[Thinstation-general] IBM NetVista n2200 / Rebuild Thinstation kernel?

[Bryan <de...@sm...>]

Hello,
I've been trying to get Linux to run on these boxes for awhile now, pretty
unsuccessfully. I'm still pretty much a linux newb for the most part, but I
can get it to work with enough Google searches, :p

Anyways, all I need for these boxes to do is boot and run an RDP client like
rdesktop (Provided audio also works). (The native OS allows for java apps,
and there is a java RDP client, but the native OS blows and takes forever to
load up.)

IBM's website is hardcore LAME. These things are discontinued, and many docs
are 404s and "We're sorry, these must have been horrible implementaions of
thin clients, so we tried to erase any evidence of their being." Apparantly,
I could buy the Windows CE.NET updgrade, for $70 or so, but I'm really set
on getting these up on my own terms now.

So, heres what I tried:
These boxes are National Semiconductor Geode based (GVLX 233MHz). 2 USB,
audio and video and internal CompactFlash slot. The CF is used to boot the
OS in case the network is not available or the box is configured as a
peer-peer configuration. They have a boot rom programmed to load a linux
kernel, so what I did was edit the build file for ThinStation and then
./build, copy the vmlinuz-2.4.24 to the CF card (formatted as ext2
filesystem). I edited the n2200's boot settings, set to boot from CF card
and pointed it to the kernel file. Success! Except it reads the file and
then quits: "Unable to read image" or "Bad image file" (Forgive my memory at
the moment, it was earlier at work and im at home now). Either way, it
wouldnt boot. I googled for 'n2200 kernel' and apparently the kernel has to
be named "kernel.2200". Alright, so I renamed it and tried it again. Same
"Bad Voodoo" error message. It needs to be in some special IBMNazi format...

Frustrated, I hit up the IBM site for the Nth time. Finally, I found
SOMETHING. Its some kind of set of utilities to deploy RedHat 6.2/7 or
Turbolinux servers and have the clients boot and download thier kernels. The
docs that were supplied indicate that you need the linux kernel source, the
provided kernel patches, and then you recomplile the kernel. Then it asks
for RH 6.2 CDs to copy RPMs from. I dont want to set up a boot server
though, just get a kernel that the N2200 will boot with. (Technically, they
should be the same. Network boot or boot from CF, it should be the same
kernel).

What cought my eye is the "ramdisk-Netvista" and other similar sounding
patches. The docs don't say what they do, but I'm assuming they are there to
make the kernel acceptable for the boot rom to load. I don't really know
much about compiling kernels and patches and such, so now I'm kinda stuck.
How do I make something like ThinStation but with these IBM kernel patches?

Sorry for the long post but I think it was neccessary to describe the depth
of my situation,
thanks for listening
bryan