Editing PsionLX

{{Infobox software
| name            = PsionLX
| logo            = PsionLX logo.jpg
| logo_size       = 200px
| screenshot      = PsionLX netBook Pro prototype Programs screen (Pulster).jpg
| screenshot_size = 260px
| caption         = The PROGRAMS screen of PsionLX on a netBook Pro development machine (photograph: Pulster)
| developer       = Psion Teklogix
| released        = Unreleased
| status          = Beta. Builds of November 2004 and January 2005 survive
| type            = Linux distribution (OpenEmbedded build of the GPE Palmtop Environment)
| platform        = [[Psion netBook Pro]] (Intel XScale PXA255, 400 MHz)
}}
<templatestyles src="Template:StyledTable/styles.css" />
'''PsionLX''' is a Linux operating system that Psion Teklogix built for the [[Psion netBook Pro]] in 2004 and never released. Psion's own files call it '''Netbook LX''' and '''Psion LX''', and its boot screen reads "PSION LX" with "BETA" underneath. It is an OpenEmbedded build of the GPE Palmtop Environment with a Psion theme, a Psion launcher, a Psion button bar and a set of office, internet and organiser applications patched by Psion for the machine. It runs on the same Intel XScale hardware that Psion Teklogix sold with Windows CE .NET 4.2.<ref name="oe-meta" /><ref name="splash" /><ref name="reg2003" />

Psion Teklogix never sold PsionLX as a product. It survives on a small number of development machines with 256 MB of RAM and 64 MB of flash, and as a root filesystem image dated 4 January 2005 that was shared on the HPC:Factor forum from November 2007. The public download links for that image have been dead for years and no public copy has been found since.<ref name="hpcf-acid-0711-07" /><ref name="hpcf-scops-1001" /><ref name="provenance" /> Psion's own OpenEmbedded build tree survives, and was recovered from the Internet Archive in September 2026. It is the most complete record of what the system contained.<ref name="oe-tree" />

This page covers the original system and its history, every surviving file and where each one came from, and the '''RetroTechCollection reconstruction''' of 2026, which rebuilds PsionLX from that build tree as closely as the surviving material allows. The reconstruction is not Psion's build. The differences are listed under [[#What the reconstruction is and is not|What the reconstruction is and is not]].

== Names ==

{| class="wikitable styled-table" style="width:70%; text-align:left;"
|+'''Names used for the system'''
! Name !! Where it appears
|-
| Netbook LX || Psion's package manifest (<code>meta-psion.oe</code>: "Meta-packages for Psion Netbook LX"), the help index title "Using your Netbook LX", the initial ramdisk ("Netbook LX initial ramdisk boot script") and the BooSt script name "netBook LX BooSt script"<ref name="oe-meta" /><ref name="initrd" /><ref name="anon-lt" />
|-
| Psion LX || The boot splash and the Firefox start-page logo; the sync server recipe ("Synchonization Service for the Psion LX", Psion's spelling); a comment in the initial ramdisk ("Psion LX *inird* cardmanager config")<ref name="splash" /><ref name="oe-tree" /><ref name="initrd" />
|-
| PsionLX || The auditeon.com wiki section "PsionLX Project for the Netbook Pro", and most forum posts from 2007 onwards<ref name="auditeon" /><ref name="hpcf-acid-0711-06" />
|-
| soho-image || The OpenEmbedded image recipe that builds the root filesystem. It sets <code>IMAGE_BASENAME = "soho-image"</code>, which is where the file name <code>soho-image-netbook-pro-20050104074212.rootfs.tar.bz2</code> comes from<ref name="oe-meta" />
|-
| LX, NBpro LX || Forum shorthand for the system, and also for the 256 MB development machines that carried it<ref name="hpcf-marc-1002" />
|}

== Background ==

Psion Teklogix announced the netBook Pro in October 2003 as the successor to the [[Psion netBook]]. It kept the clamshell shape but moved from EPOC on a StrongARM to Windows CE .NET 4.2 on a 400 MHz Intel PXA255, with 128 MB of RAM and an 800 × 600 TFT display. The Register reported that Psion "looked at a variety OS options, including Linux, before settling on CE", quoting product manager Harvey Roberts.<ref name="reg2003" /><ref name="wp-netbook" />

In February 2004 Psion issued a statement reporting "positive results from a viability study of Netbook with Linux for professional users with specialist applications". Psion founder David Potter told the same reporter: "We see Linux as being very interesting, not only in terms of technology, but also in market dynamics."<ref name="reg2004" />

On 4 April 2004 the netBook Pro was registered in the ARM Linux machine database as machine type 503, <code>MACH_TYPE_NETBOOKPRO</code>, "Psion Netbook Pro, PXA 255 based sub-notebook", with Peter Naulls as contact. It was never merged into the mainline kernel.<ref name="armreg" />

Wikipedia's article on Psion Teklogix states that the only outcome of Psion's Linux interest was "Linux as the operating system on a limited number of custom NetBook Pros designed for a hospital setting", citing a report in ''The Business'' of 23 May 2004 headed "NHS deal with Psion heralds move away from Windows". That report could not be checked for this page.<ref name="wp-teklogix" />

== Development ==

=== Build system ===

PsionLX was built with OpenEmbedded. The tree's <code>README</code> describes the procedure: install Python, Psyco, ccache and GCC, check out <code>oe-netbook</code> from <code>cvs.psiondev.com</code>, point <code>setup.sh</code> at the central snapshots under <code>/var/home/autobuild/oe/</code>, then run <code>oemake soho-image</code>.<ref name="oe-meta" />

The image recipe pulls in four package groups and then adds the default user:

<pre>
export IMAGE_BASENAME = "soho-image"
DEPENDS = "task-bootstrap meta-gpe meta-psion ttf-bitstream-vera"

add_netbook_tweaks() {
	# add lx user, group and homedir, and add it to sys group for printer admin
	echo "lx::1000:1000:LX Default User:/home/lx:/bin/sh" >>${IMAGE_ROOTFS}/etc/passwd
	...
	# point /lib/modules to the initrd, and have i2c and i2ckbd loaded
	ln -s ../initrd/lib/modules ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}/lib/modules
}
</pre>

The desktop runs as user <code>lx</code> with an empty password, which is why PsionLX starts straight into the desktop with no login.<ref name="oe-meta" /><ref name="oe-tree" />

The tree holds 263 recipes in 144 directories. Five recipes fetch their source from Psion's own CVS server through the <code>${PDCVS}</code> variable (<code>cvs://${PDUSER}@cvs.psiondev.com/var/lib/cvs</code>): the launcher <code>gpe-appmgr</code>, the button bar <code>gpe-buttonbox</code>, the help viewer <code>gpe-helpviewer</code>, the <code>infoprint</code> utility and the 2.4.26 kernel headers. Another twenty-two fetch from other CVS servers, mostly handhelds.org and freedesktop.org. The rest carry their payload in the tree or fetch a released tarball.<ref name="oe-tree" />

=== People named in the files ===

The files name several people. None of this establishes who employed whom, and the list below records only what the files say.

* The tree's CVS metadata names the account <code>petern@psiondev.com</code>, and every file in the archive that carried the tree is owned by a user called <code>peter</code>.<ref name="oe-tree" />
* <code>setup.sh</code> carries the line "customised for netbook project by Robert McQueen <rob@aleph1.co.uk>".<ref name="oe-meta" />
* The AbiWord recipes name Alex Loveday at a <code>psion.com</code> address as maintainer. The rdesktop, grdesktop, LinNeighborhood, Gaby and VNC recipes name Peter Naulls. Many GPE recipes keep the maintainer names of the upstream OpenEmbedded recipes they were copied from, such as Phil Blundell and Florian Boor.<ref name="oe-tree" />
* The NAND installer script <code>NBLXLoad-cook.sh</code> carries the CVS identifier <code>$Id: NBLXLoad-cook.sh,v 1.8 2004/09/24 10:16:42 wookey Exp $</code>.<ref name="hpcf-eddie-0710-30" />
* The netBook-specific drivers in Psion's own kernel image announce themselves as "(c) 2004 Simtec Electronics": the battery monitor, keyboard driver, power manager, SPI driver, NAND driver, Epson S1D13XXX framebuffer driver and Ricoh RTC driver. The later machine support file <code>arch/arm/mach-pxa/netbookpro.c</code> names Ben Dooks of Simtec Electronics as author.<ref name="kernel-strings" /><ref name="oe-classic" />
* The kernel image that matches the lost root filesystem was built by <code>autobuild@nexus</code>.<ref name="kernel-strings" />

In July 2006 a forum member wrote that "Psion contracted out development of a Linux distro, but decided not to release it", without giving a source.<ref name="hpcf-rocketman" />

=== The developers' wiki ===

Psion's developers kept a wiki. In December 2007 and April 2008 two forum members who held the developer archive, Acid Snoop and w_m0zart, wrote that they were preparing a public version of it with personal details removed, and that it had to be approved before release.<ref name="hpcf-acid-0712" /><ref name="hpcf-mozart-0804" />

The site auditeon.com later carried a section titled "PsionLX Project for the Netbook Pro", last modified on 14 May 2008. Its index lists Action Status (ToDo List), Beta Changelog, Beta Release Notes, Beta Testing, Daily Build Status, Loading from CompactFlash, Project Communication Details, Recent Changes ("recent changes made by the PsionLX developers"), Xios Projects ("website doesn't exist anymore"), Cross Building, ScratchBox ("Cross compiling environment") and Using the PsionLX SDK ("if someone got it, let me know"). The site has since gone offline. Only the index page could be read for this article.<ref name="auditeon" />

The tree itself includes an SDK recipe, <code>meta-sdk.oe</code>, which packages a cross toolchain (binutils, GCC and GDB) and the target C library for <code>armv5te</code>.<ref name="oe-meta" />

=== Build dates ===

The surviving files give a timeline. The dates come from version strings inside the kernel images, archive metadata and forum posts that quote the machines' own version screens.

