Bluetrait

You want those capacitors replaced? My trials end in two weeks (courtesy of glandular fever).

Oh lucky you. Any idea where/who you got it from? Because I have it or something similar. First I was told tonsillitis, but now we don't think it is _just_ that. I've been pretty dead for a week, which isn't fun.

Anywho, if you know where to get 1500uF Caps from let me know! I've had a quick look at a few places and no one has them.

Thanks.

Yeah 1500uF is unusual, my guess that they've used it because they couldn't get away with standard 1000uF and 1500 was marginally cheaper than 2200 which is "normally" the next step up. Anyway 1500 is pretty common on MOBOs they're used to smooth out the ripples from the power going to the processor mostly. You might score a few if you're prepared to sacrifice a couple of old P2 MOBOs or something. Alternatively they can be purchased from Farnell for about $1.80 each which is pretty expensive for a little capacitor but Farnell do bulk orders mostly. They are polarised capacitors aren't they? Should be... look for a white stripe down one side with a negative "-" sign on it. You could probably get away with 2200uF capacitors, in fact it might be beneficial. But try and get as close to 6.2 volts as you can because capacitors get a lot larger for equivalent capacitance as the voltage rises and a lot more expensive.

I've just seen some 2200s at my local dealer today. Now I'm surfing around for some information. Looks usable! Is it really possible to use the 2200 as a small and quiet X-Terminal for surfin around the web, reading emails ans listen so mp3's ? Or is it just something that can be booted, but not really used.

regards

Rafael

The hardware itself is fast enough to do this, although the software is a bit hacked together and needs more work.

The web browser on Linux-2200 doesn't support SSL or CSS, so I really need to get firefox working on it.
With a bit of work the software could be pretty good too, remember it is just a standard x86 linux install with a lot of stuff cut out.

Mp3s work fine in XMMS.

If you can get one cheap, have a play with it.

One recommendation, though: if you're planning on playing lots, figure out how to get it to boot from a USB hard drive or some other not-solid-state device, because memory cards have a limited lifespan in terms of write cycles (you can read as much as you want, AFAIK).

If I remember correctly the linux install creates a RAM drive on boot. So you use it as much as you'd like.

The newer flash based cards are pretty good now days anyway.

And anyway, I'd play the MP3s off a remote server and thus there wouldn't be much data written to the CF card (or read too).

Hi all,

As I am having trouble booting my N2200 into a 'rdesktop' screen, I thought I would ask if anyone has the Firmware for a NetVista N2200(EXX OR WXX) for Booting WBT(Window Based Terminal)

A kind friend sent me a copy(dd) of thier 16MB Flash Card that Booted straight into WBT(contains Windows CE), however there's was a NetVista N2200(8363 WXX) while mine is a NetVista N2200(8363 EXX)

Because of the different Firmware, I get the ERROR:
--------------------------------------------------
NSB02500 This thin client not authorized to load the window based terminal operating system
--------------------------------------------------

My original Firmware is: NS Boot Version B3052500 (05/25/00)

I also tried a Linux specific version - BL072902(07/09/02) but that also did not work :(

BTW: If anyone wants a copy of WBT v1.5(Windows CE) for the IBM NETVISTA 2200 let me know - it fits onto a 16MB Compact Flash card :)

Tom

The difference between the WXX and the EXX is that the WXX supports booting into Windows CE. Now although the hardware is very similar (picture from above) I don't know if it would be possible to put the WXX Firmware onto the EXX. I have my WXX here and on top of the BIOS the NS BOOT Version is B4071601. Now since my WXX isn't working at the moment I cannot play around with it. If it was working it maybe possible to read the Firmware off it. If you're just interested in a Windows Terminal Service Client you can get one for Linux and just use it on that.

thnx Dale for that prompt reply :)

Yes booting Windows CE is all to do with the Firmware.

Windows CE(WBT 1.5) can boot off EXX as well as WXX

There are heaps of 8363 EXX being sold on eBay that come with the 16MB Compact Flash pre-installed(with WinCE) that 'correctly' boot WinCE

Here is one being sold on eBay that IS an EXX model with an EXX Firmware that Boots the Pre-Installed 16MB WinCE
If you ask(like I did), the person will email screen shots of the WinCE booting up on this EXX model togeather with screen shots of all the settings:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5787147488&indexURL=2#ebayphotohosting

This is because some EXX models came pre-installed with WinCE ... this was BEFORE the release of WXX

When WXX came out, they stopped pre-installing WinCE on selected EXX models

** BTW: Do you know how to 'EXTRACT' the Firmware/Bios from an 8363 EXX/WXX ???

If you come across a Firmware that boots WinCE, please think of me & email it to me if you can find the time :)

Tom

Can some kind person please please help us newbies & supply the latest "rdesktop v1.4.1"
ready to copy across onto the Flash Card in either tar.gz or zip/rar format

I have tried to install rdesktop but after a successful configure, I get errors on make

This has been requested before but as yet no one has replied

>>felicity wrote: Can some kind person please please help us newbies & supply the latest "rdesktop v1.4.1"

I have installed rdesktop v1.4.1 OK

Tested it by connecting to windows 2003 & all is OK

Tell me what rdesktop files you need so I can copy them from my Linux box for you & others ?

I can host them on my homepage(zip/rar)

my rdesktop executable is located in /usr/local/bin/

are there lots of other rdesktop files/libs/ .. etc ??

dale,

I installed rdesktop v1.4.1 onto Linux-2200

runs like a charm :)

onyl qerk is the 'backspace' button acts the same as the 'delete' button even though I have set emulation to server keyboard ... weird

Tom

File sent :)

My settings: rdesktop -k en-us -f -x l -a 16

** 2 Problems :((

1) Even though xTerm can run Full Screen, RDP from Windows Server 2003 appears at 15" size on my 17" monitor ??
- Even though I used the correct Full Screen Flag

2) 1 Keyboard key is not working properlley
The 'Backspace' key acts/works like the 'Delete' key & does NOT backspace
- Even though I am using the 'en-us' server keyboard map flag

Do you know any way to fix these 2 problems ???

