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IA1 and Jailbait / Linux questions (modified 0 times) kemster Profile I installed Jailbait (from the image at http://nc.flyingbuttmonkeys.com/mirrors/IA1/) on my IA-1 last week. So far I've been pretty happy with it, but I've got some questions that I was hoping people in this forum could answer. Firstly, Jailbait is set up as 1 ext2 partition, and 4 cramfs partitions. Why is this? Why not all ext2, or one big ext2 partition? Why use cramfs at all? And why is the ext2 partition mounted read-only by default? Why not make it read/write? I don't know if it's just mine, but my IA-1 doesn't want to turn off :) If I hold down the keyboard power button, it'll power down, but then it just powers back up. Is it supposed to be like this? Is there any way to turn it off, short of unplugging it? And can Linux do any power management with it? My screen is always on, although it will black out (but doesn't turn off). Is there any way to have the screen totally shut off? Also my IA can't seem to hold the correct date. When I reboot, I lose the date. Did the battery on my mobo die, or is this normal? Thanks for the help. -kemster 12-02-2001 13:03:40

RE:IA1 and Jailbait / Linux questions (modified 0 times) bballctaulbee Profile - you may have answered your own question... if APM is not working on the IA-1 (although shutdown -r works), then it is probably best to use an ro filesystem (just yank the power cord out when done using the unit; you won't hurt the CF)... besides it's simple enough to mount it rw; considering its potential audience, perhaps ro is better? - no experience w/mkcramfs, so i don't know why about the partitioning scheme (perhaps using NFS to mount a more extensive /usr partition?) - have you tried using the clock command to save a correct system time to the hardware clock? you could also use rdate to get and set the date (this is what i use on my IBM Z50 running NetBSD).. 12-03-2001 07:10:40

RE:IA1 and Jailbait / Linux questions (modified 0 times) hwhack Profile I think the real answer was posted by someone else on this Topic, and that is that you do NOT want to do a bazillion writes to CF devices. Unlike normal disks, CF do have a somewhat limited lifespan - something on the order of less than 100,000 write cycles. It varies depending on the actual flash chips use in the CF. So I suppose the Jailbait folks are trying to do you a favor and not have RW access on by default... 12-03-2001 10:21:49

RE:IA1 and Jailbait / Linux questions (modified 0 times) bballctaulbee Profile - good point, and i believe you're right - personally, i like the read-only aspect of the hacked Jailbait image on the IA-1; it is very convenient... after getting the settings configured, i use a simple shell script on my server that launches my favorite clients and sets up the screen (including the background image)... - the IA-1 is a nice, compact little X terminal (a great complimentary piece of hardware to go with my Apple G4 Cube, which is also silent [no fan], and which runs PPC Linux like a champ!) 12-03-2001 16:39:01

RE:IA1 and Jailbait / Linux questions (modified 0 times) ranman Profile Kemster, I think that all IAones work just the same as yours with respect to the power button because they all use an AT power supply. Thus, (with an AT PS) by holding the power button for 4 seconds it will just power down and then back up. But with an ATX PS (like most desktops) it would shut off completely. In win98, but selecting shutdown, it will show the "it is now safe to turn off computer" screen, just as it does on an old pentium 233 AT system I have. I am not sure about the date. Is the battery good? Is it inserted fully / making a good contact? ranman 12-03-2001 19:13:31

RE:IA1 and Jailbait / Linux questions (modified 0 times) kemster Profile Thanks for the answers to my questions, but I'm back with a few more :) I created a new account on my IA-1, a home dir, etc. I can log in and run startx fine, but I can't start a rxvt term. Anyone have this problem, or know what causes it? I can see the term starting to begin, but then it exits immediately. Both as root, and as a user, Netscape will not save my preferences, even when the filesystem is rw. The preferences.js file is always 0 bytes regardless. Is there a way to map those annoying keys on the keyboard to useful ones, like the "F" keys? I'd kill for an F1, F2, etc. Or a Delete key. How can I send a Ctrl+Alt+Del? :) And lastly, a repeat from last time: Why use cramfs at all instead of just one big ext2 partition? 2 cookies for anyone who answers one of my questions. Many thanks. -kemster 12-04-2001 15:32:53

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