While at my last job I was given a Compaq iPaq 3650 Pocket PC. The iPaq is a cool machine, I read a couple of complete books from Project Gutenburg on it (nice screen and bright backlight) and had fun playing with MAME and listening to mp3s. A very neat machine…though after losing my date for the 4 time on it, I found myself using my old Palm instead.
After talking with a friend the other day and seeing his Agenda Linux pda, I remembered reading that you could install Linux on the iPaq, though it had been a while since I last checked in with that project. I went over to handhelds.org and after a couple of days have managed to get Linux natively installed on my iPaq. This was a little harder than I expected, most of the instructions for installing the system involve using the Serial cable which I don’t have. After looking around the Wiki tonight I found beta instructions for installing the Linux to ROM only using the compact flash card. This is great news, especially if you are running MacOS X and/or don’t have the serial cable. For the past couple of days I was using the dual boot method, which while cool, wasn’t what I really wanted since it required you to be running off the CF card, which would prevent me from using a 802.11b wireless card in the slot.
Here’s what I ended up doing:
I went to the Familiar v0.6 Installation Instructions and used the CF no serial installation method.
Since those instructions were written, the beta version of bootloader (bootldr) has changed and the version linked to by the instructions is no longer on the server. The say to use version 2.19.55, but its not around anymore, so I cut the URL down and got verion 2.19.58 instead. Installed it using booblaster (after copying bootblaster to Program Files under WinCE and the .58 bootldr under Documents in the main store (not the CF card)
Installed the bootldr as per the instructions and then followed the no-serial instructions for installing linux. It worked mostly without a hitch. The only snag was that at first it didn’t seem to work, it seemed to hang on the Penguin screen with a flashing block cursor, but then after some clicking, turning on and off, pulling out the cf card, etc. etc.. it booted into OPIE. Very cool. I beleive this allows the power managment to work (the CF dual boot version didn’t seem to work for me) plus it is a much fuller install.
I was worried about starting this all at 1am in the morning, but it seems to have gone okay.
Now to try to get USB networking working, I’m not sure if it will work under MacOS X, it works under Linux desktop, we’ll see….
<br /> we left when the helicopers came and had to clear a space by the cars for it to land. scary way to start a weekend. </p>
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