Poodle Kernel 2.6 Preview

[fooman]

By the way, does the current poodle 2.6.17 kernel have the cache errata fix enabled or disabled?  I get about 400 BogoMIPS but I can't tell what the actual CPU speed is running at.  Would it be possible to test a "fast" kernel if the cache errata fix is currently enabled and the CPU is slowed down?

Thanks.

Okay, I have that stuff working now.
Had to build my own kernel out of OE (and flash it since the modules where compiled with gcc-4.1.1 and your kernel is built with gcc-3.4) and it works now.
So far so good.

I take it you've built the kernel from .dev? Th correct branch for OZ is .oz354x

Don't want to give my new 2.6 kernel away
I'm just building some apps for testing them.
Strangly mounting nfs-drives does not work (protocol unsupported) although I have the nfs-module loaded.

NFS shares mount fine. Please retry with a kernel from the .oz354x branch.

Is anyone interested in my reports?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=136253\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Of course, that's what this thread is there for  
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=136277\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

[koen]

By the way, does the current poodle 2.6.17 kernel have the cache errata fix enabled or disabled?  I get about 400 BogoMIPS but I can't tell what the actual CPU speed is running at.  Would it be possible to test a "fast" kernel if the cache errata fix is currently enabled and the CPU is slowed down?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=136285\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

kernel 2.6 handles that on-the-fly, no need for two kernels.

[CoreDump]

A new image is online,

happy flashing  

[fooman]

Do you know if it's possible to disable the cache errata fix in the 2.6 kernel even if I have a PXA250?  I'm assuming that the kernel automatically enables it if it autodetects the PXA250 but I'd like to disable it and see if it causes any instability.

By the way, does the current poodle 2.6.17 kernel have the cache errata fix enabled or disabled?  I get about 400 BogoMIPS but I can't tell what the actual CPU speed is running at.  Would it be possible to test a "fast" kernel if the cache errata fix is currently enabled and the CPU is slowed down?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=136285\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

kernel 2.6 handles that on-the-fly, no need for two kernels.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=136286\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

[koen]

Do you know if it's possible to disable the cache errata fix in the 2.6 kernel even if I have a PXA250?  I'm assuming that the kernel automatically enables it if it autodetects the PXA250 but I'd like to disable it and see if it causes any instability.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=136469\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Yes, it will cause instability and data-corruption, that's why the check is there. Note that 2.6 handles it more intelligently (==faster) than 2.4, so there's no gain in disabling the check. Unless you like data corruption, of course.

[fooman]

Hi,

Can I ask a quick newbie question about the difference between the files in the ext2/ and tarballs/ directories?  I've read through all of the altboot docs but I just want to make sure.

I think you use a file from the tarballs directory to install the rootfs either on to the SD card directly or on to a loop image on the SD card.  If you install on to a loop image then you need to create the image and specify the size (which is fixed).  Then you can use altboot to boot from the loop image.

I'm not so clear about the rootfs.ext2 files - I believe they are precreated loop images that you can use altboot to boot from.  I'm assuming that these images are also fixed in size?  What's the main purpose of using such an image, because it seems like you can boot from it but you can't install any new applications on it due to the fixed size.

Does this seem right?  Altboot seems like a great idea and I like the idea of a bootable filesystem on an SD card so I can switch back and forth between GPE and Opie.

Thanks for all of your work on this!

A new image is online,

happy flashing 
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=136462\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

[CoreDump]

Hi,

Can I ask a quick newbie question about the difference between the files in the ext2/ and tarballs/ directories?  I've read through all of the altboot docs but I just want to make sure.

I think you use a file from the tarballs directory to install the rootfs either on to the SD card directly or on to a loop image on the SD card.  If you install on to a loop image then you need to create the image and specify the size (which is fixed).  Then you can use altboot to boot from the loop image.

Correct, the tar.gz installer of altboot creates the loop-image for you however.

I'm not so clear about the rootfs.ext2 files - I believe they are precreated loop images that you can use altboot to boot from.

Correct.

I'm assuming that these images are also fixed in size?  What's the main purpose of using such an image, because it seems like you can boot from it but you can't install any new applications on it due to the fixed size.

The size is fixed yeah, but that doesn't mean there is no free space in /  
The ext2 files are ~100Mb in size which leaves you _a_lot_ of free room to play with

Does this seem right?  Altboot seems like a great idea and I like the idea of a bootable filesystem on an SD card so I can switch back and forth between GPE and Opie.

