RE: [iPAQ] 3800 stowaway howto?

First,

`cat /dev/stowaway` busy means that some other program is holding the serial port open. That program is usually 'getty'. Check your /etc/inittab script: it comes with the line

        T0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L /dev/ttySA0 115200 vt100

Literally "run the getty program on the serial port. If it dies, restart it."

You can either comment this line out (with a preceeding "#") or change the "respawn" to "once". In "once" mode, the first time you reboot your iPAQ the getty program will talk to you over the serial line. You can login, do stuff, and logout. When you logout, the getty program will not be restarted...hence your serial port will be available for use by the stowaway program.

Second,

/boot/params is an optional file. When the bootloader starts up, it has a default set of parameters. At boot time the bootldr tries to find the "/boot/params" file. If it finds it, it executes each line of the file as if it had been typed at the boot prompt. This allows you to change bootloader parameters.

The default 'linuxargs' bootloader parameter is:

        noinitrd root=/dev/mtdblock1 init=/linuxrc console=/dev/ttySA0

Literally: (1) don't use an "init" ram disk
                (2) read the root file system from the second partition on
                        the internal flash (mtdblock0 = bootloader partition)
                (3) Run the "/linuxrc" script immediately after bringing
                        up the kernel
                (4) Set the Linux console to /dev/ttySA0. I.e., send all
                        console messages to the serial port.

Clearly you don't want #4 if you have a Stowaway keyboard plugged into the serial port - it'll just confuse things. Hence you override the default 'linuxargs' parameter with
        
        noinitrd root=/dev/mtdblock1 init=/linuxrc

and leave console undefined - which means the Linux console goes to the framebuffer console instead of the serial port. You'll see all your boot messages scrolling by on the iPAQ screen.

Does that help?

        - Andrew

> -----Original Message-----
> From: jonathan chetwynd [mailto:j.chetwynd@btinternet.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 08, 2002 1:43 AM
> To: Goetz Bock
> Cc: ipaq@handhelds.org
> Subject: Re: [iPAQ] 3800 stowaway howto?
>
>
> thanks for you reply here is my report:
>
> cat /dev/stowaway: Device or resource busy
>
> cat /boot/params: No such file or directory
>
>
> Sorry if i have misunderstood your instructions
>
> could you please have another try, there are a couple of other folks
> stuck too:
> http://www.handhelds.org/z/wiki/StowAway
>
> thanks again
>
> jonathan chetwynd
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Open Source Software for Compaq iPAQ Handhelds.
> iPAQ mailing list
> iPAQ@handhelds.org
> http://handhelds.org/mailman/listinfo/ipaq
> irc://irc.openprojects.net #ipaq
>
Received on Wed May 08 11:55:27 2002