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hi all,
i'd be interested in adding WiFi capabilities to the Gizmondo game console.
while adding the hardware (using an SD Wifi Card) would be trivial, i assume that there is not WiFi support in the ROM at all. so just installing the drivers will not be enough, won't it?
can anybody of the ROM hacking gurus around here give me an educated guess how difficult it would be to add the missing WiFi capabilities?
the Gizmondo uses Window CE 4.2, so i assume most of the missing stuff should be available in the Window CE Platform Builder, right?
thanks a lot,
Daniel
drgoldie: you might want to check out dedicated gizmondo forums for this kind of hacking.
Platform Builder is good for reference, but not very useful for implementing things on a real device, without a full BSP for the device in question.
In this instance, what you're lacking presumably is the wifi card drivers (by the wifi card's manufacturer), irrespective of whether the device can support the external expansion (which it probably can).
V
hi V,
i am in contact with the Giz hacker guys, but is seems nobody is working on this yet.
the wifi card drivers would probably come with the wifi card, wouldn't they?
my question is more about if there is something missing the OS besides the card drivers. shouldn't there be a WiFi stack in order to do WiFi...?
Daniel
If they're using a standard CE build, you might just be lucky and wifi is built in - subject to the driver. However, given how modular CE is, you might be unlucky!
The driver - well, presuming it's a mainstream wifi card, you've probably got WinMobile drivers, but I'm not sure about cross-compatibility with CE. So, obviously you're in luck if your OEM provides CE drivers, but if they don't - writing your own wifi drivers for the card might be ugly.
However, my advice would be - just stick the card in and see what happens! The OS could lack wifi support, a compatible driver, or both! But before re-implementing wifi in the OS, consider availability of your card's drivers first.
V
well, i don't have any sd wifi card yet.
i was planning to buy this one
http://www.socketcom.com/product/WL6207-600.asp
because it comes with a lot of software...
any recommendations for specific WiFi cards?
Daniel
Hey all,
I've just got hold of a HTC Alpine and was looking to get either WM5 or WM6 working on it. (Don't stop reading this isn't a "is there a rom update available? question").
I've noticed that people have sucessfully developed new osroms for others like the Blue Angel (I used to have one , but obviously nobody has for the Alpine, so I thought I'd try to knock one up myself.
However, I've fallen quite out of my depth. Can anybody provide some bullets about how the Blue Angel osroms were produced, in fact any guidance or "don't even bother" flames are appreciated.
So far I have done this:
1) I've run up my own extrom and upgraded the radio so I now have a feel for flashing it and such.
2) I've got the old osrom and tried to extract it (hoping for salvagable drivers from wince 4 that might port across) - unfortunatly I can't figure out how to pull the thing apart. I've seen some perl scripts floating about, but if anybody could point me to the latest version of the right one it would be appreciated.
3) I've got my hands on a copy of the platfrom builder for wince 5 (I know both WM5/WM6 are based upon it) - however have now discovered that windows mobile itself isn't included :-(.
I'm probably not even going through the right motions, or it might be plain impossible, but at least I'll know.
Thanks in advance,
Josh
As far as I know they got the rom from another phone with a newer os, transfered the drivers and removed some things that would not work with the ba.
I'm pretty sure that isn't this simple but is something like this
Unfortunately this is a "don't even bother" post.
ROMs are cooked for devices that either:
a) Have a brother with almost identical hardware that got a newer OS. (like prophet / wizard duo)
b) Have a test version of newer OS leaked but never released.
Because driver architecture is different between WM 2003 and WM 5 even if you could take the ROM apart you could not just take the WM 2003 drivers and use them with WM 5 OS .
As for Platform Builder - nothing there. To build a ROM for a device you need its BSP (Board Support Package) which is what lets you compile a ROM for specific hardware. As far as I know one of those has never ever been leaked from HTC (or other OEM).
Plus, to get your hands on a Windows Mobile version of PB (yes it is actually a different version) you need to be an OEM or a "MS partner" company.
Right, well if the driver architecture has changed then I'm pretty much buggered for plan a.
The blue angel is pretty similar driver wise, isn't it? As far as I can tell the only differences are the camera and the lack of a keyboard (obviously ram/proc too). But I suppose the ASICs/CPLDs are nothing like each other. So that plan's probably out of the window too.
It's not looking too hopeful at the moment....
