Haiku on a DT366

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casm
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Haiku on a DT366

Post by casm »

Did a little more experimentation today, this time with Haiku (http://www.haiku-os.org/).  If you're not familiar with BeOS, I'd suggest looking that up first since Haiku aims to pick up where BeOS left off.  The other important thing to understand is that it is not Linux- or *BSD-based, but does maintain some POSIX compatibility.

Note that at the time I'm writing this, Haiku is currently at alpha 1 of Release 1.  There is no scheduled release date for alpha 2; Haiku releases come based on functionality implemented, not adherence to a timeline.

Successes:

- Able to boot successfully from CD-ROM.
- Screen is recognised, though resolution appears to default to 1024x768.
- Can make it as far as the 'run from CD or install to HDD?' dialog.

Failures:

- Cannot boot from USB flash drive.  Black screen, no progress.
- Cannot boot from CD-ROM unless it is the *only* USB device plugged in; even a hub does not work.  This means no keyboard or mouse, so cannot install to SSD if booting from CD.

I realise it's currently alpha and far from ready for a full release as a result, but I'm intrigued by the possibilities here.  BeOS ran well on hardware about equivalent to what we have in the DT366, and I'd expect the same from Haiku.  It's probably worth keeping an eye on to see how things shape up as its development progresses.
casm
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Re: Haiku on a DT366

Post by casm »

Made some more progress with this last night.  Not a lot, but it did show up a couple of things I hadn't expected.  USB touchiness is a contributing factor here; more on that in a minute.
Failures:

- Cannot boot from USB flash drive.  Black screen, no progress.
This now works, though not consistently.  It seems to work better from a 1GB flash drive than the 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB ones that I've tried, but that's not saying it works well or every time.
- Cannot boot from CD-ROM unless it is the *only* USB device plugged in; even a hub does not work.  This means no keyboard or mouse, so cannot install to SSD if booting from CD.
I've been able to get it to install to SSD from CD-ROM with a USB hub, keyboard, and mouse connected.  The problem is that it just doesn't boot after installation, instead hanging at a black screen before the Haiku boot screen comes up.

What's puzzling me right now is that USB behaviour during installation is inconsistent between reboots.  Examples of things that sometimes work but other times don't:

- Boot from USB flash drive.  It will work 100% of the time as long as the flash drive is the only thing plugged into the WebDT, and even then only if it's not attached to a USB hub.  Removing the drive, plugging in the hub with the keyboard & mouse attached, then plugging the flash drive into that does not work.  If it is attached to the hub, it may boot perhaps 10% of the time; I have yet to see the keyboard and mouse be usable in this scenario.

- Boot from CD-ROM.  Similar to the flash drive, this will work 100% of the time as long as it's the only device connected to the USB port; again, unplugging it and plugging it into the hub with the keyboard and mouse connected does not cause the keyboard and mouse to be recognised.  If connected via a hub, it works about 50% of the time, but when it does work the keyboard and mouse are usable.

- Installation from CD-ROM to SSD.  About 75% of the time the installation will result in timeouts while reading the CD, thus necessitating restarting the installation process.  It will eventually complete the installation, but you're then met with the aforementioned black screen hang after reboot.

I'm not sure if the issue is with Haiku, the WebDT's hardware, or a combination of both.  I'm leaning towards both, but that's more of a gut feeling than anything concrete.  It's a shame too, because it's nice and responsive during installation, and I think it's an OS with a lot of potential for this platform.
casm
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Re: Haiku on a DT366

Post by casm »

More improvements - Haiku is now installed to the SSD and booting fully.  The USB issues were solved by powering up the unit with no USB devices plugged in, waiting for POST to finish, then powering off again.  At that point I could plug in the CD-ROM, keyboard, and mouse via the USB hub, power up, and install to the SSD as expected.

Total boot time to the desktop was 52 seconds from pressing the power switch; approximately 20 seconds of that was POST.  GUI responsiveness is excellent - I wouldn't want to try to do fifty things at once, but things happen when you expect them to and applications launch and quit in a reasonable amount of time.  ProcessController reports around 85MB of RAM in use on average when idle.

Things that I noticed are currently not supported: WiFi, Bluetooth, Compact Flash, audio, touchscreen; I'll assume that this also includes the bezel buttons.

It's definitely very alpha, but it's also definitely very much heading in the right direction.  We should probably be paying attention to this OS: it has a lot of potential for the WebDT platform IMHO.  There's also a history of BeOS running on DT Research hardware, so this would make for an interesting link to the past.
kiiid
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Re: Haiku on a DT366

Post by kiiid »

Haiku OS would definitely be an excellent choice! Anyone working to get it fully operational yet? I would be doing it myself but can't  :'(
quotaholic
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Re: Haiku on a DT366

Post by quotaholic »

I would write penmount and ask if they can support this operating system. They really put a strangle hold on the webdt platform and limit what we can install based on their drivers. They way they intertwine in the operating system requires that we both line up the kernel version and the version of xorg in order to get a working touchscreen. Periodically coincidence of another distribution lining up in both kernel and xorg version makes one driver work on another platform however its getting rare.

I dont know how beOS works, if they use xfree86 or xorg or their own window system, but if its a popular subject feel free to stop by their drivers page and leave tech support a request if nothing there works.

quotaholic
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