This document records the step-by-step procedures I used to make my Compaq MSN Companion iPaq IA-1 to boot to Jailbait which was installed in a 16MB external Compact Flash card, and configured it to work with my home network.
Acknowledgements: Thanks to bballctaulbee, keith721, ranman and many others on I-Appliance BBS. It would be impossible for me to put mine to work without reading their postings.
Jailbait is a 16MB flash-friendly Linux distro originally developed for the iOpener. The one I used is hacked by rothwell@holly-springs.nc.us for IA-1. Download it here. Use the ia-linux-16mb.img.
Dolly
Dolly is a software tool that can quickly copy drives to drives, drives to files, files to drives, and files to files. It is used to copy the Jailbait image file to the CF card. Download it here or here.
To gain access to the BIOS, a jump on the motherboard must be reset. This can be done by opening the case and short the jump pin with ground. Here is how:
Turn off IA-1, unplag the power cord.
Remove the 4 screws on the bottom of the IA-1.
Remove the gray clip at the back (one screw).
Remove plate behind the LCD (two screws).
Remove LCD (4 screws).
Open the case.
Consult pictures here. Locate jumper under the metal shield by peeking through those holes. Use a long and small to short the open jump pin with the shield.
Plug in the power. If you see a memory count on startup, you have succeeded.
Put everything back on.
Step 2: Change Boot Device
Press the Compaq key and turn on the IA-1. The Compaq logo appears on the screen. For a while, a language selection menu appears.
Enter the BIOS. Enable everything. Remember the Compaq key is the F-10 key. The Cancel key the the Esc key.
In the change Boot sequence screen, I've seen a case where only A: was shown and a case where only A: and C: were shown. If this happens, repeat the previous steps until A:, C: and D: are there.
Change the Boot Sequence to D: first and C: second.
Save settings and exit.
Turn the power off.
Step 3: Create a Bootable CF Card
This is most troublesome part in my experience.
Install the USB software on the PC.
Reboot the PC.
Plug in the USB reader. PC finds it and puts a 'Removable Disk' in the My Computer Explorer window.
Insert the CF card. Right click the 'Removable Disk' icon. Format the card. Drug and drop files into it. Read the files. Make sure the reader and the card are working fine in Windows98.
Open a DOS window. Run FDISK. If the the FDISK does not see the CF card, reboot the PC. Repeat the previous steps until FDISK sees the CF card. (Out of luck if this step fails. Change CF reader. Try again).
In FDISK, delete the partition on the CF card. Create another one. Exit FDISK.
Reboot the PC.
Open a DOS window.
Run the 'part.exe' (from the Ranish Partition Manager). Hit F5 until it finds the CF card.
Locate the MBR/Master Boot Record. Press the ENTER key. Change the first option to Standard IPL by pressing the space key. ENTER again to return.
The partition Windows put there is shown as FAT-12 (floppy). Delete it (DEL key).
Move the line after MBR/Master, press ENTER key. Choose DOS FAT-16 (<32M). Format it.
When it is done, press 'b' to make the parition bootable.
Exit 'part.exe', save the settings.
Reboot the PC.
Open a DOS window. Do 'sys e:'. The CF card is shown as E: on my PC.
Pull out the CF card and insert into IA-1.
Power on IA-1. It should boot to a DOS commond line shell, as on any PC. Note: I got errors like 'OS not found' / 'Invalid IO' when I used a SanDisk SDDR-31 reader or a PNY reader. I could see the IO.SYS, DRVSPACE.BIN, MSDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM on the CF card ('dir /a'), but it simply did not boot. When I changed to the Zio reader, I still got the same error. But I repeated the above steps twice and I succeeded.
Power off IA-1 and take out the CF card.
Step 4: Copy Jailtait to the CF Card
Put the CF card in the card reader.
In the DOS window, rename ia-linux-16mb.img to ia.img.
Type "dolly ia.img hd129:". The CF card is shown as the second hard disk on my PC.
Step 5: Boot and Config the Linux
Insert the CF card into the IA-1. Power on the IA-1.
LILO boot: prompt appears.
Type 'hdb single'. This boots linux to single user mode, so the root password can be reset.
After it boots, remount the filesystem as rw because if it is read-only when boots (to save rw cycles on the CF card). Type 'mount -o remount,rw /'.
'passwd root' to change root password.
'shutdown -r now' to reboot the IA-1.
Login as root.
Step 5: Config the Network
My network adaptor SMC 2202 is pegasus based. The default in the Jailbait image is kaweth based.
Remount the file system as rw.
'vi /etc/modules', removed the kaweth and ioled modules, and added the pegasus module.
Reboot the IA-1. The IA-1 is connected to my 4-port Linksys Cable/DSL router. When the IA-1 boots, the LEDs on the adaptor should lit.
Modify the following files to the contents shown below.