Midori Linux on MSN Companion Internet Appliance

[Dozer]

I recently acquired (for free) a pile of old equipment from a co-worker of mine. Amidst the junk (old Packard Bells, printers, and a mess of other stuff) was a Compaq IA-1 Internet Appliance. It was designed basically to jump on the web and check e-mail. It has a CF slot and onboard flash memory, 4 USB ports, and an audio out. I did a little bit of searching and found out that this unit can be modified to serve as more than just a web appliance. Being the tinkerer that I am, I played around and now have the IA-1 running Midori Linux off of a 64 MB CF card. A laptop hard drive can be soldered onto the board, effectively transforming this would-be junk heap into an fully operational, compact computer system (albeit a bit slower with just a K6-2 processor). The best part about it is the compact 8" x 6" LCD monitor. You could almost use it as an inexpensive display for a server room (running Vnc). This one was free, but I've seen most of these sold for under $100.

I've found this project interesting, and I thought I would share my experience. I will probably incorporate this system into my car as an mp3 player/navigation system. Anybody else ever tinker with this stuff?

Interesting link: http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl?Session= (a large BBS devoted to hacking/modding internet appliances).

 

[Mercutio]

Sounds like a fun project to me!
The one drawback to all of the above would be the lack of an ethernet port. Most of those appliances had a builtin modem, and I know USB-ethernet adapters are available, but it's too bad nobody put it in to begin with.

 

[Mercutio]

Just put in for an I-Opener on ebay. $25 isn't bad for a 10" LCD, right?
If I win I'll scarf up a ~4GB laptop disk, USB-ethernet device and some extra RAM, then see what I can do with it.

 

[blakerwry]

Sounds like a fun project to me!
The one drawback to all of the above would be the lack of an ethernet port. Most of those appliances had a builtin modem, and I know USB-ethernet adapters are available, but it's too bad nobody put it in to begin with.

yeah, that seems like a real boner to me.. ethernet costs what $5 to integraate into it? and will make the machine usabe for many times longer...

 

[Dozer]

Yeah, the ethernet thing sort of sucks. But, I'm planning on a wireless connection for the car, so I would need to connect through USB anyway (no expansion slots). When all is said and done, I should be able to upload files (e.g. mp3s) from my office directly to the car. That's the design, anyway. I'll try to take some pictures at various stages of the project and post them. This could quite possibly be the first Linux-powered Jeep Grand Cherokee!!!

Merc--let me know how it goes with the I-opener (if you win).

 

[Mercutio]

I didn't. I'll try for another later. The Iopener does seem to be the one to get, just because of that 10" screen.