{| class="wikitable styled-table" style="width:100%; text-align:left;"
|+'''PsionLX build dates recoverable from surviving files'''
! Date !! Evidence !! Source
|-
| 24 September 2004 || Revision 1.8 of the NAND installer script <code>NBLXLoad-cook.sh</code> || Script header, posted on HPC:Factor<ref name="hpcf-eddie-0710-30" />
|-
| 15 November 2004 || Kernel "Build 15 nov 02:10:25 GMT 2004" and system stamp "2004-11-15 02:13" on a 256 MB development board with PsionLX in its internal flash || Owner's report<ref name="hpcf-psifi-1112" />
|-
| 17 November 2004 || Date of most files in the <code>oe-netbook</code> CVS checkout (the earliest is 28 October 2004) || CVS <code>Entries</code> files<ref name="oe-tree" />
|-
| 19-23 November 2004 || Cross-built gnome-games 2.6.2 and LinNeighborhood 0.6.5 <code>.ipk</code> packages || Archive file dates<ref name="oe-tree" />
|-
| 30 December 2004 || Checkout of the 2.6.9 kernel source || Archive file dates<ref name="oe-tree" />
|-
| 4 January 2005, 02:27 GMT || Psion's kernel image: <code>Linux version 2.6.9-rc1-bk18-nb1 (autobuild@nexus) (gcc version 3.4.0) #1 Tue Jan 4 02:27:32 GMT 2005</code> || Version string in <code>nBkProOs.img</code><ref name="kernel-strings" />
|-
| 4 January 2005 || Root filesystem <code>soho-image-netbook-pro-20050104074212.rootfs.tar.bz2</code>. A CF card carrying it reports "2005-01-04 02:31" || File name; owner's report<ref name="hpcf-acid-0711-07" /><ref name="hpcf-psifi-1112" />
|-
| 26 April 2006 || <code>netbook-linux-sources.tgz</code> packed || gzip header<ref name="oe-tree" />
|}

The owner of the development board first described its two builds as "build 2.13 dated nov 2004" and "2.31 2005". A later post from the same owner shows those figures are the times in the two date stamps, 02:13 and 02:31, rather than version numbers.<ref name="hpcf-psifi-1010" /><ref name="hpcf-psifi-1112" />

== The development machines ==

PsionLX was developed on netBook Pros with a larger main board than the retail machine. Several owners describe it independently:

* "The Linux based Netbook Pros seem to have 64 MB of flash versus the normal NB Pro's 32" (July 2006).<ref name="hpcf-rocketman" />
* "Psion Lx motherboard ie 256mb ram and 64mb flash running Psion Lx beta" (October 2010), and "My netBook pro came with it installed. It has the 256mb/64mb motherboard which was used for Psion Lx development."<ref name="hpcf-psifi-1010b" />
* "it is written for the special Netbook Pro version with 256mb RAM but its also working on normal ones" (January 2010).<ref name="hpcf-scops-1001" />
* Pulster's sales listing: "Psion Netbook PRO with rare 256 MB RAM mainboard. Running Linux."<ref name="pulster" />

The standard machine has 128 MB of RAM and 32 MB of flash.<ref name="reg2003" /><ref name="boostdongle" />

The LX BooSt script partitions the internal NAND differently from Windows CE. <code>netbook-booting.txt</code>, recovered with the LX installer, gives the commands for the LX prototype and warns that a standard machine needs a different value:<ref name="anon-lt" />

<pre>
nand -ignore erase 18 ee8
nand partition e8

For a normal NBP the correct value should be 7e8 instead of e8.
</pre>

A forum member who used the <code>e8</code> script on a standard machine in 2009 found that Windows CE would no longer install into the smaller partition until the script was remade with <code>7e8</code>.<ref name="hpcf-dvr" /> A 2007 guide to the BooSt supervisor mode gives the full-erase commands as <code>nand -ignore erase 18 7e8</code> for a 32 MB machine and <code>nand -ignore erase 18 fe8</code> for a 64 MB one, and warns that erasing below block 18 erases BooSt itself and leaves the machine unbootable.<ref name="boostdongle" />

LX machines appeared for sale from time to time. Expansys asked "over a thousand dollars" for one earlier in 2008, a prototype appeared on eBay in June 2008 without source, and in February 2010 a forum member offered his 256 MB machine, bought from Pulster two years earlier, for €400, with the LX system "swapped for GPE".<ref name="hpcf-mrkrupa-0807" /><ref name="hpcf-chiark-0806" /><ref name="hpcf-marc-1002" /> In September 2026 Pulster listed a "Psion Netbook PRO Linux - PsionLX" at €1,900.<ref name="pulster" />

== Why it was not released ==

No official reason has been found. What exists is second-hand:

* In October 2007 a forum member who had asked Psion Teklogix support about the machine reported that they "claim they have no info on any 'in-house' linux version ever being pursued". Their final reply to his questions was "We are not aware of any undocumented features, and unfortunately we are unable to support your other requests."<ref name="hpcf-eddie-0710" />
* In November 2007 w_m0zart, who had an LX machine on loan from Pulster and held the developer sources, wrote: "From one of the developers I heard that the only reason why the LX project was not continued, was just a lack of performance of the NBP hardware."<ref name="hpcf-mozart-0711" />
* In February 2019 Acid Snoop reported that Zebra Technologies' EMEA support team had rejected his request for permission to publish the sources, telling him "the NBP ist end of life".<ref name="hpcf-acid-1902" /> Motorola Solutions bought Psion in 2012, and Zebra bought Motorola's enterprise business, including the former Psion assets, in October 2014.<ref name="wp-teklogix" />

== How PsionLX reached the public ==

{| class="wikitable styled-table" style="width:100%; text-align:left;"
|+'''Circulation of PsionLX, 2006-2026'''
! Date !! Event
|-
| July 2006 || A forum member reports seeing "a few Netbook Pros sold on eBay with this distro preloaded"<ref name="hpcf-rocketman" />
|-
| October 2007 || The HPC:Factor thread "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!" starts from community GPE images at linuxtogo.org. Members find the LX prototype partitioning values in <code>netbook-booting.txt</code>. Screenshots of Linux running on a netBook Pro prompt one member to suggest that someone "is in possession of one of the limited number of actual Linux netBook Pros"; they turn out to show Koen Kooi's OpenZaurus build, not Psion's<ref name="hpcf-eddie-0710-12" />
|-
| 30 October 2007 || w_m0zart, who signs his posts "Marc", writes that he has "a netbook pro LX (on loan from www.pulster.de)" and "the original LX linux (sources)". He found it "based around GPE", slow ("Starting firefox took much more than 30 seconds") and unable to see some files on CF cards<ref name="hpcf-mozart-0710" />
|-
| 6 November 2007 || Acid Snoop boots the image on his own netBook Pro from a 1 GB CF card, thanking "Marc for distributing me with the PsionLX image". His first complaint is that settings do not survive a restart<ref name="hpcf-acid-0711-06" />
|-
| 7 November 2007 || Acid Snoop posts RapidShare links to <code>nBkProOs.img</code> and <code>soho-image-netbook-pro-20050104074212.rootfs.tar.bz2</code>: "Marc gave me the OK to upload the PsionLX files".<ref name="hpcf-acid-0711-07" /> The same evening he posts the links with German instructions on the Linux on tour forum. He is answering an offer made that morning by the dealer Christoph Pulster: goods worth €100 from his shop for whoever writes a guide to installing Linux that still allows a return to Windows CE. His instructions put <code>nBkProOs.img</code> on a 10 MB FAT16 partition and the extracted image on an ext2 partition of at least 140 MB, on a CF card (he used 1 GB), and leave the internal flash untouched<ref name="lot-7535" />
|-
| 10 November 2007 || Acid Snoop uploads <code>netbook-linux-sources.tgz</code>, plus a password-protected folder of "the original PsionLX sources the Teklogix developer used to build the PsionLX Linux OS", adding that "some of these files are still confidential"<ref name="hpcf-acid-0711-10" />
|-
| December 2007 - May 2008 || Acid Snoop and w_m0zart work on releasing a cleaned version of the developers' wiki. The auditeon.com PsionLX index is last modified on 14 May 2008<ref name="hpcf-acid-0712" /><ref name="hpcf-mozart-0804" /><ref name="auditeon" />
|-
| May-July 2009 || bobbyshane posts a CF install guide that relinks the RapidShare image, and the Psion Linux blog repeats it, calling it "The official Psion Beta version which was never released (but is apparently more stable)"<ref name="hpcf-bobby-0905" /><ref name="blog" />
|-
| 20 January 2010 || scops uploads a package containing the soho-image, <code>nBkProOs.img</code>, <code>netbook-linux-sources.tgz</code>, the kernel patch, <code>netbook-booting.txt</code> and <code>mk-nBkProOsImg.c</code>: "this is the hole package for Linux (Psion LX! not GPE!)"<ref name="hpcf-scops-1001" />
|-
| 31 March 2015 || RapidShare shuts down<ref name="rapidshare" />
|-
| June 2017 || psifi reports running LX from a CF card on his netBook Pro<ref name="hpcf-18334" />
|-
| February 2019 || Acid Snoop still has "the binary of the working boost Image and a userspace archive of the last available build" and offers to upload them. HPC:Factor offers hosting<ref name="hpcf-acid-1902" />
|-
| July-August 2026 || fss-hacks asks on three HPC:Factor threads for anyone with PsionLX files, and photographs of a running PsionLX beta are published by fss_88<ref name="hpcf-18334" /><ref name="hpcf-21862" /><ref name="fss88" />
|-
| September 2026 || RetroTechCollection recovers Psion's build tree from the Internet Archive and builds the reconstruction described below<ref name="provenance" />
|}

=== What users reported ===

The forum record is the only account of how PsionLX behaved in use.

* Booting from CF took about two minutes. Acid Snoop's account: a black screen, a red cursor, the PsionLX logo, then "a minute or something" before the pointer and the interface appeared. His German instructions give the stages: 20 to 30 seconds to "Please wait, booting..." under the red cursor, about 30 seconds more to the PsionLX logo, then about a minute while the interface loads, ending with GPE's cross-shaped pointer in the middle of a black screen.<ref name="hpcf-acid-0711-06" /><ref name="lot-7535" />
* Firefox was slow to start: "much more than 30 seconds" by one account in 2007 and about 15 seconds by Acid Snoop's, and "a minute or so" in 2009, though once open it "loads pages way faster and better than ie in wince".<ref name="hpcf-mozart-0710" /><ref name="lot-7535" /><ref name="hpcf-bobby-0906" />
* The touchscreen came pre-calibrated, and the battery monitor sat on the taskbar.<ref name="hpcf-bobby-0906" />
* Wi-Fi worked on PsionLX in 2009 where the community GPE image of the time would not load pages.<ref name="hpcf-bobby-0904" /> In 2007 Acid Snoop's Orinoco Gold card was recognised straight away and connected to his access point.<ref name="lot-7535" />
* The card had to stay in the slot. The root filesystem was just under 150 MB, too large for the 32 MB internal flash, of which about 29 MB is left after BooSt, because it included large programs such as Mozilla.<ref name="lot-7535" />
* One user got "permission denied" messages during boot. After making the whole filesystem writable with <code>chmod -R 777</code> he had to restore the setuid bit on <code>/bin/tinylogin</code> before <code>su</code>, <code>mount</code> and <code>umount</code> worked again. He could not set the date and time, and found the built-in help "sehr mager" (very thin).<ref name="lot-7535" />
* Suspend worked the same way as under Windows CE, by closing the lid or pressing Fn+Off.<ref name="hpcf-psifi-1010b" />
* The e-mail application could corrupt the system: "On both version the email app will corrupt the O/S and make it unuseable."<ref name="hpcf-psifi-1112" />
* The community GPE image was described as faster: "even better (faster) than Psion LX. Psion LX has more apps", and "less of a load than the lx stuff that psion produced".<ref name="hpcf-scops-0803" /><ref name="hpcf-mrkrupa-0807b" />
* "psion-lx one is a customised GPE as well."<ref name="hpcf-ea2" />

== What PsionLX contained ==

Everything in this section is taken from Psion's own build tree and kernel image, except where another source is cited. It describes Psion's system, not the reconstruction.

