Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Debian On Compaq's iPaq Handheld

Posted by timothy on from the put-a-potato-in-your-pocket dept.

ArsonSmith writes: "It seems that at primates.helixcode.com they have been able to get Debian GNU/Linux up and running on the Compaq iPaq PocketPC. This seems to be the first main distribution to be running on a handheld." The Debian Way may sometimes seem ponderous and conservative, but obviously that's not always the case. How'd you like to be able to apt-get new apps on your PDA? This is a detailed description which should interest anyone lucky enough to have one of these cuties.

3 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Because it's there... by Christopher+B.+Brown · · Score: 4
    There's a guy in Scandanavia this week that has found an old Honeywell DPS-6 that is trying to figure out if there is any hope of refurbishing it to run Multics. It's a forlorn hope; he might conceivably get it to run GCOS, with a little luck, and perhaps some help from Thinkage.

    Is this of any practical value? Well, a DPS-6 is likely about as powerful as an 80386, and it won't likely fit in your closet, so it's fair to say that it's not a terribly practical proposal.

    Likewise, an iPaq has a pretty small screen, small memory, small secondary storage, and no keyboard, thus meaning that it's not a vastly practical computing platform on which to run Debian.

    However. Consider two things:

    • With constantly improving hardware, the models out next year might have 64MB of RAM, and we might be able to get cheap 256MB CF cards.

      Which means that while it's not spectacularly useful now, if some people scramble to work on it now, they may start having useful software and configuration tools (and boot tools, and...) by the time the hardware is ready to be really useful.

    • If it is never of practical value, it can still be a cool hack.

      Nobody is going to power up a DPS-6 because they want to run payroll on it, or write TECO macros to calculate Pi because that's a particularly efficient way to do it; they'll do it because they can.

    I think that in another year, there may well be enough hardware on PDAs to usefully run Linux. More power to those experimenting with it now that will make it deployable by then.

    --
    If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
  2. Re:Thoughts on this by Drakino · · Score: 4

    I think that given the size of the screen and the input options for these palmtops, not to mention the cpu/mem constraints dont seem to fit the whole Unix/X way of doing things

    To some extent true. But keep in mind this little device packs more power then many desktops 5-10 years ago. While input may need to be reworked to be useable with a stylus, the power is exactly why I left my Palm V and got the iPaq. I decided I wanted something more then a PDA, and the name PocketPC is very approiate. I can sit and watch streaming video from anywhere in my house via an 802.11 card in the device. I can carry the device in the same way I did my Palm V, and have so much more potential in my portable gear. All because the engineers finally shrank my computer of years ago into a small form factor with decent battery life and a color screen viewable outside and in. True, storage is a bit low, but nothing a 340 or 1gb microdrive + CF to PCMCIA adaptor + PCMCIA expansion can't solve. (PCMCIA expansion used due to it's own battery to not let the Microdrive suck the device dry quickly).

    In 5-10 more years, just imagine the power of a handheld device, and what it will do to complement your existance with computers.

  3. Re:some [related] advice for handheld developers by Drakino · · Score: 4

    The Intel style chipset is versitile enough to work in a handheld easily enough, and Intel componets are certainly cheap enough to use.

    The Compaq iPaq Blackberry wireless e-mail PDA does use an i386 chip inside of it. I definitly have to agree to some extent that it would make running programs on the PDA easier if it had an Intel x86 chip inside, but one problem. The device will be years behind current processing power, and storage will be an issue. Once you dig up Word 6.0, it would run, but Word 6.0 (And other programs) are designed for a keyboard and mouse interface with a decent resolution. Work would still have to be done to change the UI to make it run on a small screen, and by then, it would have been easier to instead make PocketWord, and throw in the benefit of compatibility with 95, 97, and 2000 .doc files.

    I don't see a problem with all handhelds running non Intel x86 chips for now. Once we start all using virtual monitors on these, then it will be useful.