J720 Linux installation

Hi all,

A few questions to the Jlime distro for the J720 that hopefully will be available in the near future.

The Linux OS has to be installed on a CF card. Kristoffer indicated that faster access speed improves the performance of Linux. I know there are PMCIA adapters available to install type II cards into the PMCIA slot. Obviously a type II card is much faster than a type I card.

Are there any compatible (Linux?) drivers for the J720 to run these type II cards via the PMCIA slot? Or would it be sufficient to partition the CF-card at the back of the J720, if that is possible. Is there an utility to allow me to check the speed of my installed cards?

Any thoughts on how to best implement this would be welcome.

A PCMCIA II card is not necessarily faster than a type I PCMCIA card. It depends on the specs of the CF or memory pccard you are using.

To partition a CF card for jlime installation, you will need either a desktop running linux or a device running linux, eg a Sharp Zaurus, or a friend who can do it for you! ... or you can run one of those linux-on-a-disc/thumbdrive thingie and partition up your CF card.

I know that speed is depended on the spec of a card. But I have not seen a CF-type I with 52 Mbits/s transfer rate and 10 ms seek time. Perhaps I live a too sheltered life.

The reason for me asking these questions, if it is diffucult to partition the CF-type I in the back I will buy a CF-II 2Gb micro drive and a PCMCIA adapter and install the distro on seperate card in the PCMCIA slot.

Before you plunge into a CFII micro drive, you may want to post up on the newsgroup for hpcmips and find out if you need any patch for your device. I tried using MagicStor 2.2GB on a CLIO to install NetBSD, only to find out the hardway that it requires a minor patch.

I'm just to lazy to go through it at the time being, so the drive and NetBSD is just sitting around.

Does Microdrives have 52Mbits/s transfer rate?

Snappy,

That is exactly the sticking point, hence my question for drivers. If we want to make this OS (JLime Linux) a viable project, we have to collate as much information as possible beforehand. As you already found out the expensive way no driver/patch no go. I don't fancy spending $$$ only to have more junk in my desk.

Where can we find out what CF-cards are suitable for this project, if partitioning is such a pain?

I thought using a micro drive I could load the whole OS and applications from my notebook/PC and install them this way.

Helmut

HCL Most hardware questions should be answered there.

I thought that the maximum transfer that the cf card slot in the 720 could take is 10mb/sec...what about the pcmcia? A microdrive is a good idea if you want to install linux, if you do not want a way to access the internet.

I actually would have one, but I am notorious for dropping my compactflash cards off my desk (3 feet), so I would break a microdrive if I wasn't careful. Anyways, the linux distros for linux are pretty small (60 something mb or less), so a compactflash card should be fine. There really should not be much of a speed problem, as the linux kernel is loaded into ram anyways... (I wonder if we could configure linux to have say - an 8mb ram disk for the 720? That would be excellent)

There is actually a patch for it, I just have not gone to patch it!

NetBSD can run on a 256MB CF or 512MB CF. It does not require 4GB .... ... or 2.2 for that matter ...