Debian On C3xxx (merged Topics)

[dlj0]

Reinstalling: I think I know what I'm doing now!  

snipped

  Another reason for dropping back to etch is that the lenny system started having wifi problems. The booting process showed that a hack was being loaded to get round a problem with my card and the messages started to be errors!  

[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=167734\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

It took two attempts to reinstall. The first one cracked up with segmentation faults towards the end of the process. Don't ask what happened, I have no clue!

Perhaps an occurrence of BarrySamuel's law!  

The problem then, after successful install, was that the wireless card stopped working. It didn't do that last night!  

Maybe the fact that my cards are three old Zonet cards and a Pretec from the dark ages has a bearing on this? Perhaps I should get a new flashy wifi card. Any tips?  

It seems that the system now renames the wifi interface from the eth0 used in install, which is configured, to wlan1, which of course isn't!  

I edited the interfaces file to reflect the change and went on my merry way rejoicing.

The gui is installing now.

I plan to install dhcp-client edit the interfaces file to suit, sudo and edit the sudoers file, alter the time before password change is forced and  set the system time correctly.

I'll do a shutdown -r reboot and see what happens before I use the gui extensively.

Boy is this revising my patchy command line skills!

I'll make a note of your xdm tip ZDevil. Thanks again.
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I had a problem with wifi after install as well.  The issue for me was the wrong kernel module being loaded, or maybe two of them.  I gooled the error message and found that, on my old card, I needed to blacklist hostap and unblacklist orinoco -- exactly the opposite of what most will suggest.  Maybe we both need new cards.

But for me eth0 is still the cf wifi interface, and it works so much better now than any other.

[dlj0]

New question.  I am interested in getting WPA access with my 3100.  I have not been able to do so before.   Maybe titchy/debian will give me new ways....

I have an old Ambicom wl 1100c.  It works great at home (open access) and at most hotels.  I have read that the firmware on the card needs to be updated to make this work with WPA.  I have also heard that doing so can toast the card.  Access range isn't all that hot, anyway.  Maybe it's time for a new card.

But stores don't sell them any longer. so it has to be on-line.

Does anyone have one that works with WPA??  Or, can I make the Ambicom work?  Suggestions for wpa_supplicant, and maybe some other utilities?

Since I seem to be able to do everything else with my usb port now, could I use one of these usb stick wifi adapters?  Anyone try?  Again, would it work with WPA?  Would it need a powered hub?

I know most of y'all are still fiddling with installing this, but you'd be the only ones likely to know about wifi on titchy machines.

[maximusz]

Hello,
Just a few questions please:

1.Are there any emulators that work well for debian arm?

2.What about notepad or a quick way to scribble notes?

3.What are the top 5 apps that the Debian users are using currently?

4. What does Pdaxii13 do better?

Thanks in advance

[Capn_Fish]

New question.  I am interested in getting WPA access with my 3100.  I have not been able to do so before.   Maybe titchy/debian will give me new ways....

I have an old Ambicom wl 1100c.  It works great at home (open access) and at most hotels.  I have read that the firmware on the card needs to be updated to make this work with WPA.  I have also heard that doing so can toast the card.  Access range isn't all that hot, anyway.  Maybe it's time for a new card.

But stores don't sell them any longer. so it has to be on-line.

Does anyone have one that works with WPA??  Or, can I make the Ambicom work?  Suggestions for wpa_supplicant, and maybe some other utilities?

Since I seem to be able to do everything else with my usb port now, could I use one of these usb stick wifi adapters?  Anyone try?  Again, would it work with WPA?  Would it need a powered hub?

I know most of y'all are still fiddling with installing this, but you'd be the only ones likely to know about wifi on titchy machines.
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I updated the firmware of my WL1100C with little trouble (and downgraded it as well). It does support WPA as far as I know, so you may want to look into it (you can update on your Z with my kernel, found here

[a href=\"https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=24233&st=30]https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=24233&st=30[/url]

post 36.

[tux]

Reinstalling: I think I know what I'm doing now!  

snipped...

  Another reason for dropping back to etch is that the lenny system started having wifi problems. The booting process showed that a hack was being loaded to get round a problem with my card and the messages started to be errors!  


[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=167741\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

snipped ...
I had a problem with wifi after install as well.  The issue for me was the wrong kernel module being loaded, or maybe two of them.  I gooled the error message and found that, on my old card, I needed to blacklist hostap and unblacklist orinoco -- exactly the opposite of what most will suggest.  Maybe we both need new cards.

But for me eth0 is still the cf wifi interface, and it works so much better now than any other.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=167762\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

  Thanks for the info and the possible explanation. The last installation has left me with a working eth0 as set up by the installation process!   Perhaps my problem was related to lenny?

