J-720 Distro Progress

I am considering the Call for Help thread dead until this site gets the new server in, because even when posts go through, they take a day to show up. Therefore, a new, small thread (I will regret saying that in a few pages), is in order.

I am still looking for a new name, J-720 is rather stupid in my opinion. Something will be figured out eventually.

Sometime, when my server gets up (and possibly a celeron 800 too, not the pentium), I will try to get an official checklist out for the release.

Currently:

- Base system with working internet connection YES
- Full console use, with many useful applications YES
- Suspend support partial - still waiting for kernel 2.6
- Games and other entertainment yeah...
- X graphical system NO - every aspect of console must be completed first
- Full device support untested - everything should work but the modem and alarm button
- PIM partial - I have console PIM apps on there, but real PIM will come with X

That is about it for now. All of the device support problems are at the fault of the kernel, and should be fixed in time.

I do not have an official release date for the beta yet. I have some way to go.

Oh, and cmonex, I found a dictionary.

EDIT: Why can't I line everything up?! Maybe I should use the rich text editor for posts like this.

Edited by ProgramSynthesiser 2006-01-21 10:21 PM

a hungarian-deutsch-hungarian and an english-english one?

Find out what dict dictionaries are available.

Oh, and the card is a 3c574bt, and there are drivers for it. It is also known to work. So I am led to believe that it is related to the pcmcia_cs problem. Only a really old one works.

Are you aware of JLime (http://www.jlime.com)? If not, it might be worth taking a look at, rather than starting from scratch.

....

Check out the Call for Help thread, J-Lime is of no use to me here.

Umm, I can't seem to mount the root file system because of block read errors...and it is coming from the 10mb FAT partition? That does not make any sense... super block errors on an FAT partition.

I'll see if it is a hardware or software problem.

EDIT: It seems to be that the superblock is physically bad. This still does not make sense, because e2fsck did not notice this when I told it to scan for bad blocks. None of this makes much sense, really - does the superblock get more activity? Maybe this goes back to when I was running ext3 on there...

Edited by ProgramSynthesiser 2006-01-27 10:53 PM

Umm...yeah...

This doesn't look good. I will move the superblock to somewhere else, and see what the results are.

$200, anyone?

EDIT: Heh. It looks like the very first block is bad. And since Linux seems to happily rely on that block...this card is still fine for CE use, but dead for Linux as far as I can tell. Kind of sad, all the other blocks are fine.

No, I am not using my 256mb cf card.

I need a microdrive...and money.

Edited by ProgramSynthesiser 2006-01-27 11:24 PM

Hah! My brilliant mind has already devised a way to keep a microdrive/cf card in the slot without using tape! This new innovation is called...the standard insulated wire!





Edited by ProgramSynthesiser 2006-01-28 12:03 AM

But the rear CF slot on the Jornada is only Type 1. Microdrives are CF Type 2. Even if you manage to insert the microdrive on that slot, it won't work because there is a voltage difference.

I successfully installed Debian ARM on my Jornada with the Mattis Rouch rootfs and the 2.4.31-5-j720 kernel. Although it works, some important packages as gcc are broken and the distro is unable to update current Debian branchs. Here are some images:





I also installed successfully Familiar 0.8.2 with Opie. It works better than Debian, but there are two serious problems:

* Lack of packages. Ipkg repository is small. Debian ARM debs should be used.
* The Jornada 720 crashes randomly. Only way to bring the system back to life is hard reset.

The main pain that prevent using Linux on the J720 is indeed the power management. There is no way to shutdown the Jornada. The only wait is to put off the battery. Doing this so often is bad for the battery life. Using reboot command on Linux won't bring us back to Windows CE, where we can do a real suspend on the machine.

This is a big problem. I wonder if there is a way to workarround this or will this disable a complete Linux experience on our Jornada 720 forever.

My distribution is better than his at the core, currently. I just cannot boot it.

Karloch...the 720 has been _known_ to run microdrives. There is not a voltage problem, if you can fit one in there, it will work. Guaranteed. Now, I just need one.

Why don't you use the 2.4.31-5-j720 kernel in the meanwhile? I would like to give it a try


As long as I knew, the 720 is perfectly able to run microdrives, but using the PCMCIA slot with a PCMCIA -> CF adaptor. I believe that is not possible to use the CF slot. We usually have the PCMCIA slot used with a network adapter, so that's not an option.

If it is true that you can use it on the type 1 slot, it would be wonderful. No more writes limit, so we could use ext3 filesystem and have a swap partition.

Changing the topic, I had been researching about the shutdown issue. It looks like Jornada 680/690 users can shutdown their Jlime Linux and run Windows CE again without hard-reseting the Jornada, and the resume the device. That would be an excellent workarround for the power management issue. Do you know if your distro can do that or it is kernel-dependant?

The author of the kernel 2.6 port to Jornada has been missing for months... Shouldn't we try to use the 2.4 one?

2.6 is way better, believe me. It is better to use a kernel that is supported more, and that is what we need. Yes, the resume part is indeed kernel related, distributions are just a bunch of organized files and libraries surrounding the kernel.

As far as the microdrive again, the reason why I know it works in the cf slot is because the 720 Linux pioneers used it. They would pop off the cover, and use rubber tape to hold the drive in. Once again, now I need the drive.

