Would you recommend the product? yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 4
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Kernel (uname -r):
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2.4.19-rmk6-pxa1-hh37
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Distribution:
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Familiar 0.8.2; GPE 2.6
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(The iPAQ I have is actually a H3950, but no such option existed ;()
NB: The stock kernel is being used; patches required to support the iPAQ's hardware.
Installation steps:
1. Copy BootBlaster (flash programmer) using ActiveSync to PocketPC 2002 (Wince) to get the bootloader installed into flash.
2. Squish the action key and poke the reset button with the pen.
3. Type 'load root' and upload the flash image through the serial port (115200 8N1, no flow control) with ymodem; took an hour.
4. Typing 'boot' at the serial port to get Linux running
5. Reading the Release Notes at the handhelds.org wiki and making any necessary changes (ie, MMC card detection)
What's good:
Touchscreen works,
Backlight control works too,
PIM functions work, (Including reminder alarm wakeups)
All the physical buttons work,
Sound partially works. (playback only)
USB connectivity through the cradle works great (the CDC Ethernet driver)
Serial port (via cradle) works too.
What's broken:
No sound from the microphone.
SD/MMC card slot 'ejects' the card automatically on every resume. (this is extremely irritating, wince doesn't do this) Needed to rmmod and modprobe the 'mmc_asic3' module _manually_ on every resume, and as my card is glued in....
Also the SD/MMC card slot is not hot-pluggable in Linux yet, and no drivers for SDIO devices.
Although the infrared port recognises devices in range, establishing the communication always fails.
The iPAQ uses NOR flash in its 400MHz XScale chip, which will eventually wear out after about 100,000 erase cycles. Wince stores all user data in RAM.
Software irritations:
No file explorer from the initial installation of GPE.
When GPE is logged in as user, most of the Settings require root password.
GPE autologin always logs in as root (which can be changed only by manually editing a file in /etc.)
Handwriting recogniser (Rosetta) never decodes my (vastly different) handwriting style correctly. XStrokes is good, albeit only really for users coming from Graffiti on the Palm Pilot. Those who don't know Graffiti's alphabet or use the iPAQ as their first PDA (like me) can't use it.
Anyone know what Plucker's for? I don't.
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