Portable CE 2.0: Your Pocket PC on a USB Flash Disk

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.furrygoat.com/2005/09/portable_ce_20.html' target='_blank'>http://www.furrygoat.com/2005/09/po...able_ce_20.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"I have to admit, I was actually a bit surprised at the number of people that were interested in the Portable CE idea that I wrote about back in December. The idea was simple: Using the Windows CE emulator, I could have my entire "internet communications system" on a virtual machine that I carried around with my on my USB keychain. I could essentially plug it into the USB port of any machine running Windows, and bring up the emulator and use Internet Explorer, Messenger, Inbox, etc. I received tons of emails, lots of comments and even a mention in PC Magazine. 9 months later, I present to you a totally new version: Portable CE 2.0."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20050919-PortableCE.jpg" /><br /><br />Portable CE is a compact launcher application designed to run an emulator-based Windows CE image from a USB flash disk. Because v2.0 of Portable CE is based on <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/mobility/windowsmobile/downloads/emulatorpreview/default.aspx">Microsoft's Device Emulator Community Preview</a>, you'll be able to run both a Pocket PC image and associated applications from Portable CE. All you need to do is setup your USB disk (as outlined on the site) and you're good to go!

[Rod3]

This sounds a little like the Black Dog Linux thing.

http://www.projectblackdog.com/

Is it?

[atrain]

This is guinious!!!

Linux is one of the more common choises, but if the computer has issues booting off USB, then its not all that useful

Emulators were never a great option, because of the slowness...


But this software is ingineous -> now all we need it 1 save file, linux, mac, and winbloze emulators...

[dazz]

This sounds a little like the Black Dog Linux thing.

http://www.projectblackdog.com/

Is it?

Rod3, cool! I have not heard of the BlackDog device before and think it is a cool idea. Thanks for the heads-up.

[Rod3]

Rod3, cool! I have not heard of the BlackDog device before and think it is a cool idea. Thanks for the heads-up.

Glad to point you to something new. Interesting idea, isn't it?

[dazz]

Glad to point you to something new. Interesting idea, isn't it?
Yep. I'm going to see if I can get my hands on one to review it. :mrgreen:

[Jonathan1]

This sounds a little like the Black Dog Linux thing.

http://www.projectblackdog.com/

Is it?

The site must be RUNNING from a thumbdrive. :razzing: Can you say slow?

[Pony99CA]

I guess I'm confused about the point of this (beyond W? BIC). Is taking your (presumably) Windows CE-based PDA that much harder than taking a USB drive? If it's about keeping communications settings, why not use a real Windows system like BartPE (http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/)? If that's not lightweight enough, I've seen at least one USB drive that allows taking your Windows settings with you.

I can see the value for something like Linux, but why would you want Windows CE, especially as it sounds like there's no data persistence because the emulator is being used?

Unless Windows CE is your primary (and pretty much only) computing interface, I can't see this being very useful. Of course, maybe I'm missing somethng.

That said, couldn't you make the device autorun the pce2.cmd file when the USB drive is plugged in? That would simplify using it.

Steve

[mscdex]

I currently run FeatherLinux (http://featherlinux.berlios.de/) from my 256mb USB watch. Lots of options and is easily configurable to the way you want. It boots directly to my watch and loads the main parts into memory for even faster execution (unless you specify otherwise).

There's also other linux distributions like: SLAX (http://slax.linux-live.org/), SPB-Linux (http://www.8ung.at/spblinux/), Flonix (http://www.flonix.com/article.php?id_article=102) (this one is now commerical, but I still have a free version of it if anyone wants/needs it), and more (http://distrowatch.com/search.php?category=USB+drives&amp;origin=All&amp;basedon=All&amp;desktop=All&amp;architecture=All&amp;status=Active).

8)


Edit: I tried out the PocketCE emulator in the link, and every time I both fire up the emulator and shut it down, it drops my internet connection on my PC temporarily and reconnects it. :roll:

[dazz]

I currently run FeatherLinux (http://featherlinux.berlios.de/) from my 256mb USB watch. Lots of options and is easily configurable to the way you want. It boots directly to my watch and loads the main parts into memory for even faster execution (unless you specify otherwise).

There's also other linux distributions like: SLAX (http://slax.linux-live.org/), SPB-Linux (http://www.8ung.at/spblinux/), Flonix (http://www.flonix.com/article.php?id_article=102) (this one is now commerical, but I still have a free version of it if anyone wants/needs it), and more (http://distrowatch.com/search.php?category=USB+drives&amp;origin=All&amp;basedon=All&amp;desktop=All&amp;architecture=All&amp;status=Active).

