Debian SID for 770 - Page 8 - maemo.org

ulises | # 71 | 2008-03-02, 13:30 | Report

Hey all,

Sorry for not posting earlier, I had to put my nokia770 and all I was doing a bit on hold.

So, how to get e17 up and running in your debian sid?

Well, it takes a bit of work although not much.

The whole procedure relies on you being able to run an image of your SID under full emulation in qemu. That's where you will build e17 and then copy it over to your tablet. Yes, it's far from satisfactory, but it works.

First of all, you should be running qemu ver. 0.9.1. You can get a copy from here: http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/
The usual procedure of configure && make && make install apply. For more info on how to install qemu please refer to the website listed above.

So, assuming you've installed qemu satisfactorily, we can carry on. You will need a file that acts as a harddisk for qemu. A 1G file usually works. Create it with

Code:

dd if=/dev/zero of=./hda bs=1024K count=1000

The reason behind using a complete disk file as opposed to the cow format that shrinks/enlarges it dynamically is that we will be mounting the file as a drive in our box later on.

Unfortunately, you have to half-install debian on the file. Actually, you have to use the debian installer to create the filesystem on the file itself (you can always partition it with fdisk). So follow the instructions in http://www.aurel32.net/info/debian_arm_qemu.php
for doing so. Please note that you don't need to install the full debian, all you need is for the installer to partition your disk (file) and for it to create the filesystem. The same effect can be achieved by using one of those rescue cds (you could boot it in qemu, etc). I haven't tried it myself because once you've done it once you don't really need to do it again (unless you delete the file).

So, hopefully you have now a 1G file that contains a partition table and a parition (or more) with an ext2 filesystem on it.

Now it's time to transfer the SID you have in your memory card to the file that acts as HD for qemu. Create the image the usual way: (pwd: /media/disk/ <-- change the path to reflect your card)
tar c * > sid_image.tar

To mount the partition inside the file acting as HD for qemu (say its name is hda.img) follow this guide: http://edseek.com/~jasonb/articles/linux_loopback.html
if the ext2 partition you created is the first partition you can mount it with:

Code:

losetup /dev/loop0 ./hda.img
mount -o loop,offset=32256 /dev/loop0 /path/to/where/you/want -t ext2

Then it's just a matter of untarring the SID image into the file.

Once you've done that, just boot into your qemu and build e17.

Sorry for the messy and long post. Hopefully sometime soon I will make it more detailed and howto structured.

In the meantime, is there an interest in creating an alternative distro/environment for the 770 and later models? I'm finding that in order to get the best out of the tablets a customised set of packages should be created, i.e. gentoo style. I've been checking out mamona and there's already one person building all the packages for the 770. Mamona+e17+some apps (web browser, etc.) should be a nice combo!

Cheerio!

U

ulises | # 72 | 2008-03-03, 00:02 | Report

Hey again,

Just uploaded a tar image of my sid+e17. You can download it here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RC4D6W60

Keep in mind that this image is _broken_. That is: when you boot it nothing happens. USB networking is set to ip address 192.168.0.2, ssh to it. root password is `1'. Once there, run /etc/init.d/xserver and then /etc/init.d/e17. That should be it.

Enjoy!

U

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apple2

rogue_ronin | # 73 | 2008-03-27, 12:00 | Report

Any development still happening on this? I'd love a new distro...

m a r

XTC | # 74 | 2008-03-28, 08:28 | Report

since SID itself is "cutting edge" debian distro - maybe "apt-get dist-upgrade" will do

mk500 | # 75 | 2008-04-10, 23:50 | Report

I'm very supportive of anyone working to develop a future path for the 770. I think performance could be a lot better than where Nokia left off, and we probably can't expect much more from them in the future.

I notice the website address Apple2 links to isn't working at the moment: http://linserver.no-ip.biz/

This looks like a dynamic DNS, so I'm assuming he was hosting out of his home. I would be happy to give anyone working on this a virtual server on my server. It lives in a hosting facility and has lots of bandwidth (useful for images). Anyway, PM me if interested in moving all the information/images to a single location, and I'll set everything up with a dedicated IP just for this. Maybe I can install some WIKI software as an easy way to post guides and upload files to be downloaded by the community?

Also, I think keeping the overall size of files down isn't quite as important as keeping performance up (and having a good modern browser included). 1GB or 2GB cards are pretty cheap.

thebohemian | # 76 | 2008-04-24, 12:41 | Report

Drat, haven't seen this thread earlier!

I really like people experimenting with non-Nokia distros on the IT devices believe that all work is moot if access to the hardware specification and source code for the system software is not granted for the general public.

See this bug for details: https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1584

Post what you want to see opened up.

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BoredOOMM | # 77 | 2008-05-11, 06:17 | Report

Originally Posted by mk500 View Post

I'm very supportive of anyone working to develop a future path for the 770. I think performance could be a lot better than where Nokia left off, and we probably can't expect much more from them in the future.

I notice the website address Apple2 links to isn't working at the moment: http://linserver.no-ip.biz/

This looks like a dynamic DNS, so I'm assuming he was hosting out of his home. I would be happy to give anyone working on this a virtual server on my server. It lives in a hosting facility and has lots of bandwidth (useful for images). Anyway, PM me if interested in moving all the information/images to a single location, and I'll set everything up with a dedicated IP just for this. Maybe I can install some WIKI software as an easy way to post guides and upload files to be downloaded by the community?

Also, I think keeping the overall size of files down isn't quite as important as keeping performance up (and having a good modern browser included). 1GB or 2GB cards are pretty cheap.

So let me understand, you are saying this COULD work on a 1 Gig MMC?

apple2 | # 78 | 2008-05-12, 18:13 | Report

Yes I have a 1gb mmc so it woun't get any bigger

I haven't done anything with debian for lots of time.
Just wait to see ubuntu .....

BoredOOMM | # 79 | 2008-05-12, 19:36 | Report

Originally Posted by apple2 View Post

Yes I have a 1gb mmc so it woun't get any bigger

I haven't done anything with debian for lots of time.
Just wait to see ubuntu .....

Hopefully by that time I will have a 800 or even 9 Series....

I may try Sid on my N770 AFTER vacation.

XTC | # 80 | 2008-05-22, 18:41 | Report

Can someone who is using debian sid mentioned in this post (0.1) help me with few things?

I've got my wsod'ed n770 with ability to boot from MMC.
I've got this SID on it and I can boot it successfuly.

I wasn't able to get familiar with it's specific settings and included programs/addons so I can't do much "blindfolded".

In OS2007HE (internal flash) I've set up white background and knowing what to do and where I can expect few things - I can configure it so right now I can login to it using SSH and so on so the lack of the readable screen isn't a big issue.

With SID it's different

I can't do ANYTHING using screen (those desktop backgrounds make the whole thing a pain).

So I figured that I'll mount my SID partition in OS2007HE and from that point - I'll set up some start scripts to connect it to my AccessPoint (WPA-PSK).
I hope that only if I could login remotely to SID - I would be able to set up everything else.

I see that there is no /etc/network/interfaces file - which I know from my desktop Debian.

Can anyone tell me what I should set up (modify - using only SID's root filesystem) to make the tablet connect to my AP and allow me to login via SSH?