Tom

The repackaged copy of rdesktop can be found here.

On a side note. If you'd like to monitor just the RSS feed (comments) for this post you may through this link:
http://www.bluetrait.com/archive/2005/08/07/installing-linux-2200-onto-the-ibm-netvista-n2200-8363/rss/

Dale,

If you get the WXX running, here is a 'HowTo make a BackUp copy of the Existing Firmware(bios)'

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-4KUJ5P&velxr-layout=printLenovo

Tom

nice site :-)

I just bought an N2200 to play with. Going tol see how it goes with FreeBSD :D

Great site, thanks for the info.

I've only spent a few hours playing around with my new 8363-EXX, but i haven't got it to work yet.

I THINK I've set up the CF card and copied the files across properly. When I put it in the 8363 though and tell the BIOS to look at the flash first for booting, nothing happens. I can't point it to bflash.2200 - I get a few other kernel.2200 options but no bflash.2200.

Anyone got any hints for me?

Also - I reckon that there would be a market for people willing to properly install and configure Linux 2200 on a user-supplied card...

The linux-2200 package doesn't come with the bios upgrade itself. Did you download and copy over the bios update?

It should also be possible to do a bios upgrade from a tftp server too.

Thanks for the reply.

By BIOS ugrade, do you mean the bflash.2200 file? I've put that in the root directory on the flash disk.

How do you point to bflash.2200? In the network setup, the section where you can cycle through the various kernal.2200 files will only let me type 4 charachters - not enough for the filename.

Thanks again,

Alex

Yeah you want the file on the root of the cf card.

I had that problem where you couldn't insert enough characters. I fixed it by resetting the bios (there should be a setting in the bios to do that)

Thanks again... got me another step closer!

I've got it pointing to the file now... but I still get a 'No flash card detected' message in the boot log...

oh well - keep on trying I guess!

What type of flash card is it?

You may need to format it again. Also make sure that it is formatted with the correct file system.

Hopefully this works for you.

ALmost 100% sure it's correctly formatted and in the right file system

It's a no-name "Hagiwara Sys-Com" 256mb card. Do you reckon it's worth taking the plunge and buying a SanDisk card off ebay?

BAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SanDisk CF card saves the day!

hi, I am trying to boot the netvista thinclient via dhcp. I compiled a linux 2.4.24 kernel and supplied it via dhcp
on giving bzImage, it giives error "Unsupported file type"
on giving vmlinux, the thin client simply shuts off.
How can i boot the thin client from network.
thanks in advance
nilesh

The netvista does not support booting from zipped kernel images so that won't work. The unzipped image also needs to be a certain size.

Try upgrading your bios and test vmlinux again.

There was talk about this in the forums (link posted above in my main post).

Is it possible to update the flash with bflash.2200 over the net?

By CF card, do you mean a pen drive that is used over USB?
Is the TC capable of booting off a pen drive? Does it work with
USB-2?

When we try to boot the Netvista 2200 via DHCP using a locally
compiled kernel (RH7.2) elf image, it simply powers off. It does boot
properly with kernel.2200 (supplied with the system). Why does this
happen?

What would be the correct way to compile the kernel so that
Netvista 2200 will boot properly?

Is it possible to update the flash with bflash.2200 over the net?

Via TFTP, possibly, I haven't tried.

By CF card, do you mean a pen drive that is used over USB?
Is the TC capable of booting off a pen drive? Does it work with
USB-2?

By CF card I mean Compact Flash (like what you use in a camera), it sits inside the computer (see pictures). It won't boot off USB. It can work with USB 2.0 but only at 1.1 speeds.

When we try to boot the Netvista 2200 via DHCP using a locally
compiled kernel (RH7.2) elf image, it simply powers off. It does boot
properly with kernel.2200 (supplied with the system). Why does this
happen?

You're not running the latest BIOS. Use the BIOS from my main post and update the system.

You're not running the latest BIOS. Use the BIOS from my main post and update the system.

Indeed, one kernel which failed to run on one of our TCs ran on another
having a later version of BIOS.

I would like to run an ELF boot loader to select on of several linux
installations to run on the TC. Is that possible?

I have not yet come across an ELF boot loader.

I am able to do this on a different brand of TC that supports regular
PXE booting (ie. it is able to run pxelinux.0, which has a binary format).

Hi
I have sucsefully flashed the bios by using tftp (tftpd32 running on xp) But I still have problems booting vmlinuz-2.6.9-ltsp-3 from the LTSP project. Any knowledge on where to get another kernel

Hi.

Is it possible to run the Netvista 8363 with Linux 2200 without being attached to the network? mine gets stuck during boot "No netword detect. Is cable unplugged?"

I want to run it now attached to my network as a simple mp3 player. I was thinking some sort of network pass back might be possible, where the transmit line is connect back to the recive line to make it think it is attached to a network.

Try assigning an IP address to the network card from the BIOS (and not use DHCP), I think that got around the problem.

I have sucsefully flashed the bios by using tftp (tftpd32 running on xp) But I still have problems booting vmlinuz-2.6.9-ltsp-3 from the LTSP project. Any knowledge on where to get another kernel

nfs would work too. n2200 doesn't support compressed kernel, hopefully someone will hack grub to work with n2200 soon.

This site and your posts have been a great resource for me as I get my 2200s running. I had previously jumped through all the hoops the IBM server installers require but decided I didn't like maintaining all those services when I just run rdesktop on the clients anyway. Thanks a bunch. This simpler config will also provide a less daunting platform with which to tinker =]

Good morning, Maybe I'm confused or just stupid. I have yet to find a place to actualy type in the boot file name.

I did the firmware upg by renaming bflash.2200 to kernel.2200. The box now shows BL072902 (0729/02).

However I'm running into two issues. One the box still insists on booting off off kernel.2x00, so i did a hard link between kernel.2200 to kernel.2x00. It now boots, to a point. After it mounts devfs on /dev, there are four messages "attempt to access beyond end of device" followed by a "Kernel panic: No init found."

