Messages

31

Zaurus - pdaXrom / New pdaXrom installer (to have just Root partition)

« on: April 17, 2004, 07:30:22 am »

After using Ashley\'s modified update.sh, I went to reflash cacko 1.21. Problem - /dev/mtdblock3 no longer exists, hence no /home partition - but the installers are assuming it is there. I don\'t posess the skills to modify the partition table yet and was just about to do a nand restore when Sashz posted his partition size fix. Great timing for me!

I wrote an option to restore original partition scheme in my installer. Isn\'t it working? After that restoration you should be able to install pdaxrom with its original installer or any other rom.

Ash

32

Zaurus - pdaXrom / New pdaXrom installer (to have just Root partition)

« on: April 17, 2004, 06:59:04 am »

Uuf!!  I haven\'t been looking this for several hours and now it\'s plenty! (my first impression was nobody was interested!)

First thing: I\'m so sorry for the downloading problems! When I putted it seemed me it worked, but that nasty server dislikes any non-html file. Very sad. I just made a quick account just for this.
Then, a first solution: if you want i can send it by mail; for this PM me or write me (vicra dot 3111 at cajarural dot com). A better solution: Kirk to Enterprise, Kirk to Enterprise... Scotty, can you help me?  :wink:  No more experiments, as your site is the best resource for z stuff, it would honor me if you wish to make a little room for me  

Success - I think this is a more preferable setup! Maybe I should\'ve asked before trying it, but what\'s the worst that could happen if something went wrong?

Thanks. The worse: installation fails always and then have to restore a maintenance menu backup.

I have a SL-C750 (64MB).  The mtdtweaks/mtdparts address in mtd1 is different, it is 0x20AA4 on my device.  If I reflash \"mtdtweaks\" into /dev/mtd1 using nandlogical, it works OK.  When I reboot, /proc/mtd shows mtd2 as \"root\" with a size of 0x3900000, and no mtd3 and \"home\" partition, which is correct.

Nice. That sort of thing is what i expected when the model is diferent. Both ikm and me have a 760. Can any other 750 user confirm this? If so, we can do a simple mod to installer to do things right.

I can eraseall -j /dev/mtd2 just fine, however no matter what I do the system refuses to mount the partition.  If I use a smaller partition size (35MB for example) then I can eraseall -j /dev/mtd2 and mount it just fine.  Something refuses to allow mounting of such a large jffs2 partition (57MB) on the C750.  I\'ve even manually created a jffs2 partition image using mkfs.jffs2 and dd\'ed it into /dev/mtd2.  But mount simply refuses to work.  Perhaps there is some other limit in the C750\'s kernel that won\'t allow this to work?  Do you have any suggestions as to anything to try?  I would love to get rid of the \"/home\" partition!

I dislike very much hearing that. I think this tweak is even more needed by 700/750 users. You have tried the same things I would, so I can\'t give you a solution. I would like to see dmesg command line output and a nand dump of tweaked mtdparts, can you post them? May be this surpasses me, then sashz could be your only hope...


And sashz,

You found it!! You are a genius!! Boot loader disassebly!
It seems to be an old code from 700/750 that Sharp did not updated for 760. Things that happen. If we have had source code...

This is more useful for x60 users than having just 50 or 63 megs root partition, but the thing is that I prefer not to have any home partition, but mount /home to Root one. I like to install as many things as possible. I use my z for my daily work    (I mainly use gnumeric) but I don\'t use /home to keep any work file, I store they on my CF card always (too many reflashes). Then, home space is useless for me. I think it maked much more sense in qtopia since root was ro. I have many linux boxes installed on my home computers, but no home partition, it is something i don\'t like for a desktop computer. And there is another drawback: as /home is used many times as a temp dir (installing, for exaple; you can change this, but sometimes you don\'t realize) you can\'t shorten too much it. The more you fragment, the more space you loose.

Well, enough.

Sashz, I hope you rewrite installer to automate your fix in next releases, but i think many people agree with me and would be more happy if the installer also gives the chance to have just one partition  :wink:

I\'m afraid when i post this there will be dozens of new posts... let\'s see...

33

Zaurus - pdaXrom / New pdaXrom installer (to have just Root partition)

« on: April 15, 2004, 03:15:44 pm »

Hi everybody!!

At last! And seems to work!...

