Hey all,
So I bought an F200 a while back, when they first came out, and I was surprised (shocked?) to see all the people here debating which model was best.
I wanted to geek around on my GP2X - the user guides said you could usbnet the thing and ssh/telnet into it for doing dev work! Being a linux geek whose played around with Linux on arms before (handhelds.org stuff, for ipaq) I was desperate to see if I could tweak the system like I used to previously, bitterly recompiling stuff and replacing the default system binaries with esoteric replacements such as the code from Dan Bernstein, Felix Von Leitner, Uwe Ohse and others.
The shock and dissapointment when I realised that things were not so simple on the F200! The shock of discovering that GPH had removed the onboard netchip and simply replaced it with an SDHC card reader chip! The terrible realisation I may actually simply have to use this thing to play games! However, viewing this as a challenge I persevered and snarfed the kernel source, recompiled myself a pegasus.o module, plugged my F200 into the cable and with a bit of a painful hack about with sterm (touchscreen support on this would be awesome!) managed to modprobe, ifconfig, and get a remote terminal connection from another box to my F200. The rest is my history, and doesn't need repeating here.
Roll on a few months.
I decide I really need to see what the big fuss is about the F100, so I buy one from here, with the aim I can boot it up with a DC adaptor, leave it on all day and connect to it remotely so I can do some more dev experiments. Hell, it doesn't even matter /too/ much if I semi-brick it - long as I don't trash the boot loader, I can just whack the firmware back on...
... I've had nothing but pain from this unit. I've not got the networking connection to work as intended, and I've tried on windows, OSX, netbsd and linux host machines. I'm used to weird esoteric networking methods, and I've done usbnet before, but for love nor money I cannot get this thing to get on my LAN. Perhaps I'm doing something fundamentally wrong (though two days in I'd have assumed anything I was doing wrong would have been corrected by trial and error), so I guess a general point is perhaps the thing is broken. Or, perhaps I've hit that age whereby computers now really do hate me. But, I digress...
... Coming at this from the opposite way to most of the people on the forum here, owning both consoles in reverse order, I'd like to think I can put a unique perspective on the units. For me, the F200 wins hands down. But not on every point.
1) I've heard about longer boot times on the F200. The F100 I have is running firmware 3.0.0 (and yes, I know the 2.x.x firmware boots faster) and both devices near as dammit boot in the same time. Call that a draw.
2) Touchscreen support on the F200. No contest
3) SDHC support on the F200. No contest, though if someone can point me at a 3.0.0 bzImage with SDHC support I'll reconsider this point... slightly... I'll negate it if GPH produce an upgraded firmware for the F100.
4) I really dislike the joystick on the F100. I know this is a personal choice, indeed maybe I'm not used to it. Perhaps it is better if I change the cap. But, as it comes, it just ain't working for me. I concede the F200 buttons are a little fiddly, but I'm used to the them now. They do hurt a little, perhaps I need to develop my thumbskin. I really do just prefer the F200 and how it operates
5) The screen seems somewhat better on the F200.
6) The "Start" button. The F100 wins on this, as for some unknown reason GPH renamed it to the "home" button on the F200. This confuses people who I give the console too, as games say "press start". I have no idea why this was changed, it's just nonsensical.
7) Open2X. I guess the F100 wins on this score, as it's not being developed for the F200. However, I've not got a copy of Open2x to evaluate so this point doesn't carry any weight. (Apologies to KevCal, I'm wrong on this point, it is being developed for the F200)
8) Colour. I much prefer the black of the F100, and also the battery warning light. I wish GPH had included this on the F200
9) Power on LED. F100 wins no contest, the uber bright LED on the F200 reminds me of the time I had laser eye surgery.
10) Sound/Volume. I much prefer the F100's sound setup. The F200 "volume boost" for me simply equates to GPH turning the output up to 11, there's no need, it's too noisy and distorts. Even the short time it takes to turn the volume down in a game is a nightmare on the tube.
I'm happy to argue^Wdiscuss any of the points I've raised, but only with people who can articulate a decent argument. lolz.
