How to view Linux files /run OS on other system?

[gehtjanx]

Hello,

I am totally new to Linux. I have a device (an ancient media center PC) that is based on Linux with a custom GUI and I have 2 questions:

1.) How can I view or copy those files that are on the hard disk? I can copy the whole thing bit by bit, but I cannot view the filesystem on Windows. It says "Format the drive?". How can I view the content of the drive like I can e.g. a FAT formatted card on Windows explorer? It seems not to be FAT or NTFS, the file system is UNKNOWN. I use Windows 10. Can I boot into some kind of Linux, or install a Linux filesystem, so I can view those files?

2.) Is it possible to run this OS on a new PC? It is a bit old and slow and how can I preserve or update this thing? I tried to install more RAM, it needs special RAM SIMMs with 8 ICs on it, but if you have a different amout of RAM ICs on the stick, it won't boot. I then doubled the RAM (from 256 to 512); but had no performence increase (but at least it booted). Then I tried to use a SSD instead of the HDD. It did boot, but it all crashed catastrophically after writing a file (copy from USB to SSD). It stuck and it booted again after that, but never worked again (it crashed on playing back any files). I went back to the HDD and now I am stuck on the HDD again. And I dont think those will last forerver, so what can I do to preserve it?

-> That is more a hardware question - but awsked in a different way: how can I run the software on a modern PC or emulator?


So it seems very picky and very special highly integrated, closed device and I am not an expert. Is there anyone I can ask or any professional who could maybe have a look at that. I just would want to know how is it done or maybe remove some limitations or whatever. For example, when I copy it bit by bit, the partition size is what it is. Maybe someone could make a bigger partition, or edit the partition table, to allow for bigger drives. Just basic things, but I cannot even access this.


Is there any chance of updating this, seeing what it does, getting this ported to faster hardware or anything basically would help me (maybe). I understand that it does not make sense, but I am just so stuck and I just would need some help. I guess it has or needs many special drivers for the display, remote, buttons, needs a specific RAM size or CPU etc. But I love the menu and all that.

Any help would be appreciated.


It is the coolest device I ever saw in my life.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Brickwizard]

It's probably a 32 bit system using ext 2 or ext 3 neither can be read by Microsoft systems, try running a 32 bit Linux “Live” from a pen drive to rescue files and folders, you may be able to copy the system to another harddrive using the DD command , but I have my doubts

 

[gehtjanx]

Hello, thank you. Can you recommend any "live linux with ext2/3 support" that I could start with (with easy install from Windows PC)?

 

[Brickwizard]

Any 32-bit Linux will do. But with the very minimal resources, I guess Antix 32 bit may be the easiest. but without knowing which CPU it has, there is a bit of a leap in the dark as to if it will run anything other than the embedded system.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/antix-linux/files/Final/antiX-23.1/antiX-23.1_386-full.iso/download

 

[gehtjanx]

Here is some information that I found:
"When the DMC-1000 is powered on it sends a message "welcome to QNX neutrino" and reports the TCP/IP address. Then it stops transmitting, and does not appear to respond to any keyboard commands."

Does that help in any way? What does that mean? Is that good news (common etc.) or bad news that i uses "QNX"?



Oh, I meant to boot a Linux on my PC, and connecting the drive of the DMC to the PC to view its content. I do not want to boot another OS on the DMC itself.

The CPU I cannot tell you now out of my head, I once had one of the heat sinks off. I thought Linux would be a OS that can boot on any PC, like Windows, that it just has a basic layer and a custom menu on top. But maybe they removed all the generic stuff.

I could look into the CPU, if there is any interest in this or any continued support I will try to do my best to deliver some answers, but it is all very fragile and scary to work on it. You just do anything and it stops working.

 

[KGIII]

This is gonna be interesting, but possibly off-topic.

QNX is not Linux, I'm pretty sure. It was some Blackberry thing, the operating system that powered their early devices that also got used on quite a few embedded systems. I think it may still exist and get some support as an embedded OS, but it's not Linux as far as I recall.

 

[osprey]

QNX - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It's a "UNIX-like" system. One problem with embedded systems, if that's what it is, is that they can be so stripped down and with such specialised software in them, that it can take quite a bit of specific knowledge to get on top of them. Sometimes, there's documentation to support such systems, which helps, but sometimes not so that the unfamiliar user is at a significant disadvantage. At least, as a UNIX clone, there's a good background repertoire of commands available, but it can be a trial and error business. BTDTBTTS.

Since it appears in post #5, you could remove the drive and connect it to another computer, if that other computer was a linux machine, there's a good chance that the drive could be mounted to the linux machine's filesystem, and then that drive could be inspected. In particular one could check out the executables on the drive in the /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/local/bin, /sbin and /usr/sbin directories to see what is going to control the QNX system and the configurations in the /etc directory, and the files of interest. However, the comment in post #1 "totally new to linux" suggests that there's a bit of a learning curve to do this sort of investigation and infer what might need to be done to satisfy your requirements. There's a chance also that linux could fail to read the mounted drive, which kills that approach.

 

[gehtjanx]

Thank you, I thought that Linux would read that filesystem. It is hard to believe they invented a whole filesystem for just one device.

But it somehow should be possible to find out something about it or maybe boot it on the PC in a window or emulator. It is basically a small PC inside, with a DVD drive and a HDD, a memory SIMM, it even has a PCI slot but no card in it.

But I get the impression that it is hard to achieve. Of course this is closed source so even if you have the knowledge to program it etc. it would be a major hurdle. I really wanted to do something with that thing, someone did some tests on it and they said that the music is stored "all in one file" and not a single MP3 per title. I guess it is possible, but even if I have access to it, I guess it will not help me much, even if I could extract the files, or boot it on an emulator, I probably could not control it as the buttons and drivers would be missing. So I guess, by the unpopularity and rarity of it, that it will die at some point in history with no way to do anything. I have the update file, but that is not a "setup disc". So I had to clone another drive to even get to a state of working condition. You can only clone it but that's probably the only option to prelong it's life. There is no help, no support, no support tools, no service manual, nothing. It's just this old integrated PC, tarned as a huge MP3 player in a case built like a tank (MSRP was 2500 USD).

But is there any Linux that can read any file system or are all the same?

 

[Brickwizard]

QNX is not Linux, I'm pretty sure. It was some Blackberry thing,

Spot on, the original program pre-dates Linux by years, there is a modern version, but that is for embedded ARM cpu's mainly 64 bit but also some support for older 32 bit ARM,

At this stage [after doing a few searches of technical sites] I am beginning to think it a 286 system from about 1984-87 [only 16 bit] or worse still an Intel 8080 system which was only 8 bit [mid 70's to 1984 approx] if either of these then if if it works great if it doesn't then open the highest window in the house and heave the appliance as hard as possible through it.

 

[KGIII]

there's a good chance that the drive could be mounted to the linux machine's filesystem,

I did some digging and can't easily find archived information going back far enough.

But, if modernity is any indication, they use specialized file systems. I'm not sure that Linux would have the drivers. It may - I'm just not so sure.

Filesystems

The QNX OS provides a rich variety of filesystems. Like most service-providing processes in the OS, these filesystems execute outside the kernel; applications use them by communicating via messages generated by the shared-library implementation of the POSIX API.

www.qnx.com

Unfortunately, that's current information. QNX still exists. It's possible that an older version can be read but I'd not get my hopes up - unless I'm missing something (which I could be).