[jornada] Re: Jornada Flashboard

Sorry that I have dropped off the face of the planet...

I have bad news, and I have good news.... :)

The bad news is that I've been tied up with my other projects for much longer than I had originally thought I would be. Then my wife and I had a new baby and I got further behind. The good news is that I'm getting through my backlog and I *think* I can start the engineering on the flashboards in about a month.

Yes, I hear you all groaning out there.... But I have an incentive to get the flashboards done - I have a J728 whose daughterboard fritzed out, so my J728 is now a brick until I get these flashboards done.

Look for more of my posts once I start the work. I've got a tenative plan of action, so I am not starting from ground zero. Also, I appreciate those of you out there who have helped me get pictures, plans, etc. Please just have a little more patience....

Regards,
-Mark Gollahon

Mark Srebnik wrote ..
> Hi Mark,
>
> Found your posts about the Jornada flashboard in the archives.
>
> Were you ever able to make these?
>
> If I'd be interested in one for the 720.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mark Srebnik
>
>
> From: Mark Gollahon <golly.a.t.stellarwerx.com>
> Date: Fri Nov 12 2004 - 14:45:48 EST
>
> Tomas:
>
> The HP Jornada 710, 720, 728, or 820, runs the Windows CE operating system.
> Many people consider this operating system to be inferior to the GNU/Linux
> operating system. So, we want to run GNU/Linux on the Jornada 7xx and 820
> computers.
>
> There are two ways to do it. Because the Jornada 7xx and 820 computers
> have
> Windows CE for its operating system, the Linux community had to come up
> with
> a way to get the computer to stop running Windows CE and start running
> Linux. That is what haret and linexec do. So, the first way to get the
> Jornada 7xx to run Linux is to prepare a compactflash card with a Linux
> distribution and use haret or linexec to bootstrap Linux. The problem with
> this approach is that you effectively "burn" the Jornada's compactflash
> slot
> in that you have to keep the compactflash card inserted in the Jornada
> for
> as long as you run GNU/Linux from it.
>
> Now, the Jornada 7xx and 820 computers started selling before Flash-ROM
> was
> readily available, so HP designed the Jornada 7xx and 820 to hold Windows
> CE
> in ROM. As you know, ROM can only be programmed once and Flash-ROM can
> be
> programmed multiple times (in fact, the "ROM in "Flash-ROM" is a bit of
> a
> misnomer since the memory is not truely read-only...). So, to allow for
> future upgrading, HP designed the Jornada with a removable board that only
> contained the operating system.
>
> This brings us to the second way the Linux community can run GNU/Linux
> on
> the Jornada 7xx and 820 - making our own board to replace the one that
> comes
> in the Jornada from the factory. Since we want to use Flash-ROM instead
> of
> straight ROM to hold our GNU/Linux distribution, we call the board the
> "Flashboard".
>
> Now, to give credit where credit is due: HP engineers designed the first
> Jornada flashboard. All of the things necessary to duplicate their effort
> is
> on the internet and readily downloadable. The only two problems left to
> make
> it work is how to program the Flash-ROM for the first time after
> manufacturing the flashboard and distributing the manufactured and
> programmed flashboards to the GNU/Linux community.
>
> Hope this tome helps!
> -Mark Gollahon
Received on Mon Jun 20 2005 - 08:27:36 EDT