Easy Devuan J720 install from disk image!!

Thanks for your suggestion, C:Amie.

Yes, you are correct and with the Larger RasPi 3 or 4 ethernet connection can be made to home router via a tether then wifi from J720 works. However, for strictly wifi to wifi internet bridge... it's more difficult. Seems the best/easiest solution is the RasAP installation which requires a 2nd usb wifi dongle and sucks up more power. And,anyway, I have yet to master it yet... not that I haven't tried.

You want a known static ip address so the Jornada720 WPA can easily connect, and then need DHCP for the internet leg, using WPA2 so you can connect anywhere.

I am thinking more along the lines of an esp8266 wifi extender (github source) which is maybe low profile and low power enough to fit within ( I hope) the backside of the screen case along with the Zero2 and power inverter. It has a bandwith speed of 2Mbs which from the networks stats I see should be plenty adequate.

Hmmm...thinking when I get most of the kinks all worked out I'll send you a J720/RasPi "Hybrid " for "testing purposes", if you're interested.

best regards,

joval ... and his J720/Devuan/RasPiZero2 hybrid

This revival of the Jornada 720 is absolute joy.
Maybe i try to create a 2GB and 4GB versions because in some countries compact flash are very expensive.

Hi Mani,,,

I have 2 and 4 Gb disk images with Flux box window manager which I can host again as I did earlier, Otherwise you can download and unzip my best 32Gb disk image and shrink partition 1 and 2 with Gparted. Find it here at the bottom of the list: https://app.sugarsync.com/iris/wf/D4898663_09915533_66697

I can make a newer version with all the improvements and may do so although may run a bit slow on J720 with stock 32Mb ram.

Also, I use microSD cards with SD to CF adapter (Digigear black one is $15 ... can be a bit quirky don't recommend Red Ones) and 32 Gb mSD is less than $10. Cheapest approach IMO.

regards,

joval ... on a J720 64Mb/Devuan/WPA wifi/ mated to RasPi 4/Firefox



Edited by joval 2021-12-10 4:05 PM

Hi Mani and All,

I just uploaded a new 4Gb image for those of you with smaller CF cards! Find it here: https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D4898663_09915533_814143

This image autoboots into IceWM desktop (Thank you ArchiMark!), opens the menu, opens battery level monitor, and opens a terminal so you're ready to get cooking. Takes about 31/2 to 4 minutes. You can disable auto boot with Timo"s Jornada-config script if you like.

Furthermore, it runs quite well on a stock J720 with 32Mb Ram, especially when you ssh into a RasPi (with X-fowarding using a WPA wifi card or an ethernet card with tether) it is quite "snappy" (as Stefan might say) when surfing the net with Firefox (loaded on the RasPi... not the J720), use the command :

then "Yes" and Pi password when asked.

This gives you the Pi command line then type which brings up the full RasPi desktop. compressed to J720 screen size or use "-scaling FitWidth" for 720 x480( but scrolling needed then). Vncviewer and vncserver are already installed on RasPi images (see RaspberryPi.org and download the installer and chose full package install with lots of apps included)

You can install Firefox on the RasPi by opening a terminal on Raspi and enter

Since the "apt install " feature does not work on a J720 with 32Mb ram (but does on 64Mb and 128Mb upgrade) I have included many useful features and apps in the hosted image. Otherwise, you will have to use Timo's Qemu emulator to workaround to add other items.

This image includes Timo's Jornada-config and snd-jornada (sound) creations and MOC player (you have to load his sound driver per his instructions. It also includes Stefans latest kernel with Zram and Bx patch which really speed things up on the J720/32Mb.

Zram is set to 100% of memory fraction (instead of 50%) and seems to work well, such as you can listen to Jornada MOC (type "mocp "to start after loading sound driver) and surf Firefox very nicely via RasPi scrolling web pages quickly (some sound stutter occurs with intense cpu use... that is tolerable).

Previous images (which I will soon all upgrade to newest features) can be found here: https://app.sugarsync.com/iris/wf/D4898663_09915533_66697
If you download the recent images with Bx in the name, please add "bx_patch=1" to the last line in the PARAMS.TXT as I forgot to add it in the images (speeds thing up about 25% IMO)

Please Enjoy this Merry Christmas gift!! With special thanks to Santa's Helpers : Timob0, Stefan and ArchiMark!!

There's a heck of a lot of info here. all meant to save you from wasting time. You might want to print this out!