=== Boot sequence ===

[[File:PsionLX beta splash screen.png|thumb|300px|Psion's 800 × 600 PsionLX boot splash, from the <code>gpe-bootsplash</code> recipe in Psion's tree]]
The netBook Pro's firmware bootloader, BooSt, loads an operating system image named <code>nBkProOs.img</code> from internal NAND or from a CompactFlash card. BooSt reports itself as "Psion Teklogix netBook2 BooSt".<ref name="boostdongle" /> For Linux the image is a kernel and initial ramdisk wrapped in a 256-byte BooSt header. <code>netbook-booting.txt</code> documents the header: platform ID <code>0x326B426E</code>, load offset <code>0x408000</code>, and image flags <code>0x10003</code> for a CF image (maximum 8,388,608 bytes) or <code>0x10013</code> for a NAND image (maximum 3,702,784 bytes). Bit 16 marks the payload as zlib-compressed and bit 4 copies it to the OS partition.<ref name="anon-lt" /> A 2007 analysis found extra start-up code in Psion's boot images, which sets up the hardware and moves the kernel and ramdisk into place, and for which no source has been found.<ref name="hpcf-oldman-0711" />

The kernel is <code>2.6.9-rc1-bk18-nb1</code>. The same forum analysis found the kernel source in Psion's archive identical to 2.6.9-rc1-bk18 with <code>linux-2.6.9-pre1-bk18-nbp1.patch</code>, published in Koen Kooi's directory at linuxtogo.org, applied.<ref name="hpcf-oldman-0711" /> Psion's image also carries module paths for <code>2.4.26-vrs1-pxa1-nb1</code>, and the tree has a 2.4.26 kernel recipe, so a 2.4 kernel was built for the machine as well.<ref name="kernel-strings" /><ref name="oe-tree" />

The initial ramdisk script, "Netbook LX initial ramdisk boot script", handles both kernel series. Under 2.4 it loads the <code>i2c</code> and <code>i2ckbd</code> keyboard modules; under 2.6 it prints "Running Linux 2.6 System". It then:<ref name="initrd" />

# mounts the first CF partition read-only and, if it holds an executable <code>NBLXLoad.sh</code>, runs it (this is how a new system was written to the internal flash);
# tries to mount the internal NAND as JFFS2 (<code>/dev/mtdblock/0</code>) as the root filesystem;
# if that fails, tries the second CF partition (<code>/dev/hda2</code>);
# pivots into the root filesystem, leaving the ramdisk at <code>/initrd</code>, and starts <code>/sbin/init</code>.

The ramdisk stays mounted at <code>/initrd</code> because it holds the kernel modules. The image recipe points <code>/lib/modules</code> at <code>../initrd/lib/modules</code> for that reason.<ref name="oe-meta" />

On the root filesystem, <code>gpe-bootsplash</code> draws Psion's splash, and <code>gpe-dm</code> starts the kdrive X server on the framebuffer and runs the scripts in <code>/etc/X11/Xinit.d</code>. The last of them, Psion's <code>99psion-session</code>, hands the display to user <code>lx</code>:<ref name="oe-tree" /><ref name="rtc-docs" />

<pre>
chown lx /dev/dsp /dev/mixer
if ! grep -q '^lx::' /etc/passwd; then
  exec gpe-login
else
  ln -s /var/tmp/xsession-errors.lx /home/lx/.xsession-errors
  exec su lx -c /etc/X11/Xsession >> /home/lx/.xsession-errors 2>&1
fi
</pre>

The session then runs Psion's <code>95psion-apps</code>, which copies Psion's button bar layout into the user's home directory ("this also neatly avoids the annoying welcome screen and timezone setter", in the script's own comment), and starts Matchbox with Psion's session file:<ref name="oe-tree" />

<pre>
gpe-soundserver &
gpe-appmgr -d -r &
matchbox-panel --orientation south --size 48 --no-menu &
exec matchbox-window-manager $@
</pre>

=== The desktop ===

[[File:PsionLX Today screen on a netBook Pro.jpg|thumb|300px|The TODAY screen of PsionLX on a netBook Pro (photograph: fss_88). The date is the machine's clock.]]
The desktop is <code>gpe-appmgr</code> in desktop mode (<code>-d</code>) and row view (<code>-r</code>), built from Psion's own branch of the program (CVS tag <code>GPE_APPMGR_56</code>).<ref name="oe-tree" /> The photographs of running machines show its layout:<ref name="pulster" /><ref name="fss88" />

* A strip of three amber tabs down the right-hand edge: TODAY, PROGRAMS and TASKS.
* TODAY shows the date and a summary: Wi-Fi card present or not, internet connection, e-mail inbox and outbox, appointments and the to-do list, with a "Show this screen at startup" checkbox.
* PROGRAMS shows the applications in four boxed groups, OFFICE, INTERNET, PIM and OTHER, each with its name written vertically down its left side.
* A large pale Psion blockletter watermark runs down the left of the screen.
* A 48-pixel bar along the bottom holds Psion's button bar (<code>gpe-buttonbox</code>, Psion's CVS tag 50) on the left, with Desk, Docs, Email, Web, Word, Sheet, Calendar, Contacts and Other, and the clock, volume, battery and card-ejector applets on the right.

Psion's panel layout file lists exactly that, with a tab character separating the left group from the right:<ref name="oe-tree" />

<pre>
gpe-buttonbox -p
	
gpe-clock
mb-applet-battery
minimix
psion-card-ejector
</pre>

The TASKS screen offered Psion's task scripts. Three recipes describe themselves that way: <code>iconnect</code> ("Internet connection script for tasks screen"), <code>backup</code> ("Backup script for tasks screen") and <code>mydocs</code> ("Task to specify location of My Documents"). The TASKS page itself was an HTML file, <code>gpe-appmgr/tasks.html</code>. It is lost, but Psion's <code>add-backup.patch</code> of 26 August 2004 edits it, and shows a table of tasks with icons in which "Back up your information" becomes a link to <code>launch:backup.sh</code>, beside an entry reading "Get help". The launcher recipe depends on Psion's HTML viewer, <code>gpe-helpviewer</code>.<ref name="oe-tree" />

=== Theme, settings and keyboard ===

The <code>psion-theme</code> package has two halves. The GTK half is a <code>gtkrc</code> using the "mist" engine, with a <code>#E2E2E2</code> base and <code>#a1b6d7</code> for the clock and button bar. The window manager half is 20 PNG images plus <code>theme.xml</code> and <code>theme.desktop</code>. Psion derived it from the Blondie Matchbox theme and never renamed it: <code>theme.xml</code> still opens <code><theme name="blondie" author="Matthew Allum - mallum@handhelds.org"</code>, with <code>bgcol</code> and <code>dockcol</code> set to <code>#a1b6d7</code>.<ref name="oe-tree" />

Psion's XSettings override is four lines. It sets the double-click timing, turns Matchbox compositing off and selects the theme:<ref name="oe-tree" />

<pre>
Net/DoubleClickTime:I:600
Net/DoubleClickDistance:I:7
MATCHBOX/COMPOSITE:S:off
Net/ThemeName:S:psion
</pre>

The session also sets <code>LANG=en_GB</code>, sets <code>GPE_PRETEND_STYLUS=1</code>, and loads Psion's keyboard map for the machine, <code>xmodmap-netbookpro</code>. Psion's Matchbox keyboard bindings are:<ref name="oe-tree" />

{| class="wikitable styled-table" style="width:60%; text-align:left;"
|+'''Psion's window manager key bindings (<code>kbdconfig</code>)'''
! Keys !! Action
|-
| Mod3 + D || Show the desktop
|-
| Mod3 + C || Touchscreen calibration (<code>xtscal</code>)
|-
| Mod3 + Left Alt || Internet dialler (<code>gkdial</code>)
|-
| Ctrl + Alt + Backspace || <code>reset.sh</code>, which asks "Are you sure you wish to restart the session?"
|-
| Alt + Tab, Alt + Shift + Tab || Next and previous window
|-
| Alt + Escape || Show the desktop
|-
| Alt + 4 || Close the window
|}

Help is a set of about a hundred HTML pages and images titled "Using your Netbook LX", with sections for the main applications, and there is a sixteen-page tutorial.<ref name="oe-tree" />

=== Applications ===

<code>meta-psion.oe</code> ("Meta-packages for Psion Netbook LX", revision r23) groups the applications into <code>psion-apps</code>, <code>psion-net</code>, <code>psion-media</code>, <code>psion-games</code> and <code>psion-debug</code>. Every icon in the photograph of the PROGRAMS screen maps to a package in it or in the GPE manifest, <code>meta-gpe.oe</code>. The versions and patch counts below are from Psion's recipes; where more than one recipe exists, the newest is given.<ref name="oe-meta" /><ref name="pulster" />

{| class="wikitable styled-table" style="width:100%; text-align:left;"
|+'''The 21 applications on the PsionLX PROGRAMS screen'''
! Launcher name !! Group !! Package !! Version Psion pinned !! Psion's patches
|-
| Calculator || OFFICE || galculator || 1.2.3 || 7
|-
| Sheet || OFFICE || Gnumeric || 1.3.93 || 9 (<code>psion.patch</code> alone changes 24 files)
|-
| Sketch Pad || OFFICE || gpe-sketchbook || 0.2.8 || 3
|-
| Word || OFFICE || AbiWord || 2.0.12 || 4, including <code>abiword-psion.patch</code>, which sets Thorndale AMT as the default font
|-
| Email || INTERNET || Balsa || 2.2.2 || 2 (<code>netbook-20041110.patch</code> changes 86 files)
|-
| Instant Messenger || INTERNET || Gaim || 1.0.0 || 1
|-
| Internet Dialler || INTERNET || gkdial || 1.8.1 || 3
|-
| Remote Desktop || INTERNET || grdesktop with rdesktop || 0.23 and 1.3.1 || <code>desktop-name.patch</code> on grdesktop; 4 on rdesktop
|-
| Web || INTERNET || Firefox || 1.0 || 8, including <code>startup-page.patch</code>, which opens Psion's branded start page
|-
| Calendar || PIM || gpe-calendar || 0.58 || 5
|-
| Contacts || PIM || gpe-contacts || 0.32 || 7
|-
| Files || PIM || gpe-filemanager || 0.21 || 6
|-
| Image Viewer || PIM || gpe-gallery || 0.95 || 5
|-
| To-do list || PIM || gpe-todo || 0.49 || 4
|-
| Control Panel || OTHER || gpe-conf || 0.1.21 || 8
|-
| Media Player || OTHER || Totem || 0.99.15.1 || 4
|-
| My Network || OTHER || LinNeighborhood || 0.6.5 || 4
|-
| PDF Viewer || OTHER || gpdf || 2.7.90 || 2
|-
| Solitaire || OTHER || AisleRiot, from gnome-games || 2.6.2 || <code>short-name.patch</code>
|-
| Terminal || OTHER || gpe-terminal || 1.1 || none
|-
| Text Editor || OTHER || gpe-edit || 0.28 || 3
|}

The same manifest adds the Agfa fonts, the aspell English dictionary, the Gaby database, the GNOME CUPS print manager and ESP Ghostscript, Zenity, <code>infoprint</code>, Bluetooth and IrDA beaming, the <code>aumix</code> and <code>minimix</code> volume controls, and the debugging tools <code>strace</code>, <code>mtd</code>, <code>xprop</code>, <code>xhost</code>, <code>scap</code>, <code>ldd</code>, <code>gdbserver</code> and <code>catchsegv</code>. A comment beside the games group reads "want minesweeper :P".<ref name="oe-meta" />

Underneath, Psion built its own copies of the base libraries: GTK+ 2.4.13 with 18 patches, GLib 2.4.7, and a kdrive X server from CVS with 5 patches.<ref name="oe-tree" />

