Why Do We Need Linux

[Paradox]

slashdotters call themselved intelligent geeks yet are so stupid they cancel an order because they hear the word DRM

 

[SolidSnake]

slashdotters call themselved intelligent geeks yet are so stupid they cancel an order because they hear the word DRM

​

headshot h34r:

 

[Firefox]

The fact that the GP2X runs Linux was a big draw for me because it means I can easily write software for it.

I've owned a Zodiac for about a year and have found it so hard to develop for that eventually I just threw in the towel and gave up. Which is a shame, because the hardware is absolutely stunning.

On the GP2X it only took a day to scrape together a toolchain and get "hello world" on the screen, and then only a matter of hours to have an (admittedly rather slow) port of a Jaguar emulator running.

Linux also allows me to do extremely useful stuff like logging in over a USB cable, launching my program from a shell prompt using my full-size keyboard, and seeing my debug messages scroll up my 21" monitor whilst my program draws graphics on the GP2X's own screen.

With all that said, I have to say that the agonisingly slow startup time really grates!

It only takes a few seconds to do a built, write it to a card, and click the card into the GP2X. Then I have to sit tapping my fingers and staring at the green startup screen whilst Linux boots for what seems like an eternity. And quite often it dawns on me that it has in fact crashed and I need to turn it off and back on again. All of which rather disrupts my work flow when I'm trying to debug something.

Hopefully the Linux startup time can be slashed from what it is now, and I also hope that UBoot gets its ability to boot from SD cards back!

 

[deadlychicken22]

I believe that people much smarter than us are already working on this

 

[Ferentix]

I'll be quite frank- I would probably have lacked interest in gp2x if it was running Wince... Linux makes the whole thing feel much more "open" (and as soon as GPH actually get the bloody source released it really will be ), and since the main draw is is the big ol' melting pot of homebrew games, emus and other software openness is the big selling point. Frankly I would not look twice at it if it were another closed all commercial console, since I already have a GBA and a DS to fill that role. But you need extra hardware and/or hacks to get homebrew code running there, so the idea of an open platform running an open OS (and of course the option to subvert that OS and run different firmware in the future hopefully ) appeals greatly, especially when it has such a number of skill-ed homebrew developers working on it already

The multiple firmwares for GP32 sound a really cool idea, and it would be great to see something like that on the GP2X- mind, isn't that what the guys making the HH OS were planning on doing- allowing the user to choose twixt Linux and HH at start? Or maybe that's been changed...

 

[vic20-ian]

Ferentix - The source is released. (for the previous version) see the GP2X.com forum.

WinCE on my PDA boots instantly, so does my GP32. Linux has an army of geeks supporting it and it takes ages to boot a small handheld with a menu to launch 8 apps. Why?

I still think I would prefer an end user OS option to boot to a file selector whilst keeping the ability to use Linux if absolutely necessary for development.

Somehow the GP32 managed without Linux very well.

What is different about porting an app to GP32 vs GP2X once libraries are in place to handle the "API" or direct calls to the hardware?

 

[Alpha2]

I doubt anyone would have concidered a WinCE machine to have an open source pedigree even with it written on the box. As stated it was simply easier for them to use linux as a front end rather than spend time creating their own similar to what the GP32 uses. It probably would have taken a whole extra year to write versions of video player and some of the other apps included in the current firmware that work half as good from scratch.

With the added functionality it made it easier to port games from linux and have a nice early line up of free games and apps ready for the launch.

Linux not only brought linux coders but media attention it wouldnt have had otherwise.

 

[Pandakopanda]

Linux also allows me to do extremely useful stuff like logging in over a USB cable, launching my program from a shell prompt using my full-size keyboard, and seeing my debug messages scroll up my 21" monitor whilst my program draws graphics on the GP2X's own screen.

Offtopic: what cable/software do you use for that?

It only takes a few seconds to do a built, write it to a card, and click the card into the GP2X. Then I have to sit tapping my fingers and staring at the green startup screen whilst Linux boots for what seems like an eternity.

​

Why do you need to reset your gp2x everytime you test a new build?

 

[Planet_M]

i was thinking of mainly :

FreeCraft

Xscorch

EDIT: was talking shit the UFO i found was multiplayer only

​

I second the xscorch nomination - if anybody could port that (or any scorched earth clone) i'd be over the moon

 

[nickspoon]

Linux also allows me to do extremely useful stuff like logging in over a USB cable, launching my program from a shell prompt using my full-size keyboard, and seeing my debug messages scroll up my 21" monitor whilst my program draws graphics on the GP2X's own screen.

Offtopic: what cable/software do you use for that?

I'd also like to know that, as well as if there are any Windows equivalents (as my Linux box doesn't like my USB ports).

I second the xscorch nomination - if anybody could port that (or any scorched earth clone) i'd be over the moon

It's not going to happen too fast, xscorch uses the GTK+ libraries.