Josh
jleahy said:
Right, well if the driver architecture has changed then I'm pretty much buggered for plan a.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The drivers are completely different between the two devices. While you probably would be able to extract a number of drivers from the Alpine WM2003 ROM, and while (with luck) they could/should work in the (ported) WM5 OS ROM, there is another MAJOR hurdle which would need to be overcome ...
jleahy said:
The blue angel is pretty similar driver wise, isn't it? As far as I can tell the only differences are the camera and the lack of a keyboard (obviously ram/proc too). But I suppose the ASICs/CPLDs are nothing like each other. So that plan's probably out of the window too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's exactly the issue - the Alpine, while being VERY similar to the Blue Angel is different enough in the hardware to not be able to use the same code. In every ROM there is a Boot portion which is device specific (XIP section), which initializes the hardware before the OS starts - very similar to the BIOS in your PC. There has been (very) limited success in getting the Alpine to boot using a Blue Angel based ROM, but it HAS been done.
The largest problem is that there is no support for initializing the Radio ROM - i.e. phone support. So, while we MIGHT be able to make a ROM which can boot on the Alpine, we would only be able to make one which (MOSTLY) worked, and would NOT have any Phone/Radio/BT/etc. capabilities. Basically, your Alpine would become a glorified PDA ... only.
jleahy said:
It's not looking too hopeful at the moment....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope ... as said before - without the BSP, and hardware initialization ... it'd be like trying to boot your Mac using a PC BIOS. (Although, scarily - that's getting closer and closer to be the truth ... !!!)
Hi there,
I still got one of these jewel, and I was wondering if a Wallaby ROM would fit in, given both units got the same processor...
Any idea or other suggestion?
Thanks.
unlike windows for pc's where tons of tons of tons of drivers are included
lack of space result in roms for pda's being 100% taylored
including only the drivers required to boot
if one of those drivers fail the device never starts
even 2 HTC devices with the same cpu cant share roms
dont hold your breath about port from htc wallaby to 56x because they share cpu
Rudegar said:
unlike windows for pc's where tons of tons of tons of drivers are included
lack of space result in roms for pda's being 100% taylored
including only the drivers required to boot
if one of those drivers fail the device never starts
even 2 HTC devices with the same cpu cant share roms
dont hold your breath about port from htc wallaby to 56x because they share cpu
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's probably the most educational and informative reply I ever got on a forum. Thanks for that!
I searched on the Net and was unable to find anywhere an upgrade for this PDA. That doesn't matter really, given it's quite old. I'll keep it for playing Worms (screen is cool!)
Just wondering I'm using Athena Intel 624Mhz. I noticed that Shift WM is only using 400Mhz Qualcomm processor. Does this mean the Shift WM will be slower than the Athena intel based 624Mhz? Does anybody have any benchmarks or real life comparisons?
I'm very interested with Shift but I'm afraid the performance hit would be very hard to bear.
Thanks
I have both Athena and Shift, there is no noticeable speed difference between them, although I cannot install many apps on the Shift due to the size constraints.
Thanks for the input.
I love my Athena a lot. I'm afraid that I will miss so much from Athena with Shift. I'm more interested in the windows mobile department than in the Vista department. Since performance such as snappiness is very important.
Can you actually synchronize Shift to your laptop computer using activesync similar to Athena?
I have a bunch of data files and emails on my laptop, with athena synchronized via activesync. I'm afraid with Shift, it will be a lot of work to keep the files synchronized with my laptop.
SnapVue/WM on the Shift, can't "see" the USB port on the device (that may or may not change in the future) so you can't sync it directly to another laptop via ActiveSync. You can however sync it to its own Vista side via activesync if you've liberated your Shift.
However, it seems to me that if you aren't particularly interested in the Vista side of the device, it's likely that it isn't the device for you in the first place - your Athena is probably more than capable enough for your needs. It's really a Vista PC first, and a WM device second.
Regards,
Dave
foxmeister said:
SnapVue/WM on the Shift, can't "see" the USB port on the device (that may or may not change in the future) so you can't sync it directly to another laptop via ActiveSync. You can however sync it to its own Vista side via activesync if you've liberated your Shift.
However, it seems to me that if you aren't particularly interested in the Vista side of the device, it's likely that it isn't the device for you in the first place - your Athena is probably more than capable enough for your needs. It's really a Vista PC first, and a WM device second.
Regards,
Dave
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
correct. we can enhance the wm more but it will always be umpc first.
Thank you Guys for the input.
jlingo said:
Thank you Guys for the input.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
np. we are here to help.
Has anybody tried http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=592663 ? I think maybe that TG01-D3DM might do some good to our device, I want to test it in next two weeks (unfortunately without internet =( ). On my old E-TEN X800 the cooked GAPI driver made a big difference, so I hope something would help our device as well =)
This driver is only for Snapdragon cpu
I tried neoS2007 and GFXboost,I haven't seen any difference ...
X2 has already the graphic driver.