Topics

1

Zaurus - Arch Linux ARM support / kernel from 2.6.23 to kernel 5.4.229: suspend/resume?

« on: April 27, 2025, 06:06:18 pm »

hi
I usually take my C1000 out of the house, as I use it daily, usually on the train(2h/day)/tube(40min/day)/coffee breaks/etc, so I desperately need the suspend/resume feature offered by the power management system, as well as desperately need the battery charging feature to get up to 4/5 hours.

Unfortunately *everything* I've tested after kernel version 2.6.23 doesn't work.

I haven't tested kernels 3.* and 4.*
Kernel 5.* ... ummm, not working.

I don't quite understand: have these two features been fixed, and I simply missing something? Are there any specific patches?
Also kernel 4.* is ok

Please let me know.

2

Zaurus - Void Linux support / kernel patches? to Vanilla

« on: February 25, 2025, 08:22:07 am »

hi
I am in the process of resurrecting my old Gentoo Catalyst arm-v5.
Zaurus is one of the two targets.
I'd like to write some overlays for emerging the kernel, in this case I'd like to use a Vanilla kernel + patches.

Is there a repo with the patches, or do I have to extract them by comparing a "modified/hacked" kernel with a "vanilla" kernel?

3

Zaurus - Hardware discussion / Zaurus C1000, C3000, components datasheet?

« on: February 25, 2025, 07:40:38 am »

hi
I remember there were datasheets and partial schematics about the components used in Zaurus C1000 and C3000.

Unfortunately I am not able to find them.

I am going to repair a dead C3000 motherboard
+ flash to be desolder and replaced
+ dead microdrive
in the process I will also desolder the IRda port, and reuse the serial contacts for something else.

Let me know 

4

For Sale / Wanted / Hitachi HMS360404D5CF00, 4GB CF Microdrive operating at 3.3V and 5V

« on: February 17, 2025, 08:38:16 am »

hi
I am looking for a Hitachi HMS360404D5CF00 known to be working with Zaurus PDA or in a 3.3V CF machine (e.g. Mikrotik rb532a router).
Let me know if you have one, or if you know what I have exactly to search.

Thanks 

5

Zaurus - Hardware discussion / microdrive compatibility

« on: February 17, 2025, 08:20:35 am »

hi,
after 10 years of service, my Hitachi microdrive died.

• Hitachi HMS360404D5CF00, 4GB

No problem, I have the full backup of the rootfs, the problem is just replacing the broken disk with a new one.

I bought exactly the same model on eBay, but... surprise surprise it is not recognized by my C1000.
Then I returned the drive to the seller and tried a new one. Same behavior, HMS360404D5CF00 not recognized.
Then I tried a Seagate ST1, ST650211CF, which exhibits even stranger behavior:
it responds correctly to the ATA identify command, but panics on every ATA sector read command

Code: [Select]

my-mon/mips, v3.1, Feb 2025

# disk_probe
pATA drive probing ... true
00000000: 84 8a 25 da 00 00 00 10 7e 00 02 00 00 3f 00 95 | ..%..........?..
00000010: 0a 60 00 00 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 33 4d | .`..          3M
00000020: 45 34 4e 58 59 43 20 20 00 03 01 00 00 04 33 2e | E4NXYC  ......3.
00000030: 30 34 20 20 20 20 53 54 36 35 30 32 31 31 43 46 | 04    ST650211CF
00000040: 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 |
00000050: 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 80 10 |               ..
00000060: 00 00 0a 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 03 25 da 00 10 | ............%...
00000070: 00 3f 0a 60 00 95 01 00 0a 60 00 95 00 00 01 00 | .?.`.....`......
00000080: 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 78 00 78 00 00 00 00 00 00 | .......x.x......
00000090: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
000000a0: 00 00 00 00 70 69 50 0c 40 00 70 69 10 0c 40 00 | ....piP.@.pi..@.
000000b0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 40 40 00 00 40 0d 80 80 00 00 | ......@@..@.....
000000c0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
000000d0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
000000e0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
000000f0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
00000100: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
00000110: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
00000120: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
00000130: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
00000140: 81 4a 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | .J..............
00000150: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
00000160: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
00000170: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
00000180: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
00000190: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
000001a0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
000001b0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
000001c0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
000001d0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
000001e0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
000001f0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
LBA28={0..9767519} blocks
disk_blocks=9767520
disk_size~=4G 673M
model number : ST650211CF

# disk_read 0
disk_ata_read(),LBA=0
disk_ans=false

# disk_probe
no sign of life from CF drive
(this is a firmware I wrote for a MIPS32/le router, it has a 3.3V CF, exposing the same behavior I see on my C1000)

Some "OEM Only" drives use the CompactFlash form factor but only provide a 5V IDE/ATA interface.
These will not work in readers or devices which expect a 3.3V interface and full CompactFlash functionality

looking at the Seagate ST1 datasheet, I verified it's LBA28 capable.
I don't see any weird pre-init ATA commands.

Code: [Select]

macmini2-intel ~ # badblocks -svw /dev/sdd
Checking for bad blocks in read-write mode
From block 0 to 4883759
Testing with pattern 0xaa: done
Reading and comparing: done
Testing with pattern 0x55: done
Reading and comparing: done
Testing with pattern 0xff: done
Reading and comparing: done
Testing with pattern 0x00: done
Reading and comparing: done
Pass completed, 0 bad blocks found. (0/0/0 errors)
(The Seagate 5GB on the CF_usb adapter passed all the badblocks tests!)

