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

I apologize. It used to bug me, but I have become lazy and barely care any 
more. 

> 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.

Sounds like a definate possibility, if I cannot get my side going. 

> 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

Got plenty of those. ;-) 

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

Definately easier. 

> 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.

I have jumped back and forth between Linux and NetBSD for my Jornada more 
times than I can count. I see a bit of progress on one, then see something I 
like on another. 

> 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)

Do not even bother with trying to write an ext2 or ffs filesystem to it 
right now. As of now, we need to stick to a boot image, until we can figure 
out what the memory map is on the Jornada, because every time I boot up, it 
nukes all my WinCE settings (which annoys me to death, since I actually USE 
my Jornada for WORK too. ;) ) 

By the way, this goes out to everyone on the NetBSD port-sh3 and port-hpcsh 
lists: I could use some BSD internals help! I only know enough about the 
NetBSD kernel to change variables (such as resolution settings, etc.) 

Also, on the Jornada 690 and others that the kernel really works "well" on, 
does hpcboot.exe actually display okay on your screens? What should I expect 
to see if so? Maybe send me a photograph or something of your palmtop so I 
can know what to expect.. PLEASE! 

Oh, and my new NetBSD port site is: 
http://www.raylucke.com/software/netbsd-548/ 

Regards, 

Ray