Re: Debian on the n900 / Configuring NOLO
Quoting Christopher Allan Webber cweb...@dustycloud.org: It is good to hear that bootmenu is working on the n900, but IMO this is just a workaround for the root of the problem: the NOLO bootloader clearly sucks, is non-free, and is just plain unconfigurable (or if it is configurable, there seems to be non documentation on that). Is there any chance that something both free and configurable like U-Boot might be ported to the N900 anytime soon? Thx, - cwebb NOLO's purpose is simple - set up an environment to execute a zImage from the NAND area or load a zImage from USB. Or allow for flashing the NAND/eMMC through USB. In this case, noone says you cannot include a bootmenu in that zImage that selects a new root. Even though it might be non-free, it does do its job quite well. Works for me, personally. I doubt u-boot will be ported due to the lack of JTAG and that it's a bit of risky business in terms of bricking your device trying to port it. :) ___ maemo-developers mailing list maemo-developers@maemo.org https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-developers ___ maemo-developers mailing list maemo-developers@maemo.org https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-developers
Re: Debian on the n900 / Configuring NOLO
Carsten Valdemar Munk wrote: . Or allow for flashing the NAND/eMMC through USB. Oh, right, if it can flash eMMC then the mmc code is in, so loading kernel from mmc is one NOLO bugzilla enhancement away ;-) In this case, noone says you cannot include a bootmenu in that zImage that selects a new root. Since I posted previous mail I have checked this and it looks like attaching some sort of initrd/initramfs is not available for arm architecture. It is very platform and bootloader dependent. https://linuxlink.timesys.com/forum/1021 http://www.denx.de/wiki/view/DULG/CombiningKernelAndRamdisk Also It is nontrivial to unzip kernel, modify command line and zip it again. It is implement at linker level piggy.S: - .section .piggydata,#alloc .globl input_data input_data: .incbin arch/arm/boot/compressed/piggy.gz .globl input_data_end input_data_end: - The input_data_end label is used in decompressor code (size=input_data_end-input_data) and whole image is zipped so different text yields different length. For out tablets it is still of course doable to modify decompressor code directly and change the size there. It is not very clean, though. Again, having kernel commandline stored inside config partition and NOLO using it instead of builtin command line would be ideal situation. I doubt u-boot will be ported due to the lack of JTAG and that it's a bit of risky business in terms of bricking your device trying to port it. :) It should be possible to modify any current free bootloader to appear as zImage becoming 3rd stage bootloader. zImage is run with basic hardware already initialized and MMU still off so any bootloader code should be happy with this. Also there is this old LAB idea http://handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/HpIpaqH2200LAB Also kexec is another option. So basically we either need free bootloader that can show on-screen menu and load kernel etc. or use linux kernel and userspace code to do this (kexec, pivot_root). Frantisek ___ maemo-developers mailing list maemo-developers@maemo.org https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-developers
Re: Debian on the n900 / Configuring NOLO
Frantisek Dufka wrote: Oh, right, if it can flash eMMC then the mmc code is in, so loading kernel from mmc is one NOLO bugzilla enhancement away ;-) Again, having kernel commandline stored inside config partition and NOLO using it instead of builtin command line would be ideal situation. FWIW I have created bug for this https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6468 ___ maemo-developers mailing list maemo-developers@maemo.org https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-developers
Re: Debian on the n900 / Configuring NOLO
Great! Thank you Frantisek! Frantisek Dufka duf...@seznam.cz writes: Frantisek Dufka wrote: Oh, right, if it can flash eMMC then the mmc code is in, so loading kernel from mmc is one NOLO bugzilla enhancement away ;-) Again, having kernel commandline stored inside config partition and NOLO using it instead of builtin command line would be ideal situation. FWIW I have created bug for this https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6468 ___ maemo-developers mailing list maemo-developers@maemo.org https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-developers ___ maemo-developers mailing list maemo-developers@maemo.org https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-developers
Re: Debian on the n900 / Configuring NOLO
Faheem Pervez tripp...@gmail.com writes: Thanks to Carsten Munk, bootmenu gained N900 support: http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=344412postcount=16 Thanks for this information, and actually all of the information in this thread. It is good to hear that bootmenu is working on the n900, but IMO this is just a workaround for the root of the problem: the NOLO bootloader clearly sucks, is non-free, and is just plain unconfigurable (or if it is configurable, there seems to be non documentation on that). Is there any chance that something both free and configurable like U-Boot might be ported to the N900 anytime soon? Thx, - cwebb ___ maemo-developers mailing list maemo-developers@maemo.org https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-developers
