Dell Axim X50 Running Linux

Venture37 writes "the guys at handhelds.org have managed to boot the linux kernel on a Dell Axim X50 handheld, the project is at alpha stages, you can grab a copy of the files from handhelds.org or fisherss.com."

Comments

Advantages and disadvantages of linux on a PDA

[guyfromindia]

Some may find this article informative.. http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-em bdev.html
It discusses the various pros and cons of file systems, graphic systems, etc.

Re:Advantages and disadvantages of linux on a PDA

[treff89]

As that article explores, Linux on a PDA is very much dependent on what you want to use it for. If you want a miniature computer which can do (most) things an ix86 can, great, go for it - Linux will allow you to compile many, many applications. However, if you just want to use your PDA as a PDA, the operating system already on there is specially created for your hardware and use, and unless you absolutely do not want to use it, there's no point in compounding the amount of time taken to set an appointment. (Although, I hear from my Windows Mobile friends, it's not very efficient at all.) PalmOS takes less taps to make an appointment than WM200x, (1 hard button press and 1 screen tap to be exact.) So basically, one would use Linux for more features, and to correct previous flaws (after all, it is OSS!)

Re:Advantages and disadvantages of linux on a PDA

[BlueLightning]

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.

Been there done that...

[NZheretic]

IBM's Linux Watch enhanced shell with Bluetooth

Re:to boldly go...

[PsychicX]

You can also install it on a dead badger.

TBH though, I don't see the hype. So, it runs Linux, and does absolutely nothing useful. Big freaking deal. Lots of geek points, yes, but minus several million engineer points in the practicality department?

Also Toshiba

[espergreen]

There is a similar project for Toshiba pdas. http://www.mnementh.co.uk/eseries/

eh, zaurus for me

[jnf]

After spending over a year both contributing and waiting for the linux port to become useable on my ipaq 2215, I decided to just buy a pda that supported linux natively. I commend these guys for their hard efforts, but really I wanted to be able to program _my stuff_ on it, not spend all my time programming to get a not-so-stable linux port that is only useable 30 seconds to a minute at a time.
perhaps that axim people will have better luck, i surely hope so. But really if this is what you are looking for you should consider buying one that supports linux natively. Not only will it save you some time but you also get to put your money where your mouth is and support companies that support you.

Re:to boldly go...

[NanoGator]

"TBH though, I don't see the hype. So, it runs Linux, and does absolutely nothing useful. Big freaking deal. Lots of geek points, yes, but minus several million engineer points in the practicality department?"

Gotta say I concurr. Supposing I did buy an Axim and put Linux on it, what useful stuff could I do with it that I couldn't before? This is a serious question. These days, you can almost affordably buy one of these with a 480 by 640 display, 3d accellerator, and equip it with a 4 gig micro drive. Any real advantage to putting Linux on it?

Windows Mobile 2003 SE is Great - So why?

[Deviant]

I have a Dell Axim X30 and I could not be more impressed with MS's latest PDA OS offerings. The unit is cheap, light, fast, stable and with pretty respectable battery life. It has loads of impressive software availible for it. I had a Palm based PDA/Cellphone hybrid for two years and had gotten used to Grafiti - the Transcriber handwriting recognition that lets you just write whole sentances on the screen simply amazing and on an entirely different level. On top of normal note taking and scheduling I can view/edit word documents and excel spreadsheets. I can surf the web including secure online banking sites and check my email with a 802.11b wireless VPN connection. I can watch videos and play music. I can take over PCs using RDC or vnc and connect to them with ssh and ftp. I can read books and manuals in either the Adobe or MS e-book formats. I have never had a problem with any of these things - a testament to how well it has stood up to my extensive use.

