Developer Discounts


nigelibrown

Member
Joined
Jan 7, 2004
Messages
149
Age
53
Location
Bristol, England
Website
www.nigelibrown.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
For all of those developers who are not aware yet, a special developer discount is being offered to all writers of applications and games that support or will support the Chatboard.

Other developers can also apply for a discount this will be applied at the discretion of myself. To put your case and to find out the cost of the discounted Chatboard please email (nigelibrown at hotmail dot com).

Checkout the site for moer information:

My Webpage
 
should have told me earlier
now i already got it ...
----------------
i will work on the port to gp32linux of some linux apps
as soon as i have got a little time and that the chatboard works with gp32linux
[ should be soon]
i will try to port first some simple gtk applications
using the framebuffer support
and then i will try to port 2 directfb applications
a simple powerpoint like application
and an image viewer
 
taras posted on May 27 2004 at 03:24 PM said:
Where can I download Edgepad? I can't find it anywhere. (AH, it's actually called EdgeWrite : http://gp32.sector808.org/edgewrite.php )

I would consider buying a chatboard if there was a decent text editor (Notepad style would be enough).
Does Edgewrite even work with chatboards? Mine doesn't.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Edgewrite is just the name for the technology, and the existing applications don't support the chatboard. Keep looking on here in the next few days for an Edgepad beta release (which does support the chatboard).
 
@ingeras: I would like to port some applications as well.
I have already got fbi (http://linux.bytesex.org/fbida/) working (this is an image viewer)
It is a bit slow, but works (some optimisations should be possible).

What I would really need would be a usb-->serial emulation, or any way to communicate with the GP through USB.
It would help if the buttons were functionning as well....

I also cross-compiled mplayer, but it needs some more work.
(and madplay as well)

Did anyone try to output some sound? because when I cat a sound file to /dev/dsp, the GP crashes...

We have to ask toholl about this issue.

Anyway, we could maybe share our work on gp32linux and get some decent apps working.
 
cyberic posted on May 27 2004 at 06:18 PM said:
@ingeras: I would like to port some applications as well.
I have already got fbi (http://linux.bytesex.org/fbida/) working (this is an image viewer)
It is a bit slow, but works (some optimisations should be possible).

What I would really need would be a usb-->serial emulation, or any way to communicate with the GP through USB.
It would help if the buttons were functionning as well....

I also cross-compiled mplayer, but it needs some more work.
(and madplay as well)

Did anyone try to output some sound? because when I cat a sound file to /dev/dsp, the GP crashes...

We have to ask toholl about this issue.

Anyway, we could maybe share our work on gp32linux and get some decent apps working.
thats really great cyberic
can you post your work on some site ?
maybe on sourceforge ?

does mplayer work well ?

you have teste with tty serial connexion ?
do u have a chatboard ?
have u tried some gtk for directfb port ?

for the sound i tought that it worked ...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
> can you post your work on some site ?
> maybe on sourceforge ?
Yes why not,it would be great to start a 'friend' project

> does mplayer work well ?
it hangs after reading the config file, don't know why

> you have teste with tty serial connexion ?
No unfortunately I don't have any, and this is painful to update the ramdisk, upload it to the GP, switch off, and launch linux...
I need a serial cable but I don't know how to make one...
Is anyone interested if I pay for that?

> do u have a chatboard ?
no, but I would like to

> have u tried some gtk for directfb port ?
not yet

> for the sound i tought that it worked ...
I thought too, that's why I tried madplay...

But as soon as I play something, I hear a glitch and then the GP crashed.
I can provide my ramdisk to toholl if he's around...
 
quote : No unfortunately I don't have any, and this is painful to update the ramdisk, upload it to the GP, switch off, and launch linux...
----------------------------------------------------------
can you describe the steps to update the ramdisk please :)
so pepole can try some apps ...
thanks

for mplayer
if i remember well, it s x86 asm optimised ...
but maybe we wil get http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ working
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-familiar.html


anyway gpcinema works fine
but would be cool to support other formats too
 
I don't think mplayer is x86 optimised, but some parts may be in ASM, yes.
I will try VLC as well.

By the way, I spoke to toholl and he told me he was aware about the sound problem... It should be fixed soon, so expect a MP3 player soon! (not very useable because there is currently no way to use the buttons...)
I keep you updated.

For the ramdisk:

I assume you use linux, I don't know if you can do it with windows...

