[ILUG] Magasine

[Michael Watterson]

Patrick O'Connor wrote:
>
>
> On 06/07/07, *Michael Watterson* <watty at eircom.net 
> <mailto:watty at eircom.net>> wrote:
>
>     Robert Kiely wrote:
>     > I think Linux User and Developer might be a better choice....
>     >
>     > http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/
>     >
>     > Rob
>     >
>     > On 04/07/07, p.slabiak at linux-services.org
>     <mailto:p.slabiak at linux-services.org>
>     > <p.slabiak at linux-services.org
>     <mailto:p.slabiak at linux-services.org>> wrote:
>     >> >Is this any good?
>     >> > http://www.linux-mag.com/
>     >> i took short look over this website and i quess it's quite ok....
>     >>
>     >> Paul
>     I wasn't thinking of BUYING a magasine. :-) I see they featuring an
>     offer of a GP2X
>     Quote: It's cheap. Just £114.99 plus delivery to LinuxUser & Developer
>     readers.
>
>     The GP2X is great though. In some ways better than PSP and DS. But
>     only
>     50k sold last year.  However its a Portable Linux MP3/Video player
>     and
>     game console so better value than an iPod.
>
>
> It's a pretty sweet looking device alright, I've had my eye on it for 
> a while. But the thing that puts me off these devices is the crappy 
> amount of RAM (64MB). Would it not make sense for multi-purpose 
> devices like this to ship with at least 128MB RAM. That way it would 
> be much more useful for running several apps and make the opportunites 
> for porting wider.
> I had a nokia 770 for a while but couldn't use it as much as I would 
> have liked because it just didn't have enough ability to run several 
> apps at once without significant delays.
> I see the gp2x now has a cradle too with usb / s-video / serial and 
> parallel expansion. Now that was a smart idea.... if the device itself 
> had more RAM. I'm thinking that it could even operate as a tv tuner / 
> pvr.
> Patrick
>
>     --
>     Mike
>
>     --
>     Irish Linux Users' Group mailing list
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>
>
I have the earlier non packaged break out box and a few Custom USB host 
cables (one for a USB hub, needs to be powered, one for a self powered 
40Gbyte USB harddrive)..

The Magic Eyes SOC does have video in and audio in, but the Gamepark 
people didn't put PCB traces and you don't homebrew extra wires to a 400 
contact Ball Grid Array.

WiFi & Bluetooth USB have been demonstrated on it. But with my limited 
experience of building kernel modules or using a cross-compile tool 
chain on Linux, I haven't done it yet.

Free GP2X to anyone that can get Flash-OFDM drivers on the Elf3 
handheld.  There should be a USB Flash-OFDM modem in Autumn. The Elf3 
and GP2X both run Sharp Zaurus Linux ARM binary.

The HW video rescaling  quality  & performance is  spectacular on the  
GP2X.  You can even encode  at 720x 576 @25fps for  TV out  connector 
and play it perfectly on the built in 320x240 screen.  Old PC games like 
Simon the Sorcerer etc using ScumDM look fantasic on the 3.5" screen 
(sound too).

The ELF3 will make a better PDA/SIP phone as it has touch screen and 
AC97 audio in mic & out and ALSA. (Linphone?). The GP2X works well with 
a mini USB qwerty keyboard and VNC for remote desktop (game pads/Wobble 
stick for mouse & pan). If VNC could be customised to use the HW scaler, 
then you could Zoom in/out & pan nicely on the 1024 x 768 VNC server. 
Tight VNC works well on Laptop over the Flash OFDM, just like 11mbps 
WiFi in feel.  The low latency helps.

The Windows SDK for GP2X installs easy and any C programmer can have a 
Graphic or text app running 1st time no problem. Nice Graphical IDE. It 
will produce x86 or ARM code.
But for device driver builds you need the Linux SDK, which does not have 
an IDE (just basic tool chain) and it needs manual unpacking and 
placement of all the tools/files and I have not yet managed to install 
it. I have a Debian 2.4.27 Kernel Desktop PC as my theory was to  1st 
test source / drivers on x86 PC and then recompile for the ARM CPU 2.4.x 
kernels of GP2X and Elf3.

Some links for GP2X and Elf3 and what I'm doing with them here:
http://www.wattystuff.net/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=QFT+Client+Devices

One Bug, perhaps Windows. When you Install USB networking (using 
ordinary USB cable) to GP2X, connecting will fail unless the 1st two 
times you have no SD card in the GP2X. I suspect a windows problem as 
Brother say that their Network Fax/Printer/Scanner can't be installed if 
a memory card in it (intended for direct printing of cameras memory).

Really 64M is fairly standard on Linux handheld gadgets. Or indeed on 
Windows Mobile/CE (arrrgggh!).

I see HTC are to look at Symbain and Linux as they are disatisfied with 
ability to differentiate product using Windows Mobile.

-- 
Mike