GP2X-GPE

GP2X-GPE
Download(s)	(archive).
Developer(s)	nemonoid
Version	1.0
Status	Completed
Webpage	blog@nemonoid.org

GP2X-GPE is a final release of the GPE Palmtop Environment for the GP2X. Many functional programs are included.

Status

AbiWord, Evince, Gaim, Dillo, Gnumeric, XChat, The GIMP, GpsDrive, GCC are included along with all the standard GPE applications.

Almost everything is working pretty smoothly and there has been some speed increases, most notably the new Xorg server patched by Orkie and compiled under OpenEmbedded.

To Install

Loopback ext2 image on SD card

The easiest way to run GP2X-GPE, and probably the only way for most Windows users is to use the ext2 loopback image.

To install the image, simply extract the directory gp2x-gpe and its contents from the archive to the root of your SD card. You can then simply run the .gpu script provided from the GP2X Utilities Menu. This will launch the X server and the GPE Environment.

ext2 formatted SD card

To get the most out of GP2X-GPE it is advised to use an ext2 formatted SD card. This eliminates the need for a loopback image and improves performance greatly. You will most likely need a Linux machine to do this. Alternatively you can use a Linux Live CD such as Knoppix. It is worth noting that installing GP2X-GPE this way takes 350-something megabytes of space on your SD card.

To install, you need to extract the ext2 file system image to the “root” directory under gp2x-gpe (i.e. /mnt/sd/gp2x-gpe/root). Firstly download the archive as normal and extract it to your hard drive. Then mount the ext2 image as follows:

   sudo mount gpe-image-gp2x.rootfs.ext2 root/ -o loop

Next you need to copy the mounted “root” directory:

   sudo cp -R root/ root-new

Now just umount and remove the old “root” and copy the new “root” into place.

   sudo umount root
   rmdir root
   mv root-new root

Now you just need to remove or comment out the line show below from gp2x-gpe.gpu:

   /bin/mount -t ext2 -o loop,noatime,sync $GPEIMAGE $GPEDIR

Lastly, copy the gp2x-gpe directory to your ext2 formatted SD card and run as normal!

Windows users can probably use the ext2 IFS driver available from here or ext2fsd however, this has not been tested.

FAQs

How do I use a swap file with GP2X-GPE?

First off, you will need to create a swap file. A 32MB file should be fine. Under Linux, follow these steps:

   dd if=/dev/zero of=swapfile bs=1024 count=32768 
   mkswap swapfile

You can also download a pre created 32MB swapfile from here.

Now copy the swap file to the directory you installed gp2x-gpe on your SD card. You will need to add the following line to gp2x-gpe.gpu just after "/bin/mount none $GPEDIR/tmp -t tmpfs"

   /sbin/swapon swapfile

Please note: This can decrease the life of you SD card.

How do I access the GP2X-GPE environment from telnet or sterm?

After you telnet to your GP2X, change to the directory on your SD card that GP2X-GPE is installed in. For example:

    cd /mnt/sd/gp2x-gpe 

Then simply run:

   ./chroot.static root/ /bin/sh

Screenshots

AbiWord word processor

Dillo web browser

Look and Feel configuration