I just purchased a Visual-Land VL760 really small and cheap netbook,
mainly because I couldn't resist the $60 price from eCost.
It is really a gutless wonder, altho it has a decent display. It runs
Windows CE-5, which looks sort of like XP, but isn't. The
instruction book says quite frankly that it won't run standard Windows
software. It does include a batch of useful tools,
like an editor, a net browser, a spreadsheet, and presumably a mail
program. It even has solitaire on it. On the downside, it
is slow, the screen is pretty small, and there's not much customization
available--I can't seem to find a way to make it work
on single-click. (You can customize the desktop background, however.)
And speaking of mice, several external mice don't move the cursor, altho
the buttons work. I have two that do work, one of which is one of a
pair, the other of which doesn't! Unfortunately, my Kensington
trackballs do not work. I am allergic to touchscreens! Also, a gripe:
too much depression required of the spacebar.

Anyway: there seems to be a password required to get to the bios, and
it's not the password you enter into Windows. I don't know
what it might be. It's not "admin" either. I assume you'd need to get
to the bios in order to make it boot off a flash drive.
If I could get a very small Linux to work on it, I'd like suggestions as
to _what_ Linux--I'd certainly want to keep a GUI--and _how_
to get it to work with it.

I know it's a toy, but it's cute.

Anyone out there with suggestions?

--doug--

Blessed are the peacemakers...for they shall be shot at from both sides. --A. M. Greeley


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I just purchased a Visual-Land VL760 really small and cheap netbook,
mainly because I couldn't resist the $60 price from eCost.
It is really a gutless wonder, altho it has a decent display. It runs
Windows CE-5, which looks sort of like XP, but isn't. The
instruction book says quite frankly that it won't run standard Windows
software. It does include a batch of useful tools,
like an editor, a net browser, a spreadsheet, and presumably a mail
program. It even has solitaire on it. On the downside, it
is slow, the screen is pretty small, and there's not much customization
available--I can't seem to find a way to make it work
on single-click. (You can customize the desktop background, however.)
And speaking of mice, several external mice don't move the cursor, altho
the buttons work. I have two that do work, one of which is one of a
pair, the other of which doesn't! Unfortunately, my Kensington
trackballs do not work. I am allergic to touchscreens! Also, a gripe:
too much depression required of the spacebar.

Anyway: there seems to be a password required to get to the bios, and
it's not the password you enter into Windows. I don't know
what it might be. It's not "admin" either. I assume you'd need to get
to the bios in order to make it boot off a flash drive.
If I could get a very small Linux to work on it, I'd like suggestions as
to _what_ Linux--I'd certainly want to keep a GUI--and _how_
to get it to work with it.

I know it's a toy, but it's cute.

Anyone out there with suggestions?

--doug--

Blessed are the peacemakers...for they shall be shot at from both sides. --A. M. Greeley


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On 2 December 2010 07:38, Doug <dmcgarrett@optonline.net> wrote:
> I just purchased a Visual-Land VL760 really small and cheap netbook,


Without much googling it sounds very much like it's a MIPS
architecture device. Ubuntu doesn't support MIPS, but Debian does.

I'd ask around in the Debian community to see if there's anyone who's
managed to make this thing more useful.

I have a friend who has a similar device and it shipped with some
random Chinese Linux distro, but it wasn't very adaptable.

Good luck!

Cheers,
Al.

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On Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 2:38 AM, Doug <dmcgarrett@optonline.net> wrote:

I just purchased a Visual-Land VL760 really small and cheap netbook,

mainly because I couldn't resist the $60 price from eCost.

It is really a gutless wonder, altho it has a decent display. *It runs

Windows CE-5, which looks sort of *like XP, but isn't. *The

instruction book says quite frankly that it won't run standard Windows

software. *It does include a batch of useful tools,

like an editor, a net browser, a spreadsheet, and presumably a mail

program. *It even has solitaire on it. *On the downside, it

is slow, the screen is pretty small, and there's not much customization

available--I can't seem to find a way to make it work

on single-click. *(You can customize the desktop background, however.)

And speaking of mice, several external mice don't move the cursor, altho

the buttons work. *I have two that do work, one of which is one of a

pair, the other of which doesn't! *Unfortunately, my Kensington

trackballs do not work. *I am allergic to touchscreens! *Also, a gripe:

too much depression required of the spacebar.



Anyway: *there seems to be a password required to get to the bios, and

it's not the password you enter into Windows. *I don't know

what it might be. *It's not "admin" either. *I assume you'd need to get

to the bios in order to make it boot off a flash drive.

If I could get a very small Linux to work on it, I'd like suggestions as

to _what_ Linux--I'd certainly want to keep a GUI--and _how_

to get it to work with it.



I know it's a toy, but it's cute.



Anyone out there with suggestions?

From the Visual-Land website; the processor is ARM 32bit, or at least now it is. And the bios password is 'ztk'. It does not support external storage, and there's a pdf manual for download.


http://www.visual-land.com/vl760_black.html

Don't give up until you've had a good look around the web for anyone who's done some hacking on it. If they're really that cheap I'm sure someone's tried to install linux on it.




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