Debian Sarge on Linux Jornada:

THIS MIGHT DESTROY YOUR JORNADA, DO NOT DO IT!!! It did not destroy mine though.

If you have a 128M CF, make sure you download the small-sarge image. I removed /usr/share/doc and locales for it, and it expands to 115M. There is probably more to remove (fonts?) if you need to save space.
If you want to have the doc and locales, download the sarge-image. It expands to 155M.
Do not forget that in both cases you need some extra space for the DOS partition. ( < 5M will do)



Make two partitions on your CF;

1. A small fat16 partition (3~10M)
2. An ext2 or ext3 (some say ext2 is better for your CF) partition with the rest of your CF disk space
Optionally, you might want to make a swap partition, but some say its not good for your CF again.

On the fat16 partition, untar the following image: fat-image.tar.bz2

tar -xjpvf fat-image.tar.bz2 -C /pathToMountedFlash/partition1Folder/

(params.txt is set to the path of the initrd and kernel, so make sure you adapt them to your jornada's language)


On the ext2 partition, untar the following image: debian-sarge-j720-image.tar.bz2
                                                                       or:  debian-sarge-small-j720-image.tar.bz2


tar -xjpvf sarge-image.tar.bz2 -C /pathToMountedFlash/partition2Folder/

This contains:

-Debian-sarge testing base
-Pmcia support, wireless/lan cards should work directly for unencrypted dhcp
-X from GPE (ipk), with xtscal to recalibrate the pen, and xvt terminal (very lightweight)
-ion2 window manager ( I think it is excellent for the jornada)
-Time keeping script from Adam Pribyl
- nano text editor

Insert your CF in your jornada, launch linexec.exe from the CF, and Debian sarge should boot.

IMPORTANT:
- The "pcmcia-cs" package is from old-stable (woody), any newer version will give a segmentation fault for cardmgr at reboot, making pcmcia unusable.
- Type xinit to start X. In the window manager ion2, the key to toggle fullscreen mode has been changed to "alt+e"
- READ THE ION2 MANUAL from its page. The most important is to press the F2 / F3 keys to launch programs, (they correspond to the keys with little drawings on the top of the jornada keyboard).

Feedback is welcome on the jornada mailing list at handelds.org
A big thanks to everyone on the list!!
------
Matthis Rouch