1. Install the bootloader
2. Install Familiar
3. Install Opie
4. Install Intimate
5. Make Opie the default WM for both Familiar and Intimate.

• One (1) Compaq iPAQ.
  • You have several models to choose from (3100,3600, 3700, 3800) Take note that there are variances within each group. For example, I have a model 3765.
  • Also, when someone refers to a package for the 3600, then you can assume that it will work for any 3600 AND 3700 series, treat the 3600 and 3700 as the same. The 3800 came out with a very different hardware setup and configuration. The 3100 also has a different hardware setup than the other two groups.
• One (1) Serial cable for the iPAQ.
  • Sorry, but iPAQs these days are being sold only with a USB cradle. This unfortunatley won't help us because by the time that we need to install Familiar, the iPAQ does not yet have any USB drivers installed on it, so we use a serial cable and a terminal program like Hyperterminal on Windows or minicom on Linux. You can get a cable directly from Compaq for around $32.

• One (1) Dual-card expansion sleeve
  • Though there have been reports of finding one of these on e-bay, they are few and far between. The final price on e-bay for a dual-card expansion slot has normally been about $15 cheaper than direct from Compaq. Your choice as to where to get one, but be prepared to spend around $200 for a dual-card expansion sleeve. For the purposes of this HOW-TO, you *COULD* get away with a single-card sleeve, but that will limit you to installing Intimate (+15MB) on your single-sleeve CF card via PPP connection. Not pretty.
• One (1) Network Card
  • The hardware compatibility list for a NIC can be found at http://www.handhelds.org/z/wiki/IpaqHardwareCompatibilityEthernet. I went with the NetGear FA411 because it works, my local hardware store had one in stock and they're relatively cheap. I've had NO problems with it.
• One (1) CF Card with atleast 140MB capacity.
  • This is gonna be expensive. Taken from the Intimate web page "The minimum requirements are currently around 140MB of storage for the base image." IBM offers a 1GB CF Microdrive for about $400, but you can get cheaper ones for less memory. There have been rumors that 5GB PCMCIA card have worked with an iPAQ for about the same cost as the CF card. I can't verify or deny those claims. For more information about the CF card, check out http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/micro/datasheet.htm. One thing to point out is that when I ordered one at the end of December, 2001, they were sufficiently backordered that I didn't receive it until the first week of February, 2002. Moral: these cards are HOT, and people want them now! Be prepared to wait.

****MUY IMPORTANTE!!!*** ****VERY IMPORTANT!!!*** ****FLASH NEWS!!!**** ****TOP SECRET!!!*** ****FOR U.S. MILITARY ONLY!!!***

good, now that I have your attention...

A couple of notes here:

• We'll be installing Familiar 0.5.1, so you'll want at least bootloader 2.18.01
• We'll be installing all this on an iPAQ 3600 or 3700 series. Familiar 0.5.1 is not yet ready for the 3800 series iPAQ. If you have a newer (3800 series) iPAQ, you can still acomplish a Famintiopie install, but you'll be breaking new ground here and if you're successful, then you probably don't need to be reading this document anyway :)
• You will go to a web page for complete details to install the bootloader, but finish reading these few pointers first.
• Feel free to skip the section titled "The Installation is Complete!" on that web page, this document will guide you through the Familiar installation.
• However, DO read the last section "Getting to the Bootldr Prompt"

Return here after you read and followed the instructions at: ftp://ftp.handhelds.org/pub/linux/compaq/ipaq/stable/install.html

Good Job! Well done! Have a soda, the critical part is over!

1. Download a jffs2 image to your desktop.
2. Use that ultra-cool serial cable that I mentioned earlier to establish a serial connection from your desktop computer and transfer over the jffs2 image to the iPAQ.
3. Establish a PPP connection on the iPAQ to the inter-web.
4. SSH to the iPAQ.

This is a really easy portion of the install. Once the jffs2 image has been transferred over to the iPAQ, you should end up with the login: prompt. At this point you will have a functional, though boring, Linux on your iPAQ. Once you get into the shell, you will need to setup the PPP connection. This also is not complicated. The PPP connection is especially simple if you have a Linux box to host the ipaq. After the PPP connection is done, you can SSH to the iPAQ and start getting down to doing some wonderful magic.

Note here that if little short green people with antennas botch up your install, youre totally okay. You can always restart the installtion. It's only the bootloader that has a real hazzard.

AFTER you're done reading this paragraph, go to http://familiar.handhelds.org/familiar/releases/v0.5.1/install/H3600/install.html for details of the installation and return here when your iPAQ can ping the internet. WAIT!! Did you finish reading this paragraph? Don't bother installing packages at this point. We simply want to get Familiar installed and connected to the Internet. I'll walk you through which packages to install later. I'll wait here and have a soda while you get that set up. Go now.

You're BACK! Great! Have a soda!

