Re: Installing NetBSD on HP Jornada 680 - newbie...

[Torsten Harenberg <harenberg%physik.uni-wuppertal.de@localhost>]

Hi Jason,

Jason Daivandy wrote:
> Hi, Thorsten, hi list,
> thanks for the advice.
>
> Just in case I got you right:
>
> 1. you wrote: "there is also a binary set avaible from the 1.6.1 release of
> NetBSD"
> -since I don't want to make an own distribution, I can take those binaries
> (are these the so-called 'snap shots'?) and don't have to cross-build?

Yes, you can use these binaries and don't have to cross compile then, 
although this is not as complicated as it might sound ;). 1.6.1 is a 
regular release of NetBSD and no snapshot.

> 2. said, uwe: "Partition the CF using fdisk on your NetBSD host machine.
> Create a
> small FAT partition, about 10Mb should be sufficient, and use the rest
> of CF for NetBSD partition."
> -does that mean that I need to have NetBSD running on my host-machine?
> -if not, is how can I fdisk my compact flash card to get one small partition
> with FAT for the win-ce  backup and another one for use with NetBSD?

Hmm. You have to run NetBSD to make these partitions and format the CF 
accordingly. If I remember right you said you have only Windows running. 
With Windows I don't think it's possible - at least I don't know a way.

Maybe I can suggest two solutions:

1.) there's a NetBSD-live distribution avaible: one CD with is bootable 
on a i386. If you download and burn this image, that should be 
sufficient. It's should be avaible at any mirror (in your case 
ftp.leo.org:/pub/NetBSD could be the best choice).

2.) If you own a 256MB CF card, I could provide you an image of my card. 
You should be able to write that to the CF with the freely avaible 
RAWWRITE.EXE utilitly, BUT I'M NOT A WINDOWS EXPERT. It is - however - 
possible to write it using the above mentioned NetBSD-live or - sorry to 
mention this on a NetBSD list - with a 1-CD Linux distribution like Knoppix.

> 3. win-ce-backup and hpcboot
> -the whole win-ce is to be backupped and copied into that FAT partition on
> the compact flash card
> -run hpcboot.exe from the FAT partition on the compact flash card
> -boot from storage card 2, file netbsd, root on wd (what does the latter
> mean?)

root means the root-Filesystem /. I don't know how good you know 
UN*X-like systems, but the / filesystem is MAYBE compable with C:\ on 
Windows. The highest possible stage in a filesystem hierarchy.

file netbsd means the physical file /netbsd - this is the NetBSD kernel, 
which has to be booted by the hpcboot.exe tool. In Windows term: this 
may be WIN.EXE.


> 4. general questions
> -doesn't NetBSD boot automatically every time I switch the jornada on?

No. I think this is possible to auto-boot with a 690, but not with a 680.

> -if it doesn't, does that mean that everytime I want to boot NetBSD I will
> have to do it via win-ce?

Yes. No way around without changing the hardware (ROM).

> -is it easy to apply x-window to NetBSD?

Ouuu.. in principle it should be possible as you have framebuffer 
support running under NetBSD. But I don't think that anybody tried, as 
the gcc 2 has no PIC support for the sh3 target. That means that every 
executable is statically linked, which makes the files quite big. But 
maybe you want to try????

There are - however - plans to go to gcc3. Don't know how the status is 
(there was a mail by Izumi Tsutsui yesterday on the sh3 list). Uwe, 
maybe you can comment on this?

> -is there touchscreen-support for any x-window?

Not yet. If I remember correctly, this is due to the fact that nobody 
knows how this is attached.

> -which x-window package is appropriate for getting the most out (in terms of
> speed and compatibilty) of the jornada 680?

See above.

> Thank you very much! ;-)

You're welcome :).

Cheers,

   Torsten

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<>                                                              <>
<> Torsten Harenberg         harenberg%physik.uni-wuppertal.de@localhost  <>
<> Bergische Universitaet                                       <>
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