Any way all my cards work, wifi is rock-solid: never been so confident in wifi with the Zs.  

But if I want the smarter security I'll need to find a new one. I must try and find time to test the cf lan card and the usb lan dongle. Not to mention the usb memory devices.

I did install dhclient and it works without problem: i'll get around to setting the system to use it automatically eventually.  

I did find that the keymap that I 'installed' using the wiki instructions didn't load at boot up. i sorted it by mv-ing the spitz file into theconsole directory. Now works fine.  

ZDevil's tip about rmove xdm has let me have my way about text login. Installing sudo has let me then run the gui. I suppose I'm being dozy, but surely there is a more elegant way of quitting x thean ctrl alt / ?

On a more trivial note: I installed frotz and can now waste more time playing Scott Adams's games and Zork!  

cheers (Oh and adf try a different SD card i'm sure you'll be successful!)

[ZDevil]

I had a problem with wifi after install as well.  The issue for me was the wrong kernel module being loaded, or maybe two of them.  I gooled the error message and found that, on my old card, I needed to blacklist hostap and unblacklist orinoco -- exactly the opposite of what most will suggest.  Maybe we both need new cards.

But for me eth0 is still the cf wifi interface, and it works so much better now than any other.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=167762\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

How do you do the (un)blacklisting precisely? I am also using the same CF wifi card and also start to run into wifi trouble. The card keep losing connection with the router ("no IPv6 routers present" error).

I checked /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and both hostap and orinoco are not there (not blacklisted yet).
So I added

Code: [Select]

blacklist hostap
blacklist hostap_pci
blacklist hostap_plxto the file and reboot. Still having trouble.

For sound I installed the zaurus-soundhack.deb, but sound is still not working despite this dmesg output:

Code: [Select]

ASoC version 0.13.0
WM8750: WM8750 Audio Codec 0.12
asoc: WM8750 <-> pxa2xx-i2s mapping ok(and I hear some noise from the speaker at this point...)
Any update?

Thanks!

[adf]

@adf

Have you tried to install Debian again with another SD card?
So far there are two theories floating around:

Theory 1: The kernel fails to handle certain CF cards/microdrives. We have yet to see the hard evidence.
Theory 2: It is a more general issue of SD card misbehavior (see Chero's post for the fix) that causes problem during extraction of the CD image, resulting in the failure to reformat the disk (it seems the reformatting tool is somewhere in the CD image). A number of users (tux, Chero, me, etc) have confirmed this.

How about supplying us some evidence for/against either of these?
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I'll give it a few tries this weekend.  I have another theory, too.
That zImage that goes on the SD isn't the debian kernel, is it?  Is it maybe more of a boot loader kernel?  I sugggest this both from what seems to be the way openbsd is doing things, and because on every ther debian install I've ever done, the debian kernel is in the install image?  If this is true, then possibly it is a crappy bootloader kernel and not really a debian issue at all regarding why on boot my drive isn't found (root=  incorrect). Any comments?
I would say, though that the disk is at least repartitioned, whether or not there is a formatting problem.

I'll partition an sd--start from a 256M partition with everything standard. failing that I'll replace the titch zImage with a pdaxii13 zImage (on the theory it is a boot loader). we'll see

re read chero's post.  my experience is that the system claims to have extracted correctly- is this usual if the SD partitioning is the culprit?

[tux]

@adf

Have you tried to install Debian again with another SD card?
So far there are two theories floating around:

Theory 1: The kernel fails to handle certain CF cards/microdrives. We have yet to see the hard evidence.
Theory 2: It is a more general issue of SD card misbehavior (see Chero's post for the fix) that causes problem during extraction of the CD image, resulting in the failure to reformat the disk (it seems the reformatting tool is somewhere in the CD image). A number of users (tux, Chero, me, etc) have confirmed this.

How about supplying us some evidence for/against either of these?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=167736\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

I'll give it a few tries this weekend.  I have another theory, too.
That zImage that goes on the SD isn't the debian kernel, is it?  Is it maybe more of a boot loader kernel?  I sugggest this both from what seems to be the way openbsd is doing things, and because on every ther debian install I've ever done, the debian kernel is in the install image?  If this is true, then possibly it is a crappy bootloader kernel and not really a debian issue at all regarding why on boot my drive isn't found (root=  incorrect). Any comments?
I would say, though that the disk is at least repartitioned, whether or not there is a formatting problem.

I'll partition an sd--start from a 256M partition with everything standard. failing that I'll replace the titch zImage with a pdaxii13 zImage (on the theory it is a boot loader). we'll see

re read chero's post.  my experience is that the system claims to have extracted correctly- is this usual if the SD partitioning is the culprit?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=167770\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

From my last glimpse at the comments on the TichyLinux site, it appears that the kernel is an angstrom one. So I'm thinking that Capn Fish and other like minded souls will be able to get thoroughly involved with this!

