Palm Linux Environment

I (Rui He) did some Dragonball MC68VZ328 hacking and generate a new uclinux 2.0.39 kernel + sash prc image for Palm m500(I only tested it on my Palm m500, but should work on other Palm m5xx models). I was really excited when I first saw linux running on my Palm V after I downloaded the prc image from your website(palm-linux.sourceforge.net). Thank you a lot!

The image doesn't work on my Palm m500, after some hacking, I found the reasons:

1. CPU difference: MC68VZ328(33Mhz) vs MC68EZ328(16/20Mhz)
2. DRAM difference: EDO DRAM vs. SDRAM
3. Serial Port difference: Palm m500 is using UART2 as serial hotsync port, UART1 is for Infraread. Palm V/Vx has only one UART.

I modified the Palm Loader a little bit and finally the new prc image works on my Palm m500. Since Palm m500 comes with USB cradle, user has to get a serial cradle or cable. 9600-8N1 settings and I only put a sash in the romdisk, proc filesystem will be mounted automatically, type 'reboot' to go back to Palm OS.

Basic Steps: This information is OLD... take w/ a grain of salt and check uclinux.org FIRST for the latest versions of things.

1. Download uClinux-dist-20011112.tar.gz from here.
2. Install the m68k-elf tool chain available here.
3. Install prc-tools available here.
4. Make sure both of these are configured properly and that the executables are added to your path.
5. Run a make config and a make.
6. Hotsync the prc file to you device.
7. Setup a direct serial connection at 9600baud in a terminal program and turn of your HotSync (if windows).
8. Execute the PalmLoader app and watch the kernel startup on your terminal program.
9. You should either be at a shell prompt or gotten a "Fatal Exception".

-Craig Comstock

uClinux_Palm_m500.prc (PalmLoader built by Rui He for the m500 model.)

uClinuxPalm.prc (PalmLoader built with uClinux 2.0.38 kernal and minimal filesystem/distribution)

• 2003-03-03 - My name is Craig Comstock. I annoyed several people in this world enough that I eventually figured out how to make a prc for the Palm with which you could load uclinux Linux onto your Palm, regardless of wether you have flashable ROM or not. As of now you can, on some models, load Linux, get a shell on your Palm Linux machine via the serial port and run a primitive graphics demo. If you are really skilled you may even be able to get PPP working b/w your desktop and your Palm.

  I am not actively working on this project, but greatly enjoy receiving emails from people who are interested in this project and/or are making progress. If you are actively working on this and want to take over this site... please contact me! :)

• 10/11/2001 - I should be getting patches for building uClinuxPalm.prc soon. I intend to apply the patches and import all of the sources into the palm-linux CVS on sourceforge! Let's get to work!
• 10/05/2001 - The results are in. The uClinuxPalm.prc below works fine on the following platforms: IIIe,Visor (no USB support yet) It still needs work on : M100 (kernel/romfs problems),Pro (PalmLoader problems)
• 10/05/2001 - David McCullough from Lineo create the following prc file: uClinuxPalm.prc (right click and save) which uses PalmLoader and a modified kernel. It has no applications besides the basic shell commands. I have tried it on my PalmIIIe and it works fine!!! Remember running this program will delete _all_ of your data on your palm so use a program like BackupBuddy to do a complete backup before you play around with this. Before booting, connect your palm to the serial port, turn off HotSync manager and connect a terminal program like HyperTerminal to your COM port. When you boot you should see the uClinux logo and kernel messages going across the serial port into your terminal program. After a while you should be able to type ls and cd and navigate the small filesystem. That's about all it does now. David will be releasing the changes he made to get this to work soon. Either as part of the next release of uClinux coldfire or as a set of patches against coldfire 20010622.

  Please try this .prc file and report back to me if it works on your hardware! I'd like to make a list of supported hardware at this point!

