FAQ - frequently asked questions concerning Pocket Linux

Q: Is it possible for Pocket Linux to work as a router?

A: No. Not only routing isn't compiled in (which is not a big problem, as kernel can be easily replaced), but also the design doesn't allow this - it's almost impossible to have network card autodetection and routing at the same time. It is likely that some time in the future I'll fork a mutation of Pocket with routing capabilities, but so far such a functionality is absent.

Q: Is it possible to use Pocket Linux as a firewall?

A: No -- for the reasons described above (firewall is a special case of a router after all).

Q: Can I use Pocket with HiS (Ericsson's Home Internet Solution)?

A: At the time when 2.51 was created (it was quite a while ago...) HiS hasn't been offered by telecoms providers. Therefore it's missing from Pocket's repertoire of establishing network link - it will be "fixed" in version 3.00. Things are not as bad as it might seem - there are no special software requirements for HiS. Everything one needs is to execute pppd with proper oparameters (see available HiS FAQs).

Q: Why Pocket doesn't detect my network card?

A: There are two possible reasons: either you have exotic card (Pocket Linux 2.51 supports only most popular types of network controllers, version 3.00 will have limited support for all NICs supported by Linux kernel), or your card is very new (and therefore not supported by 2.0 series kernel) - the latter applies amongst others to some popular cards based on chips produced by Realtek (except 8029) and Intel.

Q: Is there any web browser available under Pocket?

A: No. Unless you think that you can call telnetting to port 80 a web browser :^). There are plans for w web browser in the future (to be more precise the plans are for a network comb integrating support for WWW, FTP and some other protocols), but it won't be soon.

Q: I have troubles writing image to the disk, rawrite2 says there's no such file.

A: Ahhh... Yep, this is caused by the fact that rawrite2 is a 16-bit application and has no support for long filenames. All you can do is to rename the image file to something shorter or use that funny filename with a tilde, that Windows generates.

Q: Can I run Pocket from a hard drive?

A: Theoretically it isn't impossible - one can either copy the floppy contents to a hard drive and boot with loadlin, or copy along with syslinux from the bootsector. However, Pocket will still search for its configuration file ("registry") on the floppy.

Q: Why doesn't Pocket support jobs (commands like fg, bg, ^Z, etc.)?

A: Because it is so. It's probably hard to believe for a man used to modern shells, that the real Bourne Shell doesn't support those. They were introduced in csh and are since then available in almost any shell. Unless it works in Posix compliance mode. Ash shell used in Pocket implements only the functionality of Bourne Shell, without any extensions, and therefore jobs control is not available there.