Mobilepro 900c and linux is possible?

Wow. That's really quick, cmonex.
My 900 is still on delivery. Hope it will arrive in a couple of days.
I've just found a thread in the forum about your bootloader 4.10 update. Kudos to your ardent effort!
So probably it's better to update the bootloader, then flash to CE.Net 4.2 (cmonex's custom rom), before delving into Linux?
Just a thought: It's such a big waste to see these nice HPCs (MP, Journada, SIII) fading away without being explored/used in its full potentials ... imho the late fads of UMPCs is just a revived interest of gadgets with very similar design and form factors.

I think Linux is much more worth it than windows CE

The distro is jlime (jlime.com) and was built using OE (openembedded.org). Well in theory most arm compiled packages should work, but not a good idea. Installing packages with different dependacies of different lib versions etc can cause problems. Best bet is to use my constantly growing package feed, which the 900c userland is already setup to use. Have a look around at whats currently available: http://mongo.jlime.com/feed/

After you install the development packages, yes, you could easily compile right on the 900c just like any other distro.

Cheers.

Good, thanks. I am clear now.
It seems my new old buddy still needs a few days to fly over here via USPS ...
I have been doing some packaging and UI stuff for Debian (armel, now an officially supported architecture) for the Sharp Zaurus. Interestingly I've also been doing customizing/tweaking work on IceWM+ROX desktop, which I personally refer to as "IceRocks" -- a cool and solid desktop environment for the handhelds.
Here are a couple of screenshots for my work in progress on the Zaurus (nearly finished):
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2158/2418976488_3f29f548c5.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2266/2418976540_24550a4e56.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2056/2418158521_928db0de4a.jpg

My Eee PC 701 black is running almost the identical suite. More eye-candies and snappier than Xcfe4 imho.

I would be very happy to help with packaging, building and finetuning UI stuff if my moderate experience is of some use here. And yet I am not very familiar with the OE build system. Is there a tutorial or beginner's guide around? I only know that OE makes use of their special bitbake recipes different from the traditional "configure&&make&&make install" path.

Edited by dvm 2008-06-03 8:44 AM

which thread are you referring to? "my" bootloader, the patched one?

please be very sure you update by using update.exe. best is if you take the updatekit from my site hpcmonex.net

which zaurus did you make packages for?!

I mean this newbie thread: http://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=12391
If I understand it correctly, it's necessary to check out the correct version of your bootloader here: http://hpcmonex.net/nec900/download.php
I have a SL-C860 and a SL-C3200, both clamshell models like the MP and the Jornada, and being even more compact plus a convertible mechanism like the tablet PCs. For the 3200, I've replaced the original 6GB microdrive with a Sandisk Extreme III 16GB CF and put a full-blown Debian (armel) on it. Most things work the same way as on the laptops. Kinda ultra-umpc ("uumpc"!?). I was doing dozens of packages for a distro called pdaXrom at one time, and now doing some amateur work on finetuning and customizing Debian on the Zaurus, and some unofficial packages (patched or missing in the repos). Here is a dedicated forum: http://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showforum=155
C860 has a XScale PXA255 400 MHz CPU and 64MB SDRAM, exactly the same as MP900.
C3200 sports a newer PXA270 416 MHz CPU and the same SDRAM, plus an additional internal microdrive besides the SD and CF slots and the USB host port.
The Zaurus has already been officially supported by OpenBSD and Debian.
I have high hope of MP900. Being an ARM machine, it definitely deserves a vibrant life in Linux.
I am also curious to see if the MP900 can serve as my "Eee replacement". The Eee is very good indeed, but if I can get something smaller (but bigger than the Zaurus) and with longer battery runtime and capable of running a stable enough but standard environment then it will work just do the job.

Oops. That is not the right thread. I must have bookmarked it somewhere, though.
One more fact showing MP900 is never a loner as an ARM machine: The HTC Universal (also rebranded as Dopod 900 / Qtek 9000 / SFR v1640 / Vodafone v1640 / Vodafone VPA IV / T-Mobile MDA Pro / i-mate JASJAR / O2 Xda Exec / Orange SPV M5000 / Grundig GR980 ... ). Once a very expensive top-notch machine (near USD 1k, like the Jornada 728 & MP 900 when they were first launched), now still living its vibrant existence in WM6.1 ... and GNU/Linux (Debian)!

Detail specs of HTC Universal: http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=Universal_Specs

The primary site, with very active development and prompt updates: http://wiki.neilandtheresa.co.uk/Titchy_Mobile
Most important discussions can be found here: http://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=25666
... and this monstrous thread, if you bother to read it through: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=251584

Edited by dvm 2008-06-03 12:04 PM

the htc universal is about the same size as the zaurus, same screen size etc. though the keyboard is better I should know that because i have both the c760 and the universal

so if you want an eee pc replacement the 900 will be lots better for that task than the universal however nice the universal it is.. (I really like it I have two)

Have been searching around in jlime forum and here for a list of what's functioning and what's not, but no luck.
So let me ask this here:

Which of the following is (not) working in the current build "henchman"?

apm
usb host
usb client
sound
suspend (and apm in general)
gcc
perl
python

Is there a pointer for the changelog or something like that around? Thanks in advance.
I buy a MP900 primarily because of linux.

Edited by dvm 2008-06-21 10:34 AM

Currently apm only half works (screen shuts off after 5 minutes idle, but no battery status), usb does not work, sound has a driver, but it lacks the irq addresses and device entries (/dev/snd /dev/pcm etc) and suspend does not work.

Gcc, python and perl all work. They just arent fully installed in the userland to keep size down. Just the base packages required by certain programs as dependancies.

For gcc: first ipkg install linux-libc-headers-dev -nodeps
Then install things like make, binutils, binutils-symlinks, binutils-dev, libc6-dev, automake, autoconf etc etc.

For python and perl: if you want full suite for each you have to install each package (python and perl broken up into 50+ packages to keep size down). Look at mongo's feed ( http://mongo.jlime.com/feed/ ) for available packages.

Cheers

I saw this post many times and tried to find the solution to put the sound card of my NEC900 working, but I couldn't find the solution.

So, could someone explain me how can I put the sound card of my NEC900 working on JLIME ? (what module, how to install, how to configure)

Cheers