8)

Hey mscdex, which of these do you think is the best one for someone that is not a Linux type? I have played with Linux but am really a Windows guy, but I would like to try this out. Which is the easiest to get up and running? Also, are these all USB 2.0 compatible? It would seem that USB 2.0 is definately the best way to go.

[mscdex]

I currently run FeatherLinux (http://featherlinux.berlios.de/) from my 256mb USB watch. Lots of options and is easily configurable to the way you want. It boots directly to my watch and loads the main parts into memory for even faster execution (unless you specify otherwise).

There's also other linux distributions like: SLAX (http://slax.linux-live.org/), SPB-Linux (http://www.8ung.at/spblinux/), Flonix (http://www.flonix.com/article.php?id_article=102) (this one is now commerical, but I still have a free version of it if anyone wants/needs it), and more (http://distrowatch.com/search.php?category=USB+drives&amp;origin=All&amp;basedon=All&amp;desktop=All&amp;architecture=All&amp;status=Active).

8)

Hey mscdex, which of these do you think is the best one for someone that is not a Linux type? I have played with Linux but am really a Windows guy, but I would like to try this out. Which is the easiest to get up and running? Also, are these all USB 2.0 compatible? It would seem that USB 2.0 is definately the best way to go.

Well, from the ones I've tried, featherlinux was pretty painless to install. Just make sure when you do the step mentioned on their site (syslinux E: (or whatever drive letter your USB drive is)), make sure you use "syslinux.exe" instead of just "syslinux" (if you don't, you'll get a Windows error).

Besides that, it's just a matter of setting up your bios to make it boot to either USB-ZIP or USB-HDD before it tries to boot to your hard drive and you should be good to go.

And another thing that I've noticed about featherlinux, is it has (a working version of) ndiswrapper, which lets you install wireless adapter/card drivers using windows drivers (I used the ones right off my D-Link CD) if your card or adapter isn't already detected. There are also GUI interfaces for setting up IP information, etc. for your network cards as well, instead of having to use the command-line based utilities (if you're not comfortable using them).

[dazz]

Thanks mscdex. I'll have to give this a try sometime when I have enough time to play around with it.

[MitchellO]

This looks neat. I'm going to give this a shot when I get home today. Might be handy for school.

[rlobrecht]

This is a bit different from Linux on A USB keychain. This runs an emulator inside of Windows XP, so you don't boot the machine from it. Its more like the pocket Firefox and Thunderbird project, where you take tha main portions of your computing environment with you, and run them from the USB key.

I do think there is a lot of w?bic factor to it, especially if you are already carrying a Pocket PC.

[mscdex]

This is a bit different from Linux on A USB keychain. This runs an emulator inside of Windows XP, so you don't boot the machine from it. Its more like the pocket Firefox and Thunderbird project, where you take tha main portions of your computing environment with you, and run them from the USB key.

I do think there is a lot of w?bic factor to it, especially if you are already carrying a Pocket PC.

There is a usb/live-cd linux distro out there (d*mnsmalllinux) that allows you to both boot to the usb drive and run the distro inside windows via qemu. :way to go:

[MitchellO]

This is a bit different from Linux on A USB keychain. This runs an emulator inside of Windows XP, so you don't boot the machine from it. Its more like the pocket Firefox and Thunderbird project, where you take tha main portions of your computing environment with you, and run them from the USB key.

I do think there is a lot of w?bic factor to it, especially if you are already carrying a Pocket PC.

There is a usb/live-cd linux distro out there (d*mnsmalllinux) that allows you to both boot to the usb drive and run the distro inside windows via qemu. :way to go:

Which linux is this? Thats sounds interesting. I installed this last night, and it works ok. Haven't tried installing programs, but the internet worked fine. I think I might give WM2005 a try. Make things interesting!!

[MitchellO]

Took me about 13mins to download the WM2005 SDK. 3Mbit cable, gotta love it!

[MitchellO]

Made my own "dual boot" for WM2003SE and WM2005. Made a copy of the launch script, making separate save state folders so that you can launch either without them affecting each other.

[MitchellO]

http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/4493/ppc2003svga13xm.th.png (http://img378.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ppc2003svga13xm.png)http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/9154/ppc2003svga29bs.th.png (http://img378.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ppc2003svga29bs.png)http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/3901/ppc2003svga37cz.th.png (http://img378.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ppc2003svga37cz.png)http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/3420/ppc2003svga43bs.th.png (http://img378.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ppc2003svga43bs.png)http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/4737/ppc2003svga56xj.th.png (http://img378.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ppc2003svga56xj.png)

Slightly modified the script to run WM2003SE in SVGA!!! Calculator and WMP look funny, but IE works great!

[dazz]

MitchellO, nice!!

Sent you a PM.