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"jailbreaking" a Compaq/HP T20 Thin Client

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TFGBD Page Icon Posted 2014-11-20 4:07 AM
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H/PC Philosopher

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So, I was googling for some things and I came across this article:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Compaq-EVO-T20-Thin-Client-as-an-MP...

It's basically a guide to using one of those Compaq T20 thin clients as an MP3 player. Honestly, I'm not really sure why a guide would even be needed to do what amounts to installing an NT4 compatible MP3 player and running it but it's still a neat use of the hardware.

But what struck me is this:

"To build this project you will need a Compaq NTe Evo T20 ( and its power supply ) - the Win Ce version cannot be used nor can the later XPe models easily ( the XPe Version can play music but music file storage is an Issue and you need to store the music files elsewhere on your network as I have not found a method of getting a Xpe version to read a Local USB pen drive)."

I vehemently disagree.

Don't let the poster of this guide convince you otherwise. The Windows CE models can be used to do the same thing as this above guide. I've even seen the CE clients being sold for as low as $8 on eBay some days. All that it really requires is some different software and maybe a little CE familiarity.

First, lets tackle the myth that these can't run 3rd party software...

Read your thin client's documentation on pushing updates via TFTP. You will notice some updates include an .exe once extracted. There's your in.

All you really need to do is replace this .exe with another one of your choice like TCPMP or a file browser and point your thin client's update application to it. It will then run your application. You can then run a registry editor or file browser and do whatever you feel like on the device.

To make this easier in the future and ensure your device is always "jailbroken", you can edit your device's registry to run the application you want on startup under HKLM\init by just adding a string with something like Launch60="your.exe".
See:http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms901773.aspx

You don't need a desktop OS like NT or Linux and high end models just to play MP3s on a thin client. That's just silly!

To play mp3s, just use the x86 WinCE build of The Core Pocket Media Player(TCPMP) found here:
http://www.hpcfactor.com/downloads/tcpmp/

This plays anything from OGG to FLAC and has pretty decent playlist support. The CE editions of these thin clients already ship VNC so you can use that to remote control it. With this, they can even play videos!

Want to have even more fun?
Install PocketDOS on your CE client and run your favorite DOS applications from yesteryear.

Now, the sky is the limit as to what you can do with your "crippled" CE client. You are only limited by your imagination, your compiler, OS version, available open source projects(not much software for x86 CE) and CE itself. No Linux, no flashing, no desktop Windows and no viruses in sight.


Hope this helps someone.

Edited by TFGBD 2014-11-20 4:08 AM
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Rich Hawley Page Icon Posted 2014-11-20 12:38 PM
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I had a T5720 thin client. It recognized the USB port fine...played music files from the flash drive fine.

Point of this...I did what you said, installed DOS 6 on it (not PocketDOS) and played all my old DOS games and stuff...it was fun!
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Alt Bass Page Icon Posted 2014-11-20 1:13 PM
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Quote


I clicked it BTW:

Quote
Got an HTTP 302 response at crawl time


On the page to which it redirects:

Quote
Not Found
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TFGBD Page Icon Posted 2014-11-21 7:23 AM
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H/PC Philosopher

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Rich, native DOS is not an option on the T20/T30 because it lacks a standard PC BIOS. You're lucky if you got a device with a standard BIOS.

Yeah, sorry. That is an ancient web link in my signature. I have no idea how or why it would be removed from Archive.org, though. That is alarming. I'll get a newer local copy and post it here for you guys. Sadly, many of the site links in it may be dead so you may need to rely on Archive.org for those too.


Edit: http://web.archive.org/web/20071219122710/http://tfgbd.web1000.com/... seems to work.
I guess IA changed how they display spaces in files or some HPC:Factor update messed up the link
Double Edit: More stuff still works then I expected!

Edited by TFGBD 2014-11-21 7:33 AM
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