OESF Portables Forum
Everything Else => Zaurus Distro Support and Discussion => Distros, Development, and Model Specific Forums => Archived Forums => Angstrom & OpenZaurus => Topic started by: ant on December 10, 2008, 04:42:12 am
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Hi,
the hackers at OpenEmbedded are almost ready to ship a new set of special kexec-enabled 2.6 kernels for all Zaurus machine supported:
c7x0 (SL-C7x0 - SL-C860)
akita (SL-C1000)
spitz (SL-C3xx)
tosa (SL-6xxx)
collie (SL5500)
poodle (SL5600)
These special-purpose kernels are small enough to be flashed on NAND and feature a frambefuffer graphical menu for the selection of the boot media.
Multipartitioned cards and lot of filesystems supported.
Kernel and cmdline reside now in /boot.
THIS IS THE LONG AWAITED SOLUTION FOR BOOTING DIFFERENT DISTROS FROM SD/CF
Release is scheduled for end of December. Stay tuned!
Ant
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I tried kexecboot on the Akita and Spitz, and it works great.
I'm going to use this for zUbuntu, which makes it work on at least the C3x00,C1000,C7x0,C860...
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excellent news indeed. I'm loving the idea of multi-booting cacko and zubuntu!
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So , does this take the place of the boot loader? Can I install Kexecboot plus default Sharp ROM, plus another distro to try without losing the use of my default ROM? (I am using SL-6000L.)
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I have been trying to get the images in the autobuild directory to boot doing this with no luck, is that because the autobuild images do not include these new kernels? If so, can I just use another set of kernel modules (like the ones zubuntu is using)?
James
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I have been trying to get the images in the autobuild directory to boot doing this with no luck, is that because the autobuild images do not include these new kernels? If so, can I just use another set of kernel modules (like the ones zubuntu is using)?
James
Nevermind, I had formated the partition ext3. Once I formatted it ext2 everything works fine.
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Hi,
Hi,
THIS IS THE LONG AWAITED SOLUTION FOR BOOTING DIFFERENT DISTROS FROM SD/CF
Release is scheduled for end of December. Stay tuned!
Any news here?
I'm waiting for the update because the existing kexecboot does not boot my Angstrom on the internal memory of the CL760 anymore.
regards
Bernd
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see the ubuntu forum, a number of us have graphical multiboot now. make sure you copy your kernel to /boot along with configs, set up /lib/modules etc BEFORE installing the multiboot kernel!
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Hi
will the new kexecboot support logical partitions on SD cards? Looks like the current version does not support them
regards
Bernd
Hi,
the hackers at OpenEmbedded are almost ready to ship a new set of special kexec-enabled 2.6 kernels for all Zaurus machine supported:
c7x0 (SL-C7x0 - SL-C860)
akita (SL-C1000)
spitz (SL-C3xx)
tosa (SL-6xxx)
collie (SL5500)
poodle (SL5600)
These special-purpose kernels are small enough to be flashed on NAND and feature a frambefuffer graphical menu for the selection of the boot media.
Multipartitioned cards and lot of filesystems supported.
Kernel and cmdline reside now in /boot.
THIS IS THE LONG AWAITED SOLUTION FOR BOOTING DIFFERENT DISTROS FROM SD/CF
Release is scheduled for end of December. Stay tuned!
Ant
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ToDo is frozen
http://linuxtogo.org/gowiki/AngstromKexecboot (http://linuxtogo.org/gowiki/AngstromKexecboot)
Stay tuned for a new release!
Ant
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Hi Ant,
ToDo is frozen
http://linuxtogo.org/gowiki/AngstromKexecboot (http://linuxtogo.org/gowiki/AngstromKexecboot)
Stay tuned for a new release!
Ant
Thanks for the hint -- but the question remains: Are logical partitions supported by the current version and It's a bug that kexecboot does not find the logical parititons on my SD card or are logical partitions not yet supported? If it's not supprted I'll make an entry in the whish list.
regards
Bernd
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>Thanks for the hint -- but the question remains: Are logical partitions supported by the current version and It's a bug that kexecboot does not >find the logical parititons on my SD card or are logical partitions not yet supported? If it's not supprted I'll make an entry in the whish list.
