Hi active simpad linux community,

This is my last offer for someone to take care of the opensimpad.org website. I did see a thread here were it wasn't clear what should happen with the domain. I'm open for suggestions.

The domain is registered until May 2006 under my name. If noone offers to take responsibility until the end of April then the domain will be dead sometime after May.

My private domains will be moving to another server. I will make copies of the forum and wiki there for archiving purposes. But everything else should be transitioned to where the project will be actively continued.

Please, contact me as to what the community wants done with the opensimpad.org domain.

Regards,
Chris Martin

Hi Chris, nice to hear from you!
The opensimpad.org web site has very valuable content for simpad users, and I even think it is the only source for information such as how to upgrade the bootloader and flash a jffs2 image on the simpad. The forums also hold important hints on various things. Do we have a chance to see the web site archive hosted by our friends (familiar, openzaurus), or by our future mother (angstrom)?
Fred

Like I said, I'm open for anything. Since I haven't been actively involved lately I don't want to make that important decision.
So the active community should let me know what they would prefer and I will do everything to contribute to that decision.

Chris

Chris,

I'm trying to recover the complete SIMpad installation procedure (as well as the procedure to return to the siemens bootloader w/ WinCE) in order to put it in the Familiar docs:
http://handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/InstallFamiliar

I was wondering if the following was the most recent version of the hh.org bootloader:
http://opensimpad.org/bootldr-simpad/blupdater.img
Do you remember if you finally got it to work on the CL4/sinuspad?

Fred

That was the last version I created. It didn't work for the 16MB devices sind the bootldr wasn't recognizing the correct flash size dynamically. This is only the case with the simpad version of hh.org bootldr. With other devices (ipaq etc.) the flash is dynamically recognized. The funny thing is that the very first version of the bootldr for simpad only recognized 16MB and wouldn't function with 32MB devices. Since I never had this version I couldn't have it worked into the blupdater.img. It could have been an option to include two versions of the bootldr in the blupdater.img which would install the correct one after recognizing the device version. Of course it would be better for the bootldr to recognize the flash size. That way only one bootldr would be necessary.

Chris

Hi Martin, nice of you to leave a message.

I'd like to hear from the rest of the active community too, is there support to keep opensimpad.org alive? I will consider it if there's any positive feedback, at least the hardware internals and some of the docs should be preserved.



In case of opensimpad.org's demise, could this wiki host more of the docs? I've put some personal CL4 notes below, For now I'll await reactions here.



the bootloader does work on the CL4's with a bit of effort, but I'm not sure anymore which one I'm using, I find it hard to keep all the versions apart and I've tried several of them. It identifies itself as:


Before loading a new image, the partitions must be set by hand to prevent the pad from erasing beyond its memory boundaries. After the first boot the partition table can be put into /boot/params and it will boot without further trouble. I'm thinking maybe this could be packaged into an image?

Then there's the problem of finding an image. Most images won't fit in the 16MB, I build a standard gpe-image which resulted in 20 MB. After leaving most of the GPE apps out it is possible to get it down to about 14MB, but such an image is hardly usable. If it's much larger the first boot will fill all space left with the initial configuration.

Plucker works, but I'm not real friends with it and have to resort to reading plain text in a console. Cumbersome, but at least I can read in bed. Also there's some strange freeze/crash which I haven't reproduced yet.


I'm not sure what the partition types should be but I found these somewhere and they work.

/boot/params

Berend,
Any idea where you got that BL from, and would you be able to write CL4-specific Bootloader installation instructions on the familiar Wiki?
We can work on a small GPE image for the CL4:
- do we need gpe-mini-browser in the image by default? you can only get network through DECT or IrDA I think (since there's no PCMCIA), so that's no big loss
- we can remove the GPE themes
- we can remove games
- any other ideas?

I'll build an image without games/themes/extra stuff and see how much it weights.

fred

Hi Fred,

I was hoping someone could identify the BL, I'm not sure what file it was. I'll see if I can figure it out, perhaps saturday and also make a list of them. I keep losing track of which is which. Install notes will go the the wiki, yes.

About the images, I left out the stuff you mentioned. There are also things like PCMCIA, bluetooth and some wireless things that are not needed. I'm not sure how openembedded deals with that kind of customization though (kernel modules, locales, etc). Maybe it's better to create a fairly basic GPE image without the games/apps/pim (~14MB) and later manually install/remove stuff? I saw a slim-down guide for familiar (iirc), that's nice to have.

Is it possible to create an image 'manually', just from the available ipk's?

I haven't been able to try the mini-browser yet, but I'd really like to have a browser if possible. Not for browsing really, though networking might be done trough irda, usb or a bluetooth mod I think, but for reading. There's nothing else that does rich-text rendering. If the browser works, I'd read my ebooks and notes with it. Does it have a JavaScript engine btw?

Bitbake is running almost constantly here, I'll see if I can come up with something useful.


Berend

Hi guys,

don't forget that most people with 16MB devices have a T-Sinus Pad from the German Telekom. This is a modified version of the CL4 which does have PCMCIA.

But let's not forget what this thread is about. If there's no interest from the community about the domain opensimpad.org, then the domain will disappear. We have until 30th of April to decide. If noone is willing to take control of the domain at this point then it will not be renewed.

Let me know what you all want to happen with the domain.

Chris

Hi Chris,
what are the conditions to takeover the domain ?
I would prefer Strato as hoster, is that possible ?
What size of storage space do we talking about for the whole domain ?

Maybe, I would take care abot it in the future :o)

Kind Regards,
sinux

You can have the domain transfered to anywhere you want it. I would have to make a KK to have it transfered and you would have to take over the domain fee (I think something like 20 EUR per year - it depends on your hoster)
The files for the domain with the latest feed is about 200 MB. Let me know how you decide (best over email cmartin@opensimpad.org, since I don't hang around here too often)

Chris

I am willingf to offer free hosting to opensimpad.org on my server

just let me know who's going to take responsibility for the domain. after the you can have dns changed to the new server.

I take it, if it is available.
I can host it. I think a KK is the best for you a nameserverchange the best for me. But I'm willing to make a KK if it is necessery. It's your choice.
Could I have a Data backup?
I will upload it and you can then decide if the Server is ok for this project.
After 4 Weeks I will begin to set up a new page - then I will be in holyday.

Please drop me a line to:
realmrnice/ät\web[dot]de