Slashdot Mirror

One great thing about netbsd is the possibility of handheld netbsd. Find out more Here. Some people have tried using it on flash cards with great success, a good choice if that is the case is 256mb's to get the full effect. Handheld BSD is great though, give it a try.

that's already been done:

http://handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/BlueAngel

Would really love to see NetBSD, Linux with GPE/Opie on my Tungsten T3 :)

instruct.

Would really love to see NetBSD, Linux with GPE/Opie on my Tungsten T3 :)

instruct.

A port of Familiar for the Asus Mypal716 is almost ready for prime time, just come and see!

A port of Familiar for the Asus Mypal716 is almost ready for prime time, just come and see!

For those wondering if it's real, I've been working closely with Shadowmite (the Treo Hacker extraordinaire) and you can track our progress on his forum or the not-as-up-to-date Handhelds.org Palm Treo 650 Wiki Page.

We've also started documenting a lot of the hacking stuff we've discovered on the Shadowmite wiki.

The Siemens simpad can run linux, thanks to open simpad [opensimpad.org]. I run Qtopia [trolltech.com] on mine, but it can also run Opie [handhelds.org] and X11 if you want that. This screen is an actual touchscreen, so I don't even need a stylus, I can use my finger.

You didn't mention the kinds of noise you're interested in keep out, or what kind of data your sensors return. I will therefore assume, "all" noise and many kinds of sensors.

The best approach to keeping something as electrically noisy as a PC from spoiling your results is to put it in another room and connect it only with radio or light. This also addresses the sound issue.

If the bandwidth on your sensors is low enough for RS-232 serial data, then you're in luck, dozens of manufacturers sell simple in-line isolators like this.

If the cable it's running through is still picking up too much noise then using fiber converters on both ends (like this) will let you bridge the gap with glass which is pleasantly resistant to electrical noise.

If you're currently capturing your data with a bunch of low sample rate A-D converters, and have a large wad of sensor lines going to the attachment-pod on the PCI card, now would be the time to get your university's micro controller enthusiasts to create a sensor polling device. On something like the Atmel 8515.

Such a sensor converter will run for days on batteries, and produces very predictable low amplitude noise that is easy to isolate. It comes with an 8 channel 10-bit A-D, and the best part is they are available in an easy to breadboard 40-pin dip for $4.58 through digikey (here search on ATMEGA32-16PJ-ND).

If the bandwidth of your sensors is too great for RS-232, the same tricks can be played with RS-485 transceivers which will do speeds into the megabits, and are available as cheap dip packages.

For speeds beyond the few megabits realm a "custom data gathering CF card" and a Wifi capable IPAQ running Familiar springs to mind as a good starting point. But here we're getting into the question of "What exactly is it you're doing on the Windows box?"

--Art

PocketPCs that can run Linux go for $100 used. How about a $1300 1.3TB RAID in one room, and a $500 cluster of 5 of those in the media room, with one dedicated to video-out for an extra $500? That sounds like a wicked, silent mediaroom PC that can also do a lot more.

Considering that you can also run Linux on a variety of inexpensive PocketPC's (I got my Zaurus SL5500 for ~$130US), I agree: there's no reason to buy this. Get yourself a PocketPC of your choice (for $130 to $400, depending what you need/want), throw OpenZaurus/Familiar/whatever on there, and you're set. Way more choice, way more hackability, cheaper, more fun.

Yes. If you think specifically of KDE/QT - check out what runs on zaurus, ipaq, and whatnot, but you have to remember that this is Qtopia, not the same thing you have as a kde desktop, although resourcewise, KDE is becoming lighter and lighter...

Also, they speak about a rendering engine, not a GUI/OS solution (and afaik Nokia did a browser using khtml but with GTK UI).

Insightful? Just plain wrong, I'd say.

How many versions of Windows XP are there? Really just two, Home Edition and Professional Edition. How many versions of Linux 2.6 are there? According to that article, around 300.

You're comparing apples with pears. You should compare Windows with Linux distributions.

And since my posts always seem to get modded as trolls no matter what I say, if you Linux people don't get off your mighty high horse and look at what could get people to migrate from Windows to Linux, it will never happen.

Because you are trolling.

I don't care if it is Ubuntu, or Suze, or Red Hat, or whatever.

