Re: Installing Linux on an oddball computer?
Rogério Brito <rbrito@ime.usp.br> writes:
> Hi there.
Hi,
>
> My uncle just loaned me a strange netbook from an apparently Taiwanese
> company. The netbook is called "Powerpack NET-807" and it looks like
> this:
>
> http://www.powerpack.com.tw/front/bin/ptdetail.phtml?Part=8-0001&Category=309741
>
> It runs Windows CE 5.0 and this thing is *so* limiting (my Nokia N900
> is way more flexible than this) and I would love to run Linux on it.
> Unfortunately, I don't even know the architecture that this thing
> runs, but on the "My Computer" icon of Windows CE, it says that it has
> a "Samsung, ARM-ARM920" [sic] processor.
samsung arm920 at 400MHz, this may be a s3c244x but I may be wrong. You
need to find a way to get more infos about what's in your netbook if you
want to go further
>
> OTOH, it came with an SD card that has the installation for Windows CE
> and I was looking at some of the executables there and, by inspection
> with file, this is what I got:
>
> "Skype.exe: PE32 executable for MS Windows 32-bit"
>
> Actually, *many* of the executables in that SD card give me the same
> output. Does this mean that they are x86 binaries?
no, imho it only means it's a windows executable. It doesn't tell
any info about the arch.
>
> The method for installation of things in this computer is also unusual
> to me: the SD card has a big file with a ".nb0" extension and it seems
> to be loaded when you hold the power button for, say, 5 seconds or
> more.
>
> Is there anybody here that even has a passing experience with such a beast?
If the bootloader is not cooperative enough to allow booting a kernel,
you may want to look at stuff like HaRET and later use a real
bootloader. Unfortunately, this is only a part of the problem. You'll
need to find a kernel supporting your device or even harder, write the
needed kernel bits.
Arnaud
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