Thanks for all of your work on this!

A new image is online,

happy flashing 
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=136462\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=136478\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

[fooman]

Cool.  I'd like to share my experiences with the brand new poodle 2.6 kernel.  I installed the new Hentges bootstrap ROM and then the GPE and Opie Hentges premade ext2 rootfs files on an SD card in the /boot-images directory.  The SD card is formatted as FAT.

As soon as the poodle booted up, it showed that it was loading some kernel modules.  It complained about a few, saying that they already existed.  I can get the exact list if you would like.  Then it made a strange sound, almost like a telephone ring, and then static immediately after that.

I went into altboot and specified that I wanted to boot off of the GPE rootfs bin file.  The static sound stopped as soon as altboot started.  Altboot then started booting up with the GPE rootfs file but then it got to the point where it says "Waiting for /dev to be populated" and then hung indefinitely.  I probably waited about 5-10 minutes and nothing happened.

Then I did a hard reset and tried to boot off of the Opie rootfs bin file.  I got the same result.

Does it make a difference if the rootfs files are located on a FAT-formatted SD card?  I tried formatting the SD card as ext2 a while back but gave up because fsck gave too many errors on bootup.  Do you know if OZ supports the concept of nested ext2 loopfiles, where I could create a big loopfile and then put smaller ones inside of it?  I might try this next.

Hi,

Can I ask a quick newbie question about the difference between the files in the ext2/ and tarballs/ directories?  I've read through all of the altboot docs but I just want to make sure.

I think you use a file from the tarballs directory to install the rootfs either on to the SD card directly or on to a loop image on the SD card.  If you install on to a loop image then you need to create the image and specify the size (which is fixed).  Then you can use altboot to boot from the loop image.

Correct, the tar.gz installer of altboot creates the loop-image for you however.

I'm not so clear about the rootfs.ext2 files - I believe they are precreated loop images that you can use altboot to boot from.

Correct.

I'm assuming that these images are also fixed in size?  What's the main purpose of using such an image, because it seems like you can boot from it but you can't install any new applications on it due to the fixed size.

The size is fixed yeah, but that doesn't mean there is no free space in /  
The ext2 files are ~100Mb in size which leaves you _a_lot_ of free room to play with

Does this seem right?  Altboot seems like a great idea and I like the idea of a bootable filesystem on an SD card so I can switch back and forth between GPE and Opie.

Thanks for all of your work on this!

A new image is online,

happy flashing 
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=136462\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=136478\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=136482\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

[hvontres]

Cool.  I'd like to share my experiences with the brand new poodle 2.6 kernel.  I installed the new Hentges bootstrap ROM and then the GPE and Opie Hentges premade ext2 rootfs files on an SD card in the /boot-images directory.  The SD card is formatted as FAT.

As soon as the poodle booted up, it showed that it was loading some kernel modules.  It complained about a few, saying that they already existed.  I can get the exact list if you would like.  Then it made a strange sound, almost like a telephone ring, and then static immediately after that.

I went into altboot and specified that I wanted to boot off of the GPE rootfs bin file.  The static sound stopped as soon as altboot started.  Altboot then started booting up with the GPE rootfs file but then it got to the point where it says "Waiting for /dev to be populated" and then hung indefinitely.  I probably waited about 5-10 minutes and nothing happened.

Then I did a hard reset and tried to boot off of the Opie rootfs bin file.  I got the same result.

Does it make a difference if the rootfs files are located on a FAT-formatted SD card?  I tried formatting the SD card as ext2 a while back but gave up because fsck gave too many errors on bootup.  Do you know if OZ supports the concept of nested ext2 loopfiles, where I could create a big loopfile and then put smaller ones inside of it?  I might try this next.

I had similar problems with my 1 gig SD card (Kingston Elite pro) formated as ext2.. I have not had a chance to try my old 256 MB Kingston card that I used to use. I was able to split my 1GB card into 4 partitions and altboot from a real rootfs.

Hope this helps,

[Jinidog]

Is it possible to overclock the poodle with the 2.6 kernel?
(is it possible at all?)

[fooman]

Hmmm.  So you were able to split your 1 GB card into 4 ext2 partitions and haven't experienced any problems?  I may have to consider this if I run into a dead end.

My current approach is to format the SD card as FAT and create a 980 MB loop ext2 filesystem.  I then put the rootfs filesystems in here.  So it's a loop filesystem within a loop filesystem.