That's all for now,

Joval


Edited by joval 2021-12-12 12:43 AM

Here is a screen shot of a Jornada720 with standard 32Mb Ram running the latest Devuan Linux Bx patch/Zram setup and logged on to a $15 dollar RasPi Zero2 via SSH and running VNCviewer (located on the the Raspi along with vncserver there as well).

An Audible audio book is playing (via bluetooth speaker) and can be stopped and started by pressing the spacebar, Chrome browser is running with wikipedia and HPCFactor in the background. Battery life is shown up in the corner...and can easily be toggled. Any workspace can quickly be accessed with ctrl-alt-arrow keys ==> with MOC music player on one, and full screen Jornada-config to adjust screen contrast, etc on another, and LXTerminal on another for CLI commands etc, or Leafpad editor, or Mirage viewer (all included with this disk image) for example.

If plugged into AC power, one can leave things this way for days or weeks, can even turn off the Linksys WPC11 WPA wifi card ( using "sudo pccardctl eject 0" and return later to resume Firefox session... etc.

All this with standard J720 32Mb after easily creating the bootable Devuan CF or SC card from the hosted images available above... here it's running on an older 4Gb CF card with the latest 4Gb downloadable image. Did I mention you can download websites or articles when in Devuan Linux and view them later when you dual boot back into WinCE using included Rsync?

So, I say, what's not to like??

Joval

Edited by joval 2021-12-12 2:38 PM






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Hi All!
Latest hosted disk image named D7_4Gb_Ice_JcnfZramSnd.zip (and XXGb larger sizes when hosted later) takes about 3 minutes to auto-login boot up and opening screen looks like this below:

BTW, I will review all the various keyboard short cuts for IceWM window manager: how to copy windows, how to move windows to different desktops, resize, etc. Makes a HUGE DIFFERENCE in ease of use... may be subject of a new thread. Super Easy Peasy stuff, so valuable, can no longer go on without (her? er..) it, etc.

Stay tuned, my friends... you won't be disappointed,

Joval

Edited by joval 2021-12-13 3:00 PM






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FYI: With the recent upgrades to J720 Devuan including Stefan's Bx kernel patch and Zram memory compression ( running at fraction=100) total boot time on a Jornada 720 with 64Mb ram ( J728 equivalent) with 32Gb high speed SD card is now less than 2 minutes with the sophisticated IceWM main menu and (scrolling+color) Lxterminal open ...

Takes a little over 3 minutes to boot up to the same screen equivalent on a stock J720 with 32Mb ram... and vnc/ youtube is just as snappy IMO!

This is half the previous boot up time using an older CF card and no Bx or Zram! Quite remarkable say I.

Another improvement: the video/sound sync 10 second lag when playing youtube videos is now GONE! (wish I knew how to get rid of the robot voice that is reading every letter as I type this post... as I am simultaneously listening to a Python Tutorial youtube video. Geez the robot voice just read the last paragraph when selected )!

Good work Team members!

joval ...posted from a J72(8) Devuan+Bx&Zram100/RasPi4/Firefox synthesis

Edited by joval 2021-12-15 3:21 PM

Amazing work, I'm truly baffled by the amount of progress you and stefan have been making in the past years, breathing so much new life into the Jornada 720

Gonna give this a spin over the Christmas holidays!

If anyone is offering upgrading of 32MB ROM modules to 128MB, I'd be very interested btw!

Message Stefan, "dev_null" about a 128MB board.....that's where I got mine from.

Mark

Thanks Karpour!

I think we all see that Stefan, and Timob0 clearly deserve the bulk of the credit for all their innovations and fixes, with some, going to Archimark as well for his idea of using the IceWM window manager,and ntware for his X-forwarding concept (which I "wed" to the RasPi).

I just sort of polished things up some and made it easier with disk images... not the innovator so much, but more as the product-development side of things.

I would like to see adjustable Zram options especially on the J720 with stock 32Mb ram... so far seems to me that with Zram fraction of 100 % youtube videos won't play, etc. so some optimization needs to be explored.

I think the Keymaps are missing or faulty on all of my hosted disk images... need some help there.

RasPi has a new upgrade to the RasPi OS which changes the X-forwarding and performance of their apps on the Jornada720. Needs to be optimized for the J720. Download the "Full" image which includes VNC viewer to access Ras

For most part, things are looking good overall. With a few more tweaks I am hopeful we can host an image here on HPC:Factor for download to members with detailed instructions

It has been rather amazing, I agree.

