Usb Working !!!! On Gp32linux :)

[Wolfsclaw]

no need for vcd player.... just takes away space, using divx makes the video files A LOT smaller - and we have gpcinema of course for that.

you guys are really doing an awesome job... and im still waiting for a mod to give toholl & ingeras guru status.

 

[OmarNawaz]

I second the step by step tutorial idea, cause im lost and dont want to be
also, we NEED a gp32linux forum
and damn I need to get a chatboard
also, if we had the space, couldnt we mount a usb female port IN the gp32 and have it be a hole like the current USB hole?
then we power it and it looks much sexy

~Octavious

damn, all hail linux

​

thats what i was thinking aswell was looking at some lithium polymer cells they are pretty small there seems to be room in the case but it will be a DRASTIC mod

i was thinking of incorpoating the battery along with some capacitors and resistors of course then wiring up the full usb socket, to charge the battery i was thinkin of rewiring the adpator socket on the bottom so it looks good.

The only hard part will be getting the power from the cell stable enough because i heard gp32 is very picky about these things.



BTW How realisitc do you think it will be to have a usb camera running on gp32 keeping in mind memory constraints

 

[ingeras]

i would like something small to power the usb hub
with batteries

3x1.5V AA -> 4.5 V is it enough to power the usb hub ???

the people making and selling chatboards may be interested ? try to contact them
or if someone else is willing to make something and is skilled

 

[cyberic]

I second the step by step tutorial idea, cause im lost and dont want to be
also, we NEED a gp32linux forum

​

I agree we need a gp32linux forum since long ago...

We could make one new forum on gp32x or on gp32linux.com

About the tutorial:

Remember that we are only at early stages of USB support.
It works, but, just to clarify:

- You NEED a POWERED hub to use your USB device (you cannot just plug the USB pendrive without providing any power), and take it in your pocket
- Current gp32 applications like GPCinema, MP3 players and so on CANNOT use this USB support. Anyway, you cannot even lauch a .fxe from gp32linux
- GP32linux can only make devices supported by linux, version 2.4.13. Drivers from later versions could possibly be backported.
But basically, now, you should be able to plug any hardrive to your GP using an external disk encosure. You should be able to BURN cds from you gp too, to use a USB keyboard/mouse or an ethernet card.

But every case has to be studied in order to provide real automatic support.

And remember that you can ONLY use this USB support with applications compiled for gp32linux. So if you want to manage files on your USB pendrive, you have to get a descent file manager... If you want to play videos, you have to get a movie player on gp32linux... Well I ported mplayer already, and I *think* (not tested) that reading a video file from the USB would be faster that from the SMC... So who knows what we can do with all of this...

I even heard that there exists USB video cards...

But to do it we need ideas, and TIME... I do not have much time know, neither Ingeras
...

I will have much more time in october.

All this was to say to stay tuned and that things will come, but we cannot provide a tutorial yet because every hardware is different, and we just began to test things ourselves...

If you have questions/ideas or if you know linux and want to test/develop some scripts, you're welcome...

C ya

 

[Sonic-NKT]

argh dont know enough about linux, i would like to help so much, would be cool to have a big (sure not to big distro) with most stuff in it, like a good file manager (x or not), mplayer (for music and video), webbrowser, something like notepad, image viewer, perhaps the flashplayer, some other funny programs dont know whats possible with 8MB
are you planning to make such a distro... argh i think i have to learn more about gp32 linux, sure it is not that hard to port some simple applications is it? what do i need to compile things for the gp32? is there a tutorial?

 

[Octavious]

well, can I get a list of what goes where file wise on the gp32 to run linux?
and then some basic comands unless a chatboard is required?
ill worry bout the USB later

also, what type of programming languages must you know to code for linux, or gplinux if thats differant?

~Octavious

 

[toholl]

This night, you can test the first gp32 webserver on http://81.56.203.169
The disponibility of the server will depend on my cells' power level

 

[DarkAeden]

hey toholl, can you make a initrd for no chatboard users and with usb compatibility? Thankx

 

[Sonic-NKT]

argh i was on his gp32
really coooool.
next time run a ssh server so that we can browse on your gp32
what is this thing you used to power the ethernet adapter, sure its selfmade.. could you make a tut for building this thing...

 

[DarkAeden]

yeah sonic...its a two usb port for pc! Right toholl! I would like to know how did you transforme it in a usb hub with 5 V. I already own an asus one of that thing...so ho to 5v it? Please make a tut

 

[toholl]

It is not a hub. It is a passive 2 connectors card from an old pc box.
I just used the 2 usb connectors where I added wires to cross the signals and to add the 5v.
Ok, I will give you a picture in 10 minutes.

 

[toholl]

I just used the connector and add 5v on big red and black wires.

 

[cyberic]

well, can I get a list of what goes where file wise on the gp32 to run linux?
and then some basic comands unless a chatboard is required?
ill worry bout the USB later

also, what type of programming languages must you know to code for linux, or gplinux if thats differant?

~Octavious

​

Basically you need a kernel (zimage) and an initial ramdisk (initrd)
They go in /gpmm/linux

We also have an additional package format (.sqf, which is a squashfs-compressed filesystem)

Everything depends on the kernel and the initrd....
You will find some pre made packages on gp32linux.com

For basic commands... ls, df, top... but if you have no chatboard there is no point using them...

We have to provide a distro where you can launch everything with the emulated mouse on the stick... But nothing is 'magic', we will have to package all this and make it really user friendly until is is really useable...