From what I gather from the site Linux is nowhere near there on most, if not all, of these points. For your average user Linux might be there on the desktop, and it is my desktop OS, but it certainly is nowhere near there on the PDA. I enjoy tinkering with my PC OS but when it comes to my PDA it has to just work and it is for getting serious work done quickly. It is the device I turn to when all else fails to get the job done. This is one Linux user that is not going to be running Linux on his PDA. I think it is many years away from being close to functional in the way that I need it to be and the way MS's product is today. I give credit where it is due and MS is due it for their Windows Mobile OS.

Re:Windows Mobile 2003 SE is Great - So why?

[Mr. Hankey]

You have a point about Linux for typical PDA use. I've used Linux on PDAs in several incarnations but I'm still most productive with my PalmOS-based Sony Clie. It does everything I want, is easy to use and has been very stable. On the other hand, I think it's great that there is further development with Linux on mobile devices such as this.

Although most people may not know this, the port of Linux to the iPaq brought forth several nice embedded systems and even commercial products. Fluke for example created a Linux-based wireless network scanner using an iPaq. We use one at work, it's much lighter than a laptop and works with much less configuration. Odds are the device would have been slower to market and probably have had fewer features if the Linux port to iPaq handhelds had not existed.

This story may not be interesting for everyone here, but to state that a Linux port to the PDA is irrelevent would be short sighted at best. There are many possibilities for a device which can be hacked up and turned into new products, and that's what excites me to see stories like this.

Re:to boldly go...

[LordSah]

Any real advantage to putting Linux on it?

Keeps girls away.

Project Details

[Taxilian]

I have been working with fisherss on this project (I'm Richard), and I thought I'd post a summary of the status, for any interested. We have a linux kernel booting, but we don't yet have wirless drivers working. USB networking is also in progress. This should go a little faster because the x50 (and x50v) use the same chipset for the wireless network that the ipaq hx4700 does, which is further along in the port. We hope to soon have a graphical interface up, and I will be trying to load the kernel on my x50 just as soon as I can get the files from Fisherss (I've been gone for a few days). It will probably be 6 months or so before linux is really usable on this device, and it could be longer before we can completely remove windows ce from the device. Anyone with low level distribution, drivers, and/or kernel experience who is interested in contributing to the project, we could definitely use your help! We learn quickly, but this is new to us... we just want to get past the limitations imposed by windows ce! =]

Re:to boldly go...

[MoralHazard]

You want practical? It's a blue-sky open source development project, you nitwit. The potential applications are legion. But let me give you a run-down of several of the uses to which I've put my own HP Ipaq (running Linux from handhelds.org!):

1) Mobile FULL-FEATURED WiFi scanner and auditing kit. Run Kismet, Airsnort, and a lot of other Linux-only tools (any Windows equivalents cost $$$ and have stripped-down handheld versions) for serious portable work. 100x easier than carting a laptop around. Break WEP keys, perform breakin demos, and hunt down rogue APs with a pocket-sized monster.

2) During the NYC blackout, my ISP was still up and laptops had juice, but my routers ran down the UPS batteries in about 30 minutes. Jury-rigging a car battery, some DC-DC conversion stuff, and an Ipaq w/ PCMCIA sleeve holding 2x PCMCIA network adapters = an instant router that stayed up, routing 1.5 Mbps DSL to five users, for 12 hours. Do you know how much a 12-hour UPS costs??

3) Since the Ipaq (like the Axim) has a microphone and WiFi, it makes a killer wireless microphone. Turn on a recording app, stream the data via wireless to a laptop somewhere nearby, and you've got at least an hour of recording time on batteries alone. Makes an excellent conference-room bug, for checking up on meetings that you can't attend or negotiations that you shouldn't know about--and you record all day if you plug your Ipaq in to charge and then "forget" about it.

4) Portable streaming MP3 player. I've got kerberos-protected NFS shares full of music, and I can stream music out of those shares from anywhere I can reach my APs.

The point is that the sky's the limit with Linux--whatever you can think up, within the limits of RAM and battery life (which are pretty substantial!) is yours to do.

Re:to boldly go...

[vhogemann]

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.