Re: Still alive?

I agree, I like the idea of a live CD, when I first started working with
this I used the debian live CD as a development environment. I also agree
that the touchscreen needs to be the main effort. How active is development
of the handhelds.org kernel, it seems they're a little behind, I know newer
isn't always better but I thought there was some touchscreen work done in
linux 2.6.22. Is there any value added in looking into a newer kernel
before we put a lot of effort into this? Otherwise, were is a good starting
point for the touchscreen work? ts-adc.c?
Thanks,
Joe

On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 5:47 PM, Mikko Silvennoinen <mikko_at_pwar.net> wrote:

> Hi Jeroen !
>
> Thank God for you !
> It would be great if you could look into it, because it seems we have stuck
> to this
> problem and no one had a good glue how to solve it.
> I think solving the touch screen problem would kick this project really
> forward a big time.
>
> About the loop file-system and SD-card:
> I think it is not yet time for that, because the problems we are having
> with the touch screen.
> When the graphical interface works ok, it migth be one way to add to the
> project.
> But I would like to promote linux also in general, and I think the best way
>
> is to start with a good bootable dvd or cd with a loop-filesystem.
> That's why I suggested to use the Kanotix live-cd. That is the best one,
> where
> usb also works well, and it is optimized for 586-processor which makes it
> incredibly fast, but
> works with most machines now in use (no need for a 64-bit processor yet,
> and works well also with new flat screens,
> and there is a big variety of boot options with a graphical boot menu, and
> there is
> programs for bluetooth and network configuration etc. in KDE-graphical
> interface.
> It's now my choice for base of my next bootable dvd-project. It is based on
> KNOPPIX,
> and both are Debian-based, so basicly everything that is instructed on the
> web-site
> applies as such.
> One way, that I recommend, would be to make an own Kanotix-based bootable
> dvd for this
> Axim SD-card linux boot development project. It would be quite easy e.g.
> for me to add this stuff
> to my next dvd iso-image.
>
> One way to build a bootable live iso image from your own linux system fast
> is
> to install LiveBackup which is a program and set of tools to do that .
> I think it was found from SourceForge.
> It would be a fast and easy errorfree way to send a entire working
> development setup in a single file.
>
> It is not hard for a Windows user to burn an iso image to dvd e.g. with
> Nero.
> I could even convert the file to Nero's native format, if finding iso
> format from Nero with a
> mouse is overwhelming.
>
> At least Windows users download from:
> http://www.kanotix.org/changelang-eng.html
>
> Mikko Silvennoinen
>
>
> Jeroen Dierckx wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 10:07 AM, Dominic Laberge<doumlaberge_at_hotmail.com> <doumlaberge_at_hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> theres a kernel image for x50 here (2006) by Jeroen 'JeDi' Dierckx
>
>
> I wouldn't use these. They are very old, and don't have the features
> that were added since then (I believe the touchscreen isn't even
> working, because they were busy refactoring that part of the kernel
> code).
>
> I don't have the time to put a lot of effort in this (we are moving
> towards the iphone at work, developing for windows mobile is becoming
> a too much pita), but I am still very interested in this project.
>
>
> Some thoughts though:
>
> In my time, we created a method where we would just create an image
> and put that as file on a normal FAT16/32 SD card. We used an initrd
> that had the fat and loop file systems in it, and mounted the linux
> image using the loop device. This is a lot easier to deal with for
> non-linux people, because they don't have to use linux to partition
> the SD card, don't have to understand the linux device file system
> etc.
>
> I know what some guys will think: "If you don't know these things, you
> aren't going to help much with the project", but that is not true.
> There are two parts of developing this port: developing and
> testing/hacking. Non-linux, non-programming people can still help with
> the second part, where config files, background images with incorrect
> resolution, ...have to be checked and modified. If we would provide a
> couple of files that they can just copy to their SD card in windows
> and start linux from their device, we would reach a lot bigger
> audience.
>
