Mobilepro 900c and linux is possible?

cool , I think you're a member on our website

it would be great to get things happening a bit more on there, I'd like to put some 'how to cross-compile the kernel for mobilepro900c' type info up there and there's some very interesting stuff cmonex is learning about JTAG and lots about bootloader possibilities that would be good to document and move forward...

Also touchscreen calibration now works! Download the latest kernel zImage again as I've updated it and the touchscreen works perfectly with the jlime Mongo 7xx opie and icewm testing images.

Oh yes, the DOC label is M-Systems DiskOnChip Plus MD3831-D32-V3-X

wow, very cool! congrats on the touch screen. i'll redownload the image soon and try it.

as for jtag: couldnt talk to my friend yesterday, and probably not until thursday (exam for me ) will let you know as soon as something happens.

the install manual would be great.

a) Yes, I subscribed to your website, so I'll post it there Real Soon Now

b) Just dreaming: The D32 DOC just _might be_ replaced with the (now also obsoleted) D64, so we would have a 64MB flashdisk . Just a pity it's BGA, I would dare attempt TSOP soldering, but BGA (Ball Grid Array, solder dots on a bottom matix) is out of my way.

c) I'll try tonight again if I can find (and mount) the DOC.

d) Looking forward to the testing tonight....

Waaauw, X on my 900C.

So I formatted my card, loaded the icewm-image-Mongo-jornada7xx.rootfs.tar.bz2 on the ext2
( tar -xjvf ...... - manual in the making!!! )
put it in the 900C. Clicked on haret....

Console coming up nicely....
log in as root, enter startx

A FULL X-Based Linux on the ICEWM windowmanager.... ....... - slight problem: how to mouse?

use CTRL-ESC to start the menu, two arrows down to Utilities, one arrow right, two down to Xcalibrate.
Calibrated the stylus.
Works like a charm....... cosmo0 : great work.

More reboot tests:

Bootup with ne2000 (compatible) network card: dillo browses like a charm!!


More testing:
boot up with prism card inserted -- kernel panic.
boot up with elsa card inserted -- kernel panic
boot up with 448MB PCMCIA card - nicely recognized

I think the system wants to mount the wlan cards as disk and fails badly...

Another reboot...
No xcalibrate required... works immediately as calibrated!!

Easy rebooting: No hard reset required if you run reboot from a console!
Note: Do not shut down the Xserver first, then a hard reset is required.

Some info: FAT partition automounted as /media/cf

That was it for now.
More later. VEEERRRY EXCITED.

Cool. I figured the userlands would work fine.

Now my problem... which version of haret are you all using? I've tried 0.4.8, 0.3.8, 0.3.6 and a slew of others, and non even start on my 900c. Even after a hard reset. The haret window doesnt pop up, or anything. Just freezes the 900c. Also wondering if anybody else is using cmonex's custom rom, as i am, and maybe some of the tweaks in that rom is causing haret to have issues vs the stock rom. Thats all i can think of at the moment. Ideas? As i want my icewm userland on my 900c, and haret not starting is driving me up the wall!

Anyway, great work on the kernel! Also frequent jlime often, as i update the icewm image quite often.

Cheers.

RTFM: are you using that old custom rom with the only one change of the xp skin? that should have no problem.

the newer one (v1) needs to have gapi disabled first, but that doesnt result in a freeze, haret just wont load with gapi enabled.

i will check which haret i was using..

Edited by cmonex 2007-06-13 7:04 PM

Ok, its probably gapi then. So how would i go about disabling gapi then since its auto-enabled in the v1 rom? I tried renaming and deleting gx.dll, but obviously get denied because its in the ROM. Also dont see an option in gapisetup to disable it either. Hopefully you have a quick fix for me, otherwise i'm flashing the old ROM back on it when i get home from work tonight.

Cheers.

try to copy an invalid gx.dll into windows. for example a renamed txt.

I tried that one too - froze my haret as well. I had to revert to the original ROM to get it working.


Edited by michelbel 2007-06-14 1:14 AM

OK, install manual V 0.1. ready - coming up on cosmo0 website but for now available on

http://www.belxs.com/michel/download/LinuxonMobilepro900.zip

A very step-by step manual, so that a linux user - not system administrator can do it. I had problem enough understanding the Netbsd install guides, so I opted for 'show all' level. Critique and comments via PM please.


- Some more testing:

- haret not yet working under cmonexRom v1.0
ICEWM:
- clearly the icewm is not well setup yet for 640x240.

OPIE
opie starts nicely, but one hint :

set your contrast pretty high before starting haret. The contrast and light buttons do not work.

If you want the most commandline tools, use the icewm distro for now, this is more a standard linux distro.
If you want a dedicated graphic start, use the opie .
and don't forget: it's still testing. cosmo0 did a lot of work already, but not all keys, functions (sound etc) work.

