Linux on NEC Mobile Gear II MCR7X0 and MobilePro 8X0
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Caution

Your data will be destroied when booting Linux, so please backup the data first.

Usage guide

  1. Downloading bootloader(cyace or hpcboot), Root File System Image, vmlinux and linux-modules for your model from sourceforge project page.
  2. Repartition your CF card(at least 32M), make a FAT file system(>=16M) in the first partition and a EXT3 file system(>= 16M) in the second partition. They will be /dev/sdX1 and /dev/sdX2 if you use the usb card reader under Linux.
  3. Copy the bootloader and vmlinux to the first partition, untar the root file system image and linux-modules into the second partition.
  4. Plug the CF card into your device, turn on the power, invoke the bootloader under Windows CE (the bootloader is a Windows CE application in fact) to boot the Linux.

Developer's guild

  1. Download the bootloader(cyace or hpcboot), buildroot, kernel patches and linux-kernel-initramfs-builder for your model from sourceforge project page.
  2. Download the stock linux kernel source code from http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel. The kernel version should match the kernel patch version.
  3. Unpack stock kernel source code and kernel patches, and apply kernel patches to the source code of stock kernel.
  4. Use buildroot to build the cross toolchain and root file system image.
  5. Unpack linux-kernel-initramfs-builder in the same folder of linux kernel source, execute "make" in unpacked folder to generate initramfs.
  6. Build the kernel with the cross toolchian built by buildroot.
  7. Follow the usage guild to boot your device with root file system image and kernel image built.

Use TFTP enabled cyace to download Linux kernel image automatically

MCR7X0 (MP8X0) has some built-in PCMCIA ethernet drivers, such as NEC PC-9801n-J12 which is a NE2000 compatible ethernet device. So these PCMCIA ethernet cards can be used immediately even after hard reset.

I added the TFTP client function into cyace, now the linux kernel images can be downloaded from development host without tedious unplug/plug CF card. Enjoy it!

The steps to use it.
  1. Get a PCMCIA ethernet card with MCR7X0 (MP8X0) built-in support. If you are in China, you can get it from www.taobao.com.
  2. Download latest cyace from the sourceforge project page of this project. And install it to your CF storage card.
  3. In cyacecfg.txt, add a line like following: 
    tftp=<development host ip>
    where the <development host ip> should be substituted with your real devlopment host ip.
  4. Install and configure DHCP server in your LAN.
  5. Install and configure TFTP server in your development host.
  6. Plug your PCMCIA ethernet card into your PCMCIA slot of MCR7X0 (MP8X0), and hit enter when a dialog popup.
  7. Plug your CF storage card and use cyace to load Linux as usual, but now the Linux kernel image will be downloaded automatically.