Now that your iPAQ has a working Linux on it and is connected to the Internet, let's start making it useful. We'll be using a little program called ipkg to install and remove programs (packages) on our iPAQ. First thing you'll want to do is to get an updated list of available packages. You do this by issuing:

ipkg update

Super, now you can take a look and see what's available with:

ipkg list

Now copy and paste the following line into your shell:

ipkg install h3600-utils apmd vim pump udhcp udhcp pcmcia-modules-2.4.16-rmk1 pcmcia-cs dtask-intimate-modules-2.4.16-rmk1

What you're installing, as taken from the description of the ipkg list:

• h3600-utils - utilities for controlling hardware on Compaq iPAQ computers. This package contains programs for controlling the backlight, contrast (sic) as well as the leds on the Compaq iPAQ H3100/H3600/H3700 series of handheld computers
• apmd - Utilities for Advanced Power Management (APM) on laptops
• pump - Simple DHCP/BOOTP client.
• pcmcia-modules-2.4.16-rmk1 - pcmcia modules for kernel 2.4.16-rmk1
• pcmcia-cs - PCMCIA Card Services for Linux.
• task-intimate-modules-2.4.16-rmk1 - kernel and modules required to run Intimate

cardctl status

It should return with something like:

Socket 0:
3.3V 16-bit PC Card
function 0: [ready], [bat dead], [bat low]
Socket 1:
5V 16-bit PC Card
function 0: [ready]


If you get a "command not found" error, then for some whacky reason pcmcia-cs did not install. Try again. Oh that failed too? Have a soda and get onto #handhelds.org and see if someone there can help ya out.

Next, you'll want to configure your NIC to be recognized. This is done by editing the /etc/pcmcia/config file. If your card is not specified there, I suggest you take a look at ihttp://www.handhelds.org/z/wiki/IpaqHardwareCompatibilityEthernet to see what special drivers you'll need to use. For example, my FA411 card isn't in the options file. I had to manually enter in information about the card like this:

card "NetGear FA411 Fast Ethernet"
version "NETGEAR", "FA411"
bind "pcnet_cs"


Hopefully your card is already supported and you won't have to make any changes.

The /etc/pcmcia/network.opts file is where you will specify an IP address for your iPAQ. In my situation, I had a spare IP address that I assigned to the iPAQ, so it was fairly easy to get it on the network. For those of you who don't have a spare IP, I suggest setting up one of your Linux boxes (you DO have one, don't you?) with DHCP services to provide the iPAQ an IP address. Setting up DHCP is outside the realm of this document, but here are two hints:

• Leave the iPAQ's /etc/pcmcia/network.opts file unchanged. It is defaulted to requesting an IP address from a DHCP host.
• Read up on http://www.linuxdocs.org/HOWTOs/mini/DHCP/

Now if you have any problems upto this point, I'd suggest:

1. Searching through the Mail archive at http://handhelds.org/mailman/listinfo/handhelds.
2. Mailing the problem to the mailing list.
3. Hop on IRC to look for someone that has an answer.

echo "src opie http://opie.handhelds.org/feed/ipaq" >> /etc/ipkg.conf && ipkg update && ipkg install task-opie

Tough, huh?

What you just did was edit the /etc/ipkg.conf file (the file that tells your iPAQ where to get it's packages) and added in "src opie http://opie.handhelds.org/feed/ipaq" (without the quotes). Then you updated your list with the opie packages and installed the task-opie package. Now you can have some fun and start installing any opie package that you'd like. I normally comment out the line that has handhelds.org in it and ipkg update. This makes for a MUCH smaller list, and thus more readable. You can always uncomment it later to get the full list of available packages. When you're satisfied with your packages, reboot to see it's effects. Have fun, play around with these new apps. I'm sure you're gonna like it.

"*** Do not use the intimateboot package from the familiar 0.5 feed (intimateboot_2.2). It does not work with the 2.4.16 series bootloaders. Instead, you should use http://intimate.handhelds.org/installer/intimateboot_0.5-1_arm.ipk which will work correctly."

Do that. Download that .ipk and install it. LATER, when you get prompted by Intimate's last question of it's install script "Would you like to install the intimateboot package [y/N] ?" SAY NO Thank you. Just did that. This boot package is a REALLY convenient way of having your iPAQ dual-boot depending on whether or not you have a CF card. Basically, if you want to boot into Intimate, the scripts starts up Familiar with it's modules and most importantly, the pcmcia-cs card manager and then pivot roots to the CF card. Neato, huh?

Next, put in your CF card but do not mount it.

Then, copy and paste the following line at your command prompt:

mkdir -p /tmp/intimate && cd /tmp/intimate && wget http://intimate.handhelds.org/installer/installer && sh installer

Check the Intimate web page for details of what's happening but in brief, it's downloading the 15MB base2_2.tgz tarball from Deban (yap, that's why we set up your NIC beforehand), xfree86, some X apps and the default Blackbox window manager. Once that's all done, let's reboot to make sure everything works. Now you'll notice that you have a menu on the iPAQ screen after the bootloader does it's thing.

Now there is a bug that I haven't gotten around to troubleshooting yet. When I select "boot Intimate", the script informs me that it "Can't find /dev/hda1", the CF card. Simply eject the card, and re-insert it, and the loader will like that and continue booting. I'll update this document when I find a fix for it.

After completing those instructions, one last reboot to make sure everything is working, and Viola! You now have a fully functional iPAQ whether or not you have the CF card installed.