Linux on WinCE.net 4.x Devices???

Anyone know if you can put Linux on a WinCE.net 4.x series device such as:

the SigmarionIII (ARM PXA255 400MHz) or

the SmartBookG138 (ARM 206MHz CPU like Jornada 720)

???

Thanks,

Mark

You may want to look at www.jlime.com or http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.comp.handhelds.linux.jornada or http://handhelds.org/pipermail/familiar/2001-October/003007.html.

The major problem is 720 without a flash rom can not support the suspend mode very well.

Good luck!

Thanks for your input, Donald.

I am familiar with JLime, etc. but as you mention it's for the Jornada HPC's...

My question is whether anyone knows of Linux running on devices that came with WinCE.net as the original OS and also in the case of the Sig3, a different CPU chip.


Any other thoughts???

Thanks,

Mark

There is always linux on a siemens simpad that you could consider....
It can be flashed onto the internal rom of the machine therefore
running linux native.

look at http://www.opensimpad.org

It is a 206mhz arm processor in the simpad
with 32mb flashrom
64mb Ram
and 800x600 tft touchscreen.

No keyboard as it is a web-tablet but it is very nice.

The only limitation is the expansion options - only 1 pcmcia port
and no cf or sd card ports.

It has a wierd looking serial port with a special sync lead
and thats about it....

It has a usb port also but i don't know wether it can be used in host mode.

If you dont like the linux implementation you can always reflash to
hpc2k or ce .net 4.1.

Also these can be picked up for a reasonale price on ebay.

Regards

Niteman1969

You can also check www.oesf.org for the latest images as the forum and updates on opensimpad.org has shutdown and moved to oesf. Oesf host the forum and image update news for all the Zaurus flavors and other QT/Opie/GPE images for iPaq, SIMpad etc.

However, the image on opensimpad, 0.8.1 is still compatible with the Siemens bootloader, so you can easily revert to wince later if you prefer. If you use >= 0.9.x images from oesf or handhelds.org you will need to flash in a new bootloader. And talking about which, I have not started on the ESCD or whatever name you call the How-To-Guide doc for installing opensimpad on a SIMpad SL4 and also revert back to wince image.

Search the thread, I did provide info on the other threads.

Thanks for the replies...but so far no one has answered the question, so let me repeat it....

Anyone know if you can put Linux on a WinCE.net 4.x series device such as:

the SigmarionIII (ARM PXA255 400MHz) or

the SmartBookG138 (ARM 206MHz CPU like Jornada 720)

???

Thanks,

Mark

i think you can.. if you're willing to compile your own kernel, write drivers for the screen, SD slot, built-in LAN, etc. i've never seen any linux distros for these hpc's, sorry.

Mark,

Sigmarion with Linux

Do a google with sigmarion linux and click on the "Translate this page" links ...

The smartbook is barely known to most of US/UK or other countries, other than China, Germany, and some folks in UK/US ... and us! ... so nothing about running linux on smartbook so far. But since it has a SA1100 cpu, it should be *possible* ... but you will need to do your own build, as cmonex mentioned.

well is it the sigmarion III? they mention a sigmarion with mips cpu, so it should be the I or the II..

Thanks cmonex and snappy!

I was afraid of that...



Mark

but don't you try and build linux for them?

cmonex, I was going to say "because it's nigh on impossible due to not knowing what drivers will be necessary", but thinking about it it might not be that bad...

Find what graphics chip is used. Find what audio chip is used. Google around for more harwdare information, and maybe see if someone else has already been there.

There is, of course, a chance that you kill your device stone dead which is enough to mean that I won't be playing with the ROM of my XP30, but if you're brave and know what you're doing it might be possible. If you don't know what you're doing (and I don't), the phrase "expensive doorstop" might be applied to your machine if you get it wrong .

aye, for graphics, netbsd folks seem to use a generic linear buffer for it, similar to how Windows XP uses a generic VGA driver as default during installation and detects the proper graphics card driver thereafter.

For the most part, it may still mean that the kernel need to know the start address for the video buffer or something. Think segment C800 back in the days of EGA/VGA DOS ... ok, I think VGA cards uses E800 or something ... too long, too far away ...