I\'ve written a modification of pdaxrom installer which allows to easily resize nand to have JUST THE ROOT PARTITION, WITH NO HOME.

No fragmentation. Full space to install everything you what (100 MB free after install rom on a Cx60!!). Of course, /home now is on Root partition.

This is mainly thanks to ikm, who is the author of the trick.

It has been designed to be very careful before patching your Nand, but you must consider this as a beta version. Please backup your data before doing anything (maintenance menu backup is recommended). Also, for the moment, it was just tested with my 760. Take even more cares if you have another model.

You can find it in http://ciberia.ya.com/ashley_s/

Contents of new.tar:
   - updater.sh: to substitute pdaxrom updater.sh
   - updater.decoded: decoded version of the last
   - updater.decoded.cacko: decoded version of pdaxrom updater.sh
   - mtdtweak & mtdparts: you must put these together with updater.sh and tools.tar and initrd.bin from pdaXrom
   - encdesc: utility to encode and decode updater.sh files

Please try it with care and tell me bugs and succeeds in this topic :wink:

34

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Kernel source

« on: April 14, 2004, 01:27:55 pm »

My solution does not work  

I have tried to specify the root partition size in MB instead of KB, hardcodding PastitionInfos ROFS size and editing mtdparts command line.

May be I mistaken something, may be anyone want to try it. In my tests, the bootloader fails the same way it does when you resize to more than 63MB with cacko installer: it does not generate any mtdparts= param !!!! Damn bootloader!!  :evil:

Hopefully, we have ikm\'s solution. It is perfect for me, is just what I looked for: no home partion at all, full space for root.

Now let\'s try to automate it...

Ash

35

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Kernel source

« on: April 14, 2004, 12:34:01 pm »

Hey! We have cross-replied!

36

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Kernel source

« on: April 14, 2004, 12:30:36 pm »

ikm, sorry me, I didn\'t realised about the trailind %d. Now I\'ve done things right and IT WORKS!!!!

ONLY THE ROOT PARTITION FILLING THE WHOLE NAND!!! At last!!

Thank you!!

Now, I must install the rom, but making /home to be on root. I can do this using just console, but I think I\'ll try to edit installer.sh, so more people can do that easily.

But before that I\'m going to try my own solution. I\'ll tell if it works.

I have been inspecting fsro_resize source and I think it does it good (sorry sashz, for doubting about you), so the bug must be in the boot loader. Now I understand how PartitionInfo1&2 store partitions. I just had an endianness problem. :evil:

Ash

37

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Kernel source

« on: April 14, 2004, 10:47:00 am »

Strange... it worked like a charm half a year ago
Now I feel interested. Have you got the same \'mtdparts\' file as the one I attached when you read it from flash with the given \'nandlogical\' command from the given offset?

Yes.

What does \'dmesg\' say when you boot the maintenance kernel with the tweak applied? What kernel parameters are actually passed?

Kernel command line: console=ttyS0 root=/dev/ram0 mtdparts=sharpsl-nand:7168k@0k(smf),51200-(root) ZAURUS_UPDATE=/etc/update/update_sd

That\'s what I expected before try it, so I said it would be a wrong command line.

The whole idea of mine was very simple: as a kernel parameter, mtdparts is apparently built up concatenating the following strings:

1) \"mtdparts=sharpsl-nand:7168k@0k(smf),\" +
2) \"%d\" replaced by the root partition size +
3) \"k@7168k(root),-(home)\"

Now we put a zero instead of \"%d\" so the resulting string #2 is empty,
and change the last string from \"k@7168k(root),-(home)\" to just \"-(root)\".

Hey, where is \"%d\"? I have three zeroes before \"k@7168k(root),-(home)\" even in the original state! How can you avoid bootloader to paste the root partition size?

As a result, new mtdparts parameter will look like
\"mtdparts=sharpsl-nand:7168k@0k(smf),-(root)\"

And it worked exactly as I expected. What do you think?

p.s. Thanks for the nand scheme!

p.p.s. I doubt it is correct to hexview \'systc760.dbk\' because, as I said, Sharp seem to have introduced some sort of wear leveling on \'mtd1\' (smf), so the physical offsets would drift when the data is changed. Not absolutely sure about this though, but it looks like this.