The current release supports only 4 mmc peripherals (last is/dev/mmcblk0p3). That's why only 3 partitions are seen.
The new release will fix this too (tested personally).
For /dev/hda, 20 devices are already defined (last is /dev/hda19).
Hope this clears the thing a bit...
Cheers
Ant
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BTW there is a limit to the number of partitions on mmc devices: 7
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Booting_from_SD (http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Booting_from_SD)
* The device nodes numbering schema provides minor numbers from 1 to 7 (/dev/mmcblk0p1 ... /dev/mmcblk0p7). Minor number 8 is the next physical device (/dev/mmcblk1). So we're restricted to a maximum of 7 accessible partitions.
* Currently most rootfs' supplies devices mmcblk0p1 through mmcblk0p4. If you want to use extended partitions (5 ...), you need to add those to the udev setup by creating the nodes in /lib/udev/devices/:
Regards
Ant
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Hi,
Hope this clears the thing a bit...
Thanks, it does .
So I wait for the next version of kexecboot.
regards
Bernd
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ToDo is frozen
http://linuxtogo.org/gowiki/AngstromKexecboot (http://linuxtogo.org/gowiki/AngstromKexecboot)
Stay tuned for a new release!
Ant
Some newer images (still parsing kernel-cmdline) here:
http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/demo/kexecboot/ (http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/demo/kexecboot/)
Ant
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Latest 2.6.26 and beta 2.6.33-rc6 images here: http://projects.linuxtogo.org/projects/zaurus/ (http://projects.linuxtogo.org/projects/zaurus/)
Ant
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Latest 2.6.26 and beta 2.6.33-rc6 images here: http://projects.linuxtogo.org/projects/zaurus/ (http://projects.linuxtogo.org/projects/zaurus/)
Ant
I still can't boot Cacko from NAND with my C860. I've used the 2.6.26 image.
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>I still can't boot Cacko from NAND with my C860. I've used the 2.6.26 image.
I don't think this can be done with unpatched cacko kernel.
There is unfortunately a fundamental issue: the 2.4 kernels look for the bootparams in an old deprecated way/location.
The old sharp/cacko kernel has own hacks for reading the params passed by the bootloader and just ignores the cmdline passed by kexec...so mtdparts (for nand partitioning) are wrong.
Pity, because kexecboot-kernel can now read the partitioning from nand so you can repartition the device as you like.
All 2.6.2x/2.6.3x kernels will get the mtdparts from kexecboot appended commandline.
FYI, this was my test of cacko lite 1.23 on SL-C860.
1) install cacko and repartition e.g. mtd2 to 19mb as suggested
2) flash kexecboot kernel
3) create a small (few mb) partition on SD/CF and copy Cacko kernel on it as /boot/zImage
4) create on that partition on SD/CF a /boot/boot.cfg like this:
LABEL=Cacko
KERNEL=/boot/zImage
APPEND=console=ttyS0,115200n8 console=tty1 noinitrd
root=/dev/mtdblock2 rootfstype=jffs2 debug
Result: Cacko flashed on nand recognizes the params (passed from bootloader), booted from SD wrongly defaults to 30mb...(on SL-C860)
Regards
Ant
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SL-C1000 and newer models have also a 2.4 kernel.
Why multibooting with Cacko is possible with them ?
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SL-C1000 and newer models have also a 2.4 kernel.
Why multibooting with Cacko is possible with them ?
Because the kexec 2.6 kernel boots up the 2.4 kernel.
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SL-C1000 and newer models have also a 2.4 kernel.
Why multibooting with Cacko is possible with them ?
Because the kexec 2.6 kernel boots up the 2.4 kernel.
But it can't boot C7xx. It is because of the 2.6.18 vs 2.6.20 version of the kernel ?
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Hi,
new roundup of linux-kexecboot 2.6.2x kernels with new GUI.
http://projects.linuxtogo.org/projects/zaurus/ (http://projects.linuxtogo.org/projects/zaurus/)
Soon 2.6.36 will follow (still with old ATA deprecated driver, giving /dev/hd* to the microdrive and CF cards).