But you can already really run quite a lot of linux on your 900C.

ok, i will check this gapi thing, to see what the trick is to post it here.

oh well, i want to try these distro's on it, but now again have to try to format my cf card properly. wow. (btw, i was sent a beta version of the partitionless install: jlime opie image that worked without having to partition the cf for ext2. simple copy on XP to a FAT card, but that was setup for the jornada.)

Edited by cmonex 2007-06-14 6:35 AM

Cmonex: dummy gx.dll worked. Thanks. One other issue with v1 rom however. How to disable mouse pointer? As ce.nets pointer stays displayed even in linux! Hah, weird, but annoying.

Michelbel: Icewm is set up as best as can be for 640x240. Unlike opie, which is meant for pdas and small screens, icewm is, as mentioned, more desktop linux oriented. Saying that, most X11 based applications were never meant for small screens or pda's. Alot of apps are hard coded to start at 640x480 res or larger. However, there are tricks. Icewm has a 'fullscreen' feature that hides the taskbar and window borders (alt+f11), the other is in an app like abiword, disable all unneeded toolbars. The alt+f11 trick wont work until those keys are mapped into the kernel however.

Now general impression.... not bad, but my original thinking was correct. The hardware in the 900/900c must suck. I use to blame it on ce.net for the 900c being slow. Linux also is slow on it. Both the jornada 720 and 728 startx faster, open applications faster, and in general does everything faster in linux. Not that its horribly slow or anything, just disappointing for a 400mhz xscale w/64 meg ram, when a 206mhz strongarm can wipe the floor with it. Regardless, once the kernel and kernel modules are more 'finished' so i can use wifi, it will bring new life to my 900c as it mostly collected dust until now.

Also uploaded a few screenshots for the curious. http://freeshells.ch/~wicked74/900c/linux/

Cheers.

re Speed:
well, the opie benchmark gives me - compared to an Ipaq 5500 and a C750 ( same processor)

900C
- Integer arithmetic 446927 Dhry
- Floating Point unit 2.46 secs
- text rendering 2115 chrs/sec
- GFX rendering 1261 gops/sec
- Ram performance 38/2,5MB/sec
- CF card performance 38/2.5 MB/sec

Ipaq
- Integer arithmetic 494071
- Floating Point unit 23.86 secs
- text rendering 285
- GFX rendering 2031
- Ram performance 20MB/sec
- CF card performance20.3 Kb/sec?

C750
- Integer arithmetic 490677
- Floating Point unit 2.45 sec
- text rendering 437
- GFX rendering 1396
- Ram performance 132KB/sec??
- CF card performance na



It appears similar to the C750.
Anyway, I myself am looking for an oversized C1000 (eyes too old for a 4" 640x480 screen)
,and the 900C fits the bill nicely.

The RAM and CF performance are identical for the 900C - looks suspicious to me.
Since it maps the 8MB FAT partition as /CF, I think it just caches the whole thing....

RTFM (or someone else) - can you run the opie benchmarker on your 720 /728 ? there are no specs in the benchmarker for them.

It appears most of the slowness is in the graphics driver. Maybe an improved fbdev would improve things.

All-in-all: Not bad for an alfa-release.

re WIFI: Linux already loads the orinoco drivers, and PCMCIA is operational, so I think this would work.
Browsing with an ne2000 compatible already works!

re Gapi: I will (must!) retry with the dummy gx.dll - probably made an error there.

Nah, the graphics driver he did a great job with as console scrolls so fast my eyes cant keep up! Its hardware related. Again its not bad, just disappointing for the specs the 900c boasts. Firefox starts up in 7-10 seconds on my jornada 728. The 900c however takes a good 20 seconds. Abiword starts up in 4-5 seconds on 728, 9 seconds 900c. I can go on and on and on and on and on. Its not kernel related, nor userland related. Its cheap hardware, or poor use of the hardware on NEC's part, as xscale cpu's are generally very fast in 'other' machines.

Example: You've all seen those cheap 350 dollar eMachines pc's. Great deal for the money and specs, but performance is horrid compared to say a comparable spec'd Dell that used better quality parts.

Anyway, for people who never used a jornada 7xx wont notice the speed difference anyway, and this is getting off topic a bit. Was just my observation, and its still a great machine for the money now that prices dropped insanely on the 900c's.

As for the orinoco driver loading at boot, it does, then disconnects with a TX error, then reconnects, then disconnects, over and over and over, so its quite useless currently. Cant connect to irc, browse the web etc.

Cosmo is making my 250 dollar paperweight exciting again. And like the McDonalds slogan says... "i'm lovin' it"

Cheers.

Uhm error: make a dummy gx.dll , not a dummi 'gapi.dll'
Works well on cmonex'rom V1.0 . I'll put it in the install manual. To be continued ...

Manual V0.1 browsable here

Edited by michelbel 2007-06-14 1:39 PM