Linux on 7" mini netbook ARM-VT8500 ?

[radu.moisan]

Although I was mentioning about OCing I think this kind of devices have certain consequences when changing CPU clock frequency - peripheral clock may change and then some peripheral need their drivers rewritten. Just forget about it at this point

[cynos.fr]

MandrivARM

just wait.

[zaphod_2000_de]

Hi everyone,
this may be a bit OT, but I'd like to share it anyway, might be of some interest to all.

@ Mod: if considered inappropiate, plz delete.

My netbook has arrived some days ago, and it is the AK7802 type, with CE 5.0.
Within the /windows folder lives a directory called www, which prompted me to perform a portscan of the little beast. And voila, a webserver is running on port 80 and 443, with the default document directory

/windows/www/remoteadmin

HTML documents present in this dir are hosted over the net...so the webserver is actually working. (See attachment, hopefully)

I find this as well amusing and a bit alarming, I will definitely perform an audit of the netbook when it comes online, to see if it "phones home" in any way. On the other hand, the hidden webserver is probably slowing down the device, hence I would like to shut it off anyway.

I would like to know if this "feature" is also present on your VT8500-based machines ? Anyone knows what its originally meant for, and how to kill it ?

Second thing, I want to use my netbook for pentesting mainly, and the Win CE 5.0 on my netbook came without a telnet or ssh client. (BTW, I was surprised to see it DID come with the "net" command, so you can map windows and Samba shares from the console)
Anyway, I spent a day or two searching for relevant software, like port scanners etc.

Here is a short list of Applications which run on my netbook, and possibly on yours too:

PocketPutty (telnet and ssh client)
HaRET (tool for loading linux)
NbtstatCE_0.05 (tool for discovering and mapping windows shares)
vncviewer
netcat (the "swiss army knife" for networking)

I obviously used the ARM versions of the respective apps, most of them originally meant for PocketPC 2002 or 2003.
I installed the apps (some work without installation) on my storage card and can start from there...adding icons to the desktop is also impossible in my version of Windows "Crippled Edition", but the apps survive a reboot.

If anyone has a real port scanner or WLAN sniffer which runs on "our" netbooks, plz post...I would be most interested.

Last but not least: Thanks to all of you, who dedicate their time and expertise to the Linux-on-netbook project; I probably won`t benefit because I have the 7802-variant of the netbook, but its fascinating anyway. Keep it up !

best regards,
zaphod

[digiapb]

Hey DonutFUN,

glad to hear you got your lappy open, were you able to resolve the issue with your power pin?

Also, have you had any luck mapping out whats what?

[DonutFUN]

Well, I don't know what's what, but as for getting it working again, I don't have my own sottering iron so I got my dad to help, and well, first time it wasn't sottered, second time it was actualy toutching the pin next to it to, so I kinda fried it a bit, it's weird what's happening though, the charge light doesn't come on, and it always says it's 100% charged, in fact I left it to the point of dying, it didn't warn me, and still said 100%, but it does charge even though the light doesn't come on, I think we fried a sensor or something. it works either way though, even though it thinks its pluged in at all times (it doesn't dim after 1 minuite like it should on battery power, it waits 10).

I do still have thoes pictures if you guys want them at any time.

[digiapb]

I am glad to hear you back up and running, too bad about the battery charge bit though....

[digiapb]

I am not sure if this would help, but I found the ARM926EJ-S Technical Reference Manual.

I know that we really want the Via VT8500 SOC Reference Manual, but the ARM926EJ-S info might give information as to how Via set things up when developing the system on chip....

Would it be of use to anyone?

[Colten]

Not sure how helpful this is, if at all, but it appears that my netbook is able to be updated:
http://tracker2map.com/google_youtube.htm
I dont really understand how that works, or if its just a program I run, but it appears it does something to the OS before you run the .exe

[litch84]

I am not sure if this would help, but I found the ARM926EJ-S Technical Reference Manual.

I know that we really want the Via VT8500 SOC Reference Manual, but the ARM926EJ-S info might give information as to how Via set things up when developing the system on chip....

Would it be of use to anyone?

Not particularly, the VT8500 (and with all other variants from other vendors) are based on a "Hardware Reference Design" from ARM.

Basically ARM creates a schematic of their "core" (the ARM926E-J in these cases) with a default example of how the core should interface with I/O devices etc...

The ARM core documentation has information on memory access, available I/O ports and routines to access the ports - as such it does not contain information on what the vendor (eg. VIA) has connected to these ports and how the I/O should be used to 'talk' to such devices.

Each vendor's implementation of the reference design would be very similar - but not close enough to prove 100% compatible for one with a kernel made for another.

[EDIT]

Continuing my thoughts:

In fact we're probably going to find some drama of compatibility with kernel builds from board to board, since not only the SoC is made by reference design but these laptop motherboards are also based on a reference design from somewhere (Since i've found multiple OEM's for the same ARM 926EJ-S based 'netbook' product).

Also, the Audio, USB and a couple of other devices are external to the SoC and the I/O may differ between the mobo's - hence providing another hurdle to get over.

The only common elements between the netbooks is the fact they have more or less the same components and they all run on the same core.

The Linux Kernel already has full support for the 926EJ-S core, as does the toolchain to compile it - our issues lie within the vendors implementation of the on-chip devices and interfacing with them from the I/O the core provides.

This perspective leaves us in an awkward position as a data sheet from one vendor (eg VIA) for one chip (VT8500) will not likely allow us to put linux on any other netbook with a SoC made by Alcatel, or even the successor to that modelof SoC (VT8505).

Let us hope that once a data sheet is given up (And it will eventually happen, especially for the VT8500 because it's likely its near end-of-life status since two successors have been released (VT8505 + VT8510) - and then VIA has no reason to keep the datasheet exclusive to 'paying customers' - that the differences are minimal with other chips, but my hopes are dim.

[digiapb]

litch84,
Thats what I thought, but I figured I would mention it in case someone else would be able to make use of the info.