I’ll try to make this as simple as possible.

I’m going to assume that you’re using Linux (and that you are not a complete noob at it) for this tutorial. I will assume that you’re using a Sony Clie.

Here’s an overview of what we’re going to do:

1. Rip dvd using DVD:Rip
2. Convert ripped movie into a clie compatible format
3. Download and install TCPMP (free media player)
4. (optional) Install Memory Stick Pro fix
5. Copy Movie to the Memory Stick

Step 1: Download and Install Files
apt-get install dvdrip
apt-get install pilot-link
Download TCMP (for palm)
Download all attachments

Step 2: Rip DVD
Encode with the xvid4 codec
Set file size to One CD at 700Mb
The only reason that I have this step is because I like to watch the video in high quality on my desktop

Step 3: Convert ripped DVD to Palm Readable Format
Put the following into a script called vid2palm and make it executable


#!/bin/sh
#Change 480:320 to the size of your PDA screen
#480:320 works for the Sony Clie

nice mencoder $1 -vf scale=480:320 -ovc xvid -xvidencopts bitrate=300 -oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=64 -o $2
So, if dvdrip created the file MyMovie.avi you’d run the command vid2palm MyMovie.avi MyMovie_Palm_Format.avi

Step 4: Install files on your Clie
This can be a little tricky for someone doing it for the first time, but after a couple of times it works great.

The syntax for installing a palm file is:
pilot-xfer /dev/pilot -i [File to be installed]

However, If you just run this command it won’t work. You first need to hit the hotsync button and then quickly run the previous command.

If you do this and the console says to press the hotsync button, just hit cancel on your clie, and terminate the command, and try again. It’s been a bit of hit-and-miss for me.

Files to install on the PDA from the TCPMP Archive:

If your memory card is a memory stick pro it will not work by default with the clie, so you have to install a fix for it (it’s the MSPRONX_ENUS.PRC one):
pilot-xfer /dev/pilot -i MSPRONX_ENUS.PRC

Sound doesn’t work by default on mine either, I had to install the following patch (again, an attachment: MCA2_05_TEST.prc):
pilot-xfer /dev/pilot -i MCA2_05_TEST.prc

You need to set up this plugin by going to prefrences and then in the drop down menu select MCA2, and check the button “auto install after reset”. It will restart, then go back to the same area and select “DEFAULT is ON (normal)”.

Step 5: Moving the finished product to your Memory Stick (pro)
First, goto MS Import. If you have a newer distro / kde it will mount the flash drive as a local directory. If it doesnt, use the “mount” command to mount it. I assume that you know how to do this (if you don’t try “man mount”).

Now it’s a bit of a waiting game. Once it looks like it’s done copying unmount the device in linux first, wait a minute, and then disconnect in MS Import.

Step 6: Play the Movie
Goto TCPMP, open, and play your movie!

This is how I did it, after a week or so of trying.

If you have any questions leave a comment or email me (howe -dot- jon -at- gmail -dot- com.

Later,
Jon Howe

I’ve tried and tried to build my own custom kernel over the past year or so, usually only to stop in frustration because of some small part of the process not working.

This is all different now.

I found out that using the took make-kpkg makes things way easier. In fact I configured, compiled, and installed kernel 2.6.15 in about 30 minutes including the time that it took me to build it.

Here’s the process that I followed to achieve this:

1. Get required packages apt-get install libncurses5-dev fakeroot bzip2 kernel-package
2. Get latest kernel package from Kernel.org. The latest one at the time of this post is linux-2.6.15.tar.bz2.
3. Decompress the kernel archive (tar -xjvf linux-2.6.15.tar.bz2)
4. Start the kernel configuration tool (make menuconfig)

I should mention that it was way easier for me to load my existing kernel configuration, which was located at /boot/config-(kernel version here).

5. make-kpkg clean
6. fakeroot make-kpkg –initrd –revision=myfirstkernelbuild_v.0.1 kernel_image

This runs make-kpkg as root, while making it so that initrd can load the kernekl. –revision is just the revision of the kernel, and kernel_image is just the name of the kernel that you’re building.

The output of this command is kernel-image-2.6.15_myfirstkernelbuild_v.0.1.deb

7. Install the kernel (dpkg -i kernel-image-2.6.15_myfirstkernelbuild_v.0.1.deb)
8. Restart the computer (init 6)

If this process worked the output of uname -r should be 2.6.15.

Let me know if you have any problems.

Later,
Jon Howe