Quick and Dirty I-Opener Info Page
For authoritative info, see the I-Opener and Linux mod page.

This is a quick page to help distribute information about the I-Opener. This info came from the I-Opener and Linux page and from IRC (channel #I-Opener-Linux on EFnet)

• It has one USB port, with apparent hardware support for a second USB port
• The iOpener is on backorder from every Circuit City store in the country. Translation: No Circuit City store has them in stock.
• Estimated ship time for a backordered I-Opener at CC is 1-2 week(s)
• You can try your luck at Circuit City Online or NetPliance (the company that makes the I-Opener)
• The chip is a WinChip C6 running at 180MHz
• The chipset is a vt82c686a
• It has 32MB DRAM on a SODIMM (laptop memory module)
• The 16MB SanDisk is NVRAM, is seen as an IDE drive, and can be formatted and used as a random-access drive (once Linux is installed)
• The 16MB SanDisk is set to be Slave on the IDE bus, so any drive (be it a hard drive or CD-ROM drive) will boot before the SanDisk, provided that this extra drive is set to Master
• Linux and Win95 definitely run on it
• The processor is replacable (200MHz non-MMX Pentium reportedly works)
• The 10" LCD is 16bpp, 800x600, and is Dual-scan, but reportedly sharp
• Video is Trident Cyberblade i7
• The sound card is Yamaha YMF715 (supported in Linux with OSS drivers)
• The 56k internal modem is on COM1 and works in Linux (use pppd)
• Power is 18v @ 1.8A
• The IDE cable for an internal hard driver must have every other pin swapped. For instance, 1,2,3,4 becomes 2,1,4,3
• You need to use a 2.5" hard drive. Why? 3.5" hard drives need an extra 12v power source. Expect to spend about $70 on a 2.5" hard drive
• The IDE header is a standard 44-pin laptop-type (40 pins for standard IDE lines, the remainder are for power and setting master/slave)
• You can get the iOpener on a local LAN with either a parallel-port adapter (try a Dlink 650tx) or a USB-to-ethernet device
• Another option is to use PLIP
• Best way to install Linux is to remove the drive, put it in another computer, and do the install there.
• If you put a hard drive in the machine, it will try to boot to it before trying to boot the SanDisk
• The default OS on the iOpener is QNX
• You can telnet into the iOpener when it is running QNX
• Yes, NetPliance is taking a loss on these machines
• The processor socket is Socket7
• To use your own mouse and keyboard at the same time, you need a Y-cable with two PS/2 jacks and one PS/2 plug
• Reported memory size limit is 64MB
• The reset button is on the back near the parallel port
• The VGA header on the motherboard is 10-pin. It is analog.
• The CPU is single voltage (3.3v), which is the reason why MMX processors won't work in the iOpener
• By moving several jumpers, dual-voltage chips may be usable
• The interface between the modem and the motherboard is RS/232 serial
• You do not need to sign a contract or sign up for internet service when you buy the iOpener

Last Updated 10:31 p.m. March 12^th 2000 by Jeff