Regards
Ant
P.S. rootfs images can be downloaded at http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/narcissus (http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/narcissus)
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Great to see this is still being worked on. Did they do anything else besides a new GUI? Like fix the bugs that make it take 5 minutes to scan the internal flash? They should just disable the internal flash scan as it doesn't usually hold a kernel anyway.
By the way, which image do I use for a C3100? There is none for that model. I forget which one I used last time. I'm assuming spitz but not sure.
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Ok, I hope the person who made this kernel is reading this thread. Regarding the new gui - EWW! It displays in a huge splash "Angstrom" while hiding the kernel messages. I thought this was a kexec boot kernel, not an angstrom one. I don't even have Angstrom on my zaurus and as far as I can tell Angstrom has never been stable on the zaurus anyway.
Second issue, it still takes F.O.R.E.V.E.R to scan the internal flash. Please disable it or fix it.
Third issue, this new gui, once it has finally scanned and found the bootable kernels, does not show the name (label) of the selection like the old one did. Before I had a list that showed "Debian Eabi" and "Sharp JP rom". Now it just tells me on which partition it found the kernel. If I didn't already know which partition booted which OS from the previous kernel I would be guessing here. Not good for any new users of this kernel.
I'm going back to the previous, better kernel. Thanks for the continued work though, but I would like it to improve things instead of degrading.
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Hello,
I've uploaded the 2.6.36 versions.
Kexecboot has not changed, is the latest version with new gui.
Please test and report (here or on Zaurus PDA developers list <zaurus-devel@lists.linuxtogo.org>)
Regards
Ant
P.S.
About slow nand scan, it takes almost 30 seconds for scanning *two* jffs2 in nand, so it is not that slow...
BUT, if you still have old 2.4 jffs2 images, this could take much longer.
Please be sure to properly erase the nand (flash_erase_all -j /dev/mtd[2:3]) and optionally flash *recent* jffs2 images.
P.P.S.
Boot options (and label) are read from /boot/boot.cfg. Create it if your distro is lacking it
(see ex http://cgit.openembedded.org/cgit.cgi/open...oot-cfg_0.1.bb) (http://cgit.openembedded.org/cgit.cgi/openembedded/tree/recipes/kexecboot/kexecboot-cfg_0.1.bb))
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Ok, I hope the person who made this kernel is reading this thread. Regarding the new gui - EWW! It displays in a huge splash "Angstrom" while hiding the kernel messages. I thought this was a kexec boot kernel, not an angstrom one. I don't even have Angstrom on my zaurus and as far as I can tell Angstrom has never been stable on the zaurus anyway.
Second issue, it still takes F.O.R.E.V.E.R to scan the internal flash. Please disable it or fix it.
Third issue, this new gui, once it has finally scanned and found the bootable kernels, does not show the name (label) of the selection like the old one did. Before I had a list that showed "Debian Eabi" and "Sharp JP rom". Now it just tells me on which partition it found the kernel. If I didn't already know which partition booted which OS from the previous kernel I would be guessing here. Not good for any new users of this kernel.
I'm going back to the previous, better kernel. Thanks for the continued work though, but I would like it to improve things instead of degrading.
Purposedly, we try to hide everything to the user.
There is a kernel bootlogo and printk loglevel is set to 3.
Which information do you need from kexecboot micro-kernel? ATM it has wrong idea about resized mtdparts, those are re-read by the kexecboot binary in the initramfs.
FWIW we are working to add some logging but just the debug output you would see on serial once compiled with --enable-debug, no kernel output.
About label, check your /boot/boot.cfg.
Finally, about the logo, it all depends on the distro you're compiling but is purely cosmetic thing. Most distros are using standard OpenEmbedded logo (the OE one) but Angstrom has own.
Ideally we would use the original white/red SHARP logo but it seems there could be some copyright issue.
Regards
Ant
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Purposedly, we try to hide everything to the user.