There should be an option in the BIOS. I can try and get you a screen shot later this week.

Hey.

Have been using the Netvista for a while now for generally surfing - it's awesome for other rooms where you wouldn't normally put a PC.

Has anyone got VLC to run? I'd love to be able to stream a DVD or other video feed from my network.

Thanks,

Alex

Hi everyone.
I have two problems:

1. In the boot menu (ESC) I can not define the file which should be booted. The menu entry exists but can't be used. When I want to access it, it disappears. :(

2. I followed the instructions but ended up with a Kernel panic.
"VFS: Cannot boot root device hda1 or 03:01" :(

Any suggestions?

Yehaw! It works now!
You have to format your CF card properly.

# fdisk /dev/sda
(delete everything if necessary)
n, p, 1, a, 1, w

# mke2fs /dev/sda1 (or equal)

It was important to make the filesystem on sda1 insted of only sda! Keep that in mind if you face a similar problem.

Cool shit!

I works!

# fdisk /dev/sda
(delete everything if necessary)
n, p, 1, a, 1, w

# mke2fs /dev/sda1 (or equal)

It's important to use sda1 and not just sda!
Cool stuff!

Hi there.

I installed linux-2200 on my 8363 EXX and it works fine! As a proper browser (like FireFox) is missing I decided to just try a different distribution.... like DSL (a livelinux)

I installed the folders /KNOPPIX and /boot to CF (according to this script).

As the latest BIOS (BL072902) version seems to insist on loading /kernel.2x00 (same error like Hans, 12 Dec) I tried to set a symlink "ln -s boot/linux24 kernel.2x00" but it says "unable to load file via boot file server protocol"

You have to copy boot/linux24 to kernel.2x00

Yeah... doesn't work with copying either. I need an uncompressed kernel etc. etc....

Now I tried to get back to a "failsafe situation" and copied the linux-2200 files as I did before. But now I keep getting a "Kernel panic: Init not found". WTF!? I tried two different CF cards, both of which used to work before... but suddenly it's realy foobar.

Problem solved:

I had
cp -a linux-2200-0.2.1/.fluxbox/* /mnt/someplace

instead of

cp -a linux-2200-0.2.1/.fluxbox /mnt/someplace

I got a question.
Is it possible to install a nfs sever on the n2200.
My idea is no use thinclient in combination with a external harddrive as nas system. Will this work?

It IS possible to upgrade the firmware by dropping the bflash.2200 into the root of the filesystem on the server or into /tftpboot in a linux box. In your network config, tell the IBM to boot via TFTP, give it the server's address, then tell it the bootfile is bflash.2200 If it works, you will get prompted to update firmware.

additinal infos
http://www.wcm.at/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=185222

I'm having problems similar to what a couple of other people mentioned up there, and which don't seem to have been answered.

(This is on an EXX with the upgraded BIOS)

First I hit theis prob:

After it mounts devfs on /dev, there are four messages "attempt to access beyond end of device" followed by a "Kernel panic: No init found."

I can "fix" that by creating a hard link from /bin/init.aus to /bin/init.
After that, init complains that it can't find inittab (which isn't there) and prompts me for the runlevel. Given the only rc information is rcS, I select "S" whereupon I get more "attempt to access beyond end of device" errors and a complaint that /bin/sh can't be run.

I suspect that the real problem is back at not being able to find init. Did either of the other two people with that problem solve it?

Thanks.

I haven't seen this problem. I suspect that it is an issue with the flash card and/or data corruption. If possible try formatting the card again and reinstalling it (or even use a different card).

Let us know if you find anything.

This page has brought me a lot closer to an operational thin client, but I'm afraid I'm not there yet. When I set it to boot bflash.2200, it simply fails to boot and waits forever on the NetVista screen. There is no error, and it doesn't respond to ESC, so I can't get into the setup to check the boot log. The same thing happens with kernel.2x00 also. Earlier, when I had an (definitely) incorrectly formatted card, it failed to find the card, but I could still get into the BIOS setup, so I think that's not my problem this time. Has anyone else encountered this sort of problem, or have any ideas for me to try?

I think the IBM Netvista N2200 (8363) is not really designed for (modern) Linux
I have found some hints that the NCP 564.NET Thinstar (neoware) ist able to boot Linux from IDE (CF-Adapter) with Grub and Lilo.

e.g. last 3 pages of  http://www.wcm.at/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=185222

or a nice gal. www.hiltec.at

Is there another way to get it on the cf card? The way on the site is faulty. When I tryu to copy files, my computer says "cp: cannot stat..."

i just got approx 100 of these units with bad caps.
i will be recapping and some recapped units will be for sale.
nice project you have here and i will be playing with it.
my goal is to make mobile netstumblers from these.
i will post the tar of the end result too.
kc8adu@dayton.net
if the o.p needs that unit recapped feel free to contact me.
i do componant level repairs for a living.

Has anyone tried booting m0n0Wall on a 8368-Exx? I have a couple CE based units lying around and was interested in using them with usb nics for cheap firewall/router.

m0n0wall is based off freeBSD, I suspect that it won't boot on the N2200. The thin client was designed to boot a basic linux kernel.

Maybe you should search for some info on NetBSD, it is meant to work on all sorts of hardware.

(Referring back to msg 51)

I haven't seen this problem. I suspect that it is an issue with the flash card and/or data corruption. If possible try formatting the card again and reinstalling it (or even use a different card).

Let us know if you find anything.

I tried with a different CF card (pulled out of my camera), with the same result.

Unless SanDisk is the only brand which will work in them (neither card was) the only other thing I can think of is size; both are 256MB cards. Is there a (lower) upper limit on the size of flash card these boxes can handle?

I've used a 256mb flash card before. I don't think it is SanDisk, but could be wrong. I can check tomorrow.

Hi I have The Same problem like Jack Wilkinson and Peter Howard

After it mounts devfs on /dev, there are four messages "attempt to access beyond end of device" followed by a "Kernel panic: No init found."

I have installed linux-2200 to a Kingston 128MB CF card

Has anyone solved the problem?

