some observations

[J. R. Westmoreland]

Greg,
I have duplicated your efforts on the BN QT with the same results.
It would be interesting to see if we can get a version that will use the
keyboard driver, default one, for input and the serial port as output.

I have some interesting ideas but would like to discuss them with you off list
before taking them back on list since I don't know everyone on the list and
just how some of these ideas might be taken.
This is not to offend anyone on list but I think some of what I have to say
might be walking WAY OUT THERE.

Thanks,
J. R. Westmoreland


> ----- Original Message -----
>From: Gregory Nowak <greg at romuald.net.eu.org
>To: notelinux at romuald.net.eu.org
>Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2003 21:54:35 -0500
>Subject: some observations

>Hi all.

>Well, I've just finished playing, and thought I'd share my impressions for
those who are interested.

>First, it's pretty neat. I was running the braille note through the serial
port, and got to do some exploring.
>The output from the kernel is identical to the output shown on the linux vr
site. The system dumps you into a bash like shell, with a few commands
available. The kernel does of course have a tcp stack and all that, but I saw
no mention of pcmcia devices.
>My guess is that pcmcia isn't built into the kernel on the web site, and I'm
thinking of grabbing the cross development tools, and cooking up my own
kernel.

>I also saw no way to mount drives such as the flash disk (I was told to
specify the file system when trying to mount /dev/hda through /dev/hdc),
although there is a mount command included in the ramdisk image. However, this
may only be because the only file system supported by the kernel image from
the web site is ext2, so maybe /dev/hdx would be mountable if there was fat32
support, or whatever win ce uses.

>I was also disappointed by the lack of info in /proc.

>As for the hardware, the display stays frozen to whatever it was displaying
when linux was loaded (not surprising). Also, the on/off switch seems to have
no effect, and the only way to end things is by hitting the reset switch.

>When you get back into keysoft, you will need to reset the time/date, and
probably hit reset after some system files get copied. So it looks like the
writable part of the system disk is being wiped, but the flash disk seems to
be intact.

>In addition to hacking the display, it's also occurred to me that we'll
probably need to rewrite the keyboard driver, to use a braille keyboard, (not
to even mention contracted braille input/output at this point).

>Overall, it struck me that there is a staggering amount of work to be done,
if we want to have linux on the bn/vn.
>However, I certainly feel we're on our way, and that linux on the bn/vn will
one day be a reality if we persevere, and those of us with the know-how are
willing to devote time to this project.

>Greg



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