PalmTungstenE2HowTo

Linux on Palm Tungsten E2 How-To

NOTICE

If you need help with this tutorial, please go to #hackndev @ irc.freenode.com and look for medaglia.

DISCLAIMER

Before starting testing GNU/Linux on your Palm Tungsten E2 backup your data as actually there's no guarantee that after a soft reset your PalmOS data and applications are preserved and/or not corrupted. The only way to restore the contents is to backup before starting testing linux, hard reset and restore your handheld data with a hotsysnc or with a backup tool(some applications may need to be reinstalled). NOTE: the support for Palm T|E2 is actually in a very early stage, so expect to see every kind of problems and kernel errors

Introduction

First, create a backup using an application like

JPilot. To use it, connect the Palm T|E2 USB cable, press the hotsync button, what one or two seconds and then click the "sync and backup" button in JPilot or your favorite application.

Other prerequisites are: memory card and a card reader device. The card reader is necessary for mounting the memory card as a standard linux block device, for arbitrary file downloading and repartitioning. If you don't have a card reader, there is shareware software that emulates a standard USB card reader using the Palm T|E2 (eg: Card Reader).

Partitioning

Backup the contents of the card and partition it to the minimum requirements below using a program such as GParted. The Palm E2 has 16 MB of memory, so it constrains the use of swap.

1 vfat (FAT16) 2 MiB + personal space for PalmOS
2 linux-swap >60 MiB
3 ext2 100 MiB + personal space for Linux

Step by step guide without building

Download the files for OPIE: http://nerdfeliz.com/palmte2/new_image.ext2.bz2
Extract the archive: bzip2 -df new_image.ext2.bz2
Mount the image to a temporary directory: mount -o loop new_image.ext2 <temp>
Copy the files from the temporary directory to the root of the ext2 partition (requires root/superuser access).
Download the bootloader: http://downloads.sourceforge.net/hackndev/cocoboot-0.4.prc?modtime=1184790475&big_mirror=0
Download the kernel: http://nerdfeliz.com/palmte2/kernel/zImage.20070719 and rename it to "zImage"
Create a file named "linux.boot.cfg" and save the contents below to it.

#!/bin/sh (-)

    ROOT_DEV=/dev/mmcblk0p3
    SWAP_DEV=/dev/mmcblk0p2

Copy "cocoboot-0.4.prc" to the /PALM/Launcher directory of the vfat partition (if the directories do not exist, create them).
Copy "zImage" and "linux.boot.cfg" to the root of the vfat partition.
Unmount the SD card and boot from the program "cocoboot."

GPE

GPE image for T3 ( from

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=155828) working with added swap. Familiar GPE images for iPaq h6300 working with modifed Xfbdev and added swap.

GPE work very slow!

Build

Also you can build some components.

Tools needed

to build the kernel:

in order to build the kernel you need a cross-compiler that generates code for the arm processor. Cross-compilers are often distributed as ToolChains, packages that contain all the tools needed to cross compile. Depending on your linux distro, you may find different toolchains binaries. Have a look at this page (DevelopmentToolchains) to have more information.

Some installations known as working:

Gentoo: crossdev (emerge crossdev and run crossdev -t arm-unknown-linux-uclibc)
Debian: scratchbox
Mandriva 2006: arm-linux-gcc-3.4.1.tar.bz2 package at ftp://ftp.handhelds.org/projects/toolchain

to build garux:

palmos-sdk - PalmOS header files
prc-tools - cross-compiler for m68k and ARM platforms
pilot-link - application to upload files to PDA from Linux
garux sources - sources of GaruxNG for T|E2

to create the initrd:

buildroot - for building custom initrd

Building the kernel

The kernel containing the latest changes for the Palm T|E2 is actually hosted by the project

Hack&Dev on SourceForge, so

check out the latest sources: svn co https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/hackndev/linux4palm/linux/trunk
cd trunk
make palmte2_defconfig
make oldconfig
make

Create initrd

touch initrd; gzip initrd; copy initrd.gz to root of card

Building GPE

Building Garux

Uploading to PDA

via USB: PILOTPORT=/dev/ttyUSB0 pilot-xfer -i garux-20060401.prc
via serial port: PILOTPORT=/dev/ttyS0 pilot-xfer -i garux-20060401.prc
copy zImage.20060421 to root of card as zImage

Some distribution may automatically create a link /dev/pilot, so you can transfer with

pilot-xfer -p /dev/pilot -i garux.prc

Return to PalmOS

Run reboot from interface or terminal. Or turn reset button on back side.

NOTE: backup your data as actually there's no guarantee that after a soft reset your PalmOS data and applications are preserved and/or not corrupted. The only way to restore the contents is to backup before starting testing linux, hard reset and restore your handheld data with a hotsync or with a backup tool(some applications may need to be reinstalled)

Handhelds.org - Open source for handheld devices