LINUX on miniplayer

048135 · 10-21-2007

Hey everyone. i was rather excited when i heard someone say that linux was achievable on the meizu miniplayer. since linux is compatible with all hardware, would it be easy enough for some proffessionals to make a beta version or something as i cant because im a noob.
thanks

dravik · 10-21-2007

i also thought of this awesome idea but i think you need a realy good hacker to get it on the player... and what is linux without a keyboard?

koudi · 10-21-2007

Why would anyone want linux on m6?

mfb · 10-21-2007

Originally Posted by koudi

Why would anyone want linux on m6?

Because it's cool. Look at the iPod with iDoom on iPodLinux. :P

Offcourse it would be achievable to put Linux on the M6, but I would first try porting RockBox. (Linux is not that big of a value for the M6) It would however require someone with no life, lot's of caffeine and skill.

audiofish · 10-21-2007

Originally Posted by 048135

Hey everyone. i was rather excited when i heard someone say that linux was achievable on the meizu miniplayer. since linux is compatible with all hardware, would it be easy enough for some proffessionals to make a beta version or something as i cant because im a noob.
thanks

I think you've got the wrong idea here - I've not heard of anyone porting linux to an m6. What you may have heard is that the m6 will connect to a PC running linux.

Anyway, since when is linux compatible with all hardware? I wish it was but somehow I don't think you could run it on a 4004, for example.

Saying that, the chips m6s are based on _can_ run linux - though I have never found a datasheet for one.

Edorka · 10-22-2007

I Dont know if linux is a wise option for such a player, the meizu OS seems to be better made-to-fit on this hardware.

lite · 10-22-2007

The m6 will not run linux , what are you guys on about... thats ridiculous , and when you say linux , im guessing you mean ubuntu ??? well sorry to burst your bubble but it will never run in a million years.... grab a copy of rockbox and port it to them m6 , or reverse engineer the firmware if you must... Anyone can do it if they have all that time to spare , I for one dont though lol... But if anyones willing to pay me.. :P

Darkon · 10-22-2007

Originally Posted by lite

The m6 will not run linux [...]

Linux as in the kernel. Ubuntu is just a desktop OS which uses Linux as its kernel, and definitely M6 couldn't run that. Linux on the other hand probably would work, but I don't think it would be any better than the original firmware performance wise.

dravik · 10-22-2007

Linux is open source so if someone get linux on it we could easly program for it and do much more with the player, we could make games etc for it... so i don't think this is possible... but i would be great if it is...

Pytak · 10-22-2007

Just so you know, the M6 CPU is @200 mhz, I'm sure that's enough to run linux.

mfb · 10-22-2007

Originally Posted by Pytak

Just so you know, the M6 CPU is @200 mhz, I'm sure that's enough to run linux.

200Mhz ARM9, my brother has the same architecture and clockspeed in his NAS. He hacked it to run his webserver, torrent tracker and automatic bittorrent downloader. All running on Linux.

048135 · 10-22-2007

OK i get your point you can stop having a go at me. i was just thinking. linux firmware is so much more customizable, so you can redesign the gui completely. and i didnt mean ubunto, if an ipod can handle linux, why can the meizu miniplayer not?

dravik · 10-22-2007

200Mhz will not say the speed... because you don't know what he can do in 1Mhz...

jbernardo · 10-22-2007

The meizu could run linux - the same way a zaurus pda, a motorola phone, or a wizpy mp4 player do. What is needed:

Full hardware specs - cpu instruction set, memory maps, asic I/O ports, etc.
Firmware specs - image format, how to generate it, how to sign it, etc.
Brainpower - interested people that can port a kernel and create a framebuffer implementation based on the specs. If that is achieved, then all the other parts are easy - cross-compilers, id3v2 taglibs, ogg/vorbis decoder libs, mp? decoder libs, media players, etc. everything exists already and can be built for small/embedded devices.

The first two can be provided by meizu or reverse engineered. The third - I'm not a kernel hacker, but maybe we can get one interested long enough if the specs exist.

mfb · 10-22-2007

Originally Posted by dravik

200Mhz will not say the speed... because you don't know what he can do in 1Mhz...

I know, but these ARM9 processors are not as diverse in those differences as x86 processors.

stranded · 10-22-2007

why would you want to run linux on it? for fun?

it wouldn't work in any good way at all

Fergal · 10-22-2007

Originally Posted by stranded

why would you want to run linux on it? for fun?

it wouldn't work in any good way at all

Well, actually, if the power was there, having Linux as the operating system running in the background and having a customized media player running as the front end, you could, theoretically, make your M6 play virtually every audio format and every video format there is.

Lexridge · 10-23-2007

I think the general confusion on this thread is that Linux is Ubuntu (or similar), but it's not. Linux is an extremely customizable OS kernel that can be currently ran (or easily ported) on any CPU in existence today. I have compiled many Linux kernels, for x86 CPUs and for other embedded CPUs, such as Broadcom and ARM. While it would not be Rocket Science to port Linux to use the M6 hardware, it would be rather silly to do so. The Rockbox project is already in existence, and uses the same license as Linux, the General Public License (GPL).

Why re-create the wheel? Perhaps as a group we could take donations in order to send an M6/M6SE to the developers of Rockbox, in order to help them develop RockBox for the M6.

dravik · 10-23-2007

Originally Posted by Lexridge

Why re-create the wheel? Perhaps as a group we could take donations in order to send an M6/M6SE to the developers of Rockbox, in order to help them develop RockBox for the M6.

I like the idea... but are there realy enough people who will/can donate? i mean myself for example... I don't have paipall or something like that...

048135 · 10-23-2007

Originally Posted by jbernardo

The meizu could run linux - the same way a zaurus pda, a motorola phone, or a wizpy mp4 player do. What is needed:
Full hardware specs - cpu instruction set, memory maps, asic I/O ports, etc.

Firmware specs - image format, how to generate it, how to sign it, etc.

Brainpower - interested people that can port a kernel and create a framebuffer implementation based on the specs. If that is achieved, then all the other parts are easy - cross-compilers, id3v2 taglibs, ogg/vorbis decoder libs, mp? decoder libs, media players, etc. everything exists already and can be built for small/embedded devices.

The first two can be provided by meizu or reverse engineered. The third - I'm not a kernel hacker, but maybe we can get one interested long enough if the specs exist.

I totally agree. i am not a kernel hacker either, but if we have enough people we can all work on this together. having linux will be an amazing advantage. please can all the experienced specialist help, if we have linux, there could be hope. thanx