On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 10:53:04PM +0100, Thibaut GIRKA wrote: > > > > Regarding the FreeRunner, I've got one since the beginning of the year, > > > and I use it as my sole phone. > > > I have flashed SHR unstable on the NAND, and I've manually (reading the > > > so-called install.sh script) installed Debian on a µSD card, although I > > > rarely > > > use it. > > > > For porting d-i to it it would be good if we could get you a second > > freerunner or if you have another phone you could use during this > > time... Calls won't work during installation ;-) And you probably will > > do many installations... > > Yeah, I have another phone that I can use, that's not an issue :) > > > > I haven't tried d-i on the FreeRunner yet, but I think the main > > > issues/things to do would be: > > > * Starting d-i. I can see two ways of doing it: > > > - Putting it on a µSD card, maybe not the easiest thing if there's > > > already something on it. > > > - Using kexec on a host system to run d-i without altering the > > > partition table beforehand. > > > > I and Luca Capello (gismo) worked on d-i for the freerunner at Debconf > > 9. We decided back then that whatever method we choose it should be > > supported by the factory default settings of the u-boot on the > > freerunner. > > > > This means that you have to combine the kernel and initramfs into one > > u-boot image. This is possible but a bit tricky to get right. > > Yeah, I've made some tests, and I can see how to create a multi-file > u-boot image. > I have yet to build a kernel along with an initramfs and see how to boot > it properly :) > > > > * Using the kernel from pkg-fso > > > > This won't work. Period. If you want to integrate your work into the > > official d-i you have to use a kernel built from the linux-2.6 package > > in the main archive. > > > > So first all the bits to support the freerunner so that it can run d-i > > must go into Linus kernel tree. As the kernel team most probably won't > > accept any patches not accepted upstream. > > > > We basically need glamo mmc support in addition to basic boot support > > for the freerunner to be able to support d-i. The glamo mmc support is > > needed to access the SD card because the SD card is connected to the > > glamo. > > > > Then we need a kernel configuration for the s3c24xx architecture and a > > patch to enable an image for this architecture for linux-2.6. The kernel > > configuration should be as similar as possible to the configurations of > > the other kernel images (especially the other arm images). This is where > > I stopped by the end of last year because of lack of time. If you want > > to continue this work I can provide you with a partially working patch > > for linux-2.6. > > Can't we use, for a start, linux-2.6-openmoko as it is? > > > > * Hacking g-i to work with the touchscreen and > > > provide an on-screen keyboard. > > > > Gismo and I were rahter targetting the network-console mode of d-i that > > is used on headless NAS devices. The idea was that d-i would setup the > > usb network and you could connect to it by sshing over this usb network. > > I think that would be far easier. I will need networking anyway to > > download packages and wifi is not an option for the installer because > > the support for connecting to encrypted networks in d-i is minimal AFAIK > > and ar6000 won't most probably go upstream ever and therefore not be > > included in the Debian kernel. > > Didn't think about that, but I guess it's the way to go.
You may want to get into contact with the guy who added kirkwood support to Debian. There is support for network based installation with d-i on this platform. > > > As far as I know, directfb is being dropped in favor of X11, so, it > > > shouldn't be that much of an issue. > > > * Including all those things in a fairly lightweight initrd. > > > > It depends on your definition of lightweight. I would call all the d-i > > initramfs (it's technically not an initrd anymore) fairly heavyweight. > > Well, with X and so, it might have been quite challenging. > > > I expect the core d-i part of all of this to be small and not very > > difficult. AFAIR we had it already running until the bootloader step at > > Debconf with a custom version of the pkg-fso kernel. The hard parts are: > > - Create a kernel package for the freerunner based on the linux-2.6 > > package in main > > - Figure out the best layout for booting Debian in parallel to another > > distribution in NAND and configure u-boot to do the right thing and > > warp all this into an udeb for the d-i. > > - Post installation stuff like creating a fso/freerunner task which gets > > automatically installed if a freerunner is detected. > > > > > > I would be willing to be your mentor if your commited to properly integrate > > your work into the existing Debian infrastructure (like useing a kernel > > based on linux-2.6, make your modifications so that they are acceptable > > to the d-i team). My d-i knowledge is a bit rusty, but I think I know > > the basic things and could point you in the right direction if you have > > any questions. > > I was planning to use the kernel package in pkg-fso, at least at the > beginning, because I don't know the main differences yet. > I'm interested in having a clean kernel package, however, I have no > experience in kernel hacking. You should definitely contact luca. He was the one creating the first pkg-fso kernel package and he is the one working on a Debian main package afair. For the Debian main kernel package I believe most drivers could be done with module-assitant. The mainline kernel should provide CPU and audio support at least. As far as I know there is still no support for the display and touchscreen stuff, which is probably the crunchpoint. Apart from this the vibrator didn't work when I compiled the driver as module instead of compiling support into the kernel. -- Sebastian
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