I installed debian over the weekend with the angstrom 2.6.23 kernel, and it's really, really neat. But I still want my pdaxii13 install - which thankfully is untouched in NAND.

I downloaded the angstrom kexec-tools and manually installed them, which includes adding a "kexec -e" just before "/sbin/reboot" in /etc/init.d/reboot. This is because kexec doesn't gracefully shut down the system before launching a new kernel, so the trick is to load a kernel using "kexec -l", reboot, and then have the modified /etc/init.d/reboot launch the new kernel after everything is shut down nicely. If you haven't loaded a kernel in that session then kexec fails and the reboot happens as normal. So don't use "kexec -f" like I've seen in a few places! (except in an altboot script, of course.)

Anyway, after kexec was installed I loaded the old pdaxii13 kernel, rebooted, started the new kernel successfully, failed to find an initial console, then kernel panicked.

Damn.

It seems like it isn't correctly mapping the nand; a normal pdaxii13 boot for me looks like:


but the kexec'd boot displays:


Reflashing the pdaxii13 kernel works, but of course I'd like to avoid doing that.

Any ideas? (I might just reinstall pdaxii13 from scratch with the layout that the kexec'd kernel expects...)

(oh and edit: fixed my working nand details, I don't have a /home)

Success! I grabbed evilJazz's kernel source tarball (which is unbelievably easy to use) and modified it to use my NAND layout. Kexec'ing now works perfectly!

Hey, isn't dualbooting already working as in http://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=25555 ?

Sure, if your NAND partitioning is just right - see that "*exactly 53MB*" bit in your instructions? I didn't want to wipe out my existing pdaXii13 install and start from scratch with split partitions just to satisfy that restriction.

Surely your solution is better!

I guess the reason why some of the directories (such as /home, /usr, /etc ) in pdaX (the jffs2 flash) fail to mount is because they are in a different /dev/mtdblock from the main system files. The 53MB limitation is a roadblock. So I just guess with everything living in one big 121MB root partition they are all accessible/mountable in Debian, which will be the perfect result!
I will try your way with kexec tonight and see how far I can go.

By the way, do you know if it is possible just to kexec the pdaXrom kernel without flashing, then run pdaXii off the SD just like on the microdrive on C3000 (chrooted?)?

If this works then I will certainly parted the internal disk into the partition to suit Cacko in NAND (if no luck with Meanie's hacked rc.rofilesys), and run pdaXii off SD, and perhaps also with Cortez' Android rootfs off another SD with kexec the patched 2.6.23 kernel...

Rather than coming to an end, I think the big fun of the Z just begins...

I was thinking that re the cacko debian dual boot... but if I could kexec into sid using my existing ii13v2/PW etch setup....

Thanks for the kernel. I use it on my 3200 and it works like a charm! Everything in pdaXii (root partition = 121MB) is visible under Debian! So dualbooting Debian/pdaXii is real now!
There are a few new paths to follow... (Cacko on NAND, pdaXii w/ Meanie's hdimage-full.tgz on SD ...)

Can you please make a similarly edited kernel for the c1000, or post steps to do it since I am not familiar with compiling the kernel .
Thanks in advance