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1.0 INTRODUCTION
As Personal Digital Assistants have become more powerful and cheaper, we all knew it wouldn't be too much longer until the technology progressed enough (read: got cheap enough) to make available a viable handheld computer. There are about a half dozen such devices on the market at the time of this writing such as Compaq's iPAQ, Sharp's Zaurus, etc...most of which come pre-installed with WindowsCE. That is a good OS to be running on a handheld computer because it is simple. But I suppose if you're reading this document, then you agree with me: that that OS is *too* simple, or generic.
Based on that, this document will make some assumptions about your prowess with Linux. If you're still having a tough time with mounting filesystems, this document might not be for you. This is an abbreviated install procedure that's taken from the links found at the bottom of this page.
There are primarily 2 different mainstream distributions that can be installed on the iPAQ. PLEASE NOTE that there exist many other options than listed here, but this document will discuss the arguably most popular (read: most supported) They are:
- Familiar - The "standard" distribution on which you can choose one or more of 3 GUI interfaces:
- X-Windows - yes, ladies and gentlemen, a modified X-Windows with a small enough footprint to fit on the limited amount of memory of your iPAQ. There is constantly a growing list of applications that are small enough (memory-wise and screen-wise) to run on your iPAQ. It seems that most of these apps are Python programs which make it easy to customize.
- QTopia - A wonderful alternative to X-Windows. Made by developers of Trolltech with an interface more akin to a PalmPilot. At one time there were more applications written for Qtopia than X-Windows for the handheld, but at this time, the list is about equal.
- Opie - A fork of Qtopia that began because of Trolltech's licensing issues with Qtopia. This is a relatively new "distribution" with a VERY-fast growing list of applications to run on your iPAQ. Because these applications are not subject to Trolltech's licensing, they have the freedom to run on other platforms as well.
- Intimate - The "deluxe" distribution if you have a CF card with enough memory. Basically this is a Debian distribution for the ARM processor. With this amount of memory, many people enjoy almost any application that was written for X-windows, like KDE, Netscape, etc. However, most of those applications were not intended to run on a small 320x240 screen that the iPAQ has, so the usefullness is lessened because you have to move the application's windows around just to hit the "Cancel" button. Doable, but not optimized for a PDA.
This document will walk you through setting up your iPAQ with Familiar 0.5.1, Intimate, and Opie as default window manager. I like to call it Famintiopie.
This document is NOT the difinitive HOWTO on installing Linux on your iPAQ. This is an abbreviated procedure that I used to install Familiar, Intimate and Opie that I took from the following definitive instructions.
Bootloader Installation
Familiar Installation
Opie Installation
Intimate Installation