[E3-hacking] Current status

[Janusz Krzysztofik]

Friday 09 April 2010 14:38:10 Antony Stone wrote:
> Hi.
>
> I've seen plenty of posts on the list recently showing progress with
> support for various parts of the E3 in the Linux kernel (which is great,
> thanks to all those involved).
>
> Can anyone give me an end-user's summary of what the current status of
> running Linux (and various applications) on the E3 is?  I've had mine
> running previously, following instructions which must be well out of date
> by now, so what's the best starting point for installing a system now,

Hi Antony,

Personally, I still follow those old instructions when installing and booting 
my customized Angstrom distribution that I build myself using OpenEmbedded (I 
am still learning it). Have a look at this post: 
http://www.earth.li/pipermail/e3-hacking/2009-August/000924.html

Installing Debian on an add-on usb stick, then replacing its kernel with a 
self-compiled more recent one, is probably another option, maybe more easy to 
accomplish.

BTW, there is a bug in linux 2.6.33 that prevents the hook switch from working 
correctly unless the work-in-progress FIQ/keyboard patches are applied. For 
now, you can use this patch to correct the problem (it will hopefully be 
integrated in 2.6.34, maybe in later 2.6.33 revisions too): 
https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/90615/.

> and 
> how much of the hardware can I expect to have working, given the recent
> advances we've seen here?

I use my E3 as an IP phone, running a patched[1] asterisk softpbx with alsa 
console channel enabled. The daemon is controlled from the keypad and the 
hook switch by the slightly patched[2] lircd and its irexec daemon, that 
places asterisk console commands to its socket and launches custom scripts 
that also control audio mixer and leds appropriately. And with additional 
help of a patched[3] mplayer, being able to display live video pictures from 
my cheep IP cameras on the recently patched[4] E3 LCD display, I'm already 
able to use the E3 in my SIP enabled video door phone system as well.

I'm going to post more details here when it all gets more stable.

> If there's a website I haven't found yet which outlines this information,
> please accept my apologies for asking here and just post the URL so I can
> look it up for myself.

I'm not aware of any that has been updated recently. You probably have to 
browse this list archives for now.

Thanks,
Janusz

[1] http://www.earth.li/pipermail/e3-hacking/2009-August/000923.html
[2] http://www.earth.li/pipermail/e3-hacking/2009-August/000922.html
[3] http://www.earth.li/pipermail/e3-hacking/2010-April/001004.html, hopefully 
    integrated soon
[4] https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/72933/, hopefully included in 2.6.34