Puppy on a Rocky II RT686 military grade laptop

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Puppyt
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Puppy on a Rocky II RT686 military grade laptop

#1 Post by Puppyt »


Last edited by Puppyt on Wed 11 Apr 2018, 23:45, edited 3 times in total.
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Puppyt
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#2 Post by Puppyt »

LOOKING BACK, LOOKING FORWARD
A glib heading to explain a basket of additional details for anyone who might consider renovating a similarly-vintaged military laptop.

The RT686 (and its upgrade models RT686EX and RT786) were built around 1998-2002, and appear as fanless, unlabeled motherboards. The basic model is (was) made by different companies across the world - Opentec in Australia, Amrel in the USA, Roda in Germany, Toughnote/Terralogic in the UK etc. (A large company called MilDef has bought out Amrel, Terralogic and others in Scandinavia.) Might be a cost-effective option to Using the alumininum/magnesium alloy case for other projects, perhaps with a modern replacement motherboard equivalent (unusual form factor?). Caddy/cassette modules for batteries, hdd, dvd/cd/spare battery appear interchangeable between the various companies (e.g., Amrel, Roda and Opentec) and might provide a cost-effective route for after-market replacements - might even be compatible with very recent laptops still made by Roda, for example...

Apart from the usual hardware limitations from the Pentium era, the Linux kernel has dropped support for the opl3sa2 (Yamaha) / Neomagic 256 (snd-nm256) soundcard I understand is common for the RT686. Drivers can be manually added back into kernels from 2.3.x onwards (Puppy 430-era I think). I currently have no knowledge or expertise in that route. OOTB audio from Puppy 412 and earlier, I understand - though results may vary... and everyday web browsing is likely to be affected (no SSE2 support in those older CPU's, lets not discuss glibC and gtk etc evolutions...) And yet, working PIII RT686's with XP on board are currently selling for U$300 on eBay. What the?

Basic BIOS - not updated since 2003 AFAIK. Booting from USB (1.1) is enabled - but not natively through PCMCIA if you have USB2.0 etc. Even with FAT32-formatted boot sticks like I have been using (8GB), often the flashdrive is skipped in normal bootup. I haven't worked out if YUMI vs Unetbootin etc might be an issue. I have been working through using PLOP on cd to go back to booting flashdrives via PCMCIA.USB2.0 - however PLOP doesn't work with all pcmcia cards apparently, and perhaps there are differences depending on which pcmcia slot is in use.
I noticed that IRQ allocation for the neomagic audio card varied on bootup, depending on what "integrated peripheral" choices I tinkered with. Has not yet translated into a working soundcard OOTB yet in Puppy 5+ puplets, so I will go back to the earlier versions to see what results I *should* be getting.

UPDATE 05-Apr; with a spate of dropouts before xwin started properly for a few Puppy versions on my multiboot, I considered that my BIOS settings might not have been ideal. I had disabled UART1 and UART2 settings at some point earlier, in an effort to free up IRQ resources and have the soundcard drivers ample space to load without conflicts and oversights in the linux kernel when it loaded... just a theory. Anyway, went back to selecting "failsafe" configurations and the first Puppy that I tried thereafter (Hungarian PrecisePuppy571 k.3.2.48) had the soundcard working after using alsaconfig after bootup.
Last edited by Puppyt on Wed 04 Apr 2018, 02:56, edited 2 times in total.
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mistfire
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#3 Post by mistfire »

You can try X-Slacko Slim

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#4 Post by Puppyt »

Thanks for the recommendation mistfire - I downloaded your latest/yesterday's iteration of Xslacko-Slim, and also the fdrv sfs to include for any additional drivers, cheers! Will report back later today, Best Wishes.