So you say, that you know only two - the third is called SuSE - of the mentioned 300 distributions? You just don't have to care about the other 298 distributions, they're made for special purposes. A few of them (Familiar) are made for PDAs, just like Windows CE (yes, another Windows).

Just have one damn version and make the damn thing work for the latest technology, make it fast, and make it easy to understand for even the dumbest american.

What do you mean when you say "latest technology"? There are more cases of Windows not supporting the latest technology.

Sure, the April Fools one a couple of years back about 1GB of email storage! The Evening Standard got in on the con and had it as front page news!

I'd like to know: what PDA did you choose? How well does it integrate with your Linux desktop? Do you have your new PDA syncing with Evolution, or do you run something similar to J-Pilot, or what?

Did you install Linux on your PDA, or are you still running WinCE?

I dearly love my Tungsten T2, so of course Palm stopped making them. And my battery is showing signs it might die. So if you are happy with your PDA there is actually a chance I might get one.

Thanks.

I just bought an x50v and used to own a palm. I miss my palm. Have to admit that whilst my axim is great hardware, it's running a piece of shit OS. WM 2k3 is the most lame-brain, unintuitive and error prone OS I've had to handle since the last MS OS, which I was forced to use. Unfortunately, it was i who chose to buy this.

Been looking for a JVM to run on it, but do not seem to be able to find one. Any idea why?

As for linux:

http://www.handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/DellAximX3

Too-da-loo

Check out http://handhelds.org/. They are working on ports for various handhelds in various stages of completion. I use the familiar distro on my iPAQ H5555, and it works very well. Everything the Zaraus can do in a newer/faster package.

ipaq 38xx with a pcmcia sleeve running familiar linux. works like a champ.

The site you cite is nothing but a ripoff site designed to lure people into displaying its ads. The site is YEARS out of date, has never done anything to forward LInux on the iPAQ, and merely links to those of us who did the heavy lifting.

Please don't link to ipaqlinux.com. The proper place to find Linux for handhelds is handhelds.org.
-russ

Best & most flexible way (I do this):

Get an ipaq or a Dell Axim or a sharp zaurus PDA with a cf expansion slot (if needed)

Install Familiar Linux or Openzaurus

Get a Holux GM-270 GPS Card (or anotherone here or here)

Install gpsdrive & enjoy

This way, no worrying about firmware incompatibilities, & if u buy an old ipaq h3600 from ebay your TCO can be less than $200

Best & most flexible way (I do this):

Get an ipaq or a Dell Axim or a sharp zaurus PDA with a cf expansion slot (if needed)

Install Familiar Linux or Openzaurus

Get a Holux GM-270 GPS Card (or anotherone here or here)

Install gpsdrive & enjoy

This way, no worrying about firmware incompatibilities, & if u buy an old ipaq h3600 from ebay your TCO can be less than $200

For the technically minded: the Linux/QTopia-based Zaurus: The keyboard rocks, you can develop applications for it, and thousands of developers have already done so, so there are a lot of useful, free apps out there.

Even better, if you already own an iPaq, install Familiar and enjoy the stability and openness of Linux just like on the Zaurus.

I've just got an iPaq rx3715 and I'd like to be able to run Linux on it. I have checked out the Handhelds.org pages to see if I can do it, but the man from Del Monte says No.

Are there any other wonderful resources for iPaq Linux?

There is a firefox ipkg for openzaurus & familiar for pocketpc's. Just search at http://ipkgfind.handhelds.org/ . There was some talk at the developer forum for building Microsoft pocketpc bins for firefox, but dunno if anything came of it...

There are two that I'm familiar with: XScibble and XStroke.
I used to use these on my Stylistic 1200 (120 MHz Pentium tablet). I liked the alphabet xstroke used over the one in xscribble, plus it had a nice full screen capability (no special window to write in).

I've heard that the handhelds guys are trying to port Linux to the Nokia 770.
-russ

Once the port gets done you'll be able to use Opie or GPE with it.

Opie is the OpenSource fork of Qtopia, the same interface that powers the Sharp Zaurus. It's quite usable, and I installed it on my iPaq 3970 without any problems. As a matter of fact, handwriting recgnition is better than WindowsCE one.

Check those screenshots http://opie.handhelds.org/gallery/

GPE is a GTK+2 based enviroment for handhelds, is a little bit cruder than Opie, but it uses a X server instead of the frame buffer, so it's easier to port software to it. There's already stuff like SNES9x, Quake and Doom running on it!

