The Compaq
iPAQ
(local)
is a small stripped down PC.
It has a 500/66MHz Celeron (to 733/133MHz PIII, or 800/100MHz Celeron)
with 32KB of full speed L1 cache,
128KB of quarter speed L2 cache
and 64MB (to 512MB) of 1/72 speed (69Mb/s) main memory1,
a 66MHz FSB, two memory slots (allowing up to 512MB Max),
a 4GB (to 10GB, or even 12GB) IDE disk,
and a second `bay' which can take a second IDE disk, an IDE CDROM,
or an LS-120 `Super Floppy'.
It has no PCI or ISA slots and no normal floppy.
It has two USB slots and mini-jack audio sockets on the front,
mini-jack audio sockets, 10/100 UTP, video at the back.
The
Legacy Free
also has 3 USB ports at the back,
and can take a
dongle
which plugs into a propriatory connector and privides two PS/2 sockets, a serial port and a parallel port.
The
Legacy Lite (sometimes called standard)
has two PS/2 sockets, a serial port and a parallel port at the back.
At boot time, F10 enters Setup, and F12 requests a Network Service Boot.
gt reports that it will refuse to boot with a USB keyboard other than its own.
To load W2K, setup for network booting, press F12 and do a standard install.
Simply installed the disc in a caddy in a RAID1 system,
and cloned the disc using RAID1.
kudzu did the rest on reboot.
A PXE install of RH 8.0 was completely straight forward.
The BIOS set the disk up with 240 heads, but fdisk can be used to reset it2.
USB keyboard and mice `just work', as does X - it's rock solid.
To load Linux, the easiest method is to use an LS-120 as a floppy,
and perform a standard floppy+net boot.
Without a custom iPAQ LS-120 cartridge, the only option is to remove the
side panel (press down on top and pull sideways),
remove the three screws at the edge of the metal plate
(there is a special key to do it),
and slide the metal plate and section of plastic cover back and remove.
Disconnect the IDE cable from the disk and motherboard,
and replace it with a multi-drop IDE cable
(or use the `small' IDE connector).
Move the disk jumper from `cable select' (5-6, one away from IDE cable)
to master (7-8, right next to IDE cable).
Set the LS-120 to `slave', connect it to the IDE cable,
and connect to a spare `floppy' power cable (e.g. from another PC).
Type F-10 and allow booting from removable media, then press F-10 twice to save changes.
Load as usual.
On a `Legacy Free' (i.e. 2+3*ISB, no PS/2),
create an initrd using
RH 6.2: `-with usbcore -with usb-uhci -with input -with hid -with keybdev -with mousedev' or
FC 3: `-with=uhci-hcd',
so that keyboard and mouse are available early on,
e.g. if booting emergency.
Set the XF 4.* driver to i810
(master version),
but to avoid video breakup,
install a
local version
of the driver which understands
`Option "WaterMark" "0x22000000"'.
This (or any 0x2200X000 for X < C for Linux 2.4.0-0.34.cl; 0x2201D000 for 2.4.0-0.99.11)
causes the driver to reduce the burst size used when filling the buffer.
It appears that this HACK removes the breakup for 78.8 MHz dotclock using PC100
memory at 16bpp (e.g. 1024x768@75Hz).
If there are problems, force these by making /etc/user-config/XF86Config have
device 0 option "WaterMark"#"0x22000000"
screen 0 depth 16 mode
or 0x2201D000 if Linux 2.4.0-0.99.11.
It may need to have the agpgart kernel module loaded, e.g. by having a file
/etc/rc3.d/S90prexdm containing `modprobe agpgart',
as XFree96 uses insmod rather than modprobe to load the kernel module i810.o.
Christoph Rabe
<cr@ekf.de>
has adopted an alternative approach,
writing a programme called
wmi810
which tweaks the watermark settings in the i810 graphics chip.
Footnotes
- ... memory1
-
kingston memory is KTC6611/x where x is 32, 64, 128 or 256.
Identified as `HP/Compaq iPaq/iPaq Legacy-Free 6500/6733/C500/C700.
Also takes KTD-OPGX1/256 (Dell Optiplex).
Also works with a single KVR133X64C/512 (e.g. millhill).
If two are inserted, the screen does not come on.
If 512+256 are inserted it brings up a screen saying that too much has been instaleld.
- ... it2
-
use `x' to enter eXpert mode,
then `h' to set the heads
to `255'.
Return to normal mode using `r',
delete any existing partitions, and create the new ones.
Piete Brooks
2005-05-06