### RAMDISK UPDATE TUTORIAL ;-) ###

1. First, mount the ramdisk (initrd file) somewhere as root:
# mount initrd /mnt -o loop

(You need to have support for ROMFS in the kernel)

2. Copy everything from the ramdisk to somwhere else:

# mkdir /tmp/ramdisk
# cp -av /mnt/* /tmp/ramdisk

3. add your applications in the ramdisk
...

4. and then update the ramdisk:
# genromfs -d /tmp/ramdisk -f /tmp/initrd

-d specifies the directory to create the ramdisk from, and -f the file to write it to.

5. Then, use gplink to upload the new initrd (be sure to erase the old one first, otherwise it won't work)

PS: After that, if you want to add another app, you can start from step 3.
Be aware that the ramdisk is stored in RAM so the bigger it gets, the less free ram you have!

Hope this helps, feel free to ask if it is not clear enough (or to correct my mistakes), and happy cross-compiling!
 
thanks for your nice tutorial ;)

good one so
now i will ask for another one :D

you said you compiled fbi image viewer

question 1 ) i dont see a fbdev device in the /dev/ of initrd
Did u add one ? I assume the kernel has directfb support
builded in [ tux logo]
2 ) can you explain your steps to cross compile fbi [ i assume you have
a nice setup ^_^] . It s a bit confusing with the differents makefiles and .configure


thank you

:)
 
You're welcome.

for the framebuffer device, you have to copy /dev/fb0 or /dev/fb/0 to /dev/fb0 on the ramdisk, that's what I did.

The kernel has frabuffer support compiled, directfb is an application layer on this framebuffer, I'm currently trying to make it work but I have to wait until toholl includes loop device support in his kernel...

By the way, did someone succeed in compiling the kernel, and if yes which compiler did you use?

For fbi, I don't exactly remember what I did, but you have to change some values in mk/Variables.mk
For exemple, I have
CC ?= arm-linux-gcc

Before that, you have to compile libjpeg, libpng, libgif and so on.

When there is a configure script, I use this command, that you will have to adapt:

CC="arm-linux-gcc -I/apps/GP32/include -L/apps/GP32/lib" ./configure --host=arm-linux --prefix=/apps/GP32/Mplayer/

PS: if you choose to compile your app as dynamic, which is the default, you have to ensure that the required libraries are in available, such as libjpeg, libgif, etc...
Or you can compile it as static (by adding -static in the CC params), the program will run on its own but will be much bigger.

PS2: sorry for configure/makefile hackers, my command is a mess, but at least it works for most progs!

good luck, keep us updated of what you achieve!
 
ok, i will try
thanks

i suceeded in building the kernel
with arm gcc 2.95.3
check http://belnet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourcefor...inux_howto.html


now that was some time ago
i have to try with the new gp32 patch

why do you need loop back support ? i dont get it


edit:
if you dont have a /dev/fb0
and want to add one to gp32 linux
type : mknod fb0 c 29 0 when you are in the /dev/ directory of your romfs
 
@ingeras
could you tell me where you got arm gcc 2.95.3?

Do you have a serial cable?

I'd like to have loop back support to mount a file on the SMC, including for exemple apps, libs etc.
I could put in in the ramdisk, but it would use more memory... with loop device, we are only limited by the SMC size, ie 128mo
 
the link in the gp32 how to is dead
so try here http://www.lart.tudelft.nl/lartware/compil...-2.95.3.tar.bz2


i dont have a serial cable
but i have a chatboard

the smc card is already mounted
check the init of the ramdisk
and after it s mounted
it does a ' ls /mnt '
so you should see the content of your smc card

so you can do a ramdisk
that launch /mnt/gpmm/linux/start.sh
and then you only have to modify your start.sh on the smc
card and you dont have to make a new ramdisk :)
===========================================
update:
the start.sh trick works
i tried to cross compile fbtruetype [ display text with fonts]
and libz & libtruetype [ needed by fbtruetype]
but it doesnt do anything
ah, no , it works ! i just set a too small font size :p

so i will explain how to do it :)

TUTORIAL
---------------
you need to download the source code of
zlib-1.1.4
freetype-2.1.8
fbtruetype-0.2

