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Re: Arch Linux ARM on N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by caveman (Post 1330132)

What I had in mind was something akin to using the emmc to host the rootfs, including the kernel, and keeping u-boot where it is now, in a setup very similar to the one you have provided, but using the internal mmc instead.

Yeah, that should be as simple as pointing uboot and kernel to emmc device.

Quote:

Originally Posted by caveman (Post 1330132)

That would only require the porting of pali's u-boot to arch, so we could add/upgrade kernels by updating the bootmenu. u-boot alone would sit inside the nand.

I suppose I could/should do this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by caveman (Post 1330132)

trivial fix and it did the trick :-D thanks!

You're welcome, these things are easy to forget ;)

Re: Arch Linux ARM on N900

I updated fbdev-sgx, now "works" with Xorg 1.14, though it's quite unstable for some reason. Revert back to 1.13 and previous fbdev-sgx if it does not work good enough for you, or hold yer packages.

EDIT: might have been my dwm build, recompiled it after X upgrade and I've seen no crashes since. Who knows, so feedback is welcome, again.

Re: Arch Linux ARM on N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by caveman (Post 1330060)

I am experimenting with the X environment for touch-friendlier browsing mostly.

Almost forgot, I don't know what it is that you use as a browser, I use mainly links in terminal and Chromium when I happen to need more graphical experience. Obviously, we're fine scrolling with keyboard with text browsers, so.. There's this extension for Chromium called chromeTouch. It has its flaws and many seem to have trouble with it, but I've been quite pleased. It certainly makes browsing more enjoyable, especially now that we have F11 key readily available to easily toggle fullscreen.

If someone else has usability tricks like this one, go ahead and let us know :)

Re: Arch Linux ARM on N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skry (Post 1330178)

If someone else has usability tricks like this one, go ahead and let us know :)

From this post:

Quote:

4. chromium: install quick scrolling plugin (http://elektranox.org/n900/installat...iguration.html)

5. firefox: install grab and drag plugin (http://elektranox.org/n900/installat...iguration.html)

And for midori:

Code:

export MIDORI_TOUCHSCREEN=1

And as a sidenote, I reconfigured e17 shortcuts to toggle fullscreen, minimize and switch windows only.

Re: Arch Linux ARM on N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skry (Post 1330105)

Next kernel build will probably not fit on the nand. It was fun to strip the kernel to a quite minimal state, but in the end I don't see any sense actually flashing the kernel, especially since I doubt it fits in there if you combine it with u-boot. Besides, you would need to remember to flash new kernel after every single kernel update you get, and if you would forget that, chances are you wont be booting anymore.

If you do not need Maemo, the best use for nand would be some sort of minimal recovery system, maybe swap. Otherwise it's quite useless.

While observing as kernel gets fatter, remember, that it always sits in RAM, so every megabyte used for it, is less on our RAM-challenged device. Maybe it's not very much of a save, but always something.

For same reason (kernel sitting in RAM no matter what), it's absolutely pointless to flash kernel or attach it to u-boot - sole u-boot flashed is enough, results are the same, you boot kernels from eMMC or SD, but they got sucked into RAM (just like attached kernel). Also, this way, you need to flash only, when new u-boot comes out, not with every kernel.

You're probably well aware of all this, but I think it may be useful info for other readers, too :)

/Estel

Re: Arch Linux ARM on N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skry (Post 1330153)

I upgraded last night. Not sure if related or not, but just had X crashing and then locking in sequence. X logs of the crash attached.

Re: Arch Linux ARM on N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by Estel (Post 1330242)

While observing as kernel gets fatter, remember, that it always sits in RAM, so every megabyte used for it, is less on our RAM-challenged device.

RAM usage is pretty much the same be the essential bits built into kernel or as modules which are (usually) loaded anyway. With systemd, booting seems to be a tad faster with modular kernel. I'm not fattening the kernel, it'll always be around 2MB. If there is something that needs to be built in, let's say, for the sake of functionality and simplicity, I'm not afraid to "waste" 25 kilobytes doing so.

If we are talking about fattening something on a resource limited device, instead of worrying on kernel size, I would suggest everyone to do a reality check regarding their userspace, or perhaps even the habits and methods of doing their regular tasks. For me, the full memory usage is 28MB, with a clean desktop. I consider it to be somewhat bloated. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Estel (Post 1330242)

it's absolutely pointless to flash kernel

U-Boot only is the way I see "optimal" too. Anyway, it's all about the choice, if someone wants to do that, then he should have the option to do so. This option, as an idea, made me trim the kernel to a very small size, which alone is a good thing. Now, it may be that it will grow over the limit, but at least it gives a starting point, for anyone who would want to flash it, which requires very little change to make it fit. In addition, the chances are,that if you are the sort of user who wants to flash it for whatever the cause is, you would probably need/want to build your own kernel anyways.

Quote:

Originally Posted by caveman

I upgraded last night. Not sure if related or not, but just had X crashing and then locking in sequence. X logs of the crash attached.

If it's constant, try with a plain fbdev driver, to see if it changes anything. I don't get that much crashes, but catting big logs in fullscreen urxvt almost always causes X to hang, which is started after upgrade. So, there probably is something not quite right, no idea what though. I'm pretty much ready to drop this SGX ****, since I don't personally need it for anything and it's been the main cause of problems for so long, remain as such in the future too.

Re: Arch Linux ARM on N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by caveman (Post 1330060)

* flashing the kernel to the device and installing on the internal mmc

I have just tried some of that. Here are the steps:
* backup MyDocs
* umount MyDocs partition (p1)
* resize partition to smaller size (p1)
* create new extended linux partition (p5)
* format resized MyDocs partition to vfat (p1)
* restore backup to MyDocs partition
* format new linux partition (p5)
* move arch rootfs to new linux partition
* fix u-boot configuration

I tried that inside arch, and that was my mistake, since I could not update u-boot configuration (that was dumb, I know). On reboot u-boot loaded but without my custom entries, since I messed with MyDocs, and I could not load maemo either. I had to reflash the kernel and reinstall u-boot. So do not try that from inside arch; do it inside maemo and update the bootmenu before rebooting :-)

Now I have arch loading from the eMMC.

Re: Arch Linux ARM on N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by caveman (Post 1330484)

On reboot u-boot loaded but without my custom entries, since I messed with MyDocs, and I could not load maemo either. I had to reflash the kernel and reinstall u-boot.

[OT]Or just insert SD with proper configuration, enter u-boot console, and make it read it from there ;) Anyway, flashing kernel-only seems simillar re time required, so my remark doesn't matter much[OT]

/Estel

Re: Arch Linux ARM on N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by caveman (Post 1330484)

since I could not update u-boot configuration

I grabbed Palis U-Boot scripts, made a few small changes to -update-bootmenu. Tested by adding kernel-power to menu from Arch, works. I'll upload package tomorrow.