Yes, that caused my offset difference. Despite of that, seems to be a reliable snapshot.

p.p.p.s. I just tried to perform the command I suggested before:

/sbin/nandlogical /dev/mtd1 READ 0x209F4 80 mtdparts

And got exactly the same thing as I attached before. I use factory default SYSTC760.DBK I downloaded from conics.net + pdaxrom 1.0.5 with 50MB root. And I did the very same thing half a year ago with just factory default nand and nothing else, and it was there at the same precise offset too. It should just work, shouldn\'t it?

Have you domesticated your bootlader?
 

Ash

38

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Kernel source

« on: April 14, 2004, 07:43:48 am »

ikm, I\'ve just tried your tweak: did not work for me.
Now /proc/mtd tells there is a \"Partition_001\" with a size of 0xc800 !!!!!  No, home partition but also no root one!
Seems that wrong commandline fails. Nevertheless, thank you.
Now I\'m able to try many other things ;-)

39

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Kernel source

« on: April 14, 2004, 07:30:40 am »

sashz!! At last!

Thank you!

Here they are. Now I\'m happy, and think many others would be...

Ash

40

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Kernel source

« on: April 14, 2004, 06:18:25 am »

Thank you very much ikm!

You should use \'/sbin/nandlogical\' tool to perform read/write operations, with /dev/mtd1. That tool lives in the maintenance initrd, boot with pdaxrom installer and go shelling, you\'ll see it.

Do not use nandcp, as Sharp introduced a sort of hack to implement wear leveling with mtd1, so the physical offset would be different when it is accessed directly. For mtd1, use the \'nandlogical\' tool only.

Agree. Was using it.

The part of flash you need to modify lies at 0x209F4, it is 80 bytes long. NOTE that this applies to SL-C760 only, as I haven\'t tried it on other models. Maybe it is the same, or maybe not.

I already found that, but my offset is not exactly the same (!). I also have a 760.

First, read that block using the \'nandlogical\' tool.
Do something like
# /sbin/nandlogical /dev/mtd1 READ 0x209F4 80 mtdparts

Be sure that the resulting file (mtdparts) is the same as the one I attached. It contains some data that is used to construct kernel parameters. We can tweak it. I attached tweaked result. Look inside and see what changed

Next, you put that modifications back, with the same \'nandlogical\' tool.

# /sbin/nandlogical /dev/mtd1 WRITE 0x209F4 80 mtdparts_tweaked

That\'s all. Next time you boot into maintenance mode, inspect /proc/mtd, and if everything was right, now there will be no \'home\' partition there, only the one big \'root\'. You\'ll need to erase it of course, as it no longer matches the original filesystem size.

These modifications do not neccessarily apply to the kernel that is used in normal boot mode. I do not know if the same data is used to construct kernel parameters for the normal kernel or not. You can always compile-in all the parameters to your kernel to be sure, or otherwise you can find it out yourself

If you read before that address you can find \'mainlinuxparam=\' followed by some other params and the mtdparts param. I think this command line applies to both kernels, because a bit later you can see \'maintelinuxparam=\' followed by more params (wich obviously apply only to the maintenance kernel), but there is no mtdparts param, so I presume mainte kernel uses both command lines.

Tip: I\'m hexediting systc760.dbk standard maintenance menu backup file, wich contain a WHOLE nand snapshot.

Hope this helps.

Update: the attachments do not seem to work here, at least for me
Here go uuencoded files =)

begin 644 mtdparts
M)60``\"!M=&1P87)T<SUS:&%R<\'-L+6YA;F0Z-S$V.&M`,&LH<VUF*2P```!K
C0#<Q-CAK*\')O;W0I+\"TH:&]M92D````@6D%54E537U)%4T4`
`
end

begin 644 mtdparts_tweaked
M`&0``\"!M=&1P87)T<SUS:&%R<\'-L+6YA;F0Z-S$V.&M`,&LH<VUF*2P````M
C*\')O;W0I`\')O;W0I+\"TH:&]M92D````@6D%54E537U)%4T4`
`
end

Use standard \'uudecode\' tool to decode them. There should be no spaces in the \'end\' lines, or it might not eat it.

Ok, I\'ll try your solution, it\'s easy and riskless (taking some cares, course). But according to cmdlinepart.c kernel source you are typing  a wrong mtdparts param. I\'m inspecting this code. It may work, despite some kernel error messages. Again, I\'m going to try.

