Kernels and Tools

Snapshots of development.

Pre built kernels and distributions

Here is a table of available released kernels. Precompiled versons Can be downloaded here.

Build dateSourceComments
20071229eseries_release_20071229Development snapshot. quite broken.
20080109eseries_release_20080109Real e740 support. Suspend AND resume working, including backlight. Touchscreen working.

Bootloaders

Bootloaders are available for most models here.

Installation notes

A typical installation at present will be installed onto a SD / MMC memory card and boot from there. It is not possible to remove the card during use. As the port matures, this dependancy will go away, booting instead from internal flash.

You will need, at a minimum, the correct bootloader for your PDA, a kernel image (zImage) and 'params' file. To be any use, you will also want to install a distro onto your SD/MMC card, and a set of modules to accompany the kernel.

You will need to partition your SD card. I have used fdisk on linux successfully. The first partition _must_ be FAT16 or the PDA will erase the card. 32MB should be ample. The second partition should be formatted as ext2 (not 3!). Windows CE will format the first partition the first time you put the card into it. Use mke2fs to format the second partition.

Copy the kernel image, bootloader, and params file onto the FAT16 partition.

Unpack the distro onto the second partition. Also unpack your modules into the appropriate place (/lib/modules) on the second partition.

How to boot

To boot the PDA, copy zImage into 'My Documents' on the PDA, then run the bootloader. If all is well, you will see the PDA boot into linux.

The first boot can be *VERY* slow as the distro will unpack and configure all its packages. be patient and enjoy the pretty boot logo.