Yeah, I am getting quite irritated at the new 720 kernel maintainer, he does not seem to report any progress. I will try his testing 2.6 kernel and the newest patch once my system can boot. Maybe I could see what I could do from there...but I believe him when he says that the testing kernel is not meant for mainstream.

Also, I would like to get in touch with Kristoffer once again, to find out about these suspend rumors. If the Jlime team has figured something impressive out, perhaps they could also do it on the 720. At least they have one now.

Oh, and I was thinking more along the lines of reiserfs than ext3. If the processor can handle the journal, core performance would be faster.

-Konqueror is excellent. How about installing that on your 720, and posting screenshots? First you might need to download the import utility, and use it with the following syntax:

import filename.jpg

Then select the window or entire desktop, and a screenshot will be taken. I think there is an option to remove the selecting portion, and to just take a full desktop screenshot. When I get the microdrive, I won't be so worried about doing things in order, and will mess around with X. I do not have that luxury with limited r/w cycles.

--There any threads similar to this one going on in todopocketpc?

Edited by ProgramSynthesiser 2006-01-28 7:42 PM

I know, but the Jlime approach is quite good. You can only slowdown the processor and shutdown screen and PCMCIA slot. But if you are going to not use the Jornada for a long time, you just reboot into Windows CE and do a real suspend.


Tell us details once you get one. These are really good news.


I have lost hope for the 2.6 kernel. No progress report in several month, not even a signal of life from the mantainer. So that's why I went 2.4. The 2.6 kernel supports the Jornada 720 without modification, but not the additional hardware (like sound). So we have two choices: build a full suport patch for the 2.6 kernel (I do not have knowledge for that) or stick to 2.4 that has a really good support right now (we have just to get it to reboot into Windows CE without hard-reseting, like Jlime).


Kristoffer is also disappeared and it looks like Jlime team won't do anything on the 720 until a 2.6 kernel is released.


It's ok as long as the FS doesn't overhead our StrongARM



I have uninstalled Linux as I had to be removing the battery everytime, and I won't like to lose it. I won't install Linux again until I can return to Windows CE via software reboot, just like Jlime and 680/690 users. Right now I'm back to Windows CE 3.0.


Nope. Todopocketpc is focused in getting more apps running under Windows CE 3.0. The community is very user-oriented, little development there. There are some Linux threads, but they are few.

To be sincere, I started my Linux on the J270 crusade because there is not a single VPN PPTP client available for Windows CE 3.0. With Debian ARM is was as simple as writting apt-get install pptp-linux and I got it downloaded and installed. Really amazing.

_Now_ I know what you were going at...the ability to go back into CE would indeed allow a full suspend! Very interesting...all that would be is a slight modification to the bootloader? Or maybe the shutdown command? Hmm...

If we could do that, then at least the 2.4 kernel would be fine for then.

So, Kristoffer disappeared as well? That makes two then. Why do people that have the ability to do things drop out? It really irritates me.

I guess, as now that only makes only a couple of us that can do anything, we need to find out how, at the least, Jlime can go back into CE (rather impressive, actually - going into two different systems without cutting off power), and, after that, how one goes by patching a kernel. Does the new (irritating) 720 kernel maintainer code the patches, or does he just modify them to work?

Suddenly things look much tougher, as if few people care at all. I need to step up and really get stuff done now, as obviously no one else will. Sigh...I need to come up with enough money for that microdrive and finish learning how to code. I devoted this weekend to scanning techniques, well perhaps next weekend I could devote the whole thing to coding? I would get tons done. But things are harder if no one is pushing you (where did old Snappy go?).

Now I ask you this: You have a 720, right? And what can you do to help?

Matrixcore, do you have a 720? It looks like I am going to need all the help I can get. Snappy? Please reply sometime.

Karloch, I know it might not work, but could you please post for any coding help on todopocketpc? Necesitamos algunos programadores con conocimiento de Linux? (Yup..definitely need more work in the language sector... )

This is a call for all coders on the forum with any Linux experience

EDIT: Karloch, you are going to want to see this!

http://wwwcip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/~simigern/jornada-7xx/linu...

This is a folder on his ftp server that I completely missed - him successfully getting the kernel to boot! And this was about a month and a half ago. I just fired off an email to him, I hope it works (looked like some weird antispam address). Let's see how it goes!

Now if I can just get into steady communication with him...we might actually see some progress.

Edited by ProgramSynthesiser 2006-01-30 1:28 AM

You got it With the distros that I have tested on the Jornada 720, a shutdown or reboot command will close your system, but will freeze the Jornada. It looks like Jlime is able to reboot the machine and then load Windows CE again. I think that this is achieved by the kernel. We should ask Kristoffer (if he appears) or the users.


Indeed, that's the idea.


Two month without life signals are dissapeared status for me.


I guess that there must be coding in order to support at least the Jornada 720 sound chip. What I don't know is if the drivers are directly coded by himself.


Learning to code won't lead you to anything in this subject unless you are very skilled. I know C, but I don't have enough knowledge to develop kernel patches or drivers. C is very wide and you can find basic C code or very advanced C code. But do not misunderstand me, it's quite good that you learn to code, as a 1.000 km voyage will always start with the first step


I can test distro and try to install them. I planning to try to bootstrap a Debian install on the Jornada in order to do a fresh stable sarge install on it and then release a image. But I do not have time right now with the university exams. Once I finished them I will research again.


Indeed, but expect nothing from that. Anyway it's free to try

This is a call for all coders on the forum with any Linux experience


That would be interesting, if we manage to.