Any Actual Os's Ported To The Gp2x?


PSyMastR posted on Aug 12 2006 at 11:11 PM said:
Windows 95 was able to run, but very slowly.

I have yet to see this. I've been trying to get BOCHS running (another thread in the i need help section) and so far all I've read are what people have read elsewhere. The only screenshot with the Win95 logo is from the guy that wrote the emulator.

has anyone got a video of them running bochs using freedos as the readme recommends?

thanks!
 
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About FreeDOS: so many parts of it rely on x86 assumptions, it's not even funny. From assembly code, to use of BIOS calls, to the memory layout, interrupt handling...

Like was said, it wouldn't be worth it since no programs will run on it without recompiling, and if you're going to recompile, targeting linux would be easier.
 
Thanks BradN, I guessed it would be completely useless, I was just trying to help out the OP ;)

BTW Why not firefox, you could compile it for ARM, it used around 30MB of memory on my old computer (It's loosed it's belt a bit with my new computer) and it runs fine on older PCs. And this is before we talk about optimisation.

Although links or dillo are still probably better options.
 
As an aside, I actually "ported" FreeDOS to the Sanyo MBC-55x computer (old ass 80's thing that's only in the vaguest sense IBM compatable)... most of the work was actually writing a BIOS for it - FreeDOS itself only needed a couple changes to load at a different memory location. It's funny - the thing has an 8KB ROM chip, of which only about 3KB are used... they could have easily fit basic BIOS routines in it. Kind of makes you appreciate the programming/API standards of today when you deal with a system that otherwise could only boot the disks that came with it.
 
BradN posted on Aug 13 2006 at 04:38 PM said:
As an aside, I actually "ported" FreeDOS to the Sanyo MBC-55x computer (old ass 80's thing that's only in the vaguest sense IBM compatable)... most of the work was actually writing a BIOS for it - FreeDOS itself only needed a couple changes to load at a different memory location. It's funny - the thing has an 8KB ROM chip, of which only about 3KB are used... they could have easily fit basic BIOS routines in it. Kind of makes you appreciate the programming/API standards of today when you deal with a system that otherwise could only boot the disks that came with it.

Ooh, shiny!
 
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If you want a "REAL" OS, your best bet is to start with one of the existing Linux distributions for PDAs. Familiar is *THE* distro for ARM based PDAs, and I don't think it would take more than a week or two for someone with the proper skills to get it working on the GP2X, giving us access to thousands of existing packages through their ipkg (like debian dpkg) package manager. checkl out http://ipkgfind.net for an incomplete list.

Another alternative is Intimate, a debian-arm based pda linux disto.
 
Here's Firefox displayed on the GP2X using the X server.

As you can see, the main issue is Firefox's screen footprint. It uses about 28MB on my PC at start up, which is most of the GP2X's memory. Firefox would soon use all the available memory, I'm using Firefox now and it's risen to 55MB
 
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