ok, i have successfully installed debian/lenny with various things removed such as a ton of locale files and /usr/share/doc. some say that it is wiser to use emdebian but i say nuts, i'm in a hurry, and i'm happy with "actual" debian :)
by making use of the existing "firmware upgrade", which is a combination of an already-bootstrapped u-boot (press-and-hold power and both mouse-buttons), a specially-prepared zImage with an initrd (we think), and a tarball named datang-epc.tar.gz it is quite simple to repeatedly perform "upgrades" with impunity (as long as they don't dare touch the NAND flash once booted). this method was used to test the theory (using an angstrom gpe root filesystem) and was then used to blat a succession of failed debian root filesystems on, until one of them worked. further tweaks were then made (so that other people could use it), and then the root filesystem was rsync'd back out and .tar.gz'd back up. so the mid-linux "firmware" is here: http://lkcl.net/arm_systems/CT-PC89E/ct-pc89e-firmware.tgz - just unpack that onto a FAT-formatted SDcard (of size less than 4gb). if you want to do a debian image instead, use http://lkcl.net/arm_systems/CT-PC89E/rootfs.small.tgz but REMEMBER to rename it to datang-epc.tar.gz on the SDcard. please WAIT until 01:00hrs 27feb2010 GMT because the upload of rootfs.small.tgz is expected to take another 25 mins. the username is midfun, the password is mos2010, as is the root password. you will get *nothing* on-screen until a successful X console, because the kernel has been compiled without fbdev console support: only serial console support, and that's on an unpopulated header on the CPU SO-DIMM. however by modifying various /etc/init.d/* scripts adding echo foo > /dev/fb0, for debugging purposes, there should be a few pixels changing in the top left hand corner: if you get a cyan line, that means that networking succeeded: you should find that DHCP comes up etc. and you should be able to ssh in. you *may* find that you need to do a reboot two or three times: this may be due to the fact that i rsync'd the files out of a running system (because... well... how else are you supposed to do it, on a system where the NAND flash - the root filesystem - is on the SO-DIMM??). one of the times required a hard reset. once you log in, you'll see that i've installed xdm and matchbox, along with some of gpe's applications. i have NOT been able to fit a video player or a web browser on: there is simply not enough room in the 450mb root partition, using "standard" debian. perhaps someone would like to be brave enough to see what happens if you use parted to resize things, but... ahhh, slight problem, damn we _really_ need to get that kernel source: ext3 isn't included in the running kernel (!!!). well, that is the next issue. if you want to do your own debian rootfs or in fact any rootfs at all, that's perfectly possible: you just have to remember that the target partition is only 450mb, and yes, gnueabi works, and yes, debian armel packages work. that's all for now. l. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected] Archive: http://lists.debian.org/[email protected]