But people having an experience with linux could help us on any of these tasks.

If for instance somebody could code a simple launcher GUI using one of these toolkits: GTK (1 or 2), fltk, WxWindows, nano-X (even ncurses), it's would be fine...

For a programming language, u can use C, the difficulty is to find and to know one of the graphic toolkits mentionned above.
You can even code using bash scripts.... maybe soon in perl, but I think it would eat too much memory...

To popular GP32 apps out there:
Would you like to 'port' your apps to gp32linux? for instance gpmadMP3 or svorbis would be great....

ATM:
Sound is supported, althought there remain some glitches.... to be fixed
Framebuffer is supported, and is 90° rotated
Mouse is emulated
You have a complete glibc and additionar popular libraries: libjpeg, libpng, tremor, mad, ... SDL should be ok too...

I think that Unified GP viewer by Aquafish would be great, in order to watch your digital camera pictures on the GP....

Please wait a little bit for a useable distro... October will be a more quiet month for us, I think....

By the way, anyone interrested in my MSc Master Thesis: WWW study based on anonymised network traces? If so please PM me... Thx

If you need more info or are interrested in the development, please ask!

cyberic

 

[cyberic]

I just used the connector and add 5v on big red and black wires.

​

Ingeras said he didn't use this piece of hardware, his USB hub was ok on its own... I have a USB2 hub and I can use it without plugging it to a power source...
It should work as is as well

PS: the correct URL is http://jlefranc.free.fr/usb_alim.JPG (mind the caps)

 

[toholl]

Picture link is corrected: thanks Cyberic

 

[Seijuro]

Well...for the USB keyboards. I'm guessing there are SMALL usb keyboards out there. Maybe not as small as the chatboard but probably signficicantly smaller than "standard" keyboards. So it would be indeed carriable.

Now the next best thing would be...if there was some kind of smaller, mobile monitor/screen which would be connectable to the gp32...because with all this usb stuff, keyboard etc hooked on it it's display is a major disadvantage for me...

 

[cyberic]

Now the next best thing would be...if there was some kind of smaller, mobile monitor/screen which would be connectable to the gp32...because with all this usb stuff, keyboard etc hooked on it it's display is a major disadvantage for me...

​

Isn't there any USB display cards? ie a card that u plug on a USB port and it gives you a S video/Composite signal?

It could be a way to plug the gp to a TV...

 

[OmarNawaz]

Hmmm can some one help me out ( i know you must be getting tired of our whineing)


Anyway i want to make a webcam for the gp32 and in order to support my webcam i need to incorporate the correct drivers they are compatible with kernels 2.4.x is the gp32 linux hacked in some way that would amke it incompatible?

The drivers ar not my only problem i need something that actually acesses and captures from the webcam so does gp32 linux have the correct api's to do this so i can just put in somethin like camorama which has some arm releases?

because if i have to put in something like video4linux i am going to have alot of trouble because patches are practically non-existent for a kernel this old, thats how i have been advised anyway. :blink:

I know i must sound kinda of dumb it is because i am with all this linux stuff but hey if you guys can get it working aswell as taking care of your other resposibilites why cant a guy like me with alot of free time do it. :huh:



oops forgot some guy was telling me i need a fairly up to date version of gcc in order to get this running is it already incorporated or do i need to do some kind of ram upgrade to get all the neccesary libs running.



Thanks

 

[cyberic]

Hmmm can some one help me out ( i know you must be getting tired of our whineing)
1) is the gp32 linux hacked in some way that would amke it incompatible?

2) The drivers ar not my only problem i need something that actually acesses and captures from the webcam so does gp32 linux have the correct api's to do this so i can just put in somethin like camorama which has some arm releases?

3) because if i have to put in something like video4linux i am going to have alot of trouble because patches are practically non-existent for a kernel this old, thats how i have been advised anyway. :blink:

4) oops forgot some guy was telling me i need a fairly up to date version of gcc in order to get this running is it already incorporated or do i need to do some kind of ram upgrade to get all the neccesary libs running.

Thanks

​

Hi

It is a great idea!

Here are some answers:

1) Not really, but it uses kernel 2.4.13 which is quite old. It includes video 4 linux, which is required to use a webcam, but you may have to backport your particular webcam driver to the 2.4.13 kernel. What webcam do u have?

2) If you compile video4linux in the kernel, and if you can cross compile a webcam app using X windows or the framebuffer, it should be allright.

I suggest you fbtv.

It will require you to know how to [patch] and cross compile a kernel and the desired application.

3) ... maybe... or you could extract your particular driver from a more recent kernel, and backport it, hoping that the USB support hasn't changed too much between the two versions

4) Already incorporated? where? in gp32linux, the answer is no. You have to use a toolkit, as the one provided on the sourceforge project, to compile the kernel and your app ON YOUR PC.
You CANNOT compile your app directly on the GP, at least I don't think so... first you would have to cross compile... the compiler! and yes, in this case you would need a ram upgrade and... infinit batteries as well. Use a toolkit on your PC is a much better, faster, and easier solution.

Anyway, I hope you got the right answers, good luck and keep us informed!

cyberic

 

[OmarNawaz]

Thanks cyberic you are always helpful gimme a little time to assimilate the info i am kinda drunk :blink: right now but i will definetly give a update tomorow around lets say 7pm.


BTW i am noob to this linux stuff i have only got it running on 2 laptops and 1 pc but i will try my best to annoy people on other linux boards so i can get this running.