=== Other Psion components ===

{| class="wikitable styled-table" style="width:100%; text-align:left;"
|+'''Psion-specific packages in the build tree'''
! Package !! What it does
|-
| <code>psion-session</code> || Session start-up scripts, button bar layout, XSettings override, keyboard map, locale, stylus setting and the session-reset script
|-
| <code>psion-theme</code> || The GTK and Matchbox theme described above
|-
| <code>psion-help</code>, <code>psion-tutorial</code> || The help pages and the sixteen-page tutorial
|-
| <code>psion-card-ejector</code> || A panel applet that runs <code>eject.sh</code> as root. The script unmounts any CF and MMC cards, stops the IDE card service on <code>hda</code> and <code>hdc</code>, and then shows "You can now remove your CF or MMC cards safely"
|-
| <code>psion-sierra</code> || PCMCIA card definitions for the "Sierra Wireless AC710/AC750 GPRS Network Adapter" and the "Pretec CompactModem or Globetrotter GPRS", both bound to the serial driver
|-
| <code>ppp</code> || GPRS peer files for Orange, Vodafone, O2 and T-Mobile with their chat scripts
|-
| <code>wpan-tools</code> || <code>bt_connect.sh</code> and <code>ir_connect.sh</code>, dial-up helpers for Bluetooth and IrDA phones
|-
| <code>plptools</code> || Psion's build of the PLP tools with a <code>plp_upgrade</code> script which "Extracts and moves files from previous versions of Psion Product over to the LX": it starts <code>ncpd</code> on the serial port and runs <code>plpbackup</code> against an EPOC Psion
|-
| <code>sync-serv</code> || "LX Sync Server", a small C program that answers file, SQL, directory-listing and command requests from a Windows PC over a pipe
|-
| <code>iconnect</code>, <code>backup</code>, <code>mydocs</code> || The TASKS screen scripts
|-
| <code>agfa-fonts</code> || Albany AMT, Thorndale AMT, Cumberland AMT and Arial Narrow, sixteen faces in all
|-
| <code>gpe-appmgr-psion</code>, <code>gpe-buttonbox-psion</code> || The launcher (tag 56) and button bar (tag 50), fetched from Psion's CVS
|-
| <code>psion-kernel</code> || Headers-only recipe for the 2.4.26 kernel, fetched from Psion's CVS
|}

== Surviving material ==

=== Recovered files ===

These are every file relating to PsionLX that has been found, with where each came from. Sizes are in bytes. Several were recovered from the Internet Archive after the sites that hosted them closed.<ref name="provenance" />

{| class="wikitable styled-table" style="width:100%; text-align:left;"
|+'''Files recovered for PsionLX'''
! File !! Size !! What it is !! Where it came from
|-
| <code>netbook-linux-sources.tgz</code> || 106,074,940 || Psion's developer archive, packed on 26 April 2006, 347,985,920 bytes and 31,531 entries unpacked. See the table below for its contents. It is the same file name that Acid Snoop uploaded in November 2007 and scops in January 2010 || <code>www.auditeon.com/xyz/psion/</code>, via the Internet Archive. Nothing indexes it. It was found by following every URL posted in five HPC:Factor threads, which led to the linuxtogo wiki page <code>NetbookPro/Installing2Nand</code>, which cites auditeon.com in passing<ref name="oe-tree" /><ref name="provenance" />
|-
| <code>nBkProOs.img</code> (inside the archive) || 3,613,045 || Psion's own CF boot image, kernel built by <code>autobuild@nexus</code> on 4 January 2005, the same day as the lost root filesystem. BooSt flags <code>0x10003</code> (CF) || <code>netbook-linux-sources.tgz</code><ref name="kernel-strings" />
|-
| <code>nBkProOs.img_cf</code> || 3,659,808 || A CF boot image built outside Psion from the same kernel version: <code>Linux version 2.6.9-rc1-bk18-nb1 (fuchs@gibson) (gcc-Version 3.3.4) #1 Fri Mar 25 18:13:14 CET 2005</code>. BooSt lists it as "NETBOOKPRO Linux26". Forum members used it to boot the PsionLX root filesystem from CF || <code>linuxtogo.org/~florian/</code> (offline), via the Internet Archive<ref name="kernel-strings" /><ref name="hpcf-psifi-1112" /><ref name="hpcf-mrkrupa-0711" />
|-
| <code>gpe-fs-cf.tar.bz2</code> || 14,227,676 || A community GPE root filesystem for CF, 2,383 entries. <code>/etc/version</code> reads <code>200503081928</code> and <code>/etc/issue</code> "Familiar Linux Unofficial Snapshot". Not PsionLX || <code>linuxtogo.org/~florian/</code>. The archive holds it only under its <code>index.php?download=</code> address, not its direct path<ref name="provenance" />
|-
| <code>gpe-image-3.5.4.1-netbook-pro.rootfs.jffs2</code> || 15,450,112 || An OpenZaurus 3.5.4.1 GPE image for the internal flash, 1,939 files. <code>/etc/version</code> reads <code>200608040117</code>, so it is a later build than the CF root filesystem, not a copy of it. Not PsionLX || <code>linuxtogo.org/~florian/</code>, via the Internet Archive<ref name="provenance" /><ref name="rtc-docs" />
|-
| <code>nBkPro.img</code> || 300 || A BooSt script named "netBook LX BooSt script" holding the LX prototype NAND commands || <code>linuxtogo.org/~anonymous/</code> (offline), via the Internet Archive<ref name="anon-lt" />
|-
| <code>netbook-booting.txt</code> || 3,958 || A description of the LX boot and install process and the BooSt header format || <code>linuxtogo.org/~anonymous/</code><ref name="anon-lt" />
|-
| <code>mk-nBkProOsImg.c</code> || 5,496 || Source of the tool that wraps a kernel and ramdisk into a BooSt image || <code>linuxtogo.org/~anonymous/</code><ref name="anon-lt" />
|-
| <code>nBkProOs.img</code> || 3,403,850 || A NAND boot image of the same kernel version, built by <code>fuchs@gibson</code> on 8 March 2005. BooSt flags <code>0x10013</code> (NAND) || <code>linuxtogo.org/~anonymous/</code><ref name="kernel-strings" />
|-
| <code>gpe-image.jffs2</code> || 22,822,912 || A third GPE build, again for the internal flash: "Familiar Linux v0.8.3-unofficial-unsupported-snapshot-20051104", 2,223 files. It includes AbiWord 2.4 and Gaim. Neither of the two JFFS2 images carries <code>gpe-appmgr</code> or <code>gpe-buttonbox</code> || <code>linuxtogo.org/~anonymous/</code><ref name="provenance" /><ref name="rtc-docs" />
|-
| <code>NBLXLoad.sh</code> || 633 || The script the initial ramdisk runs to write a root filesystem to the internal flash. It takes the first <code>.jff</code> or <code>.jffs2</code> file in <code>/rootfs</code>, erases the flash with <code>flash_eraseall -j</code> and writes the file with <code>nandwrite --blockalign=2</code>. The copy at linuxtogo.org was never archived: all nine Internet Archive captures are an HTTP 403 page, because the server refused to serve <code>.sh</code> files. Its text was also posted on HPC:Factor on 30 October 2007 || A copy uploaded on 26 March 2010 to the anetbookpro download area at TuxFamily, still online<ref name="tuxfamily" /><ref name="hpcf-eddie-0710-30" /><ref name="provenance" />
|-
| <code>BooStDongle.pdf</code> || 217,046 || "How to enter the BooSt superuser mode in the Netbook Pro", a one-page guide dated 12 July 2007 by w_m0zart || Kept with the auditeon.com files; its download location was not recorded<ref name="boostdongle" />
|-
| OpenEmbedded <code>netbook-pro</code> machine files || small || The later community machine configuration, a 2.6.17 kernel recipe, <code>fstab</code> and touchscreen settings || The OpenEmbedded classic repository, still online<ref name="oe-classic" />
|-
| <code>linux-2.6.9-pre1-bk18-nbp1.patch</code> || 954,777 || netBook Pro support for the 2.6.9 kernel the device runs, patching 174 files, including the machine file <code>netbookpro.c</code>, the keyboard, NAND, PC Card and display drivers, and a <code>netbookpro_defconfig</code> dated 14 September 2004. The full patched tree in the developer archive supersedes it || <code>linuxtogo.org/~koen/</code> (offline), via the Internet Archive<ref name="rtc-search" />
|-
| 2.6.17 kernel patches || small || <code>netbook-base-r0</code> to <code>r3</code>, <code>netbook-pcon-r0</code>, <code>netbook-pcon-i2c-r0</code> and <code>r1</code>, <code>netbook-pm-r0</code>, a defconfig and the machine file <code>netbookpro.c</code>. The patches and defconfig the recipe uses match its MD5 checksums || <code>linuxtogo.org/~koen/</code> (offline), via the Internet Archive<ref name="oe-classic" />
|-
| GPE release tarballs || various || Every GPE application release that Psion's recipes pin, plus <code>gpe-appmgr</code> 2.8, <code>gpe-buttonbox</code> 0.5 and <code>minimix</code> 0.6 || The <code>gpe.linuxtogo.org</code> mirror of the GPE download tree, via the Internet Archive. The original <code>gpe.handhelds.org</code> was never archived<ref name="provenance" />
|-
| <code>jlime-xfce-image-2012.3-netbookpro-20120311.rootfs.tar.bz2</code> || 88,409,659 || jLime 2012.3 with the XFCE desktop, 28,423 files. The newest Linux release found for the machine. Not PsionLX || HPC:Factor's public repository, which mirrored jLime after jlime.com closed<ref name="provenance" />
|-
| <code>nbpswfeb18english04218.zip</code> || 19,505,892 || The Windows CE 4.2 restore image, for returning a machine to its shipped state || vigay.com<ref name="provenance" />
|-
| <code>1000999D.ISO</code> || 30,750,720 || Psion's netBook Pro companion CD. The volume is dated 10 November 2004. It holds the Windows side only: ActiveSync, USB setup, Pocket On-Schedule and its guides, and the user manual in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. Not PsionLX || The Internet Archive item <code>1000999d_netbook_pro_cd</code>, uploaded in December 2019<ref name="ia-cd" />
|}

The developer archive contains:<ref name="oe-tree" />

{| class="wikitable styled-table" style="width:80%; text-align:left;"
|+'''Contents of <code>netbook-linux-sources.tgz</code>'''
! Top-level entry !! Entries !! What it is
|-
| <code>oe-netbook/</code> || 2,807 || Psion's OpenEmbedded tree, with its CVS metadata
|-
| <code>linux-2.6.9/</code> || 21,464 || The kernel source used on the device, checked out on 30 December 2004
|-
| <code>kdegames-3.3.1/</code> || 5,165 || KDE games source
|-
| <code>gnome-games-2.6.2/</code> || 1,639 || GNOME games source with ARM objects compiled in November 2004. Solitaire (AisleRiot) comes from here
|-
| <code>linneighborhood-0.6.5/</code> || 300 || LinNeighborhood source ("My Network")
|-
| <code>rdesktop-cvs/</code> || 152 || rdesktop source
|-
| Three <code>.ipk</code> files || 3 || Psion's LinNeighborhood 0.6.5 packages, releases r7 and r8 and a German locale, built 23 November 2004
|-
| <code>nBkProOs.img</code> || 1 || Psion's CF boot image of 4 January 2005
|}