There is a kernel bootlogo and printk loglevel is set to 3.
Which information do you need from kexecboot micro-kernel?
Maybe I'm wrong but I figured most people who would know enough to be able to use this kernel would want to see the kernel output as well. I like to see what it is scanning so I know what it is doing. Occasionally I have had an SD card inserted that caused the kernel to "hang" until it was removed and seeing the kernel messages has helped in those situations. Besides, it's a lot better than having a huge Angstrom image displayed that has nothing to do with the zaurus. It might as well be a big MacDonalds logo.
About label, check your /boot/boot.cfg.
OK, so this must have changed. The old kexec kernel I used read the /boot/image.nfo file and got the label from there. Good to know the change. Thanks. Is it the same? A simple line stating the label?
Finally, about the logo, it all depends on the distro you're compiling but is purely cosmetic thing. Most distros are using standard OpenEmbedded logo (the OE one) but Angstrom has own.
OK, OE logo is fine, where can I get the kernel with that logo instead? I didn't see any alternative kernels listed.
P.S.
About slow nand scan, it takes almost 30 seconds for scanning *two* jffs2 in nand, so it is not that slow...
BUT, if you still have old 2.4 jffs2 images, this could take much longer.
Please be sure to properly erase the nand (flash_erase_all -j /dev/mtd[2:3]) and optionally flash *recent* jffs2 images.
From the moment I turn on the Zaurus, it is 2 minutes and 30 seconds before the menu shows up. To me, that is way too long. And to say I need to erase my NAND and flash new images is unacceptable. With the amount of customization I had to do to get everything working properly there is no way I would be able to get it working the same again without hours of work. Besides, what are these *recent* jffs2 images you talk about? As far as I know, Sharp stopped updating their ROMs. If the kexec kernel doesn't "like" the NAND then why is it scanning it? There are no kernel images on it anyway.
Thanks for the info. I'll give it a try again. One thing you didn't answer, why does it have to scan the NAND? Is it possible to get a kernel that doesn't even do that?
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Also, what size is the icon.xpm supposed to be?
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GAH! Forget it. I copied the image.nfo file over to a boot.cfg file and now it doesn't even show my sharp rom listed anymore. Then I tried booting into the debian eabi install and the kernel hung at "failed to load initial console" or whatever.
You guys have absolutely no documentation (http://projects.linuxtogo.org/docman/?group_id=55) so how can you expect anyone else to use this kernel without having to scour through your source code to find out what and how it needs the boot.cfg file set up? I'll take another look at this kernel if someone ever decides to document their work so others can use it. Until then, I'll stick with the Omegamoon (http://www.omegamoon.com/blog/static.php?page=ZaurusUbuntu) kernel which works perfectly (despite scanning the nand very slowly as well) and even has a better looking menu (with this angstrom one you can't tell which is the selection, the darker one or the lighter one).
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Hi Xamindar,
I think you should take a break and chill out for a bit. You can't expect things to work seamlessly when they are not really aimed at Joe User. As soon as you reflash you are on the road to being a hacker...
Why don't you get on the mailing list and relate your experiences there ? I am sure they would appreciate feedback directly from a tester. (I don't know who user ant is IRL). http://lists.linuxtogo.org/pipermail/zaurus-devel/ (http://lists.linuxtogo.org/pipermail/zaurus-devel/)
Documentation is always the last thing to get written. If you read the mailing list archives it looks like they just want feedback to see what works and what doesn't at this stage. Plenty of things seems to be not working.
I think that what is on your flash is up to you, you don't need Sharp to supply new data. I expect though that your Sharp ROM is configured to be on flash so removing it is not an option. I am guessing that for some reason scanning jffs is slow; my understanding is that kexec is searching for bootable kernels. It would be nice if there was an option in one of the config files to disable scanning of flash.
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Please download an image for your Zaurus at http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/narcissus (http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/narcissus)
Those images contain in /boot a kernel, an icon and a boot.cfg which you can adapt.
Regards
Ant
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Hi Xamindar,
I think you should take a break and chill out for a bit. You can't expect things to work seamlessly when they are not really aimed at Joe User. As soon as you reflash you are on the road to being a hacker...
