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Installing Linux on the Jornada 7xx Jlime http://jlime.

com/wiki/documentation/user/7xx/installation

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Installing Linux on the Jornada 7xx


This is a simple guide for manually partitioning your Compact Flash card and installing JLime using a
Linux desktop PC and a memory card reader. It is recommended that you use this method if you can,
since it yields better performance than partitionless installs. This tutorial is rather long because it
describes every step meticulously accurately. So let's get started.

What will you need to install JLime?

HP Jornada 7xx
a Compact Flash card of at least 128MB
a Compact Flash reader (USB)
a PC or Mac with any Linux distribution (you can use a LiveCD which can be run without
installing it) with the cfdisk application (most likely it will be included in your distribution, but
otherwise you will need to install it)
about 45 minutes (hardcore Linux geeks about 10) of spare time and some patience.

What will be the final result?


Your CF card will be divided into three partitions: FAT, ext2 and swap. The FAT (Windows) partition
will be visible from within the Windows CE side and will contain the kernel, the bootloader and its
configuration file. The bootloader will load the kernel into the memory of your device and allow the
execution of the booting procedure from ext2 (Linux) partition containing the JLiME filesystem. The
swap partition will be used for memory-intensive operations to improve your system's performance.

Partitioning your Compact Flash card


a) Boot Linux on your computer. You will need root or superuser (whichever you like to call it)
privileges for some of the following instructions.

NOTE: If in some step when you're using the terminal in your desktop Linux and get a
Permission denied warning, this tutorial has forgotten to tell you to execute the
command as root so do that then. On Debian distributions (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu,
Fluxbuntu, Edubuntu, Mythbuntu etc.) the root privileges are gained by adding the word
sudo in front of the command, e.g. 'mkdir /mount/cf_jlime' becomes 'sudo mkdir /mount
/cf_jlime'. All commands are to be typed in a terminal emulator (console), and they are
case-sensitive.

b) Plug in your CF card reader with the CF card attached. c) Examine the name of your CF card.
Open a terminal emulator and type

dmesg | tail

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Installing Linux on the Jornada 7xx Jlime http://jlime.com/wiki/documentation/user/7xx/installation

Look for a line saying Attached SCSI removable disk and note the name in brackets. It may
depend on your computer hardware configuration and Linux distribution used, but most probably it
will be similar to the one below

[[118640.111000]] sd 1:0:0:0: [[sda]] Attached SCSI removable disk

NOTE: In this case the name of the CF card is sda, but it may be a different one in your
system. This tutorial refers to it as sdX further on, so remember to replace it with your
value each time. I.e. sdX, sdX1 and sdX2 would be sda, sda1 and sda2 respectively in
this case.

IMPORTANT: Some hard disks may use similar names. Ensure you are 100% certain that you have
the correct device.

d) Make sure that your card is unmounted with the command

umount /dev/sdX*

(root privileges required)

e) Run the cfdisk partitioning tool with the command

cfdisk /dev/sdX

(root privileges required)

Check that the size display matches that of your CF card. If it doesnt, then you may have
accidentally selected your hard disk - exit immediately if this is the case. Partition the card:

CFDisk instructions wrote:

1. Using the tab key move over to the Delete button at the bottom of the window. Press Enter.
Repeat for all partitions on the disk.
2. Now, move over to the New button in the same way. Press Enter. Check that Primary is
highlighted and press Enter.
3. Enter an appropriate size (this will be the Windows part, so it should be quite small), 10MB is
a good size. Type the size and press Enter.
4. Ensure Beginning is highlighted and press Enter.
5. Now, navigate to the Type button and press Enter.
6. Type 04 (FAT). Press Enter.
7. Now, using the arrow keys move down to the free space section.
8. Repeat steps 2, 3, 4 and 5. The recommended size is about 32MB less than the amount it
offers you. Type 83 (ext2) as the filesystem type.
9. Leaving the type as it is, move down to the free space again.
10. Repeat steps 2-5. Confirm the suggested size of partition (which should equal the amount of
remaining space). Type 82 (Linux swap) as the filesystem type.
11. Move back to the FAT16 partition, move to Bootable and press Enter.
12. Move to Write, and press Enter (you may have to confirm). Navigate to Quit when it says it's
done.

f) Make filesystems on your freshly partitioned card with the commands

mkfs.vfat /dev/sdX1
mkfs.ext2 /dev/sdX2
mkswap /dev/sdX3

Downloading and installing JLiME

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Installing Linux on the Jornada 7xx Jlime http://jlime.com/wiki/documentation/user/7xx/installation

All the necessary files are located here.

a) Download three files

a userland archive (contains the user interface and the kernel)


a bootloader executable (linexec.exe)
a bootloader config file (params.txt)

NOTE: The Download section contains multiple userland archives. If the most recent one
doesn't work for you, try the earlier userlands. This tutorial refers to the userland
archive as userland.tar.bz2

b) Mount your CF card Change your working directory to the directory where filesystems are
mounted.

NOTE: This varies among distributions. It may be for example /mnt or /media. If you're
in doubt, examine /etc/fstab file or consult the documentation of your distribution. This
guide will refer to this directory as /mount, but replace it with your value each time if
required.

Type the commands below

mkdir /mount/cf_win
mkdir /mount/cf_jlime
mount /dev/sdX1 /mount/cf_win
mount /dev/sdX2 /mount/cf_jlime

(root privileges required)

c) Change your working directory to cf_jlime:

cd /mount/cf_jlime

Extract the userland (it is assumed that you have downloaded the files to your home directory, but
please alter the command if required - the filename also varies among the userlands)

tar jxvf ~/userland.tar.bz2

Change your working directory to /mount:

cd ..

d) Copy files to the FAT (cf_win) partition Copy the appropriate bootloader and configuration file to
the FAT partition of your CF card. Change linexec.exe and params.txt to your architecture-specific
files:

cp ~/linexec.exe cf_win/
cp ~/params.txt cf_win/

Copy your kernel file from the userland archive to the FAT partition:

cp cf_jlime/boot/zImage cf_win/zImage

Unmount both partitions:

umount cf*

(root privileges required)

Booting
Put the card into your Jornada. Let Windows CE boot. Tap Start, Run and Browse. Find the storage

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Installing Linux on the Jornada 7xx Jlime http://jlime.com/wiki/documentation/user/7xx/installation

card and double tap your bootloader's name. Confirm, then wait a short while, and JLiME should
boot.

HINT: You can skip the Windows CE startup wizard by pressing the Windows key to bring up the
start menu, and using the arrows and tab buttons to navigate through the run dialog.

Have fun :)

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