[iPAQ] Another successful Linux installation...

To all interested:
I recieved my ipaq 3630 yesterday at 3pm and by midnight I was up and running Linux
thanks to everyone here. I had a few stumbling points which made me think that I "bricked"
my Ipaq, but I was able to recover fortunately.

My unit cam with the USB cradle, so I took a 6ft 9pin serial extention cable, cut off the one
end and soldered the approriate wires to the board in the cradle and I was in business. As if
I was gonna wait for a connector from Digi-Key :-) Yeah right!

Firstly, I chose the pure Linux install method. I followed the how-to by Peter Monta and with a
few tweaks, got it to work as he described. In addition to his instructions for creating the ppp
connection between the Windows Ipaq and Linux host, I had to make an /etc/ppp/options file
containing:

crtscts
modem
-chap
login
lock
noauth
192.168.0.200:192.168.0.210

Then the ipaq connected succsessfully to pppd on the host and all went well.

My next problem came after I saved the 4 Windows flash images. I slipped with the stylus
and selected "Run" instead of "Run after loading from file" and found no way of bailing out
and trying again. I just continued on and didnt notice any problems due to this slip-up. Of
course I didnt know what I was doing anyway at this point, but I figured if I can get the proper
bootldr in and reboot, I should be fine, and in fact I was.

On to the xmodem transfers. I was getting massive NAK's on the window in minicom. It appears
not to have affected the xfer of the bootldr, but the kernel would not go in. I recall someone on the list
saying to work quick on getting the xfer started, so I cleared out the txfer folder and just copied in
the one file I was going to xfer to the ipaq, so I wouldnt have to fumble as much pressing ctrl-a s
bla bla bla. I even changed the first transfer protocol on the minicom send menu from zmodem to
xmodem to make it faster to get into. When I retried sending the kernel, it just ripped right over to
the ipaq clean with no NAKs. After seeing that transfer so nice, I decided to re-transfer the bootldr
to make sure it was a-ok, so I did, and it went with no NAK's. Then, without much though ( like
5 seconds worth ) I decided to reboot to make sure I was running the new bootldr. Then I got a
kernel panic on the display due to no root filesystem. I read in the how-to about getting back
into the bootldr at the beginning of a reboot, and this worked as described. from here on in, I
followed the how-to and everything went smooth.

Awesome job everyone! CRL and its staff ROCK!

My intention is to get tclsh and possibly wish (tcl/tk) compiled on my unit so I can code when Im
away from my awesome Linux workstation. If anyone has had any experiences regarding compiling
tcl/tk for the ipaq please drop me a note. Otherwise, I'll let everyone know when I succeed in doing
it.

My opinion is that tcl/tk would make a great way to to make quick GUI apps for the ipaq. Especially
since most apps would be GUI wrappers around console apps, which are easier to compile.
 

-- 
Steve Redler IV, Sysadmin 
steve@sr-tech.com