Again, some screenshots http://handhelds.org/~gpe/gallery/

Also, one may guess that Nokia's Maemo could get ported to it.

So, there's lot of usefull things to do with it once the port is stable.

Once the port gets done you'll be able to use Opie or GPE with it.

Opie is the OpenSource fork of Qtopia, the same interface that powers the Sharp Zaurus. It's quite usable, and I installed it on my iPaq 3970 without any problems. As a matter of fact, handwriting recgnition is better than WindowsCE one.

Check those screenshots http://opie.handhelds.org/gallery/

GPE is a GTK+2 based enviroment for handhelds, is a little bit cruder than Opie, but it uses a X server instead of the frame buffer, so it's easier to port software to it. There's already stuff like SNES9x, Quake and Doom running on it!

Again, some screenshots http://handhelds.org/~gpe/gallery/

Also, one may guess that Nokia's Maemo could get ported to it.

So, there's lot of usefull things to do with it once the port is stable.

Perhaps you have not seen these:

http://opie.handhelds.org/
http://gpe.handhelds.org/

Familiar Linux for iPAQs and other handhelds (presumably the X50 soon) provides images that include Opie and/or GPE by default.

It might also be pointed out that the Sharp Zaurus runs Linux natively, and manages to be both a useful PDA and a powerful computing platform at the same time, so the two are not mutually exclusive as you seem to imply.

Perhaps you have not seen these:

http://opie.handhelds.org/
http://gpe.handhelds.org/

Familiar Linux for iPAQs and other handhelds (presumably the X50 soon) provides images that include Opie and/or GPE by default.

It might also be pointed out that the Sharp Zaurus runs Linux natively, and manages to be both a useful PDA and a powerful computing platform at the same time, so the two are not mutually exclusive as you seem to imply.

Perhaps you have not seen these:

http://opie.handhelds.org/
http://gpe.handhelds.org/

Familiar Linux for iPAQs and other handhelds (presumably the X50 soon) provides images that include Opie and/or GPE by default.

It might also be pointed out that the Sharp Zaurus runs Linux natively, and manages to be both a useful PDA and a powerful computing platform at the same time, so the two are not mutually exclusive as you seem to imply.

Indeed, sticking with the PDA is my choice as well. But, one thing you could try is the GPE project http://gpe.handhelds.org/ which makes a wonderful set of applications including PIM, calendar, to-do lists etc and runs on top of either familiar Linux http://familiar.handhelds.org/ which works on Ipaqs and many other devices or openzaurus http://www.openzaurus.org/ which is, again, Linux-based and works for the popular Sharp Zaurus PDAs. Depending on how much you've spent on your PDA, you may be able to run a 2.6 series kernel or a 2.4 series for devices with less power like my Sharp Zaurus 5500. As a bonus, all GPE apps run natively on x86 Linux so you can run them on your desktop machine too.

Indeed, sticking with the PDA is my choice as well. But, one thing you could try is the GPE project http://gpe.handhelds.org/ which makes a wonderful set of applications including PIM, calendar, to-do lists etc and runs on top of either familiar Linux http://familiar.handhelds.org/ which works on Ipaqs and many other devices or openzaurus http://www.openzaurus.org/ which is, again, Linux-based and works for the popular Sharp Zaurus PDAs. Depending on how much you've spent on your PDA, you may be able to run a 2.6 series kernel or a 2.4 series for devices with less power like my Sharp Zaurus 5500. As a bonus, all GPE apps run natively on x86 Linux so you can run them on your desktop machine too.

I'm more hoping to get the ipkg package system working on that thing, being able to install additional software would be extremely cool. Consider how many custom packages there are for iPAQ/Familiar or Linksys WRT54G/OpenWRT (uses ipkg as well) devices, Nokia should be interested in getting a huge boost in application availability through the big OSS community.

I guess this device will be limited in its flexibility to make it easier to use for the average joe. I'm waiting for a project like Familiar and/or GPE (famous for their iPAQ system) to port their stuff to the device...really sweet then :-)

I guess this device will be limited in its flexibility to make it easier to use for the average joe. I'm waiting for a project like Familiar and/or GPE (famous for their iPAQ system) to port their stuff to the device...really sweet then :-)

Where do I get a notebook I can put into my shirt pocket? Although the CLI is nice, look at the GPE and Opie galleries.

