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NCD Thinstar 332w Thin-Client?

rbsfou Page Icon Posted 2008-05-27 8:06 PM
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Hi All,

I've just picked up two of these for dirt cheap (about £15 for the pair), but i was wondering if any factorites had any more information about them.

They look to be CE 2.12 running on an x86 platform (a Geode CPU), but there is no desktop - the only thing that runs at boot time is a connection manager allowing Citrix (no idea about this) or RDP sessions (only in 256 colours though!). I've also managed to get into the system config utility by booting the machine with no ethernet attached. Through this i also found CE IE4 (which would imply they are "332 WEB".

I was reading up about these before i got them, and it appears that you can alter the software in the flash by using their management client from a Windows PC - an example is here (albeit for a different model) showing how to install their X-Windows client (server??).

Unfortunately, the ncd.com domain appears to have been offline for a few days now, so i cannot download the X software from their ftp, so this is not a viable option (yet?).

I read somewhere that ncd were bought out shortly before porting CE.net to their terminals, which is a shame. If a BSP was available (leaked...anyone?), i suppose it would be possible to build a CE.net image with Platform Builder. However, i have no experience with doing this anyway (i was intending to have a session with cmonex about CE.net on an iPaq, but never got round to doing that, and decided to put up with PocketPC instead). Maybe a BSP for similar hardware would do.

There is some information here about booting linux on a similar model (and it's the same "range" - a 300 - so i'm hoping these notes would apply), however, without knowing what the hardware is, i cannot tell if this is viable or not (i'm thinking about ripping open the case and googling some chip numbers).

So what i was really wondering what i could do with them? Ideally i'd like an up to date OS on them that would let me use the audio ports too (I'm guessing the NCD X client would not do any funky remote audio stuff), and run full screen XDMCP, VNC, or RDP (full colour) sessions. Linux or CE would do.

Any suggestions, answers, prior experiences with NCD terminals, information on the hardware present in this model, etc. would be most welcome! Also, if anyone knows anything about BSP's (e.g. if i found several containing the right nic, graphics chip, etc - could i combine them to make a BSP suitable for these machines?).

Thanks in advance!
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cmonex Page Icon Posted 2008-05-28 1:29 AM
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lol these BSP's don't leak like that.
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michelbel Page Icon Posted 2008-05-28 2:47 AM
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You could check the Damn Small Linux & Forums (DSL for short) to check.

I have a thread there on modifying a Neoware Capio II (and similar Thin clients) to run full DSL by changing the Disk On Chip, to boot any linux via a MS-DOS and loadlin trick.
See http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi?;act=ST;f=26;t=12165

There is also a DSL distribution option in the download area there to network load a full DSL via a initrd directly via network boot. Loads the full distribution in ram from the network - requires 128MB memory though - 64 work memory, and about 50 for the ramdisk based distribution.

I have a very nice silent DSL box that way.

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rbsfou Page Icon Posted 2008-06-11 3:01 AM
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Thanks for the tip michelbel - unfortunately, i do not have a description of the hardware in the machine to perform that kind of modification - else i would be trying to boot it over tftp anyways. And cmonex, i thought you had buckets under these leaks anyhoo!

Well the ncd / thinpath domain has come back online, and i now have the management software which allows you to install their "packages" onto the machine. The X package i found wouldn't install, but i extracted it with i6comp and fudged the registry entries enough to convince the Thinpath Manager to download it - however, it wouldn't run properly after the configuration stage - giving me an error about the framebuffer - and digging further revealed that this isn't compatible with this model. ouch.

However the up side to all of this is that i'm pretty sure i can make it download & execute a program, by knocking up a fake package (copy files and editing local and remote registry entries). Does anyone know where i can get a copy of something like total commander compiled for CE 2.12 / x86? I guess this is along the lines of trying to hack a PNA...

I don't know where i would go from there, i know it has a \storage card\ of some kind (as all the packages go there) - but if i CAN write to the main filesystem can i somehow get explorer.exe and a few dll's i would need to run a desktop from some other x86 CE 2.12 image ?
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cmonex Page Icon Posted 2008-06-11 9:51 AM
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no sorry, rbsfou, I have no BSP for any cenet device.


TFGBD is the expert in CE x86 programs. I think he has a program list in his signature

Edited by cmonex 2008-06-11 9:53 AM
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2008-06-11 2:41 PM
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He does, but a lot of the x86 programs listed can no longer be found online.

I wonder what the odds are of being able to hack an x86 CE 4.x .net program to work in CE 2.12.
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rbsfou Page Icon Posted 2008-06-12 2:02 PM
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Oh damn it to hades....I guess i should have checked before buying these boxes really!

I guess i could use xrdp to get a linux desktop, but from what i've read it relies on X > VNC > RDP, so i think the VNC step would cause it to be sent as bitmaps as opposed to a direct translation from XLIB to GDI instructions...But even then the CE 2.12 RDP client included is only 256 colours anyway!

Oh well, thanks for your help anyway...I guess i have even more doorstops now! But i would still like to know of any x86 software around - especially if anyone knows where i could find files i might be missing from this machine - perhaps i could get them from one of the CE Virtual PC images hosted on hpcfactor?
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wwaiter1
wwaiter1 Page Icon Posted 2008-06-19 7:27 PM
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Hi rbsfou.
According to a pdf file I downloaded, the thinstar 332 has the following specs:
HARDWARE
1) 300Mhz National Semiconductor GX-1 CPU
2) 32Mb SDRAM
3) 8Mb Flash Memory
4) Integrated Graphics with 4Mb Video Memory
5) 16 bit Stereo Output and built in speaker
6) 10/100Base T Self Sensing Ethernet
SOFTWARE
1) Microsoft Windows CE
2) TCP/IP, PPP, RAS
3) Microsoft RDP, Citrix ICA
So, unless you have some sort of NanoLinux that fits onto the 8Mb flash drive, or you can solder a bigger flash drive, SDRAM and Video Memory, you are stuck with what you have. Perhaps you could fool around with FreeDos and Seal. I have one of these units, it make a great door stop.
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