SHA-256 checksums of the recovered binaries:<ref name="provenance" />

{| class="wikitable styled-table" style="width:100%; text-align:left; font-size:90%;"
! File !! SHA-256
|-
| <code>netbook-linux-sources.tgz</code> || <code>a14b7d2e87217fdc2f5d32752a00ca0959ae5b1f312a6116d1a895d248edf08f</code>
|-
| <code>nBkProOs.img</code> (Psion, from the archive) || <code>88dcfa0ab10750b76ed251b919ee66db5395ac2be379ae81abd6ede7b4e4b890</code>
|-
| <code>nBkProOs.img_cf</code> || <code>bc640360e58d858b2d260450e20621adc93cb51e0fcccadaf2a97f415099bd1b</code>
|-
| <code>gpe-fs-cf.tar.bz2</code> || <code>532e322fdd9a1275e953818ff575a36a1c0249fea526d9c53315f07b390f1866</code>
|-
| <code>gpe-image-3.5.4.1-netbook-pro.rootfs.jffs2</code> || <code>8094d741422036c13801579aa69e477ed8bca61827e8edcc0a770dda29254738</code>
|-
| <code>nBkPro.img</code> || <code>0f56875793d46c36ce725157e99b82ef4f1a64f2c60b99cc16912d3a3b775476</code>
|-
| <code>nBkProOs.img</code> (linuxtogo, NAND) || <code>003ef6d5455e4397aaee80e8942bc11d1ab1178220515e1d6aa2f4cf8b15ff7d</code>
|-
| <code>gpe-image.jffs2</code> || <code>1db13b43cfe8055c5b8fea27bdb0a2c510e448f574dbcbad53dddfbd85881e35</code>
|-
| <code>jlime-xfce-image-2012.3-netbookpro-20120311.rootfs.tar.bz2</code> || <code>ce14633797a2d4562ecdfb07db19974b8417df43bc96bed9595e43ac3f9060fc</code>
|-
| <code>NBLXLoad.sh</code> (TuxFamily) || <code>583095e51004129de568dfd216d9cf207fec34c09cb9eade41d9e712556f2280</code>
|-
| <code>linux-2.6.9-pre1-bk18-nbp1.patch</code> || <code>5fe432d2445e927e65c7859afa34371e0e080626c5887f7815d698972011e0b6</code>
|-
| <code>1000999D.ISO</code> || <code>7d646c2841cfbdd1f636814bb0129339ba7cb7e88b7d2e74f8a5c87862d5c967</code>
|}

=== What has not been found ===

{| class="wikitable styled-table" style="width:100%; text-align:left;"
|+'''Missing PsionLX material'''
! Item !! What it was !! Status
|-
| <code>soho-image-netbook-pro-20050104074212.rootfs.tar.bz2</code> || The built PsionLX root filesystem of 4 January 2005 || Posted on RapidShare in November 2007 and in a package on ul.to in January 2010. Neither link works, the Internet Archive never captured either download, and no public copy has been found. Acid Snoop reported still holding a copy in February 2019<ref name="hpcf-acid-0711-07" /><ref name="hpcf-scops-1001" /><ref name="hpcf-acid-1902" /><ref name="provenance" /><ref name="rtc-search" />
|-
| Psion's CVS server, <code>cvs.psiondev.com</code> || The source of the launcher (tag <code>GPE_APPMGR_56</code>), the button bar (tag <code>GPE_BUTTONBOX_50</code>), <code>gpe-helpviewer</code>, <code>infoprint</code> and the 2.4.26 kernel || Offline. The Internet Archive holds one URL from psiondev.com<ref name="provenance" />
|-
| The TODAY and TASKS pages || The launcher's own pages, including the HTML file <code>tasks.html</code> || Lived in the launcher's CVS module and were lost with it. One patch to <code>tasks.html</code> survives<ref name="oe-tree" /><ref name="rtc-docs" />
|-
| <code>desktop-background.png</code> || The blockletter watermark behind the desktop || Shipped inside the launcher's CVS module. Not in the build tree or any upstream release<ref name="rtc-docs" />
|-
| Psion's override icons || A set of icons in <code>/usr/share/gpe/overrides</code> that replaced the stock ones, including the blue Calculator and Sketch Pad icons in the Pulster photograph. Three of Psion's patches (galculator, gpe-contacts, gpe-todo) load their window icon from there || No recipe installs the directory and no copy survives<ref name="provenance" />
|-
| <code>gkdial-1.8.1.tar.gz</code> || The upstream release Psion's dialler recipe pins || Not in the Internet Archive, SourceForge or the Debian archives. 1.8.0 survives<ref name="provenance" />
|-
| <code>xtscal-0.6.2.tar.bz2</code> || The touchscreen calibrator Psion patched (<code>xtscal-nbp.patch</code>) to keep calibration in the netBook Pro's NVRAM || Not archived under any mirror path used by the recipe or the GPE tree. The patch survives<ref name="rtc-docs" />
|-
| The password-protected source folder || "the original PsionLX sources the Teklogix developer used", uploaded by Acid Snoop in November 2007, which he later said contained "Developer names, comments, Roadmaps" || Never published<ref name="hpcf-acid-0711-10" /><ref name="hpcf-acid-1902" />
|-
| The developers' wiki || Beta release notes, changelog, daily build status, SDK instructions || Only the auditeon.com index page has been read<ref name="auditeon" />
|-
| The PsionLX SDK || The built toolchain from <code>meta-sdk.oe</code> || Not found. The auditeon index asks "if someone got it, let me know"<ref name="auditeon" />
|-
| Psion's binary packages || The <code>.ipk</code> feed the image was assembled from || Only the three LinNeighborhood packages in the developer archive survive<ref name="oe-tree" />
|-
| <code>gnome-theme-grand-canyon</code> and <code>gnome-theme-lighthouseblue</code> || Two alternate GTK themes that <code>soho-image.oe</code> installs. Psion's tree has no recipe for either; they came from OpenEmbedded's own recipes || Not in any file recovered. Psion's own theme, the one PsionLX uses, is complete<ref name="oe-meta" /><ref name="rtc-docs" />
|}

The searches that failed covered the Internet Archive (exact URLs, URL prefixes and domain sweeps of jlime.com, hpcfactor.com, repository.hpcfactor.com, linuxtogo.org, psiondev.com, handhelds.org, familiar.handhelds.org, openembedded.org and psionlinux.blogspot.com), a full enumeration of HPC:Factor's public repository, GitHub code and repository search including the tworaz netBook Pro repositories, archive.org item and full-text search, Software Heritage, the OpenPsion mailing list and the archived blog comment feeds.<ref name="provenance" /> One trap is worth recording for anyone repeating the work: a Wayback Machine CDX query of the form <code>url=*/filename*</code> returns nothing for files that are archived, because a leading wildcard is not a supported match type. An empty result from that query form proves nothing.<ref name="provenance" />

A second search at the end of September 2026 added arquivo.pt's full-text index, Common Crawl, the Internet Archive's complete index of linuxontour.de (which linked to the files but never hosted them), the live directory at kernelconcepts.de/~florian/, the code archives and forges Software Heritage, GitLab, SourceForge, Codeberg, Gitea, git.kernel.org, repo.or.cz, the Google Code Archive, Gitorious, Savannah, BerliOS, Launchpad and Bitbucket, and searches in German, Russian and twelve other languages. Only the German search found anything: the 2007 Linux on tour post. Six sites could not be searched by script, because of blocks, captchas or logins, and have not been checked by hand: 4pda.to, Yandex, Baidu, forum.ixbt.com, mikrocontroller.net and a1k.org.<ref name="rtc-search" /> Two more traps: the Wayback Machine's CDX interface fails over plain HTTP where the same query over HTTPS works, and when it is throttled it returns an empty result that looks like "no captures". Every query needs a control that is known to be archived, run in the same batch.<ref name="rtc-search" />

== The RetroTechCollection reconstruction ==

''This section documents RetroTechCollection's own work. Its figures come from the project's build files, the running image and measurements made for it, not from published sources, and are cited to the project's records.''

In September 2026 RetroTechCollection rebuilt PsionLX as a bootable CompactFlash image for a standard 128 MB netBook Pro, starting from Psion's build tree. The rule throughout was that Psion's tree is the authority: where Psion's file survives it is installed unchanged, where only Psion's recipe and patches survive the program is rebuilt from the exact upstream release Psion pinned with Psion's patches applied, and where nothing of Psion's survives the part is reconstructed and labelled as such inside the file itself.<ref name="rtc-docs" />

<gallery mode="packed" heights="260">
File:PsionLX reconstruction Programs screen.png|The reconstruction's PROGRAMS screen, captured from the running image on 28 September 2026
File:PsionLX netBook Pro prototype Programs screen (Pulster).jpg|Psion's own build on a development machine, for comparison (photograph: Pulster)
File:PsionLX beta splash screen on a netBook Pro.jpg|Psion's LX beta splash on a netBook Pro (photograph: fss_88)
</gallery>

=== What is in the image ===

There are two images, built from two trees. <code>psionlx-cf-1gb.img</code> is the working image, and it is the one described below as of 30 September 2026. <code>psionlx-cf-1gb-asphotographed.img</code> is the archival image, whose PROGRAMS screen matches the Pulster photograph (see [[#What the reconstruction is and is not|below]]). Its tree was frozen on 28 September 2026 and fell behind for two days. Since 30 September both trees get the same fixes, and the two images differ in their menus.<ref name="rtc-docs" />