Re: Debian on the n900 / Configuring NOLO
Kimmo Hämäläinen wrote: On Thu, 2009-11-26 at 05:10 +0100, ext Christopher Allan Webber wrote: However, I realize I need to configure the bootloader to load off the SD card. This is proving a bit hard to do, however, as I cannot find any documentation on configuring the NOLO bootloader. So even if I install the system, I don't know how to get it to boot! :) This was not possible (or documented if possible) on previous devices. It would be great to have bootloder configurable. But anyway, it is quite unlikely there is mmc and ext2 support inside NOLO. Workaround was changing root early in boot sequence. For previous devices it was like this even for stock system - initfs (/dev/mtd3) is set as root in kernel command line and it does some initialization and then does pivot_root into real root (/dev/mtd4). bootmenu was the solution. See https://wiki.maemo.org/Booting_from_a_flash_card With N900 initfs is not used (even if currently present on device !?) and root is hardcoded in kernel command line. Initial bootmenu changes for N900 is there but I am still not sure whant option is the best when there is no initfs. The current easy way is to change /sbin/preinit in rootfs in flash but it is not optimal. I am thinking about some way to modify kernel command line in currently flashed kernel on the fly and possibly also attaching small initramfs filesystem to it. Any tips regarding this would be helpful. I guess unzipping, changing commandline and re-gzipping and reflashing kernel is doable but I am not sure if initramfs can be attached to kernel or it needs to be loaded by bootloader separately. Advice on this is appreciated. (Any other advice to heed while exploring this I am receptive to hearing as well...) Did you try giving it as the kernel command line: ./flasher -broot=/dev/mmcblk1 Is this commandline stored somewhere in config partition for N900? It would be great to have it there. Sounds like good enhancement request for bugzilla :-) So far the -b option was only one time option when you have usb cable with flasher attached so it is not usable for changing boot sequence permanently. Didn't work for me, though. It seems the kernel module needed for the memory cards is not loaded yet. True. mmc interface is compiled as module now. I wonder why (when considering that we have one mmc card hardwired inside). Frantisek ___ maemo-developers mailing list maemo-developers@maemo.org https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-developers
Debian on the n900 / Configuring NOLO
Hello all, I'm interested in exploring installing Debian on the n900. I assume that for the most part, if I loosely follow these instructions: http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/arm/apds03.html.en ... that it may be possible to do so. However, I realize I need to configure the bootloader to load off the SD card. This is proving a bit hard to do, however, as I cannot find any documentation on configuring the NOLO bootloader. So even if I install the system, I don't know how to get it to boot! :) Advice on this is appreciated. (Any other advice to heed while exploring this I am receptive to hearing as well...) Thanks, - cwebb ___ maemo-developers mailing list maemo-developers@maemo.org https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-developers
Re: Debian on the n900 / Configuring NOLO
On Thu, 2009-11-26 at 05:10 +0100, ext Christopher Allan Webber wrote: Hello all, I'm interested in exploring installing Debian on the n900. I assume that for the most part, if I loosely follow these instructions: http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/arm/apds03.html.en ... that it may be possible to do so. However, I realize I need to configure the bootloader to load off the SD card. This is proving a bit hard to do, however, as I cannot find any documentation on configuring the NOLO bootloader. So even if I install the system, I don't know how to get it to boot! :) Advice on this is appreciated. (Any other advice to heed while exploring this I am receptive to hearing as well...) Did you try giving it as the kernel command line: ./flasher -broot=/dev/mmcblk1 Didn't work for me, though. It seems the kernel module needed for the memory cards is not loaded yet. -Kimmo Thanks, - cwebb ___ maemo-developers mailing list maemo-developers@maemo.org https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-developers ___ maemo-developers mailing list maemo-developers@maemo.org https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-developers
Re: Debian on the n900 / Configuring NOLO
On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 4:10 AM, Christopher Allan Webber cweb...@dustycloud.org wrote: Hello all, Hiya, However, I realize I need to configure the bootloader to load off the SD card. This is proving a bit hard to do, however, as I cannot find any documentation on configuring the NOLO bootloader. So even if I install the system, I don't know how to get it to boot! :) Advice on this is appreciated. (Any other advice to heed while exploring this I am receptive to hearing as well...) Thanks to Carsten Munk, bootmenu gained N900 support: http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=344412postcount=16 Thanks, - cwebb ___ Best Regards, Faheem maemo-developers mailing list maemo-developers@maemo.org https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-developers ___ maemo-developers mailing list maemo-developers@maemo.org https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-developers
