Revol

FAQ

• Did you write this?

  Well, not really. Its related to Psilinux which is a project to port linux to Psions. When I started, the port to the Revo was pretty much complete, but no decent distribution existed for it (though there were some for the Revo+). The focus of Psilinux is on the 5MX, so I put this distribution together to better support the Revo.

• Can I keep all my existing files in EPOC while I try linux?

  Any files on your palmtop will be lost when you boot linux. It is advised that you make backups of any essential files before you install. You will need quite a bit of free space for the install, so you may have to delete some files to install.

• How can I change virtual terminal?

  The 'menu' key is generally the same as the 'alt' key on PC keyboards. You can switch console by pressing menu-1,2,3 etc. Similarly, pressing ctrl-menu-backspace equates to ctrl-alt-del and will cause init to reboot the system.

  Console 1 provides a default shell, you can start extra shells on consoles 2-5. Consoles 9 and 10 show the syslog output and kernel messages.

• How do I type a pipe (|) ?

  Fn-T.

• You always run as root! Dont you know this is bad practice?

  Maybe on desktop/server machines, but this is a PDA. I decided it was pointless to bother with multiple users on a palmtop. If you damage the system, you can simply install it again fairly quickly.

• Why does the filesystem have a peculiar layout?

  I wanted to keep the filesystem simple so the layout is slightly different to a normal linux distribution. I have tried to keep it generally similar to the usual layout, however.

• How do I start PicoGUI?

  From the console, type 'P'. This should automatically start PicoGUI.

• How do I change the PicoGUI theme?

  Edit /etc/pgserver.conf and change the themes= line. There are several themes to choose from in /pgui/themes.

• How can I set up a serial connection to my desktop linux machine?

  There is a copy of pppd included which you can use to set up a PPP link if you wish. However, I usually use the simpler SLIP protocol.

  Firstly, on your desktop machine (you need SLIP support in the kernel or the SLIP kernel modules loaded), execute the following commands as root:

  slattach -s 115200 /dev/ttyS0 &
  ifconfig sl0 10.0.2.1 pointopoint 10.0.2.2
  

  (This assumes the revo cradle is on COM1, substitute ttyS0 for your serial port otherwise)

  Next, on the Revo, simply execute /bin/connect. This performs similar commands to the ones above to set up the link on the Revo side. Hopefully, if the link is running you should be able to test the link by pinging the revo (ip 10.0.2.2) from the desktop machine. You can perform simple transfers between the desktop and revo using netcat (nc).

• Shouldnt this be called GNU/Linux?

  Actually, no. The argument for GNU/Linux is that most linux systems are a modified version of the GNU system which has been around for longer than linux has. However, Revol uses embedded versions of the standard parts of the operating system normally provided by GNU tools (uclibc instead of glibc, busybox instead of the GNU fileutils etc). So Revol is a non-GNU linux system and it would be incorrect to call it GNU/Linux.