So I put both the two new MicroDrive into a USB_CF adapter, to check them with GNU/Linux, and ... surprise both perfectly worked with the USB_CF adapter, which operates at 5V. Badblocks passed, zero error reported!

My guess...the Zaurus C1000 CF module must be 3.3V, while these two microdrives only operate at 5V!

The Seagate datasheet vaguely says 3.3V/5V, however ... on the back of the Seagate microdrive it clearly says "+5V", and in fact it does not work on machines with CF powered at 3.3V.

There is no extra label on the Hitachi HMS360404D5CF00

Comparing the microdrive that worked for 10 years on the C1000 with the new one that is not even recognized (does not respond to the Identify command), no difference is noticeable, same production number, same label...

My guess is there are actually two versions

• Hitachi HMS360404D5CF00, 4GB, 3.3V/5V
• Hitachi HMS360404D5CF00, 4GB, 5V-only

According to Google, not only there are also OEM versions ... but also custom IBM-made versions for their MIPS WinCE-v1.0 laptop (only sold in Japan), marked "IBM Microdrive" but made with Hitachi parts, who also made the Apple iPod drive, and whatever Apple, IBM or Hitachi microdrive you look at ...
... they are not easy to identify as "OEM" or "non-OEM", as there is no indication on the label!

Some Hitachi microdrives made for Apple iPod have a log on the front, usually the Apple logo, which means it is an OEM drive, 5V only, True-IDE only,
but other Hitachi microdrives have no indication at all.

- - -

is there a list or something about the microdrive compatibility with Zaurus PDA?

6

For Sale / Wanted / wtb: 68HC11 "tiny" board

« on: February 26, 2021, 12:29:19 pm »

hi
Years ago on eBay there were small and tiny 68HC11 boards. Nowadays it seems there is only something located in the US, and it's almost some Motorola kit, so too big for what I'd like to do.

Grifo in Italy has still something for sale, but they ask 250 euro shipped and this is really crazy price.

I am looking for a little 68HC11 board, with at least 8Kbyte of ram, and 8Kbyte of ROM.

If anyone has one for sale, or know where I can buy one, please let me know. My max budget is 130 euro shipped.

Thanks.

7

For Sale / Wanted / wtb: miniPCI TL-WN861N wireless card

« on: January 31, 2021, 08:04:08 am »

Looking for qty=4, miniPCI TP-LINK wireless 2.4Ghz 300Mps cards, model "TL-WN861N"
I can no more find on eBay, they would be great for a crazy project

8

Zaurus - Hardware discussion / C1000, C3000, C3200: memory layout

« on: January 28, 2021, 10:10:46 am »

I have never investigated about the memory layout, but I'd like to know how the flash is organized and if it's possible to erase everything in order to install uboot with some of its "save config" area.

I prefer uboot on a serial console, bootstrapping a kernel from the network, or from the microdrive.

As well as I understand, the CPU boots from a ROM, is it correct? if so, where is it mapped? At which address? And where does it jump?

I did something 11 years ago, and since then I have been using my C1K as user, I have never touch kexecboot and similar since then. I remember there was a size limitation for kexecboot, I don't remember what was the reason.

Let me know. At the moment I am compiling Gcc, Go and Ada, and I am cleaning and updating my old 2010 Gentoo-stage4 rootfs in order to have something clean.

9

For Sale / Wanted / wtb: miniPCI USB2 EHCI, Nec chip

« on: January 25, 2021, 03:08:48 pm »

hi
I don't know if this is the right place to ask but ... I am really in a big trouble with a hobby project I am running because the project is based on the RB532 router and ... there is no USB port to connect an hard-drive.

The router has three 10/100 ethernet ports, they are all sued, and even if I had a fourth one available I couldn't use NFS for this stuff, and I cannot change the router with a modern model, long story about reasons, but at this point I'd better find a workaround.

I know there where some miniPCI USB2 ECHI modules around in the mid 2000s, with a NEC chip on them. Sadly I cannot find one on eBay (I have been looking daily for 1 year).

Does anyone, by any chance, have one for sale? Or does anyone know where to buy one?

Thanks

10

Zaurus - Arch Linux ARM support / GccGo: any bootstrapper for armv5tel-softfloat?

« on: January 23, 2021, 11:40:48 am »

Looking to include a couple of programs written in Go to the Zaurus userland.
Before trying to crosscompile GccGo to have native GccGo compiler, I'd like to know if there is already a bootstrapper.

Please let me know 

11

Zaurus - Arch Linux ARM support / ada: any Gnat-armv5tel-linux-gnueabi binary around?

« on: January 10, 2021, 09:47:52 am »

In order to compile gnat you need a gnat compiler, it's the chicken and egg problem.

I have solved it for HPPA-v2(1) but it cost me one year of attempts (cross-compiling parts from x86 and somehow making them HPPA-native until everything was able to recompile itself autonomously) and before investing all this time for my old Zaurus C1K I'd like to hear if there is already around a gnat binary profiled as "armv5tel--linux-gnueabi".


(1) it's my daily RISC workstation. I know, I know ... x86/64 bit is better, faster, and cheaper, but I love my RISC workstation, especially now that's finally able to compile ada sources! And I also want my PDA to be able to compile ada sources 

12

Zaurus - Hardware discussion / uboot as bootloader?

« on: January 08, 2021, 01:16:50 pm »

hi
is there any attempt to use uboot as bootloader?
I'd like to use the serial console.

Let me know.
Thanks!