I think boot process works this way: z boot loader reads root partiton size from PartitionInfo1 at 0x60000 (PartitionInfo2 is just a copy) (see http://www.h5.dion.ne.jp/~rimemoon/zaurus/...pic/nandmap.jpg), and updates kernel command line at each boot. So, modifiying PartitionInfo would be a better solution. I think fsro_resize tool from pdaxrom does this. But I\'m not sure how it does, how root partition size is specified. I don\'t have fsro_resize source code! The fact is that when you exceed 63MB root partition, kernel command line becomes wrong (?) and partition scheme falls down to the default specified in sharp_sl.c kernel source (30MB root, 27MB user !!). I don\'t know why this happens, maybe a bootloader bug or a fsro_resize bug.

So I insist, if someone knows where to find pdaxrom sources (kernel and tools) please tell me!

Ash.

41

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Kernel source

« on: April 13, 2004, 11:56:15 am »

Yes, please. I knew the problem with Sharp\'s kernel. I\'ve thought a workaround of this, but haven\'t tried yet. However I have some doubts about parameters location (I\'ve found it, but not sure if I can change the right way).

So, please tell (me) more about your solution. And again, if someone can tell me where are the actual kernel sources, would make me happy ;-)

42

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Kernel source

« on: April 13, 2004, 07:52:38 am »

I\'m trying to hack some things of in the new rom. Now, I think I understand how partitioning works, and think I am able to patch kernel source and installer script in order to have only the root partition (with /home on it) to have no fragmentation at all in the precious nand flash.  Of course, it would take the whole space except smf.

But now, what kernel should I patch? I mean, I don\'t know the patches that were applied to the kernel of this rom. Even worse, the above referred patches are no longer available.

Any one knows what combination of sources+pataches+configs were used to build pdaxrom\'s kernel (1.0.5)? Can you tell me where I can find them?

Even more, don\'t you think we need ALL the sources and patches available? Are they? Where?
(Intend this as a wish of collaboration, a constructive critic)

Ash

43

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Only root partition (wish)

« on: February 29, 2004, 06:26:03 am »

As many of you have noticed, new pdaXrom has many \"disk\" space problems. I love it\'s true Unix layout, much better than Qtopia, wich I wasn\'t able to understood completely and seemed me horrible. I think much of the performance improvement of this rom should be due to the new plain structure, without compressed volumes, ramdisk, etc.

The problem is that it keeps the partition structure of Qtopia, despite it\'s a nonsense now to split /home from /. In Qtopia, it makes sense because apps are installed under /home. In the new rom apps are installed in /usr, thus in root partition.

So, when you install some apps you\'ll run out of root space soon, while /home keeps unused. The first solution would be to increase, much more than cacko recommends, the root partition with the installer. However I\'ve been trying it and does not work. Installer does things wrong if you instruct to do this. It seems that it can\'t format and flash a big root partition.

I don\'t know if I can get installer source code in order to see what it does and change it. My wish would be to get just one large root partition. I don\'t know if it\'s doable.

Unfortunately, I have another big problem with the new rom: I use gnumeric for my daily work. I need one spreadsheet. I\'ve tried to put gnumeric from the previous feed to the new rom, but it crashes. Seem to have a problem with libgsf (of course, it is installed). Does new rom use a different glibc version or so?

And as a commentary, I don\'t like matchbox, I wanna see my desktop! I liked much more Rox...

Ash.

44

Zaurus - pdaXrom / recovering from a Suspend

« on: February 27, 2004, 03:00:14 pm »

I have had the same suspend problem. Also, I always restore with the Home key, so that is not the problem.

I\'ve recovered form the locking state conecting from my linux box to Z via ssh, then I\'ve simply killed X.

Ash

45

Zaurus - pdaXrom / USB storage mode

« on: February 05, 2004, 11:10:41 am »

Thak you both! USBDConfig works me almost fine  

I think I\'m loving too much the command line   :wink:

I don\'t now how it really works, and why the scripts don\'t, but...

But I have still a problem: it works fine on windows, but I can\'t umount Z from linux !! (device is busy always)

It worries me. I can\'t switch between CF and SD. I don\'t trust much file transfers to a filesystem you should remove without  cleanly unmount...

Same happens to anybody?

Ash.