So Close!

[Squidge]

Tried several other roms too. Screen is just blank after running the emu. Can get other things to work, but it just results in a corrupted screen, so I'm assuming the version of Linux used is expecting an 800x600 display like in the ME devkit's.

Looking at the board however, it seems that it's either not complete, or old hardware. The shoulder buttons are soldered on, but the actual connections are not, so I don't think they actually do anything. There are several other connections that seem not to be present either - I can't find the USB connector, and although I can see what seems to be the pads for the speakers, the connectors are not soldered onto the board.

The power connector (and what I assume is the usb connector pads) are on the right side of the board. The ext connector is underneath, and seems a little larger than the gp32 one.

As you can see from the screengrabs, U-boot states 64mb of memory, but Linux says there's only 32mb. There's two Eurex ram chips, but I can't make out the writing to look them up, so I'll have another go at that later.

The board doesn't seem too stable at bootup - sometimes you get the U-boot message and it loads Linux, othertimes it just crashes. It seems stable enough when it boots up ok though.

Need to play a bit more and see if I can get anything else working.

 

[Reesy]

You jammy begger, you've got one already!

Have you been sleeping with the boss?

 

[craigix]

He has yours too reesy

-Craig

 

[Reesy]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo I'll never get it back now!

 

[DJWillis]

Craig,

Out of interest what did GPH say they would send over?

I realise 'dev kits' but everything Squidge has got up so far seems to be stock MMSP2 software inc. nasty things like the default GFX modes being 640*480 or 800*600 dep. on the kernel image. Hardware looks nice but a little lacking, I assumed GPH where sending tested if 'in bits' kits?

Edit: Linux only seeing 32mb, I wonder if the kernel image is pre GPH upping the ram and they have done something silly with the memory map.

 

[craigix]

Its a holiday in korea until tuesday, but they might explain themselves then.

 

[DJWillis]

Its a holiday in korea until tuesday, but they might explain themselves then.

​

Cool, well I am sure are 'guru' in the UK will have it sussed by then .

 

[Squidge]

Pah

Well, the linux frame buffer will do lots of weird and wacky things, but no matter what I try, it's still corrupted.

If you read 'MP2520F User manual -linux24-050524.pdf' - page 135, it states that there's only two resolutions available, and the resolution is configured at kernel building time :/

So, I'm going to hit linux on the head, and use Kermit to upload my own software, hopefully which configures the frame buffer properly. h34r:

I'm just hoping that GPH's idea of "yes, you can run software before Linux" isn't U-Boot and Kermit :/

Craig, do you have any idea if you will be receiving additional software, such as the proper interface, kernel updates, or even updated hardware from GPH? Once we have something up and running, it would be nice to have functional shoulder buttons, and be able to use the other buttons without a screwdriver. Obviously, we are in no rush for these though (yet... )

 

[craigix]

I shall talk to them about the firmware etc., i'll ask for some button membranes, or at least i could cut up some gp32 ones...