I hope you get your machine up and running soon, I think chero's tip will help with the SD card business.  

I really posted to report how easy it is to use my usb lan dongle.  

I stopped the wifi, ejected it and plugged in the dongle. Then i did the modprobe ohci-hcd magic. i didn't have to mess about with command line configuration. i did install dhclient and all it took was to use dhclient and it went off and connected me!  

Oh, fn + d-pad does swap tty in the console environment. I'll try the keylaunch tricks later on. Thanks all.  

I'm now going to try and upgrade to lenny.  

I've twiddled the sources list and an update and a dist-upgrade should do the trick. Since I've had three days with about 4 hours per night sleep playing at this I'll leave it to play while I nap in front of the TV!  

Cheers.

[adf]

As I suspected would be the case, same exact error from repartitioned card.

Using a pdaxii kernel, the titchy system formatted everything just fine, but of course didn't work.
It has looked to me, from reflashing after a failed Titchy attempt, and from doing the alternate kernel thing that the Titchy formatting/updating system has worked perfectly in all of my attempts. (if a full format is "perfect")

I'm convinced the problem is that the titchy kernel is not recognizing my device, and that my options are to not use titchy or to not use my 16gig CF.  Given that pdaxii13  works I guess I'll pass on Titchy until some further development makes it seem likelier to actually work. For now, I'm spending way too much time profitlessly flashing my Z.
thanks for the pointers, though.

Edit: if the kernel is from Angstrom, then maybe there's some hope it will get fixed eventually. til then I guess I'll skip trying Angstrom, too

[ZDevil]

Thanks for the informative update, adf.
Sorry to hear the ode of dejection from your A-Data CF ...
Personally I am (and have always been) very optimistic about the future of Debian/Z. It will be the killer distro on Z (and handhelds in general). It is already very close to this. At least it has already brought about such a big surprise to those who can get it running.
Looking forward to more good news/tips/fixes and bigger fun.

[ZDevil]

I had a problem with wifi after install as well.  The issue for me was the wrong kernel module being loaded, or maybe two of them.  I gooled the error message and found that, on my old card, I needed to blacklist hostap and unblacklist orinoco -- exactly the opposite of what most will suggest.  Maybe we both need new cards.

But for me eth0 is still the cf wifi interface, and it works so much better now than any other.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=167762\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

How do you do the (un)blacklisting precisely? I am also using the same CF wifi card and also start to run into wifi trouble. The card keep losing connection with the router ("no IPv6 routers present" error).

I checked /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and both hostap and orinoco are not there (not blacklisted yet).
So I added

blacklist hostap
blacklist hostap_pci
blacklist hostap_plx

to the file and reboot. Still having trouble.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=167769\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

I tried this and it seems to fix the wifi problem.

1) Just create a separate blacklist file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-eth.
2) Then drop the few lines in the quote above into this file.
3) Save and reboot.
4) Now my wifi connection comes back again!
But I am not absolutely sure if it is because of the unpredictable behavior of the kernel module.
Can anyone confirm this?

[tux]

As I suspected would be the case, same exact error from repartitioned card.

Using a pdaxii kernel, the titchy system formatted everything just fine, but of course didn't work.
It has looked to me, from reflashing after a failed Titchy attempt, and from doing the alternate kernel thing that the Titchy formatting/updating system has worked perfectly in all of my attempts. (if a full format is "perfect")

I'm convinced the problem is that the titchy kernel is not recognizing my device, and that my options are to not use titchy or to not use my 16gig CF.  Given that pdaxii13  works I guess I'll pass on Titchy until some further development makes it seem likelier to actually work. For now, I'm spending way too much time profitlessly flashing my Z.
thanks for the pointers, though.

Edit: if the kernel is from Angstrom, then maybe there's some hope it will get fixed eventually. til then I guess I'll skip trying Angstrom, too
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  Adf, when you go through the installation process do you get to the stage where it says something about 'loading installation components'. Assuming you do: a progress bar comes up and a message that says the components are being loaded and the components being loaded flash on the screen and an updating percentage is shown.

On my first tries that did not succeed in installing anything, but which did format the hard drive, the percentage and the bar flicked off at various low percentages. Now I realise that the components did not all load, hence the failed installs. Among the components are the modules that detect the hardware... including the hard drive for use in the later stages of the install.

Of course you could well be right that your non standard disk is not being recognised. But if the disk detection module is not being loaded it would fail to recognise any disk.it certainly failed to recognise my standard drive until I started again with a Lexar 128MB SD card.

Before you go to the trouble of surgery on your Z, or give up, try again with a small capacity card!  