UPDATE: I've spent about an hour with it mistfire, and no joy with audio just yet. I've collated some lsmod/lspci outputs for reply on your thread, if it will help to spot any elephants in the room (oops hadn't included the fdrv with my earlier tests...)
Last edited by Puppyt on Wed 04 Apr 2018, 02:35, edited 2 times in total.
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#5 Post by dancytron »

I have a substantially similar Itronix ix-250 GoBook, which is probably police or fire department surplus (military ones usually didn't have hard drives.) 512 Meg of Ram, P-III type Celeron 800 Mhz.

It originally ran (and still runs) Windows 2000. I've used a variety of puppies on it, the one that seemed the most successful was the original Lupu 5.28. Another thing that runs well on it is Debian Dog Squeeze https://debiandog.github.io/doglinux/zz ... ueeze.html .

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#6 Post by Puppyt »

Cheers dancytron - I recall that I actually *had* the RT686 working well with Puppy as an online music server, via a pcmcia wifi card, to international country music radio stations for my invalid mother-in-law. Can't remember what Puppy version/puplet I was using. I seem to recall that at the time I had the setup running on an SD card on an ATA adapter, and it ran really well with a set of amplified speakers from the headphone jack. It could well have been a 5.2.8 edition - I don't recall running into soundcard problems earlier, and here I've been chasing my tail: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 639#699639; http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 051#698051 where I mention using Upup precise 3.7.2 and Lucid528 without kernel issues...

I did however uncover a similar project I was using for the kids and a library of DOS games. Boots into FreeDOS and a comprehensive games menu in about 13 seconds (would be quicker if I didn't include a choice to select JEMMEX settings to run intended games...). Not too shabby for a laptop approaching 18 yrs.
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#7 Post by Puppyt »

Project In Progress -
quick update - using MediaWary55 as a music server for the household. Haven't got the perfect "sweet spot" yet regarding a media player with ideal connectivity (e.g., multiple radio stations saved as a playlist in Deadbeef, pupradio pretty old and flakey etc etc). Pretty happy at present, although switching stations can be problematic. Still learning. It's a P III 500mHz gig, so maybe issues there too. Other puplets have since emerged as possible contenders/alternatives, testing those intermittently. Parallel interest in similar resurrection projects is also of interest e.g., http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=113179,http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=113180... the former with OP and contributions from newly-registered users on the Murga forum, too!

Shoutout to tuxtoo/darry1966 for the 412 collection https://412collection.neocities.org/index.html; https://sourceforge.net/projects/old412forever/; and the recent updates of darry19662018 on AnitaOS - which I have overlooked before now...

And this site would have been useful from the get-go: http://puppylinux.org/wikka/WhatpuppyLinuxisbestforyou
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#8 Post by Puppyt »

Just an update - I've moved sideways into semi-rugged Lenovo territory (T60 soon to be offloaded to family members, replacement T61 and W500 compatible with my Advanced Dock 2503, multiple screens, ultrabay hotswapping etc etc). I still have hopes for the Opentec project of mine, however...
The working RT686 model ("Openfire, RPC-III") I had operating as an internet radio player for my mother-in-law in the last months of her life. Now she has passed, the machines gather dust in one of my "Project boxes". Still cheaper than Lego.
As far as I was able to determine, the motherboard for these Opentecs - and Amrels, Rodas, etc were all originally made by "Crete Systems", Taiwan. It has now been bought out - or restructured into - the MilDef family of companies that owns the international branches (Amrel, Opentec, Roda...). While the old pata-style sockets (I'm pretty sure) for optical drive, hdd modules could (??) be interchangeable between early Rocky-era Rodas, Amrels - I'm pretty certain that chasing such antiques would be a dead end for anything other than stand-alone functions such as a dedicated media server (!), or better as a system for playing classic DOS games.
A *possible* route moving forward with the currently DOA laptops, is to shell out the original motherboards and replace with a breadboard-style mbo, Raspberry Pi, or all-in-one project mbo and run header adapters to the relevant ports, and screen. Who wouldn't like a retro-style laptop with magnesium-alloy chassis, backlit rubber keyboard, daylight screen?? I can dream...
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#9 Post by Lobster »

A *possible* route moving forward with the currently DOA laptops, is to shell out the original motherboards and replace with a breadboard-style mbo, Raspberry Pi, or all-in-one project mbo and run header adapters to the relevant ports, and screen. Who wouldn't like a retro-style laptop with magnesium-alloy chassis, backlit rubber keyboard, daylight screen?? I can dream...
Seems like a plan.

