Originally Posted by AhmadMhd

Wlecome dude

so you need to install Arch on emmc

1- Partitioning

First things first , you have to know how to partition your emmc
The easiest way is to use BackupMenu

- Install BackupMenu from the repos

when done

- Open N900 keyboard, reboot then enter BackupMenu

- Chose Mass storage mode (press d)
Now you have direct access to partitions in the emmc

- Use gparted (easy) or cfdisk

you should keep the 1st partition as fat32 cuz it has u-boot config on it (bootimg.img.d and .src)
unless you change the config dir ( which I want to learn how ^_^ )
and be careful
<< consider making backup, use BackupMenu >>

- I recommend using Extended partition type ( since MBR only allow for 4 primary partitions in the same device )

extended partitions starts numbering from 5
mmcblk0p5 (first partition in Extended )
mmcblk0p6 (second partition)
and so on..

(Skip making swap partition now , you can do it later)

2- Format your partition
after partitioning you should format the partition to ext2/3/4

If formating from PC (recommended)

Code:

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb5

else from N900

Code:

mkfs.ext4 /dev/mmcblk0p5

3- Mount the partition

if you are mounting from your PC (recommended)

Code:

mount -t ext4 /dev/sd?? /mnt/arch

(if you don't know what "sd??" mean just ask :] )
/dev/sdb5 ( in my case )

OR from your N900

Code:

mount -t ext4 /dev/mmcblk0p5 /mnt/arch

4- Extract FileSystem (also sync)

Code:

cd /mnt/arch

tar xzvf Arch-Skry-Unofficial-Img.tar.gz; sync

This may take some time ( faster if you do it from PC )

5- Install and configure U-boot

Install u-boot version (that spports booting 3.x kernels)
add boot entry in /etc/bootmenu.d/Arch.item

example

Code:

ITEM_NAME="Arch Linux ARM"
ITEM_KERNEL="/boot/uImage"
ITEM_DEVICE="${INT_CARD}p5"
ITEM_FSTYPE="ext4"
ITEM_OMAPATAG="1"
ITEM_CMDLINE="root=/dev/mmcblk1p5 rootwait init=/bin /systemd omapfb.vram=0:3M,1:3M,2:3M quiet"

This should work if you untar the image FileSystem on /dev/mmcblk0p5
run

Code:

u-boot-update-bootmenu

reboot

- Chose Arch from the menu

- Then run in U-boot console

Code:

run emmcboot

Done.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
For testing.

I wrote a simple script to chroot to this arch from maemo.

arch-chroot.sh
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Code:

echo "==> Mounting FS"
mount /dev/mmcblk0p5 /mnt/arch

echo "==> Mounting proc, sys, dev/pts/, dev/ "
cd /mnt/arch
mount -t proc proc proc/
mount -t sysfs sys sys/
mount -o bind /dev dev/
mount -t devpts pts dev/pts/

echo "==>Chroot to Arch"
chroot /mnt/arch /bin/bash
echo "Done!"

When done from Arch chroot, run

Code:

exit

close-arch.sh
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Code:

cd /mnt/arch
echo "==> Umounting proc, sys, dev/pts/, dev/ "
umount proc/
umount sys/
umount dev/pts/
umount dev/

echo "==>Closing Arch chroot"
cd && sleep 5
umount /mnt/arch ||  umount /dev/mmcblk0p5
echo "Done!"

Have Fun

Originally Posted by ArchiMark

I'm working on partitioning now....

Any recommendations for changing the partitions shown above???

As you can see already had one....should I change it?

Is it OK to do this in GParted?.....

So, what does 'sd' mean in this case??....

Originally Posted by ArchiMark

Partition File System Mount Point Label Size Used Flags
/dev/sda1 FAT Nokia N900 4.88GB 3.24GB lba
/dev/sda4 extended 22.12GB
/dev/sda5 ext3 22.08GB 527.58MB
unallocated unallocated 36MB
/dev/sda2 ext3 /media/sda2 2.00GB 350.30MB
/dev/sda3 linux-swap 768MB
unallocated unallocated 63.97MB

And I can do this from terminal on PC?

So, you recommend downloading Arch file to PC and then 'tar' it over to N900?

Hope it's OK that I already had installed U-Boot....

Thanks for your help!

Originally Posted by AhmadMhd

I think this is good
In my opinion 22GB is big, unless you plan for something else.

No, you don't have to
you can use current instead

OR as @Skry sayd
you can make swap in you SD ( for optimal performance )

Why not ( I think it works )
But I like using mkfs.ext4

You can see in gparted the name of the device and partition
and I think n900 should be /dev/sdb
The partition where arch will be installed may be /dev/sdb5
This depends on your connected devices.
do you get it now ?

I don't know why its /dev/sda here , it should be /dev/sdb
but be careful please ( you may damage your internal PC HDD )

Sure ( thats what I recommend )

Yeah, Faster and more efficient.

Good, but make sure you have the correct version at pali site

You are very welcome my friend.

Originally Posted by caveman

This is my current setup as a reference. There are 2 independent installations, at both SD and eMMC.

eMMC partition table:

Code:

        Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/mmcblk0p1              33      524320    16777216   c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2          884866      950401     2097152  83 Linux
/dev/mmcblk0p3          950402      974977      786432  82 Linux swap
/dev/mmcblk0p4          524321      884865    11537440   5 Extended
/dev/mmcblk0p5          524353      884865    11536416  83 Linux

SD partition table:

Code:

        Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/mmcblk1p1   *           1        2022     7761889  83 Linux

u-boot item files:

Code:

Nokia-N900:~# cat /etc/bootmenu.d/arch-*

Code:

ITEM_NAME="Arch Linux ARM @ EMMC"
ITEM_KERNEL="/boot/uImage"
ITEM_DEVICE="${INT_CARD}p5"
ITEM_FSTYPE="ext4"
ITEM_OMAPATAG="1"
ITEM_CMDLINE="root=/dev/mmcblk1p5 rootwait init=/bin/systemd omapfb.vram=0:3M,1:3M,2:3M verbose"

Code:

ITEM_NAME="Arch Linux ARM @ SD"
ITEM_KERNEL="/boot/uImage"
ITEM_DEVICE="${EXT_CARD}p1"
ITEM_FSTYPE="ext4"
ITEM_OMAPATAG="1"
ITEM_CMDLINE="root=/dev/mmcblk0p1 rootwait init=/bin/systemd omapfb.vram=0:3M,1:3M,2:3M quiet"

Regarding swap, the best performance will be achieved by using the swap partition on a different disk than the system. Eg, if running from the SD, use swap on the eMMC, or the other way around.

Be careful when messing with things at this level, specially MyDocs partition, since u-boot keeps stuff there. I learned that the hard way

Originally Posted by ArchiMark

Why 2 independent installations?.....

But still a bit confused about what is SD vs eMMC.....

Originally Posted by caveman

This is my testbed. I started with the SD, and then created a new install in the eMMC.



SD is the external memory card; eMMC is the internal 32Gb memory card.
This can be really confusing at times, since maemo uses reversed numbers from u-boot and ARCH.

Originally Posted by AhmadMhd

@ٍSkry
how is it going

I tried the sgx driver but X couldn't start ( I've enabled the powervr.service with no luck ).

So I reverted back to unaccelerated driver
X starts BUT the touch coordinates on the screen are inverted ( tab on high area --> the cursor goes down )
Am I the only one having this issue

Thanks!