GPE Linux on Apache 6700 for Mobile Computer

[Brainbtz]

I'm working on building a mobile computer for Wifi only and possibly making the 6700 for sprint into a mobile pc with wifi and possibly programming an application that willl mimic my aircard from sprint. the 6700 is the only phone that seems promising since it has alot of hardware similar to a PC.

I know how to load up GPE after reading the progress on here. the 6700 I have(I'm a tech for Sprint/Nextel) dont need to be used as a phone, I'm just gonna turn it into a mobile PC thats it.

Can someone walk me through mounting and or creating the image file so i can make changes to the drivers and things of that nature. whenever I mount the linux.img file and make changes I get a Kernel Panic so i'm sure i'm doing something wrong.

Can someone tell me what files I need to duplicate the process that was done to create the linux for apache. I'll appreciate it greatly. I am running Ubuntu Linux on my PC and have tried everything I could think of to get it working from start to finish but i'm not great when it comes to porting linux. I am a software developer and know a little bit of hardware programming so i'm sure I can get Wifi Working If i could get past this initial Problem.

If someone can explain to me what i'm doing wrong that would be great.

Aim me at brain90992 or just reply here.

Thanks for reading

[Brainbtz]

I'll paypal $5.00 to the first person that walks me through this process. If you know how to do this pm me the process or post it here along with a paypal address and i'll test it out.

I run a technology modding website and mods if this is not allowed please let me know.

[PDAPhoneJunkie]

Why would you want linux? Seriously, stick with WM. Soo much more can be done with it.

[Brainbtz]

windows is garbage lol, theirs WAY more that I can do on a Linux device since i'm a programmer. I'd like to port over all the apps i'd need to make it feel like my linux desktop. I dont need another phone and I hate windows with a passion. I love the reliability, stability and expandability of Linux.

[PDAPhoneJunkie]

Wishful thinking. All of the Linux type projects that have gone on with this phone have been very unsucesful at their best. You will not find any apps for this phone. You can't make this thing like your PC. The hardware is different... Anyways good louck because you have a lot of work to do on making this thing function...

[Brainbtz]

Originally Posted by PDAPhoneJunkie

Wishful thinking. All of the Linux type projects that have gone on with this phone have been very unsucesful at their best. You will not find any apps for this phone. You can't make this thing like your PC. The hardware is different... Anyways good louck because you have a lot of work to do on making this thing function...

I dont understand how you can say its not possible. I have the programming experience(VB, Asm, C++) and have been programming since Atari 2600. I know a thing or 2 about reverse engineering as i've done projects like this on different devices. The phone is running linux thanks to tek with most of the hardware I'd require. from my understanding tek is working on the Android since he'd like to use it as a phone...this is just an old spare phone I have no use for it as a phone with android, i'd rather it be running GPE but I do all types of tech modding on my forum so this is just another project to work on.

of course apps are not out right now but If i could get the file system mounted to play around with it i can port over all the applications id need and fix the Wifi Driver. I'm just stuck at a standstill until I can make changes to the system.

It is more of a PC than it is a phone if you break it down. Keyboard, decent Speed CPU, Wifi, touchscreen, SD storage slot. The phone portion is something that does not need to be their for my purposes.

Like I said tho, if anyone can help me get the file system mounted so I can make the changes I need to work on the kernel, edit config files, etc please PM me or post in this thead.

Thanks..

[Brainbtz]

Does anyone know if theirs an emulator for Linux that will run the GPE system? also as far as making changes do I have to build an image file from scratch each time I make changes? from my quick research thats what it seems like but I'm not sure. I was wondering If I could get the Android emulator to boot GPE? I'm sure theirs people here that know how to do this.

[pio_masaki]

There's a release (old) to boot linux on the apache, though its not persistant, it's like booting a live cd on your pc, any changes made are lost on shutdown/restart. Before you go building drivers and porting programs over for it, I would look into creating a loopback image that gets stored on the SD card so changes are persistant. Tekk seems to have done this with his current release of his android system files, so I know it can be done, I just don't know how.

It may be the faster method, otherwise creating a new image for every change is the only other method. I would suggest creating a loopback and file system image that covers most of the space available on your SD card, with the loopback image being smaller, since all it does is save/load changes from the original file system image.

If you continue to just randomly edit the image file the kernel will continue to freak out, you must build a new one, based off the original, for it to work. The kernel available is touchy at best. Google will get you info on creating a persistant loopback installation for your linux. You can base it off the USB persistant linux distros available, and build and change as you need to from there. I used a USB persistant xubuntu, worked great, found it at pendrivelinux.

From the linux I used, there was no way to mount the file system, so it would need to be included in your initrd, or port/create a program to do it, I'm not even sure the kernel supports it.

So, the two biggest problems you will face with this, the kernel, its buggy, crappy, slow, and pretty well useless, then the filesystem, and all the hassles that come with making it persistant. I've been fooling around with my xubuntu for a week, while I understand how persistant linux distros work, I don't know HOW, I can look into it when I have free time, but I can't promise I'll find anything more usefull then you do.

Oh yea, quick google gave me http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/...k-Root-FS.html it's old, but explains why and how.

[Brainbtz]

Ok managed to duplicate it so i can make changes, then got opie running to see if it works better. for my purposes. opie will probably stay because alot of the tools i'd like are already installed so its less time porting apps, just have to install the SDK and tweak the code. theirs still alot of keymapping to do but all the basic hardware does work. still no wifi yet but thats what im gonna work on tommor.

[pio_masaki]

Well I'm at least interested, I was kind of sad the linux idea for these seems to have died a couple years ago, keep me posted. Did you get it persistant, or just create new images for your changes?