Where do I get a notebook I can put into my shirt pocket? Although the CLI is nice, look at the GPE and Opie galleries.

Yes I do know. I'm running Familiar with GPE on my iPAQ H5450, and I really like it. It may not be the best choice for the masses yet, but I like to be able to influence the behaviour of my system instead of being limited to the things those shiny buttons of Windows CE or PocketWindows (or whatever they call it now) do.

Yes I do know. I'm running Familiar with GPE on my iPAQ H5450, and I really like it. It may not be the best choice for the masses yet, but I like to be able to influence the behaviour of my system instead of being limited to the things those shiny buttons of Windows CE or PocketWindows (or whatever they call it now) do.

This is a good thing, since it will bring more devices to the market Familiar runs on. At least I hope so.

Its also been done on Opie, but that of course primarily targets PDAs. Though, other then the fact that the DS has two screens, prioprietary memory cards, and no on-board ROM, I don't think there is too much difference.

The familiar linux project mainly aims at the arm processors, but they are slowly but steadily perfective the art of linux on the handtop, and I specially like the few on-screen keyboards, and the handwrite recognition apps they had included. A port of the familar distro (http://familiar.handhelds.org/) would be very nice to see on the DS.

http://familiar.handhelds.org/

...just run linux on another PDA, e.g. an iPAQ. I'm running the Familiar Distribution (http://familiar.handhelds.org/) on my 5450, and it's great. Although I still have to decide which UI is better, GPE or Opie, since the storage space is only enough for one of them. But well, it wouldn't be Linux if you do not have a choice, I guess it's vi vs. emacs, gnome vs. kde all over again, and it all now happens inside your shirt pocket :-)

...just run linux on another PDA, e.g. an iPAQ. I'm running the Familiar Distribution (http://familiar.handhelds.org/) on my 5450, and it's great. Although I still have to decide which UI is better, GPE or Opie, since the storage space is only enough for one of them. But well, it wouldn't be Linux if you do not have a choice, I guess it's vi vs. emacs, gnome vs. kde all over again, and it all now happens inside your shirt pocket :-)

...just run linux on another PDA, e.g. an iPAQ. I'm running the Familiar Distribution (http://familiar.handhelds.org/) on my 5450, and it's great. Although I still have to decide which UI is better, GPE or Opie, since the storage space is only enough for one of them. But well, it wouldn't be Linux if you do not have a choice, I guess it's vi vs. emacs, gnome vs. kde all over again, and it all now happens inside your shirt pocket :-)

Not on the Zarus, but on iPAQ's!

http://handhelds.org/projects/skiffcluster.html

yeah, in theory. in practice, it'll be shit to run any X11 app on your phone, where it wasn't designed for in the first place.

That's bullshit. The fact that the XFree86 implementation, which is perhaps all you have ever seen, is obese and adapted to workstation usage doesn't mean X11 is. Furthermore, there are plenty of X11 applications for those kinds of environments.

X11 was designed for hardware that was much less powerful than today's phones. I used to run X11 and a full SVR3 UNIX system for software development on a 20MHz 386 with 4Mbytes of RAM, and that was a powerful machine at the time. Some X11 implementations are among the most light-weight window systems around.

And in terms of software, there is plenty of it. X11 has all sorts of window managers available for it, including full-screen window managers that are ideally suited to use on small screen devices, and there are many X11 applications specifically designed for small screen devices, as well as many other applications intended for bigger screens that run just fine on a small screen device. Handhelds.org has several environments, and with X11, you can use any of those applications with whatever MontaVista has on it natively.

Check out handhelds.org and the Familiar project. Most of the new stuff is on the wiki, and on the mailing lists (recent archives of which can be viewed through gmane.org).

We think Familiar provides a base operating system and application set that seriously rivals (if not outdoes) other mobile offerings. The only major issue we have on devices such as the iPAQ that don't run Linux out of the box is that getting all of the hardware supported is a difficult job. However, this situation is improving - commercially-sponsored projects to port Linux to specific handheld devices are currently going on, as are others driven by developers working individually.

Companies taking Familiar and using it as a base for something to be used in commercial products would be a good thing (provided that the GPL is followed, of course). We'd definitely like to see more of that happening.