> Generating the images is a bit of a hassle though, so actual
> development, where you have to recompile stuff and replace a lot of
> files, is probably easier using the normal method. For this, we used
> the usb filesystem (again built into the initrd) and mount the root
> filesystem over usb using NFS. This takes a while to set up, but once
> you got it, you can just develop, compile, and run. No image creation
> of SD card copying involved.
>
> So in short, we should make it easier for non-programmer or less
> technical people to be involved in this project, because it seems that
> a lot of people want to help but don't know how. So there should be a
> list of non-programmer issues that these people can have a look at,
> and an easy (not involving booting to linux, because that stops a lot
> of those people) way to do this.
>
> For the touchscreen though, I think there will be some programming
> involved. I didn't follow this closely enough to know this for sure,
> but it seems that the offset for the touchscreen is not always the
> same, so it isn't just changing some settings or one value. There's
> probably an interpolation algorithm that's wrong in the touchscreen
> code.
>
> I would want to test this stuff in a couple of days, when I can find
> some spare time, so is there an updated webpage somewhere with the
> current features, problems and an explanation how to build this port
> (which kernel sources, what patches, what distribution)?
>
> Greetz,
> JeDi
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 08:23:28 +0300
> From: mikko_at_pwar.net
> To: aximx50-port_at_handhelds.org
> Subject: Re: [Aximx50-port] Still alive?
>
> Hi Joe !
>
> By all means do the image with your kernel, but test it first and let know
> how well it works.
> Remember to name it so that it is clear, that it is for X50 and on what
> kernel version, and that it is patched test version.
> If you also could make a patch-file for the kernel about the patches you
> possibly made, and a text file explaining for what they are.
> (making a patch file: in linux console type diff --help and you see what you
> can do (compare all files in the
> changed source and the original source so, that the output is the
> differences in a ed script format that will change the original as patched
> version, I think and name it as whatname.patch. The output format can be
> attchieved with --ed option, -r option makes it recursively
> go thrue all subdirectories. To test the patch file copy the patch-file to
> the original source directory and in
> linux console type: patch -p1 --dry-run <
> /path/to/kernelsource/whatname.patch
> e.g. patch -pl --dry-run < /home/joe/hanheldskernel/touchscreenfix1.patch
> If there is not reported problems with the dry run it is possible that the
> patch works.
> After actually using it without the --dry-run option if diff says the
> resulting source is exactly like the one you are trying to create,
> it's ok. Does anyone know to recommend any fancier diff options ? or have
> the whole suitable command line figured out ?
>
> Mikko Silvennoinen
>
> Joe Belford wrote:
>
> Thanks Mikko, I'm working on the 20070316 image for the X50 but, I've
> compiled my own kernel using the latest from handhelds.org CVS. Currently
> 2.6.21-hh20. I can put together an image for the x50 based on the 200706
> image and this compiled kernel. But before I do that I'd like to make sure
> it's cool with everyone, I don't want to start dumping a bunch of hacked
> images out there and making everyone lose faith in the project.
> -Joe
>
> On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 6:41 PM, GonzaloF <gfalinux_at_gmail.com> <gfalinux_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 2008/5/14 Dominic Laberge <doumlaberge_at_hotmail.com> <doumlaberge_at_hotmail.com>:
>
>
> for those who need updated link check out the project wiki (linux x50v on
> google)
> i downloaded the image for x50v today and x50 image is also available
> the direct link is : http://projects.linuxtogo.org/~law/aximx50/
> peace
>
>
> In http://projects.linuxtogo.org/~law/aximx50/images/200706/aximx50/:
>
> Index of /~law/aximx50/images/200706/aximx50
> [ICO] Name Last modified Size Description
> [DIR] Parent Directory -
> Apache/2.2 Server at projects.linuxtogo.org Port 80
>
> There is no image available for x50!!! is this updated?
>
> Thanks...
>
> GonzaloF
>
> --http://blog.gfear.com <- gLinuxeando
> --
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>
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>
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Received on Thu May 15 2008 - 19:58:43 EDT