• 6/23/2001 - Look for a CVS of PalmLoader coming soon. First let's get a dummy kernel working on everyone's device. Then we'll move on to the kernel. Then to a base ui. I was thinking of a shell and touchpad keyboard in a sort of "curses" ui. KISS.
• 6/18/2001 - Several people have volunteered lately. I've been slacking off. I'd like to see nightly builds from uclinux.org cvs. Also, start working on a PalmLoader which doesn't include a kernel for testing purposes.
• 5/22/2001 - Call for hardware/OS/PalmLoader use info. If you have tried PalmLoader, let me know what PalmOS version, Hardware and the results!
• 5/22/2001 - I've uploaded a couple of console dumps from starting PalmLoader on my v3.1 IIIe. here and here. At the end of both the screen starts flitting about like the horizontal hold being broken on an old tv.
• 4/23/2001 - Just recently put picoGui on my Helio... works well and I'm looking forward to putting iv (vi replacement from handhelds.org) in the distribution and eventually making it work for Palm Linux also.
• 3/29/2001 - Just for fun, I have posted the vmlinux.trg you need if you want to load 2.0.33 onto your Palm Pro w/ TRG and LinuxBuilder. (Am I the only one?) Also there is 2.0.38 linux.trg which may or may not work. I used the old pilot userland for making my romfs.img.
• 3/27/2001 - In preparing to make nightly builds I have created an archive of everything you need to build uClinux-2.0.33 and pilot (old userland). The contents are already gzipped and bzipped so it's just called uClinux-2.0.33.tar (removed this due to space limitations).
• 3/21/2001 - I have a fixed Makefile for building 2.0.33 here. Still a few problems with it, the /usr/local/bin/init68k line doesn't work, you have to add that to your path manually. I think it should be a shell script instead, with questions guiding you through the process.
• 3/21/2001 - I tried Philippe Ney's touch screen program, it crashed on my Palm Pro. Next I will try the driver in the 2.0.x tree on cvs.uclinux.org. Besides I finally figured out how to _easily_ write a new userland program and update the romfs... I'll make some sort of doc for that soon.
• 3/20/2001 - I look forward to trying Philippe Ney's touch screen driver out on my Palm Pro using uClinux-2.0.33.
• 3/20/2001 - My hard drive with my email crashed. If you have contacted me before about getting involved with this project, please email me again at craig_comstock@yahoo.com. I plan on doing many more updates to this page now that I'm settled in my new home.

• All praise goes to the uClinux team! uclinux.org and uclinux.com.

• uclinux.org - main site
• uclinux.com - commercial site - sells uCsimm and other hardware for running uClinux
• James Caple's uClinux FAQ
• Kiwi - homemade uClinux PDA - hardware and software
• The uClinux Directory - a nice list of links started by Erwin Authried

Handheld Linux

• pocketlinux - whole system for pdas using linux (arm/mips) and java/xml from the people who developed kaffe (java)
• Agenda - new linux pda. mips based.
• linuxce.org - Linux for Windows CE type devices
• handhelds.org - Compaq sponsored research - some _amazing_ photos of X windows on a handheld (I guess you pay a price in $$$ and batteries for the good stuff!)

Palm OS

• Pilot Hack Tutorial - kinda old... but interesting
• OS Flash app - palm app to flash new os
• Massena Pilot Software Development Site - links to _lots_ of things - a bit out of date...

Input Methods

• quikwriting - alternative input method for handhelds - There's a HackMaster Hack now so you can try it out on a Palm!

Windowing/GUI systems

• microwindows.org - also Nano-X - mini windowing system implementing both the MS Win API and the X-Windows APIs.
• PGUI - developed for the KIWI project mentioned above

The Palm-Linux Team and Thank You

• Well for a while it was just me and a few others. It's not really a "team" of course. Now I have a list of about 20-30 people who are actively interested in this project. That's how I have the nice Hardware Support table above. Many thanks to all of you for your support and feedback. Many thanks to the uClinux folks, Jeff Dionne for PalmLoader, David McCullough more work on PalmLoader/uClinux for the Palm.

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