[talk] Fwd: 2017-03-25-netbsd-hpcmips.img

[George Rosamond]

Sevan Janiyan:
> WorkPad owners, heads up :o)
> 

Anyone else out there with a WorkPad besides myself and Robert?

They seem to run around $100 on Ebay... although I was fortunate to
pickup three for that amount a while back.  Sorry.. .all the extras are
gone!

These subnotebook/whatever devices provide an idea of where things could
have gone in 1999... but didn't. To have hours and hours of battery time
in that year is incredible. I think my Toshiba Tecra from that year did
60 minutes, without any networking. And this is a MIPS chip, running
clunky WindowsCE burned in as firmware. It has a similar
weight/size/feel as a Thinkpad x120e, although the display is only 8"
(diagonal).

Some quick notes to deal with the obvious for those who do have one and
will test the image.

These boot automatically into WindowsCE and you have to 'next' 'next'
'next' through some basic stuff.

With the CF card (with the posted image below) inserted, click your way
to "My Handheld PC" then to "Storage Card" and select "hpcboot" with the
cutesy little red car icon.

It's a Windows binary that boots the system into NetBSD.  Think uboot
for Windows-only hardware.

The only options to change with the NetBSD boot program are:

the Windows path to the CF card (likely \Storage Card\)

the next field should be netbsd-GENERIC.gz

Then in the next line, the hardware, which in (our) this case is a
WorkPad z50 2601 1AU.

then boom, click "boot"

The NetBSD image will then boot.. and things will start looking more
familiar.

One particular thing with this image (as opposed to past ones).

Once the boot process (seems) is done, there's a blank screen with a
cross cursor in the middle of the screen.  It looks like X is in the
middle of booting, and it just sits for a bit. It ends up tpctl is
hanging and ultimately fails to start, which delays a login prompt for
5-10 minutes.  Removing it from /etc/rc.conf clears up the long boot delay.

Rereading below:

> 
>>   and comes as you are as you want to be.
>> - tpctl: touch panel calibration:
>>   click + 5 times + return

I realized I missed that... but then it's unclear what to "click" "five
times" to calibrate.. right or left mouse?  I tried a bunch of things,
but still have to wait those 5-10 minutes.

I tried to use resize_ffs to use up the whole 4G CF card I'm using for
the 2G image, but will have to figure out the NetBSD version of
OpenBSD's bsd.rd... or mount it from a NetBSD box to do it.

I would love to upload a dmesg to dmesgd.nycbug.org for it... but since
the wi(4) driver for my wireless PCMCIA cards isn't included in this
image, and there's no ethernet, no USB..  I have to get a NetBSD box up
to mount the CF card to post it.

Other utterly stupid things to note:

1.  if the battery isn't locked, the WorkPad will not turn on.

2.  these devices cant be powered-down, they only suspend (and give that
impressive battery-time). You have to remove the battery and unplug the
power.

Sorry for combining a how-to with a mention of the tpctl-induced headache...

Certainly worth tinkering with these things if you happen upon one.

g


> Sevan
> -------- Forwarded Message --------
> Subject: 2017-03-25-netbsd-hpcmips.img
> Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2017 23:03:19 +0900 (JST)
> From: Jun Ebihara <jun at soum.co.jp>
> To: port-hpcmips at netbsd.org
> 
> I've updated 2017-03-25-netbsd-hpcmips.img.gz for hpcmips.
> 
> http://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/misc/jun/hpcmips/7.1/2017-03-25-netbsd-hpcmips.img.gz
> 
> Feature:
> - NetBSD 7.1 201703240150Z hpcmips from nyftp.netbsd
> - pkgsrc: /usr/pkgsrc: 2017-03-18
> - new build of hpcboot.exe: mips-hpcboot.exe by Sevan Janiyan
>   http://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-hpcmips/2017/03/30/msg000303.html
> - dmesg:
>   https://github.com/ebijun/NetBSD/blob/master/dmesg/hpcmips/7.1/sigmarion
> 
> - Copy image to CompactFlash
> - Set hpcmips machine.
> - boot hpcboot.exe
> -- select Machine
> -- select root partition
>   and comes as you are as you want to be.
> - tpctl: touch panel calibration:
>   click + 5 times + return
> - login root (no passwd)
> 
> Features:
>   - fit size for 2GB CF Card
> 
> Installed Packages:
>  not yet.
> 
> 
> Keyboard layout checkpoint:
> /etc/wscons.conf
>  #encoding sv
>  #encoding us.swapctrlcaps
>  encoding jp
> 
> /root/.xinitrc
>  setxkbmap -model jp106 jp
> 
> Build sample script:
>  https://github.com/ebijun/NetBSD/tree/master/hpcmips/Image
> 
> Guide:
>  https://github.com/ebijun/NetBSD/blob/master/Guide/hpcmips.rst
> 
> --
> Jun Ebihara
> 
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