{| class="wikitable styled-table" style="width:100%; text-align:left;"
|+'''Where each part of the reconstruction comes from'''
! Part !! Source !! Psion's own?
|-
| Kernel and initial ramdisk || <code>nBkProOs.img_cf</code>, the March 2005 community build of kernel 2.6.9-rc1-bk18-nb1 || No. Same kernel version, but not Psion's 4 January 2005 image, which survives and is not used
|-
| Base system and libraries || <code>gpe-fs-cf.tar.bz2</code>, a Familiar/GPE snapshot of 8 March 2005 with GTK+ 2.6.3 and GLib 2.6.3 || No. Psion built GTK+ 2.4.13 with 18 patches and GLib 2.4.7
|-
| Theme, session scripts, splash, help, tutorial, keyboard map and key bindings, Agfa fonts, PPP and GPRS configuration, PLP tools, PC Card and sleep configuration || Psion's build tree || Yes, installed unchanged, with three exceptions. The theme is selected by an added <code>/etc/gtk-2.0/gtkrc</code> and an added <code>-theme psion</code> argument in the Matchbox session file, and the panel layout starts the card-ejector applet directly. Psion's originals of the changed files are kept beside them as <code>.psion-orig</code>. The third is the font: the added <code>gtkrc</code> names Bitstream Vera Sans, and two lines of the theme that ask for plain <code>Sans</code> now name it too (see [[#Faults found during the rebuild|Faults found during the rebuild]])
|-
| gpe-conf, gpe-calendar, gpe-contacts, gpe-filemanager, gpe-gallery, gpe-login, gpe-shield, gpe-wlancfg, gpe-todo, gpe-edit, gpe-sketchbook, gpe-beam, gpe-bluetooth, gpe-dm, gpe-soundserver, galculator, detect-stylus, ipaq-sleep, libeventdb, libgtkstylus, the six Matchbox panel applets, mb-applet-volume, Balsa 2.2.2, Firefox 1.0, Totem, rdesktop 1.3.1, grdesktop 0.23 || Upstream release at the version Psion pinned, with Psion's patches, compiled for the device || Rebuilt from Psion's recipes
|-
| Solitaire (AisleRiot) || Linked from the ARM objects Psion compiled in November 2004, with Psion's patches already applied || Psion's objects
|-
| <code>sync_serv</code> || Built from Psion's C source || Rebuilt from Psion's source
|-
| Launcher (<code>gpe-appmgr</code>) || Upstream GPE source with new code for the TODAY / PROGRAMS / TASKS strip, the Today view and the rotated group labels, measured against the photographs || Reconstructed. Psion's tag 56 is lost
|-
| Button bar (<code>gpe-buttonbox</code>) || Upstream GPE source || Reconstructed. Psion's tag 50 is lost
|-
| Desktop watermark || Generated from the five blockletter glyphs in Psion's splash, rotated, outlined and tinted || Reconstructed from Psion's artwork
|-
| Menu names and icons in <code>/usr/share/gpe/overrides</code> || New override files giving "Calculator", "Web" and similar names, with stand-in icons copied from upstream || Reconstructed. Psion's set is lost
|-
| Internet Dialler || gkdial 1.8.0 with Psion's three patches || Substitute. Psion pinned 1.8.1, which is lost
|-
| Sheet || Gnumeric 1.3.93 with Psion's nine patches, compiled for the device (added on 28 September 2026, replacing Debian sarge's 1.4.3) || Rebuilt from Psion's recipe
|-
| Word || AbiWord 2.0.11, built from Psion's <code>abiword_2.0.11.oe</code> recipe with its five patches, and with spell checking switched on through aspell (added on 30 September 2026, replacing AbiWord 2.4 from the community GPE image) || Rebuilt from Psion's earlier recipe. Psion's newer 2.0.12 recipe, with four patches, needs a tarball that is lost
|-
| Instant Messenger || Gaim, copied from the community GPE image recovered from linuxtogo.org/~anonymous || Substitute build
|-
| Panel || A patched matchbox-panel 0.9.x. Psion's own 0.8.1 build, compiled with all nine of Psion's patches, is on the card as <code>matchbox-panel.psion-0.8.1</code> || Substitute, by choice (see below)
|-
| Media plugins || GStreamer plugins 0.8.12 from Debian || Substitute. Psion's 0.8.3 plugin binaries are lost
|-
| Balsa's HTML component || GtkHTML 3.2.5 with gnome-print 2.8.2 and GAIL 1.8.2 || Substitute. Psion used gtkhtml-3.0, whose Debian ARM builds all need a later GTK than the device has
|-
| <code>pppd</code> and <code>chat</code> || Debian sarge ppp 2.4.3, with libpam and libpcap || Substitute. The base image had no PPP at all, though Psion's configuration expects it
|-
| Data and Printers || Gaby and the GNOME CUPS print manager were on the card but had no menu entries. Psion's own menu files for both were added on 30 September 2026, with a new override naming Gaby "Data", after the EPOC database application. Data's icon is a stand-in, because the <code>gnome-gaby.png</code> Psion's file asks for is lost. Printers is filed under system settings rather than on the PROGRAMS screen || Psion's menu files; the name and icon are reconstructed
|-
| Links in Email, Word and Sheet || Psion's <code>firefox-url</code> wrapper, and the three link-handler settings from Psion's gnome-vfs patch: web links go to Firefox, e-mail links to Balsa. The settings entries are rebuilt, because the schema file Psion's patch applies to is not in the tree || Psion's values, reconstructed entries
|-
| Module list || Psion's <code>/etc/modules</code> and <code>modules.conf</code>, added on 30 September 2026 || Yes
|}

Debian's <code>arm</code> architecture in the sarge and etch releases is the old ARM ABI, which is what the netBook Pro's userspace uses, so Debian packages from that period run on the device unchanged.<ref name="rtc-docs" />

Until 30 September 2026 the card had no <code>/etc/modules</code>, so the start-up script that loads kernel modules exited without loading any. Nothing depended on it. Every driver on Psion's list is built into the kernel the card boots: PPP, SLIP header compression, Bluetooth with L2CAP, RFCOMM, BNEP and HIDP, the MMC card driver, and IrDA through IrCOMM and <code>pxa_ir</code>.<ref name="rtc-docs" />

Two things are left out on purpose. Psion's touchscreen calibration scripts run <code>xtscal -e2cal</code>, a mode that exists only in Psion's lost xtscal build; installing them over the stock xtscal would write an empty calibration file. And <code>gpe-beam</code> and <code>gpe-bluetooth</code> are installed but untested, because a standard netBook Pro has no Bluetooth hardware and IrDA beaming was not tested.<ref name="rtc-docs" />

The panel is the one place where Psion's own build is on the card but not in use. Psion's matchbox-panel 0.8.1 crashes when a docked applet fails to start, which takes the whole bar down with it. The 0.9.x panel logs the failure and carries on. The installed panel is 0.9.x with a patch that stops it forcing docked applets square, which is the same allowance Psion's <code>max-size.patch</code> made. Swapping the two files restores Psion's panel.<ref name="rtc-docs" />

=== What the reconstruction is and is not ===

The reconstruction is:
* A bootable 1 GB CompactFlash image that runs PsionLX's desktop, theme, session and application set on a standard 128 MB netBook Pro, from the card.
* Built on Psion's own configuration, artwork, help, fonts and scripts, installed unchanged.
* Running Psion's patched versions of most of the applications, rebuilt from the exact releases Psion used.
* Matched to the surviving photographs by measurement, where Psion's code for the launcher and button bar is lost.
* Documented: every reconstructed or substituted file says so in a comment inside the file or in the project records.

It is not:
* Psion's build. The lost <code>soho-image</code> root filesystem is not in it, and nothing in it came from that file.
* Running Psion's kernel. It boots the March 2005 community build of the same kernel version, not Psion's 4 January 2005 image.
* Running Psion's library stack. GTK+, GLib, the X server and the other base libraries are the March 2005 community GPE snapshot's, not Psion's patched builds.
* Using Psion's launcher, button bar, desktop background, override icons, or TODAY and TASKS pages. Those are all lost, and the versions on the card are reconstructions.
* Complete. Psion's AbiWord 2.0.12, gkdial 1.8.1, xtscal with NVRAM calibration, GStreamer 0.8.3 plugins and two alternate GNOME themes are all replaced by the nearest available substitute or left out.
* A copy of the photographed menu, in the working image. That image has eighteen PROGRAMS entries that are not in Psion's photograph (Data, Figment, Summary, Time Tracker, Audio mixer, Go, Lights Out, Othello, Play Memo, Plucker, Program manager, Record Memo, Root shell, Sokoban, Telnet, Tetris, Watch and xdemineur). The archival image, <code>psionlx-cf-1gb-asphotographed.img</code>, leaves those eighteen out and moves PDF Viewer into OTHER, so that its PROGRAMS screen shows exactly the 21 applications in the Pulster photograph. The programs themselves remain on the card.
* An installer. It does not write to the internal flash. Images built before 29 September 2026 carried the LX NAND script on the boot partition; see the warning below.

=== Card image layout ===

{| class="wikitable styled-table" style="width:100%; text-align:left;"
|+'''<code>psionlx-cf-1gb.img</code> and <code>psionlx-cf-1gb-asphotographed.img</code>, 1,024,966,656 bytes each'''
! Part !! Type !! Start sector !! Sectors !! Size !! Contents
|-
| MBR || - || 0 || 1 || 512 bytes || Partition table, signature <code>0xAA55</code>. CHS fields use 16 heads and 32 sectors per track, the geometry BooSt expects
|-
| Partition 1 || <code>0x06</code> FAT16, bootable || 2,048 || 143,360 || 70 MB || Label <code>PSIONBOOT</code>. <code>nBkProOs.img</code>, the file name BooSt looks for, and <code>README.TXT</code>
|-
| Partition 2 || <code>0x83</code> ext2 || 145,408 || 1,856,480 || 906.5 MB || Label <code>PSIONLX</code>. The root filesystem
|}

The ext2 filesystem is made with a 1 KB block size and with the <code>resize_inode</code> and <code>dir_index</code> features turned off, because the 2.6.9 kernel predates both and refuses the filesystem otherwise. <code>/home/lx</code> must belong to uid and gid 1000, and must be empty when the image ships: the desktop runs as <code>lx</code>, and any settings left in that directory override everything in <code>/etc</code> from then on.<ref name="rtc-docs" />

'''Check the boot partition of any image built before 29 September 2026.''' Until then, partition 1 of both images also carried <code>nBkPro.img</code>. That file is the LX BooSt script, and it holds the commands <code>nand -ignore erase 18 ee8</code> and <code>nand partition e8</code>, which erase the internal NAND and repartition it with the LX prototype layout. When a card holding <code>nBkPro.img</code> is booted, BooSt loads and runs the script, as a 2010 boot log shows ("Loading "/cf0-0/nBkPro.img"... Load BooSt script ... Load completed successfully"). A standard netBook Pro partitioned that way can no longer reinstall Windows CE until the NAND is repartitioned with <code>7e8</code>. The file was removed and both images rebuilt on 29 September 2026. The community's CF installs of PsionLX also put <code>nBkProOs.img</code> alone on the FAT partition. If an older card has <code>nBkPro.img</code> on partition 1, delete it before booting.<ref name="anon-lt" /><ref name="hpcf-denisjc" /><ref name="hpcf-dvr" /><ref name="hpcf-acid-0711-06" /><ref name="hpcf-bobby-0905" /><ref name="provenance" />

=== Writing and booting the card ===

Use a CF card of 1 GB or larger. On a Mac, find the card with <code>diskutil list external physical</code>, unmount it without ejecting, and write the raw device:

<pre>
diskutil list external physical          # check the size matches the card
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN
sudo dd if=psionlx-cf-1gb.img of=/dev/rdiskN bs=4m status=progress
diskutil eject /dev/diskN
</pre>

On Linux:

<pre>
sudo dd if=psionlx-cf-1gb.img of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress conv=fsync
</pre>

The image is written raw and overwrites whatever device it is pointed at, so confirm the device name immediately before running <code>dd</code>. On a card larger than 1 GB the extra space is unused until partition 2 is grown and <code>resize2fs</code> is run on it.<ref name="rtc-docs" />

To boot from the card, the netBook Pro has to be told to load its operating system from CF rather than from the internal flash. Forum members describe doing this by resetting the machine and holding Ctrl+D+Esc, or Ctrl+D with the On key, while it starts; one notes that "pressing the reset button and the ctrl-D-ESC keys in the right timing can be tricky, so don't give up".<ref name="hpcf-oldman-0711b" /><ref name="hpcf-bobby-0905" /><ref name="hpcf-psinix" /> With the card removed, a standard machine starts Windows CE as normal. BooSt's own supervisor mode, which uses a different key combination and a resistor across two dock connector pins, is described in the [[Psion netBook Pro Documentation]] and the 2007 guide cited below.<ref name="boostdongle" />

The first boot is slow. GStreamer 0.8 has to catalogue its plugins before the Media Player will work, and the reconstruction does that in the background after the desktop appears; on this hardware the scan takes more than a minute.<ref name="rtc-docs" />

'''Do not tap the card-ejector applet.''' Psion's <code>eject.sh</code>, installed unchanged, stops the IDE card service on <code>hda</code>. On Psion's machines, which booted from internal flash, <code>hda</code> was the CF slot. On a card-booted system <code>hda</code> is the disk the system is running from.<ref name="rtc-docs" /><ref name="oe-tree" />

=== Building it ===

The netBook Pro's userspace uses the old ARM ABI (OABI, ELF flags <code>0x00000002</code>), which no current cross-compiler produces. The reconstruction therefore compiles natively inside an emulated ARM machine: a Debian etch <code>arm</code> root filesystem, assembled from 66 packages from archive.debian.org (GCC 4.1, binutils 2.17, glibc 2.3.6), booted under <code>qemu-system-arm -M versatilepb</code>, whose ARM926EJ-S core is close enough to the PXA255's ARMv5TE for the output to run on the device.<ref name="rtc-docs" />

* C++ programs are built with GCC 3.4. The device carries <code>libstdc++.so.6.0.3</code>, which is GCC 3.4's runtime; GCC 4 output compiles and links but needs a newer library than the device has.
* Headers are taken, library by library, from the exact versions on the device (libgpewidget 0.97, libeventdb 0.15, libschedule 0.14 and others), because the build environment's newer GPE headers declared functions with different arguments.
* Before any program is installed it must pass three checks against the image itself: OABI ELF flags, every needed library present, and every undefined dynamic symbol defined somewhere in that set. Weak symbols that every GCC binary leaves unresolved, such as <code>__gmon_start__</code>, are ignored.

