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HpIpaqH1910Documentation

HP iPAQ h191x series

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HP iPAQ h191x Documentation

Read the Building Opie distro instructions how to build Opie distribution from sources.

Read the Notes related porting, status of software on this PDA.

Read the Guide related SDL keymaps on this PDA.

The [WWW]HP iPaq 1910/1915 JTAG HOWTO guide.

Installation Opie on SD/MMC card with memory card reader and Linux

You need a SD/MMC memory card with a size of 128MB or more. Before you start, backup your data from pda and memory card if you need. This installation will erase all data on the memory card.

Installation Opie on SD/MMC card without memory card reader

You need a SD/MMC memory card with a size of 256MB or more. Before you start, backup your data from pda and memory card if you need. This installation needs a hardreset and will erase all data on the memory card.

Installing/Restore/Upgrade Bootloader with BootBlaster iPAQ 191x

BootBlaster_iPAQ191x is a WinCE program that allows you to backup and install a bootloader. The bootloader is the first code that executes after you did a hardreset. The normal HP bootloader is the program that shows a white screen with the HP Logo and a red version numer like 1.10 in the right lower corner. As this HP bootloader always starts WinCE it must be modified if you want to start linux directly after a reset. This modified bootloader still allow boot WinCE.

[WWW]BootBlaster for h1910/h1915 iPAQ (2005-07-18)

[WWW]bootloader xdelta patch

To upgrade to linux bootloader, follow this installation steps:

UNSORTED STUFFS

Minicom and Bootloader

[WWW]Minicom it's tool which allow to communicate over USB with Bootloader, in prompt mode.

To install minicom on Debian Linux, type: 'apt get install minicom'.

At first time minicom should ask about port settings so set to '/dev/ttyUSB0'. To access port settings in minicom press 'ctrl+a o', it'll open menu. Select 'Serial port setup' and then change entry 'Serial Device'.

Before connect it's needed change USB Vendor/Product ID for usbserial module at linux (PC side) in few steps:

Bootloader Shell

It's possible to backup/restore the bootloader and the WinCE OS using the Bootloader.

There are a few ways to get into bootloader service mode, one of them is by using a button sequence and inserting an SD/MMC card with any HTC bootloader/wince image. A memory card reader is also required.

  1. Download the [WWW]dummy OS image "fake_os.sdmmc" for bootloader

  2. Write the dummy OS image into SD/MMC card in binary mode using 'dd' command (for Windows download from [WWW]dd).

  3. Connect USB cable PDA with PC ( if you want access to command line mode ).

  4. Insert SD/MMC card into pda, and do a hard reset (Power and Reset button), don't release Power button, LCD turn off, wait 2 seconds until the LCD turns on. When the LCD turns on you must immediately release the Power button. In less than 2 seconds after LCD turn on, the bootloader will read the signature from the memory card and ask for reflash. Power button - start reflashing, Action button (joypad center button) - exit from flashing and stay in bootloader service mode.

If you do not release the Power button within the specified time, reflashing will start. It's not a problem, it doesn't read from SD/MMC card, and then it start flashing OS but it's not true, wince will not be erased, but for safety wait until it finish flashing and repeat last "Hard Reset" part of sequence.

When the PDA is in bootloader mode, you need a tool for communication with HTC bootloader, eg. [WWW]mtty for Windows or Minicom for Linux.

mtty: You need disable usb connection in ActiveSync (note: ActiveSync need to be been installed to have usb drivers). Plug in the PDA's USB cable. Run the mtty program, select port: "\.\\WCEUSBSH001" (number increase: 002 ...). Main window opens. Press enter and you should get a "USB>" prompt.

minicom: look into minicom section above. Press enter and you should get a "USB>" prompt.

Here are some of the available commands:

sd2r Restore bootloader and WinCE OS from SD/MMC card
r2sd Backup bootloader and WinCE OS to SD/MMC card
r2sd os Same as "r2sd" but only backup WinCE OS
r2sd boot Same as "r2sd" but only backup the bootloader

If you can't backup and a message is displayed on the LCD about not having enough space, then you probably need to clear the SD/MMC card completly.

Below is link to backup of Wince OS to allow restore. It need to write to SD/MMC card in raw mode . To restore follow instructions in similiar way except this time is start reflashing and not enter to bootloader service mode (though you can do that too with 'sd2r' command).

SD/MMC reader and 'dd' on Win2K/XP

Download [WWW]dd and install it.

First you need to figure what is device name for SD/MMC reader attached to PC. Most propably it's \\.\physicaldrive# where # ID of drive.

First method, easier but might be not efficient:

In second method you can check exaclty but take more steps:

dd basic usage: 

dd if=<source> of=<destination> [bs=<block size>] [count=<number of blocks>] 
[skip=<number blocks to skip at source] [seek=<number of blocks skip at destination>] 
[conv=notrunc]

Now write something to card (for me \\.\physicaldrive3):

dd if=fake_os.sdmmc of=\\.\physicaldrive3 bs=512

dd if=sd_bundle.sdmmc of=\\.\physicaldrive3 bs=512 seek=1

Read from card:

dd if=\\.\physicaldrive3 of=file bs=512 count=2048