 

[Firefox]

Linux also allows me to do extremely useful stuff like logging in over a USB cable, launching my program from a shell prompt using my full-size keyboard, and seeing my debug messages scroll up my 21" monitor whilst my program draws graphics on the GP2X's own screen.

Offtopic: what cable/software do you use for that?

The USB cable that came with it, and this software:

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=24053

It only takes a few seconds to do a built, write it to a card, and click the card into the GP2X. Then I have to sit tapping my fingers and staring at the green startup screen whilst Linux boots for what seems like an eternity.

Why do you need to reset your gp2x everytime you test a new build?

Basically because the kernel won't let me unmount the card (even if I never cd into it), and the automounter doesn't catch it if I just rip the card out without unmounting it.

(edit) Ah-ha! My .gpu script that kicks off the USB gadgets driver and bash shell was hanging around in the background and still running from the SD card! So I put an "&" on the end of the "./gp2xmenu" on the last line and now my script exits and Linux lets me unmount the SD card.

Thanks Pandakopanda! That's going to make my edit-build-debug cycle a *lot* faster! B)

 

[Pandakopanda]

Basically because the kernel won't let me unmount the card (even if I never cd into it), and the automounter doesn't catch it if I just rip the card out without unmounting it.

​

Being a total noob about this, isn't it possible to copy the program to the gp2x automatically using the usb cable after each sucessful build?

 

[Firefox]

Basically because the kernel won't let me unmount the card (even if I never cd into it), and the automounter doesn't catch it if I just rip the card out without unmounting it.

​

Being a total noob about this, isn't it possible to copy the program to the gp2x automatically using the usb cable after each sucessful build?

​

It might well be. Hopefully the USB mass storage driver and the USB gadgets driver can co-exist and talk to the same USB device at the same time...

My main Linux box doesn't have the USB gadgets driver, and I can't really afford to shut it down to install the driver just now (because it's got lots of my day-job stuff running on it at the moment). So as a stopgap I'm using my Windows box with a Knoppix CD stuffed in it as a dumb terminal.

The card swapping doesn't really bother me, it only takes a second to take the card out of the reader on my desk with my left hand and stuff it into the GP2X with my right hand. Hopefully some time this week I'll be able to try getting everything running over the one USB cable, though. B)

 

[nickspoon]

Someone said somewhere that you can't run the GP2X as mass storage and serial at the same time. You have to disable the serial gadget mode and enable mass storage (Settings->USB).

I just tried the serial drivers, and it was great seeing the debug output from Quake on the monitor. Now all I need to do is put debug code in ROTT and I can get more meaning from it than OH NO OH NO ROTT CRASHED

 

[Wolfspirit]

Why are so many people thinking that the thing takes forever to boot up? Is 30 seconds or a minute really that long? I mean come on, are we to the point in society where 30 seconds is to long? LOL Have some patience, patience is a virtue.

 

[Vimacs]

when you want to test a new build evry few minutes(or less) it is.

 

[nickspoon]

It's VERY long, especially if you have to restart it every two minutes to test a new build (my testing takes slightly longer: Linux doesn't like my USB ports, so I have to transfer it over to Windows Shared Documents and then to the GP2X).

 

[Fiendicus_Prime]

I can understand why it takes 20 second to boot Linux - though I sure hope it will be improved. I have confidence in the devs working on Open2X, but very little in GPH.

But what I don't understand is why the GP2X can't suspend to it's flash (?) RAM when you turn it off and then just come on again when you turn on. Resets could be much reduced then, well, when the OS is stable anyway

 

[g_sus]

But what I don't understand is why the GP2X can't suspend to it's flash (?) RAM when you turn it off and then just come on again when you turn on. Resets could be much reduced then, well, when the OS is stable anyway

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Is it impossible for them to due to physical limitations, (size of nand, etc..), or is it something they just havent implemented?

 

[Gridmark]

Further of course.. by being Linux, you immediately appeal to the many thousands of Unix and Linux fanatics.. free publishing on the news sites etc. How many gp2x stories on Slashdot so far?

jeff

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This is half the reason I got my GP2X in the first place (Actually never read about it on a news site before my wife discovered it and bought me one).
If it ran Windows Mobile, I would probably be trolling these boards as opposed to actually (Trying) to help.

I've been a Linux user since I was in my very early teens. I support my family with Linux. Because of Linux, I have a job I love.

Not to turn this into a Linux/Anti-Linux flamewar, but at this time, it's probably the best choice for a custom OS, not counting the massive amount of embedded hardware support and dedicated developers around the world.

With all that said,
GO GP2X and GO LINUX!

It's VERY long, especially if you have to restart it every two minutes to test a new build (my testing takes slightly longer: Linux doesn't like my USB ports, so I have to transfer it over to Windows Shared Documents and then to the GP2X).

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Actually, I found it a bit easier to take the SD_mount_umount script from the Read Only patch that came out, stick it in a seperate place on the NAND and use that for my "SD card out; SD card in" dance along with the cardreader GPH sent with my unit.

Just a tip...