Starting my ultra-portable PC project (PCp?) update Nov 26th

tom61 · Post by **tom61** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 9:48 pm

Conn wrote:Wow, this looks awesome. Looking at the newest picture, there's a bit of empty space, expessially at the top. are you going to add speakers or something there? Or a CD drive in the space or something? I'm not meaning to nag, just wondering.

Also, resizing the pictures would be appreciated.

The PSONE screen will go there, and once it gets switched from laptop style to tablet style, the controls.

Sorry about the pic size, I'm without my PC most times, and the PC I posted from lacks horsepower to edit pictures of that size.

Niku-Sama wrote:you might need this

I'm planning to get a flexible riser, and probably fold it under the motherboard.

tom61 · Post by **tom61** » Sun Aug 14, 2005 7:49 pm

I finally got a chance to try out the GenKernel kernel, and unfortunately it hangs after freeing up some memory.

I guess I'll have to put some sort of liveCD-like distro on the HD. I found out that Mandrivia may need stuff from it's install CD after transfering to a new system, so I guess that's out.

Foxx373 · Post by **Foxx373** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 5:23 am

Try DamnSmall Linux. It can run from Live CD, or from HDD, and its only 50MB! I use it on some 350Mhz AMD machines wir 64MB of RAM,and it runs quite nicely from CD. Runs liek a DREAM from HDD. On my 500Mhz+ machines, it cant get any better. You might have to tweak the settings a littl ebit for your own GUI prefrences, and to tweak the boot time, but that goes to say with every OS.

tom61 · Post by **tom61** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 4:17 pm

Foxx373 wrote:Try DamnSmall Linux. It can run from Live CD, or from HDD, and its only 50MB! I use it on some 350Mhz AMD machines wir 64MB of RAM,and it runs quite nicely from CD. Runs liek a DREAM from HDD. On my 500Mhz+ machines, it cant get any better. You might have to tweak the settings a littl ebit for your own GUI prefrences, and to tweak the boot time, but that goes to say with every OS.

I'm have a female of the dog species of a time trying to get DSL onto a thumbdrive, which seems to be the best way to install it to my uPC. For some reason I can't find the command 'rotdash' used by the installer script on Gentoo or any LiveCD distro (including DSL).

Do you happen know if you transfer a harddrive installed with DSL to another system, will it work, even if the hardware is completely different, without tweaking?

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 8:20 pm

OMG, I'm...I'm ALIVE!!!!!!!!! (laughs and skips with joy)

But alas, my first PCp project crashed and burnt. I sold off many of my original parts, but here I am once more!

My new plan is for a significantly powerful machine, preferably with Intel Extreme 1 or 2 graphics, and perhaps an ultra-low-voltage Celeron M 1GHz CPU. Meanwhile, it will feature zero moving parts and fit, for the most part, within an external hard drive bay. Impossible you say (talking to no one in particular here)? Well, such specs are already readily available in 3.5" by 5.7" form factors, such boards are simply expensive and nearly impossible to come by.

Why so small? I bought an uber-cheap Inspiron 1200 recently, and anything larger than very small might as well be my laptop.

Well, I'm done rambling now.

tom61- can't wait to see yours finished. It will be nice to see someone actually finish their project for once ^_^

tom61 · Post by **tom61** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 2:36 pm

It'll get done eventually. I've been busy with college as of late, so I haven't worked on it. All I need to do is get the OS running, and solder up the power circuit. The Linux distros I've tried so far didn't directly transfer over to the new system. I'm very tempted now to try out FreeBSD, as users of it have said that it should be movable to a new system without trouble.

soundwave · Post by **soundwave** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 2:40 pm

Whats keeping you from just installing it on the ultra-portable PC itself?

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 8:21 pm

Soundwave- I trully hope you don't mean one of those Sony u50 things. How many times must I rave about the pride of DIY projects and the emense savings involved in many cases?

tom61- you know, you could always try (shifty eyes) Windows 98. Windows 98 has absolutely no problem moving from one system to another. I plan to use Windows 98, stripped to the bone, on my own slow-moving PCp project.

Speaking of my portable PC project, I have located the board which I believe will form the core of it: http://www.bwi.com/product/13566 An image of the fanless heatsink showed it to be no higher than a standard Dimm would be. I already have a 256 stick o' ram laying about somewhere. Storage will probably be a 1 or 2 GB CF card, making the entire thing "solid state"- no moving parts!

The runner up for my choice is this: http://www.bwi.com/proot/6960 Not only is the processor integrated, but so is 128MB of ram! Soldered right to the board. All I would need to do is get the CF card for storage (and the batteries, of course). Reasons for disliking it are- generally low-performance Via cpu, and generally low-performance S3 video chip.

Somehow, I don't see this project of mine reaching fruition until after Christmas.

soundwave · Post by **soundwave** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 10:00 pm

When did I mention sony?

And that board is quite nice.

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 7:47 am

Oh, I get it ~_~ I thought you meant "Install Linux on a prebuilt consumer ultra-portable PC." I see now that you meant "install linux directly onto the PCp"

My mistake ^_^

tom61 · Post by **tom61** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 2:16 pm

soundwave wrote:Whats keeping you from just installing it on the ultra-portable PC itself?

The fact that the board uses 44-pin IDE, the harddrive is 44-pin IDE, all the CDRoms I have are 40-pin or 50-Pin IDE, and I have only one adapter from 40-pin to 44-pin. I'd need two 40-pin to 44-pin IDE adapters, one for the board and one for the HD, to be able to install directly from CD. I don't have a need for that many adapters after this project, so I really don't want to purchase another adapter.

Unidentified Assilant · Mon Sep 12, 2005 1:50 pm

This is sounding awesome... I gotta make one!

xriverfalconx · Post by **xriverfalconx** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 11:24 pm

It sounds interesting to make...you got that right! How much was the board?

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 5:52 pm

Out of curiosity, how many of the members here have actually completed a portability project?

EDIT: And yes, this is relevant to this thread ~_~ I'd like to see people actually carrying out plans (cough-like tom61) for once.

EDIT AGAIN: -and I like examining personalized computer projects for signs of originality between builders

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 5:53 pm

wooo go me i have