serial connections for dummies

[martinkm]

I've read through all the old forum messages describing wiring in a serial connection and running a modified "busybox", but I'm a little confused.

Is it the case that you cannot connect to the phatbox and get a console open with the provided firmware?  Why wouldn't there be a shell available? 

If you have to run code, is there a way to do it without sacrificing playback of a particular format?

I saw conflicting comments on whether you could, or could not watch console messages on the serial connection while the system boots.  How would one enable this?

I also saw some references to an early feature where a palmpilot could control the phatbox through the serial port... does that functionality still exist in the device?  How would  one enable it?

Has anyone been able to copy content onto the disk using the serial connection?

How hard would it be to wire in a chip to enable ethernet?

I suspect its unrealistic, but I would  love to find a way to enable a wireless connection to the device to send new content to it in the garage like the simple device can.

thanks for any clarifications,
Ken

[sbingner]

Is it the case that you cannot connect to the phatbox and get a console open with the provided firmware?  Why wouldn't there be a shell available? 

Because then you never would have needed to go to all this trouble to hack it...

If you have to run code, is there a way to do it without sacrificing playback of a particular format?

There is no such sacrifice required

I saw conflicting comments on whether you could, or could not watch console messages on the serial connection while the system boots.  How would one enable this?

Once it's hacked, and you replace it with my lba48 kernel it will output boot messages to the console port

I also saw some references to an early feature where a palmpilot could control the phatbox through the serial port... does that functionality still exist in the device?  How would  one enable it?

Has anyone been able to copy content onto the disk using the serial connection?

Sure, but it's realllllly slow... 115200 baud

How hard would it be to wire in a chip to enable ethernet?

Probably not that hard if you can figure out what pins and are really good at that fine soldering

I suspect its unrealistic, but I would  love to find a way to enable a wireless connection to the device to send new content to it in the garage like the simple device can.

That would be able the same as the ethernet... might be possible, but don't try with serial

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