Quick notes

As expected my son is occupying me a lot. But I had some Innovation Time Off accumulated at work so I worked on Palms a bit.

USB client is not working well for all PXA machines, but palmtreo.c code had missing some more functionality - connection worked only once when booting with cable attached. I fixed this with following marex's patch adding this support for PalmLD, PalmTX and PalmT5. It works now better, but it stops working after suspend/resume. I'll try to dig into code. I have found that GPIO90 works same way as GPIO1 - USB detection - weird.

Support for MAX8588 and PI2C was added and it seems to work. Funny about this is, that I tried to use CPU at 416 MHz in Linux at the same voltage as it was set in PalmOS for 312 MHz. I started to use Linux on 520 MHz and it works nice.

Camera differs from the ones found in other Palms (understand - I tried to follow marex's patch for Zire72 camera but it did not work :). I disassembled my Treo680 and tried to trace GPIOs. The only one new GPIO I have found is GPIO82. You can see photos here and here. I don't know currently what type it is and I didn't even found it on I2C bus yet. Interesting is that this module has 20 pins.

I also did some tiny code cleanups but I have to create patch set and push so you can use it too.

If you want some up-to-date distribution, you can try Ångström distribution - they started to provide online builder where Palm Treo 650 can be found. You can use such image, just put there new kernel and modules. Beware of udev and CONFIG_SYSFS_DEPRECATED. I tried OPIE (didn't work), GPE (worked somehow) using mdev instead of udev.

You can also prepare Debian root filesystem using qemu. There is prepared kernel and base system here you can use as a start. If there will be time spare I'll make some automated up-to-date Debian root filesystem generator for Palms. For getting files out of qemu disk when the virtual system is off use kpartx and raw image type.

Good night!

Palm over USB - NetworkManager without ModemManager

Maybe you found an annoying problem with recent NetworkManager with integrated ModemManager.
When you attach your Palm over USB to PC with NetworkManager, ModemManager tries to open every new serial device and it causes Palm reset.
You can workaround this problem by disabling ModemManager at all:
# mv /usr/share/dbus-1/system-services/org.freedesktop.ModemManager.service ~

I'll try to make some list of USB IDs and correct serial ports, but the best would be disable ModemManager for these devices at all.

Is there any other way to use serial port of Palm Smartphone to communicate with modem than using 'USB Modem' application? It even uses some other serial device - ttyACMx...

RING again

I don't have much time so just small overview:

• Centro patches finally applied


• suspend is broken on Treos, Centro, TX and probably others, probably git bisect is needed


• Centro has problem with framebuffer, I have some idea about possible fix, it has top priority now


• I still haven't found the way, how to run GSM when powered off in PalmOS, but you can power it on in PalmOS and use older cocoboot.prc from my page and get your RING again


• I added context menu symbol to Treo xkb map, useful when you miss right click with touchscreen, if you use it, you can update


• It seems that power consumption is lesser in Linux than in PalmOS even with higher clock! Photos on my facebook profile (yes, I was finally Facebookized too, resistance is futile ;)


• I'll be dad in a month so I'll have less time for this project, sorry.


• QtExtended support older brother of GSM (in Greenphone) chip residing Treos. It should be quite easy to add support! Volunteers needed.


• This blog entry was written on Treo680 using Illume on Debian. It's not as fast as good old Opie, but it's much more usable. I've even better impression than from SHR on FreeRunner!


• There are first attempts about Treo755p, but it will need more time.

Things in my TODO list now:

1. fix Centro framebuffer (release kernel)


2. fix GSM problem (release kernel)


3. fix gsm0710muxd and FSO


4. try to fix suspend (if Marex won't care)


5. build kernel for TX, LD, T5


6. rework install_script.sh (better rights management, support for halmount, add more options)

Let there be another blog

Just short message for now.
I decided to move my old blog here. Jabbim Live! (blog accessible from jabber) is good idea, but current status doesn't fulfill my needs so I switched to something more fitting.

Current status - it seems that I missed current merge window with my Centro changes. It should just mean that it will be better tested and merge ready soon.
This merge is most important for me to see if the way of adding new model is acceptable by upstream.

Thanks to desertdog I've got now Treo 755p too. I'll start to work on that when Centro patch will be in acceptable state.

Stay tuned.