Psion's recipes are read by a script that takes the newest recipe for a package, collects every <code>SRC_URI</code> form including <code>SRC_URI +=</code> and included files, fetches the pinned release and applies Psion's patches in order at the level each declares. With the exact release tarballs, all of Psion's GPE patches applied except one hunk of gpe-bluetooth's <code>change-sdp-to-bluetooth.patch</code>, which swaps <code>-lsdp</code> for <code>-lbluetooth</code> in a link line that differs in the released tarball. That change was made by hand.<ref name="rtc-docs" />

=== Matching the photographs ===

With Psion's launcher and button bar lost, their layout and shading were measured from the photographs. The only images of PsionLX running are hand-held photographs of a glossy panel, so raw pixel values are unusable. Two methods made them measurable:<ref name="rtc-docs" />

* Each row of a photograph is divided by the page white at the same height, which removes the lamp's top-to-bottom gradient.
* The display is rectified onto an 800 × 600 grid, then checked against two sizes known from the code: the button bar's buttons are 64 pixels wide and the bar is 48 pixels tall. They came back at 63-64 and 46 pixels. A caption known to be black text came back as <code>#101115</code>, which served as a colour check.

The measurements that went into the rebuilt launcher: group labels in Sans Bold 7 on a <code>#c2def1</code> band; a tab strip 26 pixels wide (a 23-pixel gold face and three border columns); tabs 101 pixels tall. The selected tab is marked by the direction of its shading rather than its colour: a raised tab is lit from the page side and a selected one from the outer side, while their average colours differ by about 1.5 per cent. The button bar has room for nine 64-pixel buttons, Desk and Docs, six presets and Other, taken from a true 800 × 600 screenshot of GPE running on a netBook Pro with the same bar.<ref name="rtc-docs" />

=== Faults found during the rebuild ===

Several faults took more than one attempt to find, and some would catch anyone building a system for this machine.<ref name="rtc-docs" />

{| class="wikitable styled-table" style="width:100%; text-align:left;"
|+'''Faults found and fixed'''
! Symptom !! Cause !! Fix
|-
| No button bar, default theme and a plain blue desktop, all at once || <code>/home/lx</code> owned by root, so user <code>lx</code> could not create its settings. The ownership script walked the macOS host tree, which carries no target uids || Set <code>/home/lx</code> to uid and gid 1000 and verify it in the built image
|-
| Plain blue desktop || The blue is Matchbox's root window colour <code>#1f00a2</code>, visible only when the launcher has died || Treat it as a sign the launcher crashed
|-
| Button bar exits at start-up || The button bar calls <code>exit(1)</code> if any of its own icons is missing, and looks for them in <code>/usr/share/gpe/pixmaps/default</code>, not where they had been installed || Install icons where the code looks, checked against the source
|-
| No button bar or launcher; "Fatal: no entropy gathering module detected" || No <code>/dev/random</code> or <code>/dev/urandom</code> device nodes, so libgcrypt aborted || Create the nodes
|-
| Changes in <code>/etc</code> have no effect || A leftover settings database in the home directory. <code>gpe-confd</code> reads the <code>/etc</code> defaults only when the user's database is empty || Ship an empty home directory
|-
| A PCMCIA network card is detected but no driver binds || <code>/lib/modules</code>, a link into <code>/initrd</code>, had been replaced with a real directory. <code>/initrd</code> is empty in the image but filled at boot, and holds every module the kernel shipped || Restore Psion's link
|-
| Solitaire draws blank cards; the Media Player exits || No GConf defaults were installed, so programs read empty settings || Generate the defaults from Psion's schema files
|-
| Media Player: "No default scheduler name - do you have a registry ?" || The GStreamer plugin scan crashed on the LADSPA plugin and never finished || Remove the LADSPA plugin, which Psion's recipe would not have built
|-
| Media Player crashes as its window opens || A null pointer in Totem's CD drive selector on a machine with no optical drive || Guard the pointer
|-
| Machine appears not to boot || A script rebuilding the GStreamer registry ran in the session start-up and took over a minute || Run it in the background
|-
| Last row of the PROGRAMS screen hidden under the panel, intermittently || Every row laid out 8 pixels taller than normal. GTK's default font is plain <code>Sans</code>, and with several font families installed and no fontconfig cache, the family it matched could change from one boot to the next. Rows set in Arial Narrow are 8 pixels taller than rows in Bitstream Vera Sans. Psion's own image carried the same Agfa fonts alongside Bitstream Vera || Name Bitstream Vera Sans as the font. The fontconfig tools, which were missing, are now installed, so the device can build a cache
|-
| Word has no spell checker || AbiWord was configured with both of its spell-checking back ends turned off, so it fell back to a built-in checker whose dictionary directory does not exist. Psion's 2.0.11 recipe asks for aspell with an option that version's configure script does not have, and the option is silently ignored || Rebuild with <code>--enable-pspell</code>, which links AbiWord to the aspell library already on the card
|-
| Clicking a link in Email, Word or Sheet does nothing || Psion's <code>firefox-url</code> wrapper was not installed, and the link-handler settings were missing entirely || Install Psion's wrapper and rebuild the three settings from Psion's patch
|-
| Gaby and the print manager cannot be started || Both programs were on the card, but their menu files were not || Install Psion's menu files
|}

=== Downloads ===

The reconstruction's two card images (the working image and the archival one), its build tree and the recovered files listed above are being prepared for hosting by RetroTechCollection. Links and checksums for the images will be added here when they are available. The card image is not bit-for-bit reproducible, because <code>mke2fs</code> writes timestamps into the filesystem, so a rebuilt image should be checked by content rather than by comparing its checksum with the published one.<ref name="rtc-docs" />

== Other Linux systems for the netBook Pro ==

PsionLX was not the only Linux for the machine, and the others are better documented.

The Familiar and GPE images of 2005 were built outside Psion and hosted at linuxtogo.org, using a rebuild of the same 2.6.9 kernel. They are the images the 2007 forum thread began with. An OpenZaurus 3.5.4.1 image for the machine, dated August 2006, was hosted there too.<ref name="provenance" /><ref name="hpcf-eddie-0710-12" /><ref name="rtc-docs" />

OpenEmbedded later gained a <code>netbook-pro</code> machine configuration and a 2.6.17 kernel recipe built from patches published in Koen Kooi's directory at linuxtogo.org. The configuration assumes 32 MB of flash and creates the <code>/initrd</code> directory the boot image needs for its pivot. Ångström test images were built for the machine by 2007, among them <code>Angstrom-x11-image-glibc-test-20070710-netbook-pro.rootfs.jffs2</code>.<ref name="oe-classic" /><ref name="hpcf-angstrom" />

jLime 2012.3 included an XFCE root filesystem for the netBook Pro, dated 11 March 2012, and a port of the Linux 3.x kernel to the machine by tworaz appeared on GitHub the same year.<ref name="provenance" /><ref name="hpcf-15975-tworaz" /> In July 2026 fss-hacks reported building Tworek's 3.2.9 kernel with period toolchains, and found the boot-code part of that work incomplete.<ref name="hpcf-21862" />

== See also ==

* [[Psion netBook Pro]]
* [[Psion netBook Pro Documentation]] - Psion Teklogix's user manual, quick start guide, specification sheet and BooSt supervisor-mode note
* [[Psion netBook Pro Troubleshooting Guide]]
* [[Psion netBook Pro General Maintenance]]
* [[Psion netBook]] and [[Psion Series 7]], the EPOC predecessors

