Updates on my MobileMp3puter

Well yesterday marked major advancements in my continuing project of an in vehicle linux box for idiots. Here's the rundown:

First, I installed an ultra stripped version of mandy 8.2 on there, having pretty much just development and documentation.

Then I decided to recompile my kernel to only include support for bare minimum. I disabled module loading, and compiled everything into my kernel. That would include ext3 and iso9660. Not too much extra. A naked kernel.

Then I reloaded my console based mp3 player (mp3blaster) and created a script and edited inittab (thanks to Mik for that one) to autostart the player, and enabled autoloading a playlist and start playing.

I took away any delay in LILO for booting the default image. So it goes pretty much straight from POST to booting.

Now I am down to around a 20-second-from-power-to-music time. That compared to the old minute to 1:30 is amazing!

A comparison is that I used to be out of my driveway and halfway out of the neighborhood before I could press play. Now I get halfway out of my driveway, and the music starts.

It's not running any special HW, pretty basic stuff actually. 600mhz AMD Duron, 64MB RAM, integrated sound in mobo.

I will be making a project page on my website for this, and be posting some pictures and how-to for it, when I get done I will reply to this post with a link to the project.

I want to thank everyone for my (sometimes extremely lame/newbie-ish) questions that I asked to get the project rolling.

Excellent , looking forward to seeing your pages!!

Sounds like a cool project... I've read some of your posts here and there... I had no idea the end result was to be put into a car.

Coupla questions:
- What's it plugged into?
- Does it boot automatically... or do you boot up manually when you get in the car?
- What happens when you get to your destination? Perhaps you've got a shutdown "hotkey"?

Those are just the questions that popped into my head when I read your post... I can always wait for your full report when you get around to it. (Soon, I hope!)

hehe... i've got something quite similar in my car, but a lot more simple.

it's a laptop, running slack8, which plugs into the cigaratte lighter for power and plays through my cassette player (adapter). i've discovered that i can leave it running in my car for up to a day without it wearing down the battery, and it sits on a wireless connection, so i use that to transfer mp3s back and forth.

though it's not quite a noble as ngomong's setup, it sure is a lot easier for us who need a quick fix. :-)

Originally posted by ngomong Sounds like a cool project... I've read some of your posts here and there... I had no idea the end result was to be put into a car. Coupla questions: - What's it plugged into? - Does it boot automatically... or do you boot up manually when you get in the car? - What happens when you get to your destination? Perhaps you've got a shutdown "hotkey"? Those are just the questions that popped into my head when I read your post... I can always wait for your full report when you get around to it. (Soon, I hope!)

1. Well, I have it plugged into an DC/AC converter. It's a 300w so I will have no problems with power.

2. I boot it up manually by flipping the switch on the converter. This is my newest challenge on my project, and I am hopefully going to eventually have a button in the front of the vehicle to switch it on.

3. I press 'q' to quit the program, and the simple script (again thanks to Mik) then runs 'reboot'. Then after around 5 seconds, I reach back and turn off the converter. I have it running reboot because if I run 'halt' or something similar, then when I flip the switch to turn the converter on, it won't also boot the computer. I think that it works like it does (boots when I give it power) because it thinks there was a power outage and in the BIOS I have it set to autoboot when power is restored. If I issue halt it seems to not even care if there was a power outage since it was already off when I flipped the switch anyway.

If I could figure out how to make an extension cable for the ATX power switch then I could just leave the converter on (it didn't drain my battery during my 'test' week when I left it on all week without powering anything but a tiny cooling fan) and run 'halt'. Then all the controls would be in the front of the truck, and no more reaching back to press the power switch.

But that and others are just future improvements I will be making, and I will keep you all updated. And I will let you all know when I get the project on the webpage up and ready for viewing.