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HpJornada720

HP Jornada 720

Familiar 0.8.2 for Jornada 720 can be found at

http://familiar.handhelds.org/releases/v0.8.2/install/files/

Packages available for Familiar are at

http://ipkgfind.handhelds.org/

A HP Jornada 720 status page can be found at http://handhelds.org/projects/jornada720.html

Support files can be found at ftp://ftp.handhelds.org/projects/jornada/720

An FAQ can be found at http://lickwid.net/~tlp/LINUX-JORNADA-FAQ

There are two ways how to get Linux running on HP Jornada 720

- If you have Flash Board -

Then you can use jffs2 images from snapshot page. Flash board is not a part of originaly sold J720. It was sold later on by HP as selfstanding part, however there is not much of them flying around. You can build it yourself, but it is not an easy task: http://handhelds.org/download/projects/jornada/720/j720_flash_card/

As of 2005-02-13 everything works with the 2.6 kernel in handhelds.org cvs.

- If you do not have Flash Board - Using hpcboot or haret or linexec -

Other option is to use hpcboot (FreeBSD loader that is able to be compiled for WinCE) to load Linux kernel directly from Windows CE. Description is at http://acid.ch.pw.edu.pl/~sq5bpf/mylinux/j720/ but this is only how to get Linux kernel and busybox loaded. There is prepared kernel 2.4.18.

Another detailed description how to use hpcboot is at http://homepage1.nifty.com/kyou-kyou/jornada/en/howto_install001.html There is also a complete Linux partition you can use, but it is also based on some older version of Familiar Linux with kernel 2.4.18.

To get there Familiar 0.8.2 you can try to follow this howto: http://radiolivre.org/darksnow/jornada/

- Status -

Whithout the flashboard with kernel 2.4.31-j720 and Familiar 0.8.2 the status of Jornada 720 is like this:

You can try to use opie image of F0.8.2 that is modified and all should work as described in this table.

Summary by Mark Gollahon - flashboard and kernel loaders

Fri Nov 12 2004 - 14:45:48 EST

The HP Jornada 710, 720, 728, or 820, runs the Windows CE operating system. Many people consider this operating system to be inferior to the GNU/Linux operating system. So, we want to run GNU/Linux on the Jornada 7xx and 820 computers.

There are two ways to do it. Because the Jornada 7xx and 820 computers have Windows CE for its operating system, the Linux community had to come up with a way to get the computer to stop running Windows CE and start running Linux. That is what haret and linexec do. So, the first way to get the Jornada 7xx to run Linux is to prepare a compactflash card with a Linux distribution and use haret or linexec to bootstrap Linux. The problem with this approach is that you effectively "burn" the Jornada's compactflash slot in that you have to keep the compactflash card inserted in the Jornada for as long as you run GNU/Linux from it.

Now, the Jornada 7xx and 820 computers started selling before Flash-ROM was readily available, so HP designed the Jornada 7xx and 820 to hold Windows CE in ROM. As you know, ROM can only be programmed once and Flash-ROM can be programmed multiple times (in fact, the "ROM in "Flash-ROM" is a bit of a misnomer since the memory is not truely read-only...). So, to allow for future upgrading, HP designed the Jornada with a removable board that only contained the operating system.

This brings us to the second way the Linux community can run GNU/Linux on the Jornada 7xx and 820 - making our own board to replace the one that comes in the Jornada from the factory. Since we want to use Flash-ROM instead of straight ROM to hold our GNU/Linux distribution, we call the board the "Flashboard".

Now, to give credit where credit is due: HP engineers designed the first Jornada flashboard. All of the things necessary to duplicate their effort is on the internet and readily downloadable. The only two problems left to make it work is how to program the Flash-ROM for the first time after manufacturing the flashboard and distributing the manufactured and programmed flashboards to the GNU/Linux community.

Hope this tome helps! -Mark Gollahon

Modem

The modem in Jornada is so called soft modem. As far as of now, this is not working in Jornada with Linux, however there is probably known implementation of this modem already. Some answer could be found in this list: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.handhelds.linux.jornada/997/match=modem and http://news.vejas.lt/article.php?id=191&group=gmane.os.netbsd.ports.hpcsh#191

This points to Dreamcast modem (http://ev.dhs.org/dreamcast/) which is mentioned to be similar. (Not confirmed)

PCMCIA

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 11:35:57

Beware though issues of 16-bit PC-Card vs 32-bit CardBus. AFAIK, the SA1111 controller does not know about 32-bit CardBus. So if your 8139 card is CardBus, you're out of luck. Double check before you bother.

A 8MHz 16-bit PCCard interface bus can barely sustain the throughput of a 100Mbps ethernet card, and it's likely that all 100bT pcmcia card you'll find are actually 33MHz 32-bit CardBus, which won't work on the Jornada 720 or any StrongARM platform. http://www.pcmcia.org/papers/new_bus.htm

based upon comment by François-René ĐVB Rideau

JTAG + USB

SebastianHesselbarth, tried to localize sa1100 (processor?) JTAG pins. However he was not successfull. Picture could be found in history of this page.

JTAG pins on Jornada's Mainboard

NOTE: I made a mistake while counting the solder pads of the sa1100. The vias I thought that were jtag pins aren't. Unfortunately some of the real solder pads were ripped off in the desoldering process.

USB Host of SA1111

I desoldered the SA1111 too but more gently this time. I've found USB_DATA pins and will take a photo were you can see the corresonding vias soon.

Comment by François-René DVB Rideau

Are you referring to USB slave or host support. The 720 only supports being a USB slave (unlike the 820). The sa1111 supports host functionality, but the pins were on the 720 were never brought out to a connector. They are on a BGA (ball grid array) and are therefore unreachable even to the hobbiest with a soldering iron.

Links

Adam Pribyl Running Linux on HP Jornada 720

MoinMoin Powered

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