I've succeede in using linux-2200 on a couple of different netvista 2200 (8363) boxes. Here are a couple of things I've discovered in the process. I bought SanDisk compact flash cards 3, all 256 meg. They all worked once I formatted the correctly ! Then I bought 3 128 meg, only 1 work and the other 2 don't ... I should have formatted them all the same way ... the 2 that don't work have 2000 and 2003 written on the back and the one that does is a 99. Maybe SanDIsk changed things over time.

Another thing. Dillo didn't transfer data from one php page to the next so I installed Opera. I found a statically linked version and just installed it on the NetVista and it worked. It's a little slow but it works.

Thanks all for the package and clues ... it's giving this hardware a second life.

I bought SanDisk compact flash cards 3, all 256 meg. They all worked once I formatted the correctly !

Do you want to expand on "correctly"? Is there something more than the "fdisk + mke2fs" sequence from the article to be done?

Now I use a Sandisk 64 MB and 256 MB, but I´ve still the same problem.

Kernel Panic: no init found.

Formatted correctly for me was just like post 42 indicated:
> fdisk /dev/sda
made 1 primary partition
then > mke2fs /dev/sda1
the first is sda and the second is sda1.
I put the uncompressed linux-2200-0.2.1.tar.gz and BIOS for N2200 onto the CF card. Flashed the BIOS by making the Netvista boot locally using the bflash.2200 file. Then confifured the Netvista to boot locally which makes it use the kernel.2x00 file. Then things started to work.

hi,

great forum here! i got my my 8363 running in no time following the instructions on this site. now i want to remote access my netvista using either ssh or vnc. anyone tried this before? im pretty much a linux noob and dont even know how to go about compiling new stuff for my 8363.

i hope someone can help!

Few comments I also tried opera awhile back and it solved issues with getting to certain site, but it was a bit slow. It was a very easy install just go to the opera website and aquire the debian woody files. I believe if I remember correctly all you need to do is extract the files.

Also a comment to the last post #65.
Not sure how easy it would be to setup either vnc or ssh.

I get all my packages from
http://packages.debian.org/oldstable/ the site is very nice and show dependencies, although some things are not there, or hard to find. I did not see an ssh server of a vnc server on there, but maybe I missed it.

I did however see a telnet files on there, but also while looking around in the files already in linux-2200 I have seen in.telnetd. not sure if it works or what but that maybe of some help to you.

I know telnet is not very secure, but atleast for me I only use the netvista as a network audio player. So I really could care less if some else has access to it.
I am actually current ( just started tonight) trying to slim down linux-2200 for my needs. Since all I do is play audio files I do not need X which gets rid of lots of stuff, then I do not need any other graphical programs. Right now I believe I am stable at around 25mb. I have a few compact flash cards around that are 32mb so it is nice to be able to use them. Just poking around right now messing around. Wish I new linux a little better as if I did probably get it down closer to 16mb. Not that space is much of an issue these days but smaller the thing ends up quicker it will boot. Anyway if anyone has already done something like this and want to share files I would appreciate it, if not I should have it fully trimmed down in the next few days. So if anyone wants it I would provide the files. ANyway final setup should hopefully be a mp3 player that play audio from a network server and also from pre-selected shoutcast stations. THis will hopefully all be controlled by telnet for the time being. This would allow the unit to be run headless. Anyway I am tired and just rambling. Anyway that is it for now

So if anyone wants it I would provide the files.

I'd be happy to host it here. Once you're finished send me an email

Me again post 66 Sorry I forgot to leave name on last post anyway. I am not sure how to get telnet working I will have to investigate further into that. Anyone get either ssh of telnet working. What I mean is so I can telnet into the netvista.(you can already telnet and ssh out)
I see in.telnetd in /sbin so I figure atleast someone messed around with it?

Anyway I still slowly trimming away. I am at 13mb right now, but that is without a remote way to control it, not sure if that will be to big or not, but really should stay below 16mb for the whole thing. Also currently using mpg123 as the commandline player. It seems to work fairly well although it is only plays mpeg audio not vorbis or ogg. SO may go try another player soon, not sure.

Also commandline is a little ruff atleast for very simple usage. I want to try an make interface as nice as possible.
This is the main point of my posting here.
I found what I believe is a nice solution for the commandline. IT is a program call gamp and is just a front end that gives basic gui (remember no X) but looks to give it a much needed interface.

My problem is I can only find it in source, not compiled. I have plenty of linux systems, but no debian woody systems. Does anyone still have a debian woody system in which they could build me the gamp package???

So 2 questions anyone have any idea with telnet possibly save me some time? or ssh but preferably telnet as I figure there is less to worry about with using it (from config point of view)
And anyone care to compile gamp for me. Well thanks for your time.

I will put that gamp on hold right now. Telnet is most important, and I think I will go with a more flexible player I am going to look into xmms and see how the cli is on it, as we know it is already setup to play files fine. I delete xmms from mine but I left all the plugins so should not be hard to put back in place.

SUP everyone... been watching this site for a while. Recently I bought a EXX model off of a local computer shop, got the whole thing for 20$ keyboard, mouse, and the unit. So for the past 2 weeks I've been researching, and tackling the job of getting mine going with linux-2200. I have yet to get it going, but with all the great info you all are posting I should have it working soon :P

I'm still fighting with remote accessing the 8363 myself. I would prefer ssh over telnet, since I want to use it over unsecure networks (internet).

Since I'm not linux pro, i hope someone can help: when I get the source files for sshd, is there an easy way to compile it with statically linked librarys? I know it's an ancient and unefficiant way, but it would reduce the hassle with multi-versions libs on the 8363.

I found something very promising at http://matt.ucc.asn.au/dropbear/dropbear.html

It's an SSH Server with a small footpring especially for embedded Linux devices. I will try it out this weekend and report any results.

dale is it possible for you to setup another thread to use just while we figure stuff out, then we can post results here as it will make for easier reading. Either that or I am not sure if you can delete posts and have thing be neater in the end.