So I bought an F200 a while back, when they first came out, and I was surprised (shocked?) to see all the people here debating which model was best.
I wanted to geek around on my GP2X - the user guides said you could usbnet the thing and ssh/telnet into it for doing dev work! Being a linux geek whose played around with Linux on arms before (handhelds.org stuff, for ipaq) I was desperate to see if I could tweak the system like I used to previously, bitterly recompiling stuff and replacing the default system binaries with esoteric replacements such as the code from Dan Bernstein, Felix Von Leitner, Uwe Ohse and others.
The shock and dissapointment when I realised that things were not so simple on the F200! The shock of discovering that GPH had removed the onboard netchip and simply replaced it with an SDHC card reader chip! The terrible realisation I may actually simply have to use this thing to play games! However, viewing this as a challenge I persevered and snarfed the kernel source, recompiled myself a pegasus.o module, plugged my F200 into the cable and with a bit of a painful hack about with sterm (touchscreen support on this would be awesome!) managed to modprobe, ifconfig, and get a remote terminal connection from another box to my F200. The rest is my history, and doesn't need repeating here.
Roll on a few months.
I decide I really need to see what the big fuss is about the F100, so I buy one from here, with the aim I can boot it up with a DC adaptor, leave it on all day and connect to it remotely so I can do some more dev experiments. Hell, it doesn't even matter /too/ much if I semi-brick it - long as I don't trash the boot loader, I can just whack the firmware back on...
... I've had nothing but pain from this unit. I've not got the networking connection to work as intended, and I've tried on windows, OSX, netbsd and linux host machines. I'm used to weird esoteric networking methods, and I've done usbnet before, but for love nor money I cannot get this thing to get on my LAN. Perhaps I'm doing something fundamentally wrong (though two days in I'd have assumed anything I was doing wrong would have been corrected by trial and error), so I guess a general point is perhaps the thing is broken. Or, perhaps I've hit that age whereby computers now really do hate me. But, I digress...
... Coming at this from the opposite way to most of the people on the forum here, owning both consoles in reverse order, I'd like to think I can put a unique perspective on the units. For me, the F200 wins hands down. But not on every point.
1) I've heard about longer boot times on the F200. The F100 I have is running firmware 3.0.0 (and yes, I know the 2.x.x firmware boots faster) and both devices near as dammit boot in the same time. Call that a draw.
2) Touchscreen support on the F200. No contest
3) SDHC support on the F200. No contest, though if someone can point me at a 3.0.0 bzImage with SDHC support I'll reconsider this point... slightly... I'll negate it if GPH produce an upgraded firmware for the F100.
4) I really dislike the joystick on the F100. I know this is a personal choice, indeed maybe I'm not used to it. Perhaps it is better if I change the cap. But, as it comes, it just ain't working for me. I concede the F200 buttons are a little fiddly, but I'm used to the them now. They do hurt a little, perhaps I need to develop my thumbskin. I really do just prefer the F200 and how it operates
5) The screen seems somewhat better on the F200.
6) The "Start" button. The F100 wins on this, as for some unknown reason GPH renamed it to the "home" button on the F200. This confuses people who I give the console too, as games say "press start". I have no idea why this was changed, it's just nonsensical.
7) Open2X. I guess the F100 wins on this score, as it's not being developed for the F200. However, I've not got a copy of Open2x to evaluate so this point doesn't carry any weight. (Apologies to KevCal, I'm wrong on this point, it is being developed for the F200)
8) Colour. I much prefer the black of the F100, and also the battery warning light. I wish GPH had included this on the F200
9) Power on LED. F100 wins no contest, the uber bright LED on the F200 reminds me of the time I had laser eye surgery.
10) Sound/Volume. I much prefer the F100's sound setup. The F200 "volume boost" for me simply equates to GPH turning the output up to 11, there's no need, it's too noisy and distorts. Even the short time it takes to turn the volume down in a game is a nightmare on the tube.
I'm happy to argue^Wdiscuss any of the points I've raised, but only with people who can articulate a decent argument. lolz.
Have tried insmodding the g_ether.o(whatever) but still the same problem.
