Linux On The Dell Axim

An anonymous reader points to this interesting project to run the Familiar Linux distribution on the Dell Axim. "It includes a picture of the Axim running Linux and directions for loading Linux on the Dell Axim from the CF card. Looks like a good start to this project." It's limited for now (crashes after 15 minutes, must be loaded through the installed version of Windows), but everything starts out that way.

Comments

Is that Linux in your pocket...

[Joey Patterson]

or are you just happy to see me?

linux on everything

[jnguy]

Why is the goal now to run linux on everything, from your xbox to your "Pocket PC" I understand the xbox, but will running linux on your pocket pc really be useful? is it even worth the effort, or is it just something cool.

Re:linux on everything

[Anonymous Coward]

You're new around here, aren't you?

Re:linux on everything

[Erwos]

As someone who's done a Linux install on his iPaq 3150, the answer is an unequivocal yes.

You get far more flexibility, device support, and free software with Linux than PocketPC. Perhaps the only niggle is that you can't really get a browser into 16mb of RAM without constant crashes, but the Axim and newer iPaqs do not suffer from this problem. A nice side effect of storing everything in flash is that running out of battery only resets your clock, not your data.

It's not for everyone, but I think it was worth my time...

-Erwos

Re:linux on everything

[Surak]

In a way, it's kind of useful from an advocacy point of view. We can truly say that we have an operating system that scales to virtually any device, large or small, and can run on virtually any processor technology. Linux runs on anything from PDAs and small embedded devices to IBM mainframes today. You can't say that about *any* of its competition.

Re:linux on everything

[Surak]

Admittedly, while NetBSD *does* provides support for a wide range of processor platforms, it's still not as scalable as Linux, and hasn't been ported to nearly as many devices in a useable form. Not that I'm trivializing NetBSD -- it is very scalable and runs on a lot of stuff -- but Linux is a lot more versatile thanks to the support of a lot of dedicated developers and the commercial support given to them from big companies like IBM.

Re:linux on everything

[TobySmurf]

Haha, > Does it run on Itanium3? No, only windows does. Wait until the I3 actually ships before you claim things like that. I have used it on I2s and it works (and works well). > Does it run on 8-way Xeon servers? No, only windows does. Yup. Installed it, played with it, wished I could take it home (Dell 8450 Server) > Does it run on Xbox? No, only windows does. http://xbox-linux.sourceforge.net/ :-)

Re:linux on everything

[dubStylee]

will running linux on your pocket pc really be useful?

I'm someone who didn't pay enough attention to that question a few months ago and is way sorry now, here's my story:

1. I purchase the Toshiba e740 with pocketPC 2002
for $600

2. Six months later pocketPC 2003 comes out and Toshiba declinces to make it available to e740 users.

I now have no possibility of any kind of upgrade for any of my software. I am stuck with what was available pre-2003 for the rest of the life of the device. Now if Toshiba leaks out enough information about their hardware to allow someone to port linux to it, I could eventually upgrade the software.

Re:linux on everything

[Surak]

No, I haven't used Linux, but a great many argument I've read and agree with have to be usability and nativity to the platform. If Linux isn't native to anything, then who uses it on what? When will standards be developed?

Au contraire! Linux is native to *every* platform it runs on.

It's important to note that the Linux kernel, along with the pieces of GNU system that you need to run with it (gcc, glibc, GNU toolchain, etc.) are written in C, which is a mostly portable language. Some parts of the kernel were written in assembler, although I *think* that has changed, and those parts originally had to be ported to each processor, but again, I think this has changed.

In any respect, Linux is ported to each processor it runs on. Most of the work done in porting Linux to a new platform involves porting gcc and glibc, and then optimizing the kernel and those pieces to run well on that platform, including doing obvious stuff like moving from 32-bit to 64-bit, little endian vs. big endian, etc., but other things including optimizing for the way that that platform handles memory, for instance, optimizing pieces that are timing critical, and writing device drivers for different pieces of the I/O system, etc. (I've never done the work myself, so if I've missed something, hopefully someone more capable than myself will point that out, but this is basically the process as I understand it)

So there you have it...Linux is native on every platform it runs on.

Crashes after 15min?

[Eberlin]

These guys are getting too good at imitating the competition!

Relax, it was supposed to be funny.

Re:Crashes after 15min?

[NotAnotherReboot]

If they're aiming for imitating the competition, they should write in random crashes. It always crashes after 15 minutes, but why not allow it to crash at 8 minutes, and later at 13 minutes? Keep the users on the edge of their seats!

*waiting*

[Anonymous Coward]

Now waiting for the obligatory soon-to-be-Slashdotted "I'm running Apache on my Axim!" news item ...

linux remote

[tobes]

Using the Axim as a X client on a wireless network would be kind of like having a kick ass linux remote control.

Imagine a...

[Atario]

...deck of 52 of these.

(Fooled ya, didn't I!)

Linux on this, linux on that

[r84x]

Well, I do congratulate this fellow on putting Linux on the Axim, but it seems to me that it has no purpose at all... If you really wanted to do something for the coolness of it all, I would like to see an Axim running Mac OS X, and burning CDs. That would be worth posting about.

Familiar Linux?

[MoThugz]

Before I read the article I thought the submitter was having fun poking RedHat (or in the case of slashdot... gentoo), not stating the actual distro used, but just saying that it's very familiar.

Who would have thought (besides those who actually does dev stuff on handhelds) that there actually is such thing as Familiar Linux!

Duh

[Hatta]

If you don't run linux on it, you can't make a beowulf cluster out of it.

Another day another port

[lavalyn]

We've seen Linux scale from as small as wristwatches to mainframes (both courtesy of IBM, oddly enough). So porting Linux to any particular handheld with an MMC is almost blase now :|

Now if only they could make it usable beyond 15min...

Re:Qtopia?

[nadavspi]

Actually, it's running Opie, or Open Palmtop Integrated Environment, which is an improved clone of Qtopia. Opie IS open source, and really much better than it's older brother.

Folks that think this isn't a big deal...

[AltGrendel]

...never had walk around doing site check of a wireless network using a laptop.

Walking around a campus checking signal strength with something like this is real nice.

Re:Folks that think this isn't a big deal...

[fathomDragon]

Walking around a campus checking signal strength with something like this is real nice.

Can you ping me now? Good.

Obligatory Zaurus quote

[Gothmolly]

The Sharp Zaurus 5500 et al support Linux, in fact, they SHIP with Linux. Install OpenZaurus and you have real Linux, yet with real apps, SSH, etc. etc. And it runs longer than 15 minutes.
I mean, this is cool, but hardly the breaking story of the decade.

Why not?

[gpmart]

I know that I will indeed sound like a rube, but isn't a pocket pc really just a toy anyway? I use my Axim to surf the web wirelessly and check my mail, but most of the time I use it just as a toy. Who really does word processing on these things? You can't take notes. Even surfing is pretty painful. On the toy side, however its a relatively useful device. Its multimedia capabilities are pretty good(its a good MP3 player and a good ebook reader(which allows me to read linux docs)) but I think people that have the geek positive gene wouldn't mind playing with something new simply for the toy potential. Ultimately, their are some upsides to these things:

• SSH(which I have yet to see for ppc.
• Coding in other languages than the M$ langs
• xterm
• testing embedded stuff

Its a small, shallow pool of users but for cheap geeks who want to play with operating systems(that might be 99% of us) this is a good way to play embedded linux on a system that we use for other things.