Puppy 4.3.1 for Gecko Edubook

[pskin]

Great.
Here's some more good news for edubook owners. Barry Kauler is getting one (or two)
so I think future puppy support is going to be excellent.
http://bkhome.org/blog/?viewDetailed=01346

[judland]

Great! If that is the case, then this will probably also mean good support for Norhtec's "Surfboard" PC, too (having the same DeviceonChip system and all)!

more on the Surfboard

[BarryK]

Guys,
The "bad EIP" is due to the APM kernel module crashing when it loads.

I have reported on my blog how to fix this. The Flash BIOS needs to be upgraded, and I am developing a way for this to be easily done. I have posted some preliminary instructions for setup booting with GRUB4DOS, with a fat partition running FreeDOS, with the required msdos utility to do the Flash BIOS upgrade.

http://bkhome.org/blog/?viewDetailed=01383

Someone posted that they bought the Gecko with Windows XP installed. I would very much like to communicate with that person. I want to know if it powers-down properly. All the Linuxes that I have tested, which are WattOS and Puppy 431 both provided by Norhtec, plus X-Linux from DMP (the manufacturers of the Gecko), will shutdown to "System halted" message on the screen, and I then have to hold down the power switch for 4 seconds to get it to power off.

If XP does power off properly, then at least I will know it is possible, and can work toward achieving that on Linux.

[Aitch]

Hi guys

As a new owner of an Edubook, I haven't tried your methods yet....

I posted just the other day in Joe's Slaxer_Pup thread, that it failed to load, though pupeee 4.2, turbopup, & puppy 4..31 all load OK - well, to a desktop
I also suspected it was a usb/speed/delay issue

I also get spat off the net/browser crashes a lot [wired lan] - anyone else getting that?

I also seem to get a display OK, despite Xorg reporting using 1280x1200, despite requesting 600??

.....but there's a small text file on the "Drivers" CD that came with the Edubook that tells you how to set the BIOS to install XP

Kevin, I didn't get a drivers CD with mine, can you post the text file, please

Early days yet awhile, and I'm busy trying to recover a crashed 200Gb hard drive, with loads of useful stuff on it, from my desktop box.....

Barry

Mine has XP installed, no shutdown problems

Thanks for the tips, do you know what Bios version is needed for the update?

Review here

http://www.liliputing.com/2010/01/norht ... ke-it.html

Aitch

[kevin bowers]

Here is the text from the "Drivers" CD:

Set BIOS for install Windows from USB CD-ROM


1. Load Optimal Defaults


2. Load Failsafe Defaults


3. Onboard IDE Operate Mode = Native Mode


4. USB 2.0 Controller Mode = FullSpeed

Yes, Barry, Windows XP shuts off the power automatically on the Gecko. Feel free to contact me anytime I can help anybody:
kevinthefixer@hotmail.com.

[BarryK]

Here is my summary of plus and minus points for the Gecko:

http://bkhome.org/blog/?viewDetailed=01394

I will be posting a comment to that blog report, as pakt has been able to get Linux to power-off. So negative point number 2 can likely be scratched soon.

[LoneRifle]

pskin, the module you had loaded on your puplet for the Edubook is not available on BarryK's unofficial 432 release. Can you make it available here?

[pskin]

LoneRifle,
The source can be downloaded here (RT3070USB v.2.2.1.0)
http://www.ralinktech.com/support.php?s=2

Several forum members have installed this module from source for puppy kernel 2.6.30.5
and for other versions of kernel 2.6.30, by following the instructions here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1285828

Better still, I noticed that forum member Tempestuous has compiled the module
for puppy kernel 2.6.30.5 and uploaded it here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 09&t=47267
(I have not tested this, but this is the easiest way if it works for you.)

-pskin

[raffy]

Michael sent this latest video driver for the Edubook (April 19, 2010 version).

[pakt]

Michael sent this latest video driver for the Edubook (April 19, 2010 version).

Good news Raffy!

I wonder what kernel it's compiled for. Any clues?

EDIT: I meant what version of Xorg is it compiled for

[pskin]

An update in the form of an xdelta3 patch for pup-431-edubook.iso
has been posted (thanks to ttuuxxx) at:

http://www.smokey01.com/ttuuxxx/NorhTec ... update.tgz

The update includes several improvements (rdc X driver, proper
shutdown, ...)

Details and discussion continued on the Surfboard thread:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 6&start=30

-pskin

[kevin bowers]

I finally found time to try the updated 431 for the Gecko; sorry, I could not get it to boot into X at all. After hours of frustration I thought it couldn't hurt to try 5.2, and halleluiah! Sound! And of course X-windows. Sound, wi-fi, and shutdown have been the major headaches with this machine in Linux in general and specifically in Puppy. I believe pskin had to apply a kernel patch for audio in 431-edubook; in 5.2 it works out-of-the-box!

Still no native driver for the wi-fi dongle. This has been the case for every single distro I've tried on it. I finally scrapped it and replaced it with an Edimax nano. Still no native driver but it works fine with NDIS wrapper.

Still no auto shutdown. Anyone care to try applying Barry's patches to 5.2? I believe his fix involved a BIOS update.

Minor bugs: neither Abiword nor Geany will even open. OK, 5.2 already has nicoedit; I changed /usr/local/bin/defaulttexteditor to nicoedit. I need a full wordprocessor, so far I like Textmaker (in PPM) better than Abiword anyway. Also, gnome-mplayer crashes when trying to play mp3s (don't try to play videos of any sort on the Gecko). Deadbeef stutters if you so much as look at the mouse or touchpad. Lxmusic plays flawlessly, but when opening a file from Rox-filer it doesn't update its playlist. Not a big problem, it supports drag-&-drop.

Was it worth the trouble? Dunno yet. The latest Seamonkey works with Hotmail, but CatDude's useragent switcher had that problem licked anyway. I think the main advantage will be access to the huge software repositories for Ubuntu Lucid.

As always, good luck to anyone who's running one of these Edubooks, you'll need it!

--Kevin

[gschl]

Barry K, in his blog, was asking about mplayer and the edubook.
With the latest Wary everything works out of the box, i.e. sound, geany, seamonkey etc with the exception of mplayer.
Rather than messing around I installed VLC or Xine and had no more problems - can play all mutimedia.
Puppy is the best Linux for this rather poor-powered gadget.....