[linuxsh-dev] Re: [linux-sh:01773] Re: Jornada

[Mark W. A. <sl...@do...>]

On Sun, 8 Jul 2001, Brian K. White wrote:
> gahh this sucks!
> 
> I'm going on a trip which is at least 1/2 recreation, where a good portion
> of the other people I'll be hanging out with will be out-geeking each other
> and I've already stuck a "Linux Inside" sticker on my Jornada, which would
> have secured my title this trip. :)
> 
> now I'd better peel it off. Hmm, or I could just stick the kernel and root
> fs on there... so what if it doesn't load...
> 
> I could not figure out how to even try out the 320x240 kernel with ldd
> I can't find any text anywhere
> my best guess is I think I remember seeing about one sentence somewhere that
> suggested you create an ext2 filesystem on and popuplate a cf card with the
> usual stuff, including a kernel and some programs, by using a cf card
> adapter on a regular linux box. For me, I'm guessing that means I sould get
> a cf<->pcmcia adapter for my laptop, which has mandrake 8.0 and kernel 2.4.5
> on one partition and the Win2Kpro with the WinCE ActiveSync utility on
> another partition.

You should be able to build an initrd that boots a simple system up on
a ramdisk. Booting would require a bootloader (I've been investigating
lld, shlo, hpcboot, pdsboot, and redboot NONE of which claim 548
support, sigh), a kernel image and an initrd image.  These could live
on a CE formated CF card in the same way that LOADLIN can boot a
kernel and initrd from a Windows filesystem.  Once you get that far,
you could do everything else via the Jornada itself.

So far, I've tried lld and shlo, with various binary kernels
downloaded from shlinux sites. I pretty much don't expect anything on
the screen from these, but was hoping to see a little action on the
serial port.

My biggest success was this morning with shlo, an empty initrd and a
kernel for the hp690. It flashed repeatedly and would not stop until I
managed to hit the hard reset combination at just the right time. The
good(?) news is that somthing did hit the serial port, writing
gibberish to my minicom session and disabling all keyboard and mouse
I/O to the desktop machine until I performed a cold boot. Telnetting
in and doing a warm reboot still did not reset the keyboard and
mouse. Something definitely came out of the serial port. (I think was
"Gozer the Destructor".)

Yes, at the stage I'm at, I'm calling this success. Ok, maybe just
"progress". But I think it's saying if I knew what _really_ goes in
shlo.txt I could probably get a serial console session going.

> too bad... this thing looks like it could really wipe the floor with the
> Agenda.
> I hope someone works it out before the thing becomes *too* obsolete. It's
> already lost a lot of it's shine to the compaq's and casiopea's that have
> similar ram and cpu specs, but with better screens (reflective screens that
> work outdoors and other bright light)

That's what's so frustrating. Seeing other machines, even SH3 based,
actually running linux.

> I can't help get the initial core work of getting a kernel to run and mount
> a fylesystem and control the hardware, but I'd be more than ready, willing,
> and able to compile apps and maintain a distribution and write up a "how-to
> run linux on your Jornada"

I can handle building a kernel and initrd. I don't anticipate getting
XFree ported will be as difficult as getting the hardware specs
required to do it. What I need is someone who can get me to that first
boot with a serial console. Trial and error is painful, and tedious
(but it's a technique I understand;)

> It looks like that debian page goes a long way towards this already.

What debian page? Is it the 548, or Jornada's.

Mark