Some Questions Before I Buy

[GhandiBurger]

My friend showed me this a while back, but I forgot about it due to school and such. I recently revisited it and am extremely interested. but I have a few questions.

1. I found this after some searching and noticed the bit about wi-fi. (Question 4) What is the current known status of this? If it isn't official yet, what do I need to get wi-fi and keyboard?

2. If I do get the wi-fi and/or keyboard working, are there apps out there to let me surf or make text files?

3. A properly formatted externally powered external hard drive can plug directly into the GP2X without special cables?

4. What's up with the dual-core? I read something on wikipedia about how the GP2X isn't dual core as far at the default Linux OS is concerned. Can anybody offer an explanation?

5. With the Breakout Board, what are my capabilities? Does it eliminate the need for a USB host adaptor? What do I need a USB host adaptor for anyway?

Sorry about the number of questions, but all the research I found was way too sketchy.

On a side note, I am interested in learning to develope software for this. Can someone give me links to the languages and methods etc.?

Thanks a lot.

 

[Blah]

1. You have to get a wifi stick, compile your drivers and get a board that allows you to hook up usb devices (we call it the Break Out Board)

2. There are PDA like environments ie Qtopia.

3. You need the aforementioned Break Out Board and a usb enclosure for your hard drive.

4. The 1st processor is an ARM920. The second processor is an ARM940 (same thing but no mmu). Linux does not deal with mmu-less processors. UcLinux does but that's another story. To make use of the second core, programs must be written specially to use it (the processors can communicate with shared registers and the memory).

5. The Break Out Board is a usb host adaptor + tv out + JTAG interface (for reflashing bootloader) + Serial (for tty, if you can't get telnet to work).

edit:

You can write programs in Fenix, GLBasic, C, C++, Python, Java, and more.

edit2:

Most people use SDL to access graphics, sound, and input. There are other ways as well.

 

[GhandiBurger]

Thank you!!!! I am going to research Qtopia.


One final question I forgot about. How would I go about installing this?

 

[Blah]

Theres no need to install that, it comes with the firmware, all recent firmwares have the bugs fixed in mplayer.

 

[GhandiBurger]

Even the extra support for AAC and AC3? I have so many movies in so many different formats, I want to make sure they will all work.

 

[pool34]

Well you don't flinch when Linux is mentioned so you're already half-way there.

 

[GhandiBurger]

I've been using Linux for about 2 years and I am perfectly comfortable with a command prompt. The only difference is, this is a specialized version. Not your basic desktop distro like Ubuntu.

 

[Blah]

Heh, I didn't notice the AAC/AC3 support.

Well, to install it you could just copy it to the sd card, or you could copy it to /usr/gp2x with Sterm (terminal for gp2x) or telnet, or samba, or nfs, or ftp, etc, etc, to replace the defualt version.

I just setup my laptop to dual boot with ubuntu, I'm compiling stuff for my gp2x projects and its alot faster on this Centrino Duo than on my other linux machine, the K6-450 peice of shit.

 

[imhotep]

One final question I forgot about. How would I go about installing this?

You install it like any other app on the GP2X. Extract it to a folder and then copy it to your SD card.

 

[GhandiBurger]

One last question (I think).

About 98% of my movies are widescreen. The GP2X is not. Is this a problem? Does it scale the movies to 4:3? I love my (widescreen) movies!

 

[Blah]

The movie player will scale it for you. If you convert it yourself however there will be a size and speed advantage.

 

[GhandiBurger]

So no widescreen?

 

[Blah]

It will letterbox it.

 

[GhandiBurger]

OK. I'll live with it. I am probably going to be listening to music on it more than I watch movies. Too many distractions on the bus/school/etc. etc.

Thought of one more, and then I think I'm sold. I have a 2 gig USB thumb drive. If put music on that, how do I access it from the GP2X?

Edit: Duh. You already answered that. I need the USB host adaptor.