I use the 64Mb ram upgrade I bought off ebay over a year ago ... they have doubled in price to $39 though. They work well. ArchiMark has the 128Mb he was able to buy from Stefan... remember to use the special bootloader as Stefan worked one of his many "miracle workarounds" that should bring you unmatched performance.

Hey, let us know how it goes when you get things up and running. I still favor RasPi 3B+, but you can't beat the $15 RasPi Zero2W for an affordable way to get your stock J720 online making posts like this one, now with music playing simultaneously.

I recommend placing your music mp3's on the Fat32 partition (say /music subdirectory) so they're available in WinCE and Devuan (just create a mount point "sudo mount /dev/hda1 /cf" then you will find them in the /cf/music directory).

Have Fun!

joval ... again on his j72(8)/devuan/WPA/RasPi4/Firefox symbiotic HPC


Edited by joval 2021-12-22 11:28 PM

FYI
I just noticed that the 32Gb disk image I have been hosting is a bit bigger than some 32GB sd cards... so it isn't presently available as I will have to shrink it some before I host it again. Otherwise, you can override that WinImager32 warning and burn it as is, but the swap drive will be too small to mount it... creating SLOW havoc. (If you find you have this problem just put the SC card in a linux machine or raspi and use gparted to decrease the 2nd partition by 150Mb or so, then delete and recreate the swap partition to say 250Mb as an alternative until I correct things).

Joval

Awesome job everyone! I see my 720 more and more useful with each change you make! To the point where CE is not even needed anymore!

Last one I tried was the 8 GB version few months ago, but will give a try to the 32 GB once it is ready!

Is the 32 gb version the one with most of the software pre-installed? I would love to have a setup for development

Also not sure if anyone tried this, but it would be great to have the pi IO connected via PCMCIA, to skip the need to set up a wifi connection between the 720 and the pi. Not sure if the PI header expose the pins to control communication, beside the serial port (which would be too slow), and if there is a PCMCIA adapter that is able to expose the right pins needed on the Jornada, but I thought it would be great to skip wifi connection altogether (which should save also some battery, if there is no need to use the PCMCIA radio in the wifi card).

Hi Marko! Good to have your feedback, things have really moved along. Battery-wise you can't match WinCE for "shelf-life"



Unsure what I've added since then... the Bx patch, Timo's Jornada-config, Xdotools for right click (may have forgotten to include it in latest image), Zram (still tweaking that one). oh, and "sudo" works for user (ie, user added to sudo group)



I think all images are the same program-wise
just different size FAT32 and Ext2 sizes... the latter can be auto-enlarged to your card size using Timo's jornada-config. Start it in terminal with: sudo sh /opt/jornada-config/jornada-config (i haven't made a working script shortcut yet).



That's one tall order that might someday be possible. WPA wifi works quite well but must have correct firmware upgrade. If I get Stefan's USB hack working I may try a usb-wifi dongle, time will tell. You can get about 2 hours use with WPA wifi card with standard J720 battery surfing the net, posting on HPCFactor, etc.

I'll re-host the last 32Gb image... some SD Cards are 100Mb smaller.... if you get an error message in Win32Imager you can burn it anyway but need to resize it or too small swap partition won't mount. Just use gparted to delete swap partition 3, resize reduce ext2 by 200Mb or so and then recreated swap partition of 250Mb per Timo's jornada-config recommended size.

Hopefully a 31Gb disk image will be up soon...

regards,
joval
posted from his trusty J720/Devuan /Wpa/RasPi/ Firefox "hybrid" HPC

Hi All!

Now hosting a 31Gb disk image that should work on 32Gb SD or CF cards. Use Win32Imager (after unzipping img) to "burn" (ie., write) to memory card. Find it here: https://app.sugarsync.com/iris/wf/D4898663_09915533_66697

There may be up to 1Gb empty/unallocated space left depending on the card used. Resize it disabling auto-login, login as "root" [password=r00t] by running Timo's Jornada-config from /opt/jornada-config/jornada-config (refer to Timob0 github site for details if needed).

If your memory card is a "larger" 32Gb size then you can try the 32Gb disk image, which I will return to hosted status as well.

I know I need to update the readMe files ... just give me some time. Enjoy

Joval

Edited by joval 2021-12-29 5:59 AM

Wouldn't it be simpler to release a single image specified to the minimum required size (8gb or what have you) and to have Jornada-Config run automatically as part of first boot?

That way it's less work for you and you can force basics like keyboard layout, language, network connectivity, account and password creation, root password reset and partition config on the user at first run.