did:

I configured my CF-Card (1GB) with one Fat16 (10MB) and two Ext2 (Both nearly 500MB) partitions. (don't forget to format)
I've put the nBkProOs.img from the netbook-linux-sources.tgz on the 1st (Fat16) partition and the content of soho-image-netbook-pro-20050104074212.rootfs.tar.bz2 to the root of the 2nd (Ext2) partition.
Feeded my PsionPro with the CF-Card after Psion was waiting for commands in the superuser mode. (it schould work from standart user mode also)

Psion loads... I've waited...

# Screen went black...
# After a little time a red blinking cursor appeared in the upper left corner and i was thinking "SHIT"...

I was frustrated and lightend up an cigarett...

# A little later (ok felt like 30 seconds) screen went black and PsionLX Logo appeared... TADAAAA
# Nothing happends for a while... (i think a minute or something)

I was waiting like a little boy in the last five minutes till summerbreak...

# Mouse curser appeard in the middle of the screen... Could that be true????

Yes it could be true...

# PsionLX Interface appeared and was ready to work...

------------

The only shit is that it seems that i can not save any changes i've made in GPE or configuration...


As i noticed many members want the Sources Marc gave me, with the ok from Mark i would host them online so that everyone is free to download...

Thank you Paul for the extensive description. I will try this tonight!

Likewise... thanks for the description Paul and Acid Snoop. I'm going to give this a go tonight, as well. I tried it last night -- no success, but now I know why. Really hoping I can get away with cramming it all onto a 128MB CF, though....

Last night I did have a bit of success, though. Using the Florian image and the JFFS2 from the anonymous location (http://www.linuxtogo.org/~anonymous/gpe-image.jffs2), I did get WiFi working. It detected my Linksys PCMCIA WiFi card right away. Now I just need to set up my AP to verify good internet connectivity and whether it is actually useful.

On a side note, regarding Paul's comments on applications for the serial connection... the best results I've had on the linux platform are with minicom. If anyone would like, I can post the very brief directions for getting it set up to use with the NBP.

Also, on the topic of wikis... here is a list of free wikis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki_farm . Anyone have a preference for where we should set up shop?

Edited by Intrepid-Eddie 2007-11-06 11:51 AM

There has been talk of using a wiki on this site... I'll talk to Chris.

There is a Wiki on Angstrom, too, with space that we could use?

Ok let's make a Wiki.

Eddie please post the instructions on minicom, better yet hold off until tomorrow, I will try some new app for Windows. What is the chance of serial cable being broken? What if I have the serial cable from regular Netbook and are having the gibberish?

I'll post the minicom instructions tonight. As for the serial cable... it shouldn't matter where it came from, as long as the connectors are the same. The cable isn't unique to the NBP. Possible that the cable is bad, but far more likely a software problem (settings in the comm app, etc). I tried a few different apps on linux and got gibberish -- that's why I like minicom. It's simple to set up and use. No gibberish.

As for the Wiki, the one at the Angstrom site looks to be ideal -- hell, the main developers of what we're working with are all there!

The Wiki will be good for the formal instructions/directions, but I'd still like something like this forum to keep tabs on individuals' varying states of success, quick question and answer sessions, etc...

I agree with you Eddie.

I recall something on another site that the netbook has a unique serial cable. I will do some quick research and post my results.

Paul

This is what I found:

Netbook Pro serial cable connections
Having recently acquired a Netbook Pro, and finding out the hard way that the serial cable from my old Netbook wouldn't do the ActiveSync job, I've just acquired a genuine Netbook Pro version.

I thought it would be interesting to check the differences, so here is the comparison:

(Sorry about all the dots - its the first thing I thought of to preserve the layout in the HTML conversion)

Pin numbering for the 9 pin D connector is ..... 6 7 8 9
............................................... 1 2 3 4 5

and for the Honda connector is: .............. Metal shield side
........................................... 1 1 1 1 1 1
........................................... 5 4 3 2 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
.............................................. RS 232 marking side

both looking at the business end of the connector


9 pin .......... Netbook ........ Netbook Pro
female .......... Honda ............. Honda

DCD 1 ............ nc ................ 3
TxD 2 ............. 4 ................ 4
RxD 3 ............. 8 ................ 8
DSR 4 ............. 5 ............. 5 and 6
.SG 5 ............ 15 ................ 15
DTR 6 ............. 3 ................ 3
CTS 7 ............. 7 ................ 7
RTS 8 ............. 2 ................ 2
.RI 9 ............. 6 ............... nc


So it looks like you would be able to adapt an old Netbook cable by wiring up a 9 pin male to a 9 pin female as an adaptor, linking pins 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 between the male and female and then linking pin 6 to pin 1 on the female and pin 4 to pin 9 on the male - I've not tried it, having just paid Clove to avoid getting the soldering iron out - good luck if you do.
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Interesting. That being the case, I wonder what the difference is between those two cables and a generic serial cable (with appropriate connectors) you can get from most tech supply shops (eg: Cables To Go)?

Going to have to treat that cable with a lot more care...

By the way, oldman, you are an unbelievable wealth of information. And don't say "Google"... Google isn't that good.