The security on the Raspberry Pi is good (they have to protect school kids).
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-ways-to ... pberry-pi/

The raspberry maker community is VERY active, so someone has probably done something similar ...

It is not the first time Puppy has been used in military hardware. We once had a team of students involved in a competitive underwater drone project sponsored by DARPA.

Puppy Submarine. We all live in a Puppy submarine ...
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#10 Post by Puppyt »

Hiyer Lobster,
thanks for humoring me on my thread :) But you are quite right - there are others around with similar crackpot ideas for upcycling "obsolescent" hardware, the impetus seems to have peaked around 2017 judging from the various fora I occasionally hunt around for success stories. I've had no luck in tracking down a working recipe or instructable for such a project. My own take on the mottainai philosophy, if you will.

Trouble with motherboards from Crete Systems I find - is that there are no manuals, no specs - it's all very "dark ops" as rokytnji found with his Amrels - way ahead of me. So I don't know what they are truly capable of in their natural configurations. Coppermine PIII mbo however, so no high expectations. Try and buy a similar "classic" form factor motherboard online anywhere? Nuthin' doing. All pretty hush-hush - upgrading my XP-era Panasonic CF-52 Mk2 is a much more practical and practicable route.

Your call on the Raspberry Pi family was a good one, and I've let my eyes glaze over various projects in that area. UDOO boards were another attractive potential (e.g., http://wdyggh.github.io/udoo_x86/udoo_x ... oject.html; https://www.udoo.org/forum/threads/udoo ... ptop.7861/; https://www.udoo.org/forum/threads/recy ... udoo.7719/). Like me, the authors of those posts started off hopefully, but the end products...?? Even the latest board from UDOO shows promise but seems to have hit the wall (see donors comments here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ud ... ts/2499807).

When you think about it, why not simply clip an old smartphone in (or a series of obsolete smartphones for locally-distributed cluster computing... each connected by usb OTG (on-the-go) (e.g., https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/an ... a-laptop-f; https://www.pcworld.com/article/2887772 ... cheap.html (images not available in the last link)). Nah - who would make money out of upcycling several obsolete items simultaneously - ergo it simply cannot happen. BFN
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#11 Post by Lobster »

Code: Select all

@puppyt  8) 
... You might be able to make your ruggedised laptop nuclear bomb proof ... 
[url]https://bigthink.com/technology-innovation/starlite-material-nuclear-blast-proof[/url]

... developing contacts in the security field might be helpful
[url]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobster_(magazine)[/url]
(not a relative)

... to get an old motherboard like this ...
[url]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrueNorth[/url]

Once you have survived judgement day (see Terminator 6 for details) you might have to use the command line in a self compiled OS. :shock: 

I think your project is very interesting. Good luck. 8)
Last edited by Lobster on Sun 26 May 2019, 07:41, edited 2 times in total.
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#12 Post by Lobster »

Sorry about the empty posting

It exists. It may be awaiting verification as it may have set off spam filters ...

Have contacted John Murga and hopefully we will be able to see it

Update:
Managed to post it as code
Otherwise it is invisible ... :shock:
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#13 Post by Puppyt »

Thanks Lobster! Sorry I was away helping my parents interstate... they are off-grid and in a patchy area for internet, but I will chase up your links in due course, cheers :)
PS Forgot to respond to the submarine project you mentioned:
Run Puppy
Run Fast
Run Silent
Run Deep
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