Editing PsionLX (section)

=== 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" />