That would work very well if you don't mind loosing the native mechanism
for flashing the device with firmware. So it kind of depends on what you
want to build, but it is certainly possible to use an sdcard to gain
more disk space for the rootfs.
Brian Kelley wrote:
maybe an sdcard install would be better to get around the 512 megs of
nand,, then 16gigs+ is possible
--- On *Wed, 2/10/10, Wybrand Lohman /<[email protected]>/* wrote:
From: Wybrand Lohman <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [ARMedslack] mini root fs && Openmoko Freerunner
To: "Slackware ARM port" <[email protected]>
Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 5:11 AM
Stuart Winter wrote:
>
> I'm really curious about people will use ARMedslack for. For me,
ARM has
> always been for Desktop machines (since ARM CPUs were
manufactured for the
> Acorn archimedes range), so I consider ARMedslack aimed at
desktops and
> server usage on those machines rather than hand held gadgets.
>
>
Two things really. I intend to use it as a server platform. Now
that the GuruPlug Plus (with two NIC's) comes out in April, it
offers everything I need to replace my x86 server. And once those
ARM based netbooks hit the market, as they've been promising for
sooo long now :-( ARMedslack will find it's place on one of those.
I also see some good possibilities in the SheevaPlug&ARMedslack
combo. One thing for example is as an update server on the other
side of a VPN, so to safe bandwidth. I know several locations
where they use an x86 desktop running 24x7 for that. ARMedslack
running on a SheevaPlug will offer greatly more efficiency and
reliability and yet keep the price point below €100,- TCO. How
cool is that? :D
Brian Kelley wrote:
>the openmoko freerunner is another good choice
I tried that, but I found it was not without difficulty. I have
been able to get /something/ going on the Freerunner, but the
device is so limited in terms of disk space, while it's also
exotic in terms of hardware and method of install. A bit like what
Stuart now did with building a mini rootfs (interesting
development there) I build a roofts of my own to act as a sort of
bridgehead allowing me to interface with the Freerunner.
The thing is, you can't really install a very limited version of
ARMedslack on a device like that. With all you can shave off,
it'll still be too big. I took the initrd from the ARMedslack
installer, which offers a busybox environment with dropbear and a
nice collection of networking, maintenance and diagnosis tools in
under 25MB or so.
The stock kernel, although it didn't panic and kept booting, was
spitting out errors like crazy. It needed some hefty adjustments,
and the quickest route was to just 'steal' a kernel and it's
modules from another Openmoko distro and put that in the image.
But then you have a Freerunner that boots in 3 minutes or so,
draining the battery and still does nothing more than offer an ssh
login. For X, you need something like tinyX or one of it's
variants. This needs to be compiled to accept the touch screen as
it's primary input device. And then a WM on top that is capable of
being steered by the touch screen. Neither of which I had any
success in.
But even if you do succeed in that, you still have no telephony
capability on the Freerunner. Let alone that you can start
optimizing it for the HUGE power efficiency that's needed. (Is
there such a thing? Somehow 'huge' and 'efficient' seem
contradictory to me)
My personal opinion is that it /can/ be done. I was interested in
it not so much for the smartphone side of the Freerunner, but more
because as a handheld embedded device it could do all sorts of
tricks. I wanted it to act as a sort of thin client, mounting a
network share and pull it's software from there. That would negate
the limited disk space, and offer maximum flexibility (perhaps at
the cost of mobility). But you'd need to get the touch screen
going, no mather what.
To conclude. It's possible to start with ARMedslacks initrd, steal
or recompile a kernel (+modules), add something like tinyX and a
WM and get the device going. It's a tremendously good learning
opportunity, if nothing else. But it's not really ARMedslack
anymore by then, more ARMedLFS without a manual.
I think the strength of Slackware is that it offers a very
complete environment that allows you to build whatever you want,
be it a router, headless server, multi-media system or a desktop
as lean or bloated as you can imagine. But to cramp all that power
and flexibility into an embedded device as the Freerunner wont be
without difficulty.
Sorry 'bout the long read. And with that, we return to the order
of the day.
Greets,
Wybrand
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