The problem is, altboot doesn't like this.  It doesn't know how to mount the SD card to /mnt/sd and then do a mount -o loop /mnt/sd/filesys /media/card, and then boot off of the GPE rootfs image that it finds in /media/card/boot-images.

Any suggestions in how to hack altboot.func to do this?  I was thinking about hardcoding the "mount -o loop" somewhere but there must be a more elegant way to autodetect the nested loop filesystems.

Cool.  I'd like to share my experiences with the brand new poodle 2.6 kernel.  I installed the new Hentges bootstrap ROM and then the GPE and Opie Hentges premade ext2 rootfs files on an SD card in the /boot-images directory.  The SD card is formatted as FAT.

As soon as the poodle booted up, it showed that it was loading some kernel modules.  It complained about a few, saying that they already existed.  I can get the exact list if you would like.  Then it made a strange sound, almost like a telephone ring, and then static immediately after that.

I went into altboot and specified that I wanted to boot off of the GPE rootfs bin file.  The static sound stopped as soon as altboot started.  Altboot then started booting up with the GPE rootfs file but then it got to the point where it says "Waiting for /dev to be populated" and then hung indefinitely.  I probably waited about 5-10 minutes and nothing happened.

Then I did a hard reset and tried to boot off of the Opie rootfs bin file.  I got the same result.

Does it make a difference if the rootfs files are located on a FAT-formatted SD card?  I tried formatting the SD card as ext2 a while back but gave up because fsck gave too many errors on bootup.  Do you know if OZ supports the concept of nested ext2 loopfiles, where I could create a big loopfile and then put smaller ones inside of it?  I might try this next.

I had similar problems with my 1 gig SD card (Kingston Elite pro) formated as ext2.. I have not had a chance to try my old 256 MB Kingston card that I used to use. I was able to split my 1GB card into 4 partitions and altboot from a real rootfs.

Hope this helps,
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=136617\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

[simbaB]

I'm having trouble using ipkg. It works once, e.g on 'ipkg update', and then when I go to do 'ipkg upgrade' or 'ipkg update' again, I get this:

Code: [Select]

root@poodle:/var/tmp# ipkg upgrade
Upgrading gpe-bluetooth on root from 0.51-r0 to 0.53-r0...
Downloading http://ewi546.ewi.utwente.nl/mirror/www.openzaurus.org/official/unstable/3.5.4.1/feed/x11/gpe-bluetooth_0.53-r0_arm.ipk
xsystem: ERROR: fork failed before execution: `wget --passive-ftp    -q -P /tmp/ipkg-zCmREl http://ewi546.ewi.utwente.nl/mirror/www.openzaurus.org/official/unstable/3.5.4.1/feed/x11/gpe-bluetooth_0.53-r0_arm.ipk'
Upgrading libcontactsdb0 on root from 0.3-r0 to 0.4-r0...
Downloading http://ewi546.ewi.utwente.nl/mirror/www.openzaurus.org/official/unstable/3.5.4.1/feed/x11/libcontactsdb0_0.4-r0_arm.ipk
xsystem: ERROR: fork failed before execution: `wget --passive-ftp    -q -P /tmp/ipkg-zCmREl http://ewi546.ewi.utwente.nl/mirror/www.openzaurus.org/official/unstable/3.5.4.1/feed/x11/libcontactsdb0_0.4-r0_arm.ipk'
Package libusb is already installed in root.
Nothing to be done
Collected errors:
Failed to download gpe-bluetooth. Perhaps you need to run 'ipkg update'?
Failed to download libcontactsdb0. Perhaps you need to run 'ipkg update'?
Only way to fix it is to reboot or 'rm -rf /var/ipkg'

The PDA is connected via USB to my laptop and NAT is working properly; resolv.conf is also properly set up.

[koen]

xsystem: ERROR: fork failed before execution: `wget --passive-ftp    -q -P /tmp/ipkg-zCmREl

That means "Help, I'm out of memory", try adding some (more) swap

[simbaB]

That means "Help, I'm out of memory", try adding some (more) swap
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=136882\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Is swap possible on the inbuilt (jffs2) flash? Creating a swap file works, but activating it fails with 'invalid argument', and the kernel says 'swapfile has holes'.

[koen]

That means "Help, I'm out of memory", try adding some (more) swap
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=136882\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Is swap possible on the inbuilt (jffs2) flash? Creating a swap file works, but activating it fails with 'invalid argument', and the kernel says 'swapfile has holes'.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=136886\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

It's possible, but will kill the flash. Try creating a swapfile on SD or CF