[lug] ipaq

[Bonnell, Doug]

Actually, all I-openers can be made to run Linux. The key is to have a
version of the BIOS that allows booting from other IDE devices besides
the build-in 16Mbyte flash disk.

I have 4 I-openers that were built in June of 2000. Once the BIOS flash
was reprogrammed, they were all able to boot from a notebook IDE
drive setup as drive C:

Yes, the I-opener does come with QNX as a standard product. The QNX
after March of 2000 had it's shadow file removed to prevent console
logins. There are at least two available Linux micro distributions that fit
on the IO's 16Mbyte flash disk. Installation usually is done by booting from
a hard drive and then copying over the new code into the flash disk.

The I-openers are just stripped down notebook machines. No battery, no
floppy. They do have a fairly standard x86 PC architecture, the original
BIOS
version supported different boot options. The latest machines have a Rise
processor, earlier versions had the IDT WinChip processor. The memory is
only 32Mb, but it's a standard SODIMM, so uping the amount to 128Mb is
easy to do.

The current price for an I-opener is $299 at CircuitCity. Netpliance, the 
company selling the I-opener, has decided to drop the product starting
next year. The press releases indicate that there are about 27,000 still in
stock. Sales were very slow after the price was increased from the
introductory
offer of $99. If you are interested in an I-opener, keep watch for sales on
them, especially after Christmas. CompUSA carries them and it was rumoured
that Target was carrying them at one point in time.

I'm going to be looking into using an I-opener as a thin client. This should
keep me out of trouble over the holidays!  :-)

Doug Bonnell

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Sean Reifschneider [SMTP:jafo at tummy.com]
> Sent:	Friday, November 17, 2000 5:54 PM
> To:	lug at lug.boulder.co.us
> Subject:	Re: [lug] ipaq
> 
> On Fri, Nov 17, 2000 at 11:34:38AM -0700, Bonnell, Doug wrote:
> >AMD processor, no IDE.
> >The I-opener runs LINUX.
> 
> *SOME* I-openers run Linux.  They're shipped with QNX, but you can load
> Linux
> on some of them.  The ones made before March 22, 2000.  The one I had that
> was a post-ban we took up to Wyoming last month.  Now it's an ex-I-Opener.
> 
> Sean
> -- 
>  Blaming the software quality on the tool is like saying "I can't pick up
>  chicks because my car isn't cool enough."  -- Sean Reifschneider, 1998
> Sean Reifschneider, Inimitably Superfluous <jafo at tummy.com>
> tummy.com - Linux Consulting since 1995. Qmail, KRUD, Firewalls, Python
> 
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