Anyway I did successful telnet into the box. Right now it is around 17mb in size, but still trying things out. I may be able to get a size back to around 13mb. Not sure yet. Being as this setup only uses telnet it is very unsecure, but it is only ment for music control so no big deal, but in effort to stop some unknowing person from having issues I am removing ftp ssh telnet. basically all the things that can access outside the netvista. So even if some gets into the netvista ( a possiblity) I will try to strip down everything that could cause anyharm. You do want someone listening in while you type in clear txt.

Also I am using mp3blaster as that supports ogg files as well as mp3. I am still getting used to working with mp3blaster, but it may just do the trick.

that should be

You do not want someone listening in while you type in clear text

dale is it possible for you to setup another thread to use just while we figure stuff out

Yes that would be possible. Two options:

1) Use another thread/post like this.
2) Or I could setup a discussion board in a forum that I have.

Also if you're interested I can host any of the files for others to access if you'd like (and even do CVS/Subversion).

I am almost all done with what I am going to do with linux-2200. Well I think so. I did make a vnc client package a while back for normal linux-2200, it was very easy and I have it all tarred and gziped if you care to share. For people that do not know vnc is like rdp but for linux. But only handles the display and not the sound which rda can handle.

There is only one more thing I really need to work out with setup I am working on. I have it start up and immediately start in.telnetd. Actually telnet works on standard setups, you just need to call in.telnetd -debug [portnumber] not sure the reason. Anyway the problem I run into is in in.telnetd. It allows me to control machine, but when I exit session it also exits the server, so I have to go back to the server and restart the in.telnetd. I maybe exiting the telnet session incorrectly I am not sure. But I would like to setup the deamon to just sit there and let me log on and then log off all I want.

that is a significant issue to totally resolve, but other than that I think the package is as small as it is going to get atleast without having to compile things from scratch. Right now with everything is a tar package it is right around 12.52mb I may add a few things back I am not sure. The gzip -9 verison is 4.9mb so it should be really light on your server.
And just need to test everything again throughly.

Either way to setup either a forum or a thread like this would be fine. I really do not mind it at all how it is, because I already read everything and not hard to keep up with new posts, but someone coming here and seeing 150+ posts might be hard to know where the quality info is located

Also again want to just point out http://packages.debian.org/oldstable this shows you all the dependencies and all the files are built with same dependency versions. So simple applications are easy to install. simple being maybe a text edit (nano) or a simple game. I found snake4 xbubble xgalaga(believe ran a little slow) xjump xoids and a few others were easy to install obviously this is not on my current setup but one in the past.

oh I almost forgot. When I finish this thing, I will try to include a through doc to get people all setup. Not that the doc. needds to be that big with a system of 12.5mbs but still try to elminate any confussions.

My apologies to anyone reading my posts. I am a bit tired but also a lazy typer, as well as a horrible speller.

Well I think mine is dead, :( I got it to recognize the flash rom update by rename the file to kernel.2x00. When I started the machine up it said current ver. and new ver. I hit enter to update, it then gave me a completed message and restarted itself. After that "zip, zilch". Powers on, no keyboard lights, no monitor signal, nothing. I can only guess is that the update went bad or was the wrong file.

Anyone got any ideas on how I can recover from this?

Sorry to hear your unit possible died. Atleast you are out only $20 and you still have keyboard and mouse. I had a $250 mini-itx board die on me and for a little while it really sickened me, but I eventually got over it it.

Okay guys little more updating to be done.

I got system 99% going. It seems in.telnetd is only suppose to listen for one connection then when someone logs in and then finally logs out the in.telnetd closes as well. For a little while I thought I would have to implement alot of code that is involved in started and stoping deamons on a linux systems, but then I realized the only thing I want the netvista to always be running is telnet. So I wrote a little shell script. Basically when computer starts up it boots into this little script I made. Think of it as a small program. So instead of starting into X and having flux going I have it start up into my program. What my program does it start up the in.telnetd. After it starts up my program waits till intelnet.d stops. When this happens my program start in.telnetd up again. One thing to note is you can only log into netvista with one computer at a time. That makes sense to me as only one persons needs to be controlling audio. I have it setup to restart in.telnetd 10,000 time this may change in the future, but this is a very large size and would never be met on a normal system, but incase something not sure what goes wrong I want it to stop after a while. This is a very simple value to change and actually for my use I may turn it to something like 1000. As I doubt that I would log in and out of netvista machine more than 1000 time before a reboot/poweroutage.

Anyway bulk of what I am going to do is done.

What I have left:
need to fix loading into ram. Right now I have system load into ram but for some reason it never actually uses that and stay with the original boot media ( for me it is a netboot server for others maybe compact flash card)

Along with solving above problem I need to clean up a few comments I have. I have output comments in the code so that I can see where the computer was booting to and why it did not get any further.

also change code to reflect booting for compact flash rather than network as most new people will probably boot from cf. I will probably include a file to easily make it boot from network and load into ram.

Also will need to write a user guide up for beginners. ANd mentions where any settings should and can be changed.

In the next few day I will send dale a copy of my work so he can host it. Hopefully someone out there can further improve on it. I think size is fairly good. it will be right around 13mb as I am going to reinstall nano a text editor on it. nano is much easier to use than vi.

Also in the next few weeks I may look at just trimming some reduandant fat on the standard linux-2200 as there are several reduandant things in there, which should allow me to free up some space. Probably not alot, but maybe up to 5 mb. But that is 5 mb that is not in memory so low memory systems may fair a slight bit better, and also boot times may be lower by a second or 2 not alot but a step in the right direction.

AS I am finishing up, i am just thinking of a potential problem. When you log into the server via telnet and put some music on. Well that music is tied to that telnet session. So when you shutdown the computer that you are telnet from into the netvista the music will probably stop. There maybe a way of allow the music to continue, but that may lead to another problem as telnet atleast how I understand it does not forward the terminal that would be at the local netvista side, but actually creates a virtual terminal for you. This is new for each new telnet connection. Anyone have any idea about this possible problem. It is not a huge problem atleast not for me as I have my one pc going 24/7 but would be really nice to have music indepenant of the one computer.

so basically to finish last post, uf you got the music to keep playing from first session you maynot be able to change it from another session.
Also I found somewhat of a problem.I accidentially disconnect the power from my client side telnet. Since this was all at once it did not allow for any shutting down of the telnet session, so there server just sat there in the last telnet session. Not sure if it would eventaully return to listening for telnet connections or not. It may time out while waiting for a keep alive command from client telnet.

