Subject: Re: Yet another lost and hopless Jornada 548 owner.
To: Raymond W. Lucke IV <netbsd@raylucke.com>
From: Brian K. White <brian@aljex.com>
List: port-hpcsh
Date: 09/29/2001 22:51:57
----- Original Message -----
From: "Raymond W. Lucke IV" <netbsd@raylucke.com>
To: "Brian K. White" <brian@aljex.com>
Cc: "port-sh3" <port-sh3@netbsd.org>; "port-hpcsh" <port-hpcsh@netbsd.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2001 5:27 PM
Subject: Re: Yet another lost and hopless Jornada 548 owner.


> Brian K. White writes:
>
> > Pasted in from web archive...
> > --------
> > From: Raymond W. Lucke IV <netbsd@raylucke.com>
> > List: port-sh3
> > Date: 07/24/2001 05:43:55
> >
> > To anyone who can help me,
> >
> > I am seriously considering jumping in on helping to port NetBSD to the
> > Jornada. I do not currently run NetBSD on any of my machines, and do not
> > have any plans to do so for now (except on my Jornada).
> >
> > I have attached below the serial console log for NetBSD booting up on my
> > Jornada 548. What is the status of the port for that platform? From what
I
> > can tell, no one has even really tried, due to the chipset difference.
> >
> > I figure it like this, if it can at least boot, then maybe I could tweak
> > with maybe, say, a kernel module instead of dealing with recompiling the
> > kernel, copying the kernel in, rebooting, etc.
> >
> > My problem is currently that I do not know how I need to set up my
> > development platform. What exactly do I need to do? I am completely new
to
> > Unix-like kernel development, though I have written my own little
> > (ultra-simple) OS in the past, so I am familiar with general kernel
coding
> > concepts.
> >
> > I am requesting two things,
> > 1. Info on exactly what I have to do to get a good development platform.
> > Right now, the only machine I have been able to "play with" (eg. install
> > different OSes) is stuck running Win98 for ActiveSync and Embedded
Visual
> > C++. I also have a few FreeBSD servers that my company runs on, so if it
is
> > possible, I could just compile the kernel out of my home directory.
> > 2. Info on ANYTHING anyone knows about the HP Jornada 548's
architecture,
> > how it is different from the 690's or whatever.. Also, maybe a few
pointers
> > to some info on the SH3 opcodes, etc.
> >
> >
> > I am sorry to see you didn't get any response. I too want desperately to
run
> > linux or bsd on my 548.
> > No one seems to be working on it. just a bunch of guys who want it, but
> > can't do it.
> > I'm getting the feeling that I screwed up buying this thing from my
buddy.
> > When I got it, the specs were impressive compared to other pda's, but
now
> > others are better (screen, cpu, ram, size, weight, battery-life) which
is
> > not such a terrible thing in itself, all hardware always suffers this,
but
> > now that it's past it's prime and no one has happened to have gotten a
linux
> > or bsd kernel up & running, I fear now no one ever will either. I know I
> > probably wouldn't invest the work if I could do it. I'd work on
something
> > more current instead.
> >
> > So I guess I'm doomed to run wince untill I can afford to get a new pda.
At
> > least it turns out that a lot of old dos apps run in a wince dos
emulator,
> > including an old but just current enough version of my primary
> > application/database development tool, filePro. Anything so long as I
can
> > get un-shackled from &^%# Outlook.
> >
> >
> The sad thing is that NetBSD boots up on the HP Jornada 548 and I have
> connected to the serial port and typed commands at the shell prompt, and I
> am even willing to write a video display driver for NetBSD, but I do not
run
> NetBSD on my desktop or servers, and really do not plan to for a while.
>
> If someone could give me really simple cross compilation instructions,
> including how to set up the cross compilation environment on FreeBSD, I
> would HAPPILY try getting it working. I am not very familiar with the BSD
> kernel in practice, though I have read a large amount of the book "The
> Design and Implementation of the 4.4BSD Operating System" and understand
the
> concepts. I have pretty much just given up at this point of time, and
since
> I do not have the $$$ for an iPAQ or anything, I am just sticking with the
> completely and utterly stupid Windows CE operating system.

first, I hate top-posting. answers should come after questions, reponses
after statements...

I can set up a netbsd box and give you root access to it (cable modem,
probably only 15K upload at most, but plenty of download for grabbing and
installing packages, and fast enough that ssh access and grabbing compiled
kernels is painless.
it will only be barely adequate in terms of hardware though
Cyrix mII 333, 64M, 2 4Gig ide hard drives (at least they are ata66 with a
new ata66 cable)
and I'll figure out the development environment and then the
cross-development environment.

I can also throw in use of my better FreeBSD box, though I don't want to
overwrite it with netbsd.
Amd K6-2 550, 256M, 14Gig ata66

in either case, you won't have to try and work from a users home directory

I really want either linux or bsd on my 548 in a useable way, and you have
given me the only shred of hope I've ever seen. Given a kernel with a native
display driver, a filesystem, and a development environment (even if only
via cross-compiling) I would happily start on building a little
distribution. I wouldn't even care too much about not having X or sound or
touch-screen-mouse ... hmmm I'd need touch screen keyboard though, and if
you can get that far, then a mouse driver is probably no problem.

now...
can you outline the steps you took to get as far as you got?
I have not even managed to figure out how you are supposed to boot another
kernel on the thing.
where do you put the kernel (where do you *get* the kernel) and how do you
put it there (ordinary file on the wince filesystem?), and how do you boot
it and how do you use the serial port console?

For connectivity I have a serial activesync cable and a usb cradle and also
a laptop with linux, win2k, activesync, a cf-pcmcia adapter, 256M and 4M cf
cards.

I can't figure out how to access the cf card under linux so I can't write a
ext2 filesystem on it (back when I was hoping to run linux-sh on it. the
linux-sh is so far just for hp690, sega dreamcast, and a couple proprietary
boards)

Brian K. White  --  brian@aljex.com  --  http://www.aljex.com/bkw/
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