Linux on N-Gage

No.

Having just "generic" ARM kernel binaries for Linux won't do much good. You'd have to have knowledge of the hardware (processor details, I/O devices, memory, flashing procedure and flash file layout, etc.) that is not generally available & extremely hard to reverse-engineer (= not worth the trouble).

N/A wrote:No.

Having just "generic" ARM kernel binaries for Linux won't do much good. You'd have to have knowledge of the hardware (processor details, I/O devices, memory, flashing procedure and flash file layout, etc.) that is not generally available & extremely hard to reverse-engineer (= not worth the trouble).

maybe it worths 😃 ... i think it will be a great pleasure making Linux run NGage. and it could be, i will buy a new one and directly convert it into a linux machine... 😛cguru:

As N/A said (and he's always right on the mark), unless you're a genious linux h4x0r with l33t coding skills and access to proprietary Nokia documentation regarding the hardware, porting linux to the QD isn't a viable option. I'm assuming that you're talking about uclinux, as that's the most lightweight linux that's designed to run on these sorts of devices, and there is an ARM port. Still, without information on the video, keypad I/O and MMC interfaces, there's not much point.

If you do have mad skills, there is a slim chance you may be able to get some features to work, assuming you have your own flash cable and can put your own firmware on the device once you develop it:

(1) the LCD may be handled by an onboard controller on the ARM
(2) the keypad might just be rigged up to some GPIO lines on the ARM
(3) the MMC may run in SPI mode and hooked up to an onboard controller on the ARM

Essentially, aside from the telephony/GPRS elements of the phone (and possibly bluetooth, though you may be able to determine which chipset Nokia used), you may be able to get linux to run on a QD. Not that there would be much point, but it might be possible.

beskippy wrote:As N/A said (and he's always right on the mark), unless you're a genious linux h4x0r with l33t coding skills and access to proprietary Nokia documentation regarding the hardware, porting linux to the QD isn't a viable option. I'm assuming that you're talking about uclinux, as that's the most lightweight linux that's designed to run on these sorts of devices, and there is an ARM port. Still, without information on the video, keypad I/O and MMC interfaces, there's not much point.

If you do have mad skills, there is a slim chance you may be able to get some features to work, assuming you have your own flash cable and can put your own firmware on the device once you develop it:

(1) the LCD may be handled by an onboard controller on the ARM
(2) the keypad might just be rigged up to some GPIO lines on the ARM
(3) the MMC may run in SPI mode and hooked up to an onboard controller on the ARM

Essentially, aside from the telephony/GPRS elements of the phone (and possibly bluetooth, though you may be able to determine which chipset Nokia used), you may be able to get linux to run on a QD. Not that there would be much point, but it might be possible.

thanks for these good informations; maybe some mad skilled nutty developer does that and we use it 😃

Sorry to dig up old threads but..

if you did manage to run some kind of obscene Linux "distro" on the N-Gage, how would you get a graphics signal from it, would you just leave the LCD as it is and use the screen with the phone as the display?

If you wanted to run a signal to a monitor, you'd have to rip out the LCD and somehow convert a positive and common graphics signal into RGB lol.

Another obstacle in the way, wow, I don't think its feasible :redface:

i don't know about Linux on a ngage, but what about unix?? i heard BSD can run on just about anything with a proccessor! but how would u format the current os and install it????

pvd212 wrote:i don't know about Linux on a ngage, but what about unix?? i heard BSD can run on just about anything with a proccessor! but how would u format the current os and install it????

Having just "generic" ARM kernel binaries for Linux won't do much good. You'd have to have knowledge of the hardware (processor details, I/O devices, memory, flashing procedure and flash file layout, etc.) that is not generally available & extremely hard to reverse-engineer (= not worth the trouble).
Edit/Delete Message

To get rid of the current OS (Symbian 6.1) you'd have to re-flash the ROM Chip, which is illegal (depending on how to do it) amongst other things.

jas0nuk wrote:To get rid of the current OS (Symbian 6.1) you'd have to re-flash the ROM Chip, which is illegal (depending on how to do it) amongst other things.