Anyway I am starting to believe there are probably alot of little things that need to be tweajed and setup for. In the next day of so I am going to submit my current working setup and hopefully someone can help me test for bugs.

Anyone want to be an alpha tester???

okay well I think I finished what I would call my alpha stage. Anyone want to test it out.

Right now, just barbones. I switched back to mpg123 for this point as I thought mp3blaster was giving me poor performance, but it may have be bad audio settings. So right now it works with just mp3 files. I have tested it out with network files and also shoutcast streams. It is a little picky about shoutcast streams as shoutcast formats streams a little differently than how mp3 should really be. But most of time plays fine. Really only has problems starting the stream not keeping it going, and it may just be a matter of correct calling of mpg123.

I have not messed around mpg123 to much yet. I really do not know many of the commands and controls for it.
Audio quality seems good.

Okay anyway this is barbones, I even went into the lib/modules/kernel and removed files in there. I really can not say what hardware will and will not work that can be attached to the device. The main goal is to start the machine with powercord ethernet cable and speakers connected, nothing else.

Also the alpha still is setup with it to boot from a nfs. If you run another linux box it is really easy to setup. Also making the changes to boot from compact flash should be very easy. I have not had luck with booting from cf as I do not have another linux machine that has a cf slot.

Anyway size is a hefty 9.6mb someone that was really trying to trim it down further may be able to get it to something like 9mb in total but I think that would probably be about it. Unless they compiled packages for this machine as compiling busybox and using some compact lib files could probably save another mb maybe even more.

Also since this version seems to work fine for now I think my main goal will be to reinstall mp3blaster and get that working again. I will probably be at 10.5mb then but still plenty of room to fit it onto 16mb cf cards.

got mp3blaster working again and completed atleast for now. Will upfate if. when people find problems. The problem I had was caused by one charcter in one file. IT was not apparent right away as not official errors were shown. I called one program with
"mountfiles &"
but I just needed
"mountfiles"
noit sure if issues stems with how bin/ash handles this or just in general even under bin/bash there maybe issues with it,

well anyway.

Currently only know issues is if client computer shuts down without notice netvista maybe locked on previous session for awhile(I am not sure how long) It maybe a simple fix to, I am not sure. If music was playing music should continue to play, atleast for a little while.

Also telnet client must be open to have music playing.

Other than these 2 things it is fairly complete(I believe).
10.6mb in total. Oh still netboot version.

The mp3 blaster interface looks much better than mpg123(none existant)

I have not used it alot, but once you get the hang of it it should be easy.

Also a note since such a system lends itself to shell scripting the interpreter on system is ash not bash just to let you know. ash is already built into busybox so I removed bash as it was near .5 megs Anyway I should have maybe a papge write up about how to use and what to change if anyone cares to use it.

Anyone interested???? anyway if anyone is interested just email at matthewwright161 at hotmail.com

I have a question for the people that use wireless usb units. Do they really work with this unit, and in linux-2200 the second release what was needed to get it working? Did it work just plugging it in??

From the looks of the files I would say you had to do a few different things to get it working, but I am not sure if they are just leftovers from the first release of linux-2200

The reason is that I know it does not work in the mp3blaster version I am working on. I deleted parts of the kernel (modules) I can easily put back the modules, but there is a configuration script as well. If it is the case that you have to run the config script I will have to reinstall bin/bash and change configuration files. I do not have any wireless usb adapter so I can not check.

If no one uses wireless adapter I will not even bother putting this back together. But if people do use wireless adapters then I may try to have a few scripts that you could run at first then after wireless is working just one more script to finish taking back out the files as once you have it configured you will not have to configure again.

So if there is any wireless user out there speak up. I will also need one of you to help testing the set of files I would be working on.

It's a bit of a weird question, but has anyone tried to use a MicroDrive instead of a regular CF card? I'm curious as to if those would be detected properly (and have enough power to run). The smallish (>4Gb) MicroDrives can be had for a really low price on eBay these days.

I have been reading a lot about the issue about the kernel panic on some CF Cards, is there someone who has an answer for the problem. I'm using the 8363-WXX and flashed it with the latest BIOS. I have used different CF cards 256MB, 1GB and MicroDrives all with the same result.

NetVista N2200 (8363) - Creating a recovery CompactFlash card
From: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4KUJ5P

This procedure creates a copy of the NetVista thin client firmware (hereafter referred to as flash image) on a CompactFlash card.

NOTE: Once you have created a recovery CompactFlash card for a NetVista N2200 (8363), it can only be used to re-flash a NetVista N2200.

1. Remove the logic unit to install parts.
2. Insert the CompactFlash card into the CompactFlash connector. See Installing an optional CompactFlash card.
3. Move the jumpers on headers JP1 and J10 from the original configuration of 1 and 2 into a configuration of 2 and 3.
4. Reconnect the power cable to the logic unit.
5. Power on the thin client.
6. Wait for the system LED to flash green. If the system LED flashes amber, the image was not created. Repeat the procedure with another CompactFlash card, if possible.
7. Power off the thin client.
8. Remove the CompactFlash card and store it in a safe place.
9. Move the jumpers on headers JP1 and J10 back into the default configuration of 1 and 2. If the jumpers are not moved back into this configuration, the thin client may not function properly.
10. Reassemble the thin client.

Hi there,

I also found the keyboard language to be an annoyance - as the "german" keyboard layout remapped my US keys all over the place.
My solution was to do modifiy what was listed at the top : i.e.:
* Delete the line “loadkmap I commented it out instead
* Remove /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb
-> here I edited the file [X0-config.keyboard]
while my flashcard was in my multi-FC-reader/writer and replaced the line
[Layout] from 'de' to 'us'.
Once I popped it back into the N2200, it was completely solved.