1) decompress zlib
do a :
CC="/usr/local/arm/2.95.3/bin/arm-linux-gcc" ./configure --host=arm-linux --prefix=/home/flo/+GP32/builds

then make
you got a libz.a
2) dcompress freetype
type the same as above
you got
libfreetype.a
[ in objs/.libs]
3) decompress fbtruetype
modify the Makefile
CC= /usr/local/arm/2.95.3/bin/arm-linux-gcc
change PREFIX and LIB to a directory where you put libz.a and libfreetype.a
change CFLAGS so the -I/ refer the directory where you put the files
from freetype/include
modify STRIP = something in STRIP =
modify ttf.c in the fbtruetype dir --> comment the include freetype.h
replace by #include <ft2build.h>
#include FT_FREETYPE_H


type make
you got fbtruetype.static

==================================
modifying the init
----------------------
follow cyberic instructions
modify rcS
before the last line [ /bin/sh]
add /mnt/gpmm/linux/start
dont forget to add /dev/fb0 in /dev
in /etc , creat bootsplash , copy the luxisri.ttf [ that s the font ] from fbtruetype

my start look like this
#!/bin/sh
echo "------------------------\n"
/mnt/gpmm/linux/fbtrue -h
/mnt/gpmm/linux/fbtrue -x 10 -y 10 -s 24 "GP32LINUX"
/mnt/gpmm/linux/fbtrue -x 20 -y 34 -s 24 "IS"
/mnt/gpmm/linux/fbtrue -x 30 -y 58 -s 24 "Really"
/mnt/gpmm/linux/fbtrue -x 40 -y 82 -s 24 "Awesome [by] ingeras"
echo "*********************\n"
ls /mnt/gpmm
echo " ------------------------\n"
=========================================
you can find some pics and the modify initrd, start and fbtrue already compilled
here : http://members.lycos.co.uk/fangeles/gp32/cross/
 
Good work ingeras!

About the ramdisk thing, you didn't understand me:
The whole ramdisk is loaded into ram, so the more files you have on it, the less free ram you get on the GP.
But if we mount a file, for exemple /mnt/rdisk in a loop device, it won't take any extra ram, that's why I want it.

I already use the 'start trick' that you described, that's true, it is more practical to just modify one file instead of the whole ramdisk.

The last thing I managed to compile is cmatrix (http://www.asty.org/cmatrix/), which required ncurses . Now I have the matrix on my GP!

If anyone wants the ramdisc, just ask....



Now I have to try to compile a kernel...

c ya

PS: what do you think about starting a gp32linux board?
Are any other people than Ingeras and I interested in using gp32linux? (I mean developers or testers)
 
Image-03.jpg


i added new pic , with differents fonts
updated start
you can find free fonts here http://www.webpagepublicity.com/free-fonts.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@cyberic
i understood for the ramdisk
you want to mount some file as /usr/ , /lib and so on
oky
dont have the time right now but you can recompile the kernel
with the gcc toolchain i told in previous post
do you know where to tell the path to look for libraires ?
so we can add /mnt/gpmm/linux/libs ?

about the gp32linux board, there is the forum on sourceforge
but i think we have more visibility here ^_^
if some one can tell other people on other forums [ like gp32spain] ... ;)
i added gp32linux on freshmeat.net , hope to see more devloppers and testers soon

i am sure we will have more testers when we cross compile dfbpoint and dfbgtk ;)
------------------------------------------------------
will be busy untill 20 june
so no cross compile until then :(
 
by the way
we should move this
in devlopper section -> gp32 linux now

if some mod can do that ^_^
thank you

===================
we could join efforts with
http://www.arm.linux.org.uk/docs/

http://familiar.handhelds.org/ they say : Binary and Library compatible w/ Debian's ARM distribution.

we are interested more precisly in http://www.handhelds.org/projects/h1940.html


http://www.debian.org/ports/arm/
http://www.debian.org/ports/arm/status

so we can make an arm linux distribution
the compiled binaries should work with every
arm920t cpu based platform
================
hope we can see soon this on your gp32:

gpe-life01.jpg

==============
@cyberic
can you put your binaries on some site like me please ? :)
 
just to keep people informed
i started trying to compile
gtk directfb support

status
-------
libjpeg compiled
libpng compiled
libtiff compiled [ have to change 2 lines in the Makefile -> gmversion and stuff]

glib : the big trouble
i try to compile glib 2.0.7 [ the one that comes with the gtk version for which a directfb patch exist ] . Some tips on how to do it here :
http://www.superhlinux.com/user_guide/gett...ss_compile.php3
but i dont have the time right now , if some can help ... :)

maybe with glib 2.2.3 it s easier, but dont know if it will work
it ask for gettext
gettext cross compiled
then i assum you have to modify
glib-gettext.m4 macro
but it s a real mess
anyone having an idea ?

--------------------------------------
 
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