== References ==

<references>
<ref name="oe-tree">Psion Teklogix, <code>oe-netbook</code> OpenEmbedded build tree, CVS checkout of 17 November 2004 (CVSROOT <code>:ext:petern@psiondev.com:/var/lib/cvs</code>), inside <code>netbook-linux-sources.tgz</code> (106,074,940 bytes, packed 26 April 2006), formerly at <code>www.auditeon.com/xyz/psion/</code> and recovered from the Internet Archive on 27 September 2026. Source for the recipe count and CVS sources, the maintainer fields, the archive dates and file ownership, the session, theme, keyboard, help, tutorial, PPP, GPRS, PLP, sync server and card-ejector files, the application versions and patches, and the base library versions.</ref>
<ref name="oe-meta">The same tree: <code>README</code>, <code>setup.sh</code>, <code>meta/soho-image.oe</code>, <code>meta/meta-psion.oe</code> (revision r23), <code>meta/meta-gpe.oe</code> and <code>meta/meta-sdk.oe</code>. Source for the build procedure, the image name, the <code>lx</code> user, the <code>/lib/modules</code> link, the package manifest, the SDK and the "Netbook LX" name.</ref>
<ref name="kernel-strings">Version and driver strings read from the decompressed kernel images: Psion's <code>nBkProOs.img</code> from <code>netbook-linux-sources.tgz</code> (3,613,045 bytes), <code>nBkProOs.img_cf</code> from linuxtogo.org/~florian (3,659,808 bytes) and <code>nBkProOs.img</code> from linuxtogo.org/~anonymous (3,403,850 bytes). RetroTechCollection analysis, September 2026. Source for the build dates, compilers and build hosts, the Simtec Electronics driver banners, the machine name "Psion Teklogix NetBookPro" and the 2.4.26 module paths.</ref>
<ref name="initrd">The initial ramdisk inside Psion's <code>nBkProOs.img</code> of 4 January 2005, whose start-up script is headed "Netbook LX initial ramdisk boot script". RetroTechCollection analysis, September 2026. A forum member described the equivalent script in the linuxtogo image on 20 October 2007 in [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=31 HPC:Factor thread 10543, page 3].</ref>
<ref name="splash">Psion Teklogix, <code>splash_screen.png</code>, in <code>oe-netbook/gpe-bootsplash/files/</code>, installed by <code>gpe-bootsplash_1.11.oe</code> as <code>/usr/share/gpe/splash.png</code>. Reproduced at [[:File:PsionLX beta splash screen.png]].</ref>
<ref name="reg2003">Tony Smith, [https://www.theregister.com/2003/10/02/psion_revives_netbook_but_drops/ "Psion revives Netbook but drops EPOC for WinCE"], ''The Register'', 2 October 2003. Source for the announcement, the 400 MHz PXA255, 128 MB, the 800 × 600 TFT, Windows CE .NET 4.2, Psion considering Linux and the quotation from Harvey Roberts.</ref>
<ref name="reg2004">Guy Kewney, [https://www.theregister.com/on-prem/2004/02/11/psion-looks-past-windows-to-linux/828839 "Psion looks past Windows to Linux"], ''The Register'', 11 February 2004. Source for Psion's statement about the Linux viability study and David Potter's remarks.</ref>
<ref name="armreg">ARM Linux machine registry, [https://www.arm.linux.org.uk/developer/machines/list.php?id=503 machine type 503, "Psion Netbook Pro"]. Created 4 April 2004, contact Peter Naulls, not mainlined, "Psion Netbook Pro, PXA 255 based sub-notebook".</ref>
<ref name="wp-netbook">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_netBook "Psion netBook"], Wikipedia. NetBook Pro paragraph, citing Sandra Vogel, "Psion NetBook Pro: a first look", ZDNet UK, 3 October 2003.</ref>
<ref name="wp-teklogix">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Teklogix "Psion Teklogix"], Wikipedia. Source for the statement about custom NetBook Pros for a hospital setting (which cites Tony Glover, "NHS deal with Psion heralds move away from Windows", ''The Business Online'', 23 May 2004, not checked for this page), Motorola Solutions' purchase of Psion in 2012 and Zebra Technologies' purchase of Motorola's enterprise business in October 2014.</ref>
<ref name="auditeon">auditeon.com, "software:psion:index", section "PsionLX Project for the Netbook Pro", last modified 14 May 2008. Index page read on 28 September 2026; the site has since gone offline. Archived copy: [https://web.archive.org/web/20241104141146/https://auditeon.com/software:psion:index Internet Archive, 4 November 2024].</ref>
<ref name="anon-lt"><code>netbook-booting.txt</code>, <code>nBkPro.img</code> and <code>mk-nBkProOsImg.c</code>, from <code>linuxtogo.org/~anonymous/</code> (offline), recovered from the Internet Archive on 27 September 2026. Source for the BooSt header layout and flags, the LX and standard NAND partition values and the "netBook LX BooSt script" name.</ref>
<ref name="boostdongle">w_m0zart, "How to enter the BooSt superuser mode in the Netbook Pro", one-page PDF (<code>BooStDongle.pdf</code>), 12 July 2007, kept with the files recovered from auditeon.com (its download location was not recorded). w_m0zart referred to "the BoostDongle pdf file which I created earlier" on HPC:Factor on 30 October 2007. Source for the BooSt identification strings, the standard machine's 32 MB NAND, the <code>7e8</code> and <code>fe8</code> erase commands and the warning about block 18.</ref>
<ref name="pulster">Pulster, [https://pulster.de/Psion-Netbook-PRO-Linux-PsionLX_1 "Psion Netbook PRO Linux - PsionLX"], item number -psionlx-, €1,900, read 28 September 2026. Source for the photograph of the PROGRAMS screen, its caption and the description "rare 256 MB RAM mainboard".</ref>
<ref name="fss88">Photographs by fss_88 (fss-hacks on HPC:Factor), imgur album 4wyt5y9, published around 1 August 2026 alongside a post to r/OldHandhelds, imgur media OCkX37Z (splash) and fjx6d84 (Today screen). Reproduced, cropped, at [[:File:PsionLX beta splash screen on a netBook Pro.jpg]] and [[:File:PsionLX Today screen on a netBook Pro.jpg]].</ref>
<ref name="blog">Gadgetmiser, [http://psionlinux.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-to-install-linux-on-psion-netbook.html "How to install Linux on the Psion Netbook Pro"], Psion Linux blog, July 2009.</ref>
<ref name="rapidshare">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RapidShare "RapidShare"], Wikipedia. The service closed on 31 March 2015.</ref>
<ref name="provenance">RetroTechCollection, PsionLX reconstruction project records (<code>PROVENANCE.txt</code>, <code>auditeon/FINDING.txt</code>, <code>recovered/FINDING-2.txt</code>, <code>anonymous-linuxtogo/NOTES.txt</code>), 27-28 September 2026. Original research: the record of every file recovered, its origin, size and hash, and of the searches that found nothing.</ref>
<ref name="lot-7535">cpulster, AcidSnoop, MoNsTeR, Eldkatten and scops, posts of 7 to 13 November 2007, [https://web.archive.org/web/20080514091644/http://www.linuxontour.de:80/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=7535&start=10 "Psion Netbook PRO mit Linux - Tueftler gesucht !"], Linux on tour forum, "Sonstige Mobile Linux Geräte", page 2, Internet Archive capture of 14 May 2008. In German. Source for the offer of 7 November, the RapidShare links, the partition layout, the boot stages, the Firefox and Wi-Fi reports, the size of the root filesystem, and the permission and date problems.</ref>
<ref name="tuxfamily">[https://download.tuxfamily.org/anetbookpro/ anetbookpro download area], TuxFamily, checked 30 September 2026. It holds <code>NBLXLoad.sh</code> (633 bytes, uploaded 26 March 2010), <code>nBkPro.img</code>, an Ångström bootstrap image of March 2010, and a 2.6.17 kernel with its modules.</ref>
<ref name="ia-cd">[https://archive.org/details/1000999d_netbook_pro_cd "PSION TEKLOGIX Netbook Pro CD"], Internet Archive, uploaded 19 December 2019 by tfgbd. The date 10 November 2004 is the creation date in the ISO's volume descriptor, and the file list was read from the image.</ref>
<ref name="rtc-search">RetroTechCollection, PsionLX search record (<code>docs/07-THE-SEARCH.md</code> and <code>recovered/FINDING-3.txt</code>), 29 and 30 September 2026. Original research: the second sweep for the lost root filesystem, the archives, forges, languages and sites it covered with their control queries, the sites not yet cleared, and the source of the 2.6.9 kernel patch.</ref>
<ref name="rtc-docs">RetroTechCollection, PsionLX reconstruction documentation (<code>docs/01</code> to <code>docs/08</code>, <code>CLAUDE.md</code>, <code>PsionLX-CF-kit/INSTALL.txt</code>, <code>WRITE-TO-CARD.txt</code> and <code>AS-PHOTOGRAPHED.txt</code>) and the built card image, September 2026. Original research.</ref>
<ref name="oe-classic">OpenEmbedded classic, [https://github.com/openembedded/openembedded/blob/master/conf/machine/netbook-pro.conf <code>conf/machine/netbook-pro.conf</code>] and <code>netbook-pro-kernel_2.6.17.bb</code>, with the kernel patches from <code>linuxtogo.org/~koen/</code> recovered from the Internet Archive and checked against the recipe's MD5 sums. The machine file <code>netbookpro.c</code> names "Ben Dooks, Copyright (c) 2004 Simtec Electronics", based on <code>lubbock.c</code>.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-rocketman">Rocketman, post of 7 July 2006, and cmonex's reply, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=5256 "Linux for Netbook Pro"], HPC:Factor.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-eddie-0710-12">Eddie and chiark, posts of 12 October 2007, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=1 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 1.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-eddie-0710">Eddie, posts of 19 and 23 October 2007, "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!", HPC:Factor, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=31 page 3] and [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=46 page 4]. Psion Teklogix support's replies.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-mozart-0710">w_m0zart, post of 30 October 2007, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=91 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 7.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-eddie-0710-30">Intrepid-Eddie, post of 30 October 2007 giving the full text of <code>NBLXLoad.sh</code>, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=106 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 8.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-oldman-0711">oldman, post of 1 November 2007, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=136 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 10. Source for the kernel source matching 2.6.9-rc1-bk18 with the <code>linux-2.6.9-pre1-bk18-nbp1.patch</code> from linuxtogo.org/~koen, and the unsourced start-up code in the boot images.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-oldman-0711b">oldman, post of 5 November 2007, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=166 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 12: "Reset, press Ctrl+D+ESC, insert card."</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-mrkrupa-0711">mrkrupa, post of 5 November 2007, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=166 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 12: "I am running the LX version on my netbook pro!! I used the Florian image NetbookOS and untarred the LX stuff to a cf card."</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-angstrom">oldman, 31 October 2007, and salmonito quoting Intrepid-Eddie, 1 November 2007, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=121 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 9.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-acid-0711-06">Acid Snoop, post of 6 November 2007, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=181 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 13.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-acid-0711-07">Acid Snoop, post of 7 November 2007, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=196 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 14. The RapidShare links to <code>nBkProOs.img</code> and <code>soho-image-netbook-pro-20050104074212.rootfs.tar.bz2</code>.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-acid-0711-10">Acid Snoop, post of 10 November 2007, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=211 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 15.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-mozart-0711">w_m0zart, post of 13 November 2007, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=241 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 17.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-acid-0712">Acid Snoop, post of 6 December 2007, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=256 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 18.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-scops-0803">scops, post of 5 March 2008, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=271 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 19.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-mozart-0804">w_m0zart, post of 15 April 2008, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=271 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 19.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-chiark-0806">chiark, post of 18 June 2008, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=286 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 20.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-mrkrupa-0807b">mrkrupa, post of 22 July 2008, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=286 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 20.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-bobby-0904">bobbyshane, post of 19 April 2009, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=286 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 20.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-bobby-0905">bobbyshane, install guide posted 25 May 2009, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=286 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 20: nBkProOs.img "and this file alone in the vfat partition", then "reset the machine with a paper clip and then hit Ctrl d and the on button".</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-dvr">dvr, post of 31 May 2009, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=301 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 21.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-bobby-0906">bobbyshane, post of 11 June 2009, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=301 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 21.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-ea2">Ea2, post of 18 August 2009, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=316 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 22.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-scops-1001">scops, posts of 20 January 2010, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=331 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 23. The ul.to package and its file list.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-marc-1002">Marc, post of 10 February 2010 ("Offering NBpro LX"), and scops, 19 September 2010, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=346 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 24.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-psifi-1010">psifi, post of 4 October 2010, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=346 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 24.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-denisjc">denisjc, post of 10 November 2010 quoting the BooSt boot log, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=361 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 25.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-psifi-1112">psifi, post of 30 December 2011, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=361 "Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!"], HPC:Factor, page 25. The two LX builds' kernel and system dates, and the e-mail fault.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-mrkrupa-0807">mrkrupa, post of 3 July 2008, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=12230 "Bulding new kernel and userland for Psion Netbook Pro using Open Embedded"], HPC:Factor.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-psifi-1010b">psifi, posts of 7 October 2010 in [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=15525 "Reflashing netBook Pro"] and of 7 and 24 October 2010 in [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=15339 "new to netbook pro"], HPC:Factor.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-psinix">psinix, post of 7 January 2012, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=15975 "How to Install Linux on a 128MB CE.NET 4.2 Psion NetBook Pro"], HPC:Factor, page 1.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-15975-tworaz">entozoon, post of 18 July 2012, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=15975&start=16 "How to Install Linux on a 128MB CE.NET 4.2 Psion NetBook Pro"], HPC:Factor, page 2: "tworaz has recently uploaded a linux kernel for the NBP".</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-acid-1902">AcidSnoop, posts of 12 and 14 February 2019, and C:Amie, 14 February 2019, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=15975&start=16 "How to Install Linux on a 128MB CE.NET 4.2 Psion NetBook Pro"], HPC:Factor, page 2.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-18334">psifi, post of 24 June 2017, and fss-hacks, 25 July 2026, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=18334 "Psion Lx on Psion Netbook Pro"], HPC:Factor.</ref>
<ref name="hpcf-21862">fss-hacks, posts of 25 and 27 July 2026, [https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=21862 "In Progress: 3.2.9 Kernel for Psion Netbook Pro"], HPC:Factor.</ref>
</references>

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[[Category:Psion]]