Toodles,

MM

Note : All of this was done as root...on my Xandros 3.x Business Edition Workstation (it wouldn' t allow editing as a simple user.

hi all,
i tried to boot a NE2200 with bios B4071700.
Everything seems fine but instead starting linux after loading i get a black
screen and the fron led blinks.
i have installed the latest flash and used the example kernel
(can someone please change linux.2x00 into kernel 2x00 ??)

any ideas ?

Is it possible to obtain a completed image of a compact flash card as I dont use linux making this very difficult :-(

I followed the instructions listed here to the letter a few times and everytime I get linux2200 to boot it sits there flashing underneath the pengiun. I can switch to the other ttyls and active/use them but it doesn't do me much good because I want to run rdesktop. Is there something obvious I am missing here?

On closer inspection I realise that fluxbox isn't starting because it is missing X11 libraries. I get errors of missing libraries when I try using startx and /usr/bin/fluxbox. The thing is those libraries appear to be there. I don't think i'm going to get an answer to this one but it is strange.

Hi, Just tried this on my N2200 with mixed success. Unfortunately I pulled it over with the keyboard cable while changing the BIOS settings. It locked up so I power cycled it and now nothing. nothing, as in power on but no screen output at all. The front LED goes from orange to green but that is it.
On looking at the pictures above my EXX is identical to the WXX picture, so I'm thinking that I may have "stressed" it with repeated reboots while trying to get the BIOS settings right and now have some sort of partial power supply failure. The mention of bad caps in a few posts got me wondering what makes Dale think his WXX is bad because of the caps ( and how he isolated it to that as an issue).

After looking through the IBM manual for this thing I think I must have corrupted the boot block image.
I'll try to recover the image from a second machine that I have not messed with (yet). The instructions for creating the image are posted above, and then reloading is the same procedure with the headers J1(boot blk) in position 2&3 with J10 (pw override) in position 1&2

I've had a lot of bounced emails to Tom Quinn, it looks at though his email account isn't active.

Sorry guys.

This is awesome!

Has anyone had any luck with using samba with this? I've loaded the smbfs module, but I can't seem to mount with the command

mount -t smbfs -o username=username,password=password //ipaddress/share /mnt/share

It comes up with an Invalid Parameter error message?

The "No Init Found" saga continues.

I have now tried 4 different cards, 1x128, 2x256, 1x 512
The first and last were SanDisk, the two 256M other brands. All gave the same symptoms. I can think of three possibilities, none massively likely:
1) I'm setting up the card wrong (though how hard is it to stuff up fdisk + mke2fs?)
2) There's a DMA issue (where I work now, one of our MBs "thinks" it can do DMA on CF; pity it can't do it right) across all of the cards
3) My CF reader/writer is doing something screwy.

Only other idea I have right now is: Could someone give me access to a dd image - either 128M or 256M - from a card they have had working?

Thanks

post number 95. Something I think that is missing from busybox version of mount. I believe it does not support smbfs. Not sure as I have not messed with this is a long time. You may want to see about replacing the mount command. Replace it with the full program.

I will post a link to the mount function in a few moments. let me know if it works

http://packages.debian.org/oldstable/base/mount

hopefully this works for you

Thanks!

I just installed Woody on an old box here, copying some additional programs to the flash drive as well. I'll see how it goes.

to post 96
had the same problem: no init found. tried four different cards, same result.
so did mkdir /mnt/linux-2200-0.2.1
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/linux-2200-0.2.1
tar -xzvf linux-2200-0.2.1.tar.gz -C /mnt/
now it works

Thanks, but the tar approach made no difference.

Just for your information, the version of linux you use to set up your CF card appears to make some difference. I first tried this method with Fedora C4 installed on my PC. I had no luck and trust me I tried it about 100 times and with variations. I then installed SUSE 10.0 over the top of Fedora C4 and the first time I tried it guess what, IT WORKED. It would appear that some flavours of linux don't deal with CF cards very well. BTW uder FC4 I tried both a Kingmax 128MB CF card and a San Disk 512MB card and neither worked. Under SUSE 10.0 they both work!

The only problem I have now is that it would appear that my (old, very old) monitor cannot keep up with the refresh rate set by the x server in linux-2200. Anyone know how to change the default refresh rate?

Never mind about the refresh rate or resolution (posted above). I figured it out. /etc/XF86Config contains the required options to set the default refresh and resolution.

Thanks guys, good forum BTW!

(In response to post # 102)

HAL-LELUJAH!
HAL-LELUJAH!
hallelujah
hallelujah
HAL-LE-E-LU-JAH!!!

Yes, after all that, it came down to Fedora (4,5) I booted using a live CD of Ubuntu 6.06 and repeated the process.
And . . .
IT WORKED!!!!
(I also, just 'cause I could, maked the partition bootable, but that shouldn't make a difference as the box doesn't boot normally)
Now, after the better part of a year (on and off) trying to get the damn thing to boot, I can think about using it.

Thanks to all who suggested something along the way.

Great news Peter! Glad you finally got it working.

Michael, could you put a warning up on the top of the page about that (i.e. avoid using Fedora Core to write to the flash)?

Good idea.

I've updated the post.

Hey guys,

Wow what an awesome group! A friend and I just scored one of these N2200's each from a Computer market (curiosity), I've got to say you are all legends, I had mine up and running linux-2200 on a 1Gb CF card within a few hours of playing. My 2200 enclosure claims its a WXX, it came with WBT installed on a 16mb CF card, but the bios claims its an EXX. Either way Linux-2200 runs great!

Anyone bothered to mess with the PCI slot on the board yet?

-Andrew

Hello everybody,
I`m a newbie here but reading this site i got my netvista running on the firs tentative but there is a big problem that wasn`t discussed yet on this forum - so I`m thinking it´s a problem caused of my incompetence... Anyway I`ll post here hoping somebody can help me:
After booting the system my monitor is black & white and very dark - the way that I nearly cannot see anything.
In teh boot-menu i tried all resolutions e frequencies available. The testscreens always were OK..... My monitor is about fife years old 15`` - On my windows PC is working normally.
Is there anything wrong with graphical parameters configuration? How to correct this?

