sorts of keyboard combinations during boot to change the VT back and forth to attempt to Ctrl-C through some script that may have stalled, and through some sort of magic voodoo, whether it was something I hit on the keyboard, or as I’ve come to suspect, something on the hardware that started working again, finally the system fully booted. After I breathed a sigh of relief, I realized I needed to make an immediate backup of the filesystem, so I had some record of what was there. I also decided to take off the cover to see if I could find a serial port on the hardware and access the boot prompt and boot messages. If you look at Figure 3, you can see the bottom of the motherboard on the device, and at the top of the picture is a small five-pin white connector labeled Program that I’m assuming is some sort of serial interface. Unfortunately, this connector is incredibly tiny, so I haven’t been able to track down a compatible connector yet and test this theory. Figure 4 shows the top of the motherboard—what you would see if you simply unscrewed and lifted off the top of the projector. One thing I noticed when I looked on the board was extra soldering points for an extra USB port and VGA. More-
seasoned hardware hackers might find even more interesting things on the board once they take a look. Unfortunately, after I took it apart, I had the same trouble with a frozen progress bar at boot. After a number of reboots, I finally was somehow able to get it to boot completely, but since then, I’ve experienced the same issue a few other times. Eventually, the system will boot, but as of yet, I’ve been unable to track down the source of the problem. At this point, I’m leaning toward some sort of short on the device.
The Verdict So what’s the final verdict? Although I think that the device without Linux console access may not be too interesting to Linux geeks and that the interface needs polish, the projector has so much potential once you get access to the shell. I think this would make the start to a great pico projector project for anyone with a few hardware-hacking or framebuffer-programming skills. I just wish that the manufacturers chose a distribution that was a bit easier to work with. For $235, I think this is a pretty good buy considering how hackable it is and considering the price compared to other Linux-powered pico projector kits like the one based on the BeagleBoard.! Kyle Rankin is a Systems Architect in the San Francisco Bay Area and the author of a number of books, including The Official Ubuntu Server Book, Knoppix Hacks and Ubuntu Hacks. He is currently the president of the North Bay Linux Users’ Group.
Figure 3. Bottom of the Motherboard
Figure 4. Top of the Motherboard
w w w. l i n u x j o u r n a l . c o m november 2010 | 4 3