Other Help Topics :: DSL on IBM thin client?



Hey folks

Interesting to find this thread, six months ago I couldn't find much bar one page about getting linux to run on the n2200 netvistas.

I've only skimmed the topic, and I know I'm repeating things that have been said, but here we go anyway:

* You can boot directly from the CF card by selecting the appropriate options from the BIOS. I can check the options when I return home.

* The BIOS in the netvista will only load an UNCOMPRESSED kernel image from the compact flash. This means that you will need to compile your own kernel for use on the device. You will want to do this for a number of reasons anyway (optimise the kernel, include specific support for devices in the kernel).


The main problem I've had is fitting a linux install onto the Compact Flash itself. I'm currently using the stock 96mb one that came with the device, which makes getting an install of linux on it terribly tricky (bar doing a LFS install). For my use as a portable mp3 player for my car, running something like DSL isnt suitable.

At the moment, I'm trying to build a cut-down debian-based distribution for the n2200, which will fit onto the stock 96mb cards, but I may end up just getting a bigger card. Down the track it will have several install targets (console mp3/ogg player, desktop, etc).

I would be interested in the meantime getting my hands on a copy of the n2200 linux that was mentioned in this thread.
If you need hosting for it, send an email to < support <@> autodeist.com > and I can have hosting set up within 24 hours free of charge.
Quote (Guest @ Feb. 10 2005,17:59)
Has anyone been able to get a USB wifi adapter to work? What about a USB external hard drive? I'd want to listen to shoutcast stations out in my workshop and play mp3/ogg files from the external hard drive, but I'd like to avoid running cat5 across the back yard (very low acceptance level by the old lady).

If you have USB mass storage support in your kernel, all you should need to do is install the hotplug service, and start it.

Then whenever you plug in a USB storage device, it should automatically detect and mount it for you. Then you just want to write a script to detect if this has happened, and automatically update your playlist (a cron job perhaps?)
apeman  + The Evil One

Thank you for your offer of help hosting the file, but i found a new "home" for the netvista linux. It's on:
http://linux-2200.berlios.de/
If you want, you can download the file and host it.
I will try to put a FAQ und a Forum on the new site.
For the future i will improve the linux-2200 (thats now the name of the projekt) and put the newer versions on the site.
Excuse the continual editing of this post, I'm trying to make it as informative as possible ;)

I'm having difficulties getting either the firmware update or linx-2200 booting off the compact flash. I've previously gotten a linux kernel image to load up partially, but for some reason these things won't load.

It will find the image (bflash.2200 or kernel.2x00), proceed to load it off the card, then it stops and says it can't load the kernel.

Any thoughts?
Some information below about my configuration:

Quote
cypher:/# fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 11 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

  Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *         1        11     88326   83  Linux
cypher:/# mount /dev/sda1 /cflash/
cypher:/# ls /cflash/ -al
total 533
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root         1024 Feb 13 19:20 .
drwxr-xr-x   22 root     root         4096 Feb 13 16:59 ..
-rwxr--r--    1 root     root       524392 Feb 13 19:20 bflash.2200
drwx------    2 root     root        12288 Feb 13 19:20 lost+found
cypher:/# mount
<snip>
/dev/sda1 on /cflash type ext2 (rw)


MODEL: 8363-EXX
Current BIOS: B3052500 (05/25/00)
Wow, okay... that was a random problem.... Turns out that copying files from my linux server onto the CF card doesnt work too well. It works fine from my machine here.

Yay
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