Thank you all

Thomas

Sorry for my bad English

Hi all, is it possible to use the N2200 as router/firewall? Can IPcop be put in the N2200? Thank you very much Cheers Marco

Anyone get the smbfs mounting figured out? Also, what needs to be added to XMMS to play videos? Like to use this thing as a media station if possible.

Thanks!

Too bad we can't figure out how to put GeexBox on this thing...that would ROCK!

has anybody tried pxe booting with this thin client?

This is a good forum. Lot's of information

I've just got my 2200 running linux. Thanks to everybody who has contributed.

I have had just one problem, which wasn't mentioned on the forum: your partition has to be of the type linux (83) when you create it in fdisk. Mine was fat16 at first and the system cannot recognize it that way. Maybe it can resolve some problems people had with non recognized cards.

Thanks again.

Is there a way to solve the problem of date and time?
Is it confirm that there is no HWCLOCK in this hardware?

Has anyone got a 4gb CF card working on thier box yet? Im just about to start playing and buy a new bigger card for my box just seeing if it worth slapshing out at the start.

Hi everybody,
I recently bought a N2200w with no flash card.
My goal is to make it boot with dhcp/tftp diskless (with root mounted over nfs)

I've flashed NS Boot Code with BL072902.
My N2200w correctly get an IP by dhcpd and get tftpd server adress correctly (I assume), but when it tries to load given filename, it returns error code NSB83600 Boot file server protocol not specified
I thought that use of tftp was implicit in DHCP informations.
Is that a N2200w problem ?

The other thing is that I can manually (configuring a static ip address and static parameters in NS Boot) get a boot file via tftp (I tried the given kernel by IBM/Lenovo TurboLinux 7, but i can't give it nfsroot address).
Are there specific kernel settings/mode I have to put ?

I'm a little lost at this point, thank you.

i wonder where i shall put the opera software i`ve looked into other forums and there was a guy who had put woody opera on hos machine and i wonder would that be something in the meanwile__ and if u can install please give us a brief on how to do it exactly

Hello, How to compile kernel 2.6.x to work with N2200? I mean what parameters should be set or unset to work with terminal and how to get uncompressed image?

Hi Michael,
well it works perfectly, You were right, it boots amazingly fast. at least twice as fast as my dual core desktop.

Well it's going in the car, as soon as i get a working gps receiver for it. It has ample processing power, it just needs a newer kernel. So i'm going to compile a gentoo 2.6 kernel for it. Should be able to strip it down well, just might need a tad more ram.

Such a nice little thing, i love it!!
Cheers Josh

Hello guys.

I am following this forum from 3 weeks ago, trying to setup Linux-2200 on my 4 Netvista 2200 units.

I have been focused in find an explanation for my first problem:
why N2200 doesn't recognize my flash cards?

After lots of reboots and tests, I have important information to share here.

1. There is no way to change the name of boot kernel:
Netvista will always looking for "/kernel.2x00" on the root. The only thing you can change is the path and name for something you want to reach via network. In my case I've used this function to upgrade the bios flash by TFTP. Really easy.

2. Bios configuration, important information!!!
If you already solve the bios upgrade, next step is too boot from flash. For me, this was the most difficult part to understand.
In Netvista Bios, hit "configure network settings" menu.
In "Boot File Source" you must change it to "Flash" and after do this, next menu item - "Profile location" - will be unavailable. If you hit it, you will be kicked out to "Main Menu". This is just normal, not a bug.

3. Compact Flash Card.
First thing: All the information here is based on 128MB CF cards.
Something I never read here was something about "media format". Even if you format CF card with ext2 linux partition is not enough for Netvista recognize your card. Here you have a result of my particular success in 128 MB cards when I do "# fdisk -l /dev/sdb"

"Disk /dev/sdb: 131 MB, 131072000 bytes
16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 500 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 512 * 512 = 262144 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 500 127984 83 Linux"

The important part was. Even if you create a partition in ext2 (83 - Linux), in case you have wrong Heads, Sectors and Cylinders, any information you put in flash card will not be recognizable by Netvista.

Resuming:

First you must configure media. This is what I made with success:

# fdisk /dev/sdb

'd'
delete all partitions you have on flash.

'x'
extra functionality (experts only)

'c'
change number of cylinders
(500 in my case)

'h'
change number of heads
(16 in my case)

's'
change number of sectors/track
(32 in my case)

'r'
return to main menu

'n'
add a new partition

'Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)' -> choose 'p'

'Partition number (1-4):' -> choose '1'

First cylinder (1-500, default 1): -> choose '1'

Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-500, default 500): -> choose 500

'w'
write table to disk and exit

if you have success, you will get this:

'The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.'

Now, formating media:

"# mke2fs /dev/sdb1"

and you will get something like this:

"mke2fs 1.39 (29-May-2006)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=1024 (log=0)
Fragment size=1024 (log=0)
32000 inodes, 127984 blocks
6399 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=1
Maximum filesystem blocks=67371008
16 block groups
8192 blocks per group, 8192 fragments per group
2000 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
8193, 24577, 40961, 57345, 73729

Writing inode tables: done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 39 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first. Use tune2fs -c or -i to override."

now, mounting the media:

I prefer to add a line in /etc/fstab to easily mount and umount your media, since the system will look always to the fstab to know what to do, so put this in /etc/fstab

'/dev/sdb1 /mnt/linux2200 ext2 defaults 1 2'

then mount simply with:

'# mount /dev/sdb1'

At this time you can go to '/mnt/linux2200' (my mount point) and put there what you want, Linux2200 will work really fine. Just follow the instructions in the begin of this page and will have Linux-2200 working on your IBM Netvista n2200.

To umount your media:

'# umount /dev/sdb1'

Don't forget to go out from the mount point before do 'umount', with something like

'# cd /'

NOW, THE MUST STUPID PART.

---------------------------------------------