Oh I'm chill. I just put my zaurus back to what it used to be and everything is fine. I'm sorry I sound harsh. It is frustrating to have people post updates like this but leave out important information that is required to get it working.
Why don't you get on the mailing list and relate your experiences there ? I am sure they would appreciate feedback directly from a tester. (I don't know who user ant is IRL). http://lists.linuxtogo.org/pipermail/zaurus-devel/ (http://lists.linuxtogo.org/pipermail/zaurus-devel/)
I'm not sure they would. They seem to be expecting me to be running Angstrom. I have never been able to get it working, have you?
Documentation is always the last thing to get written. If you read the mailing list archives it looks like they just want feedback to see what works and what doesn't at this stage. Plenty of things seems to be not working.
We are talking at least a couple of notes or examples of what files it is looking for to boot. That is hardly time consuming documentation. Thanks for the mail archive tip, I'll scan through it some time for any information.
I think that what is on your flash is up to you, you don't need Sharp to supply new data. I expect though that your Sharp ROM is configured to be on flash so removing it is not an option. I am guessing that for some reason scanning jffs is slow; my understanding is that kexec is searching for bootable kernels. It would be nice if there was an option in one of the config files to disable scanning of flash.
Yeah, I just realized this topic is under the "Angstrom & Openzaurus" sub-category on the forums. Maybe he assumed I was running Angstrom. I honestly would be willing to give Angstrom another try but last time I did I had a hard time finding a way to install it onto an SD card and boot into it. But anyway, yes, it would be a very nice option to be able to disable the internal flash scan. I can't think of any reason someone would have a kernel on the internal flash for it to scan.
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They seem to be expecting me to be running Angstrom. I have never been able to get it working, have you?
I'm too busy working on other projects but I wanted to give this a try. It's great to hear someone is still working on new kernels for the Zaurus and that people like you are trying them out and reporting back here.
I can't think of any reason someone would have a kernel on the internal flash for it to scan.
Because you can ?
It should probably boot quicker from internal flash and you don't need a memory card from a cold boot.
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Update 2013:
note there is a decently updated set of kexecboot-kernels for Zaurus at kexecboot.org.
Cheers
Ant
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I missed this when you posted it. I hope to try it out soon.
Good work ant.
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wow, you guys are still around!
Late
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wow, you guys are still around!
Late
yeah, I'm still alive. I've moved on, had an HTC DesireZ (aka G2), then HTC Doubleshot (still have; aka T-Mobile MyTouch 4G Slide). I also have a Galaxy Note2. Am still hoping for a proper keyboard dock for it, Brando said they'd be making one but that was months ago.
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I've moved on to become an Apple Fanboy. I do iOS development now and I'm about 6 months away from putting an app in the AppStore.
Late
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I've moved on to become an Apple Fanboy. I do iOS development now and I'm about 6 months away from putting an app in the AppStore.
Late
I'm waiting for my first macbook and who knows, I might actually like apple products. This is going to be my first so I hope it will be fun, otherwise it will be back to Windoze and Android.
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I'm still kicking.. I check this site out from time to time.. but not much going on here.
I'm on android now, and my SL-5500 and SL-C1000 are just gathering dust.
Nice to see some of you still check in.
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Hey, I'm still using both my sl5500 and sl6000 daily!!! And they both are attached to my Raspberry Pi, one using usbd and the other via ethernet.
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Thats cool that the zaurii are still useful to you guys. Keep embedded Linux alive!
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I have just talked with Ant on #kexecboot regarding the actual state of kexecboot. He has told me that the work is still proceeding on the version 4.4 of the kernel, focusing especially on the support for collie and poodle which were not well supported in the latest 3.2 build (missing MTD and SD card support on collie, some minor issues on poodle).
Anyway, he'll soon release a new serie of kexecboot-kernels based on the latest 4.4, testers will be needed for these kernels!
So, keep an eye on this page
https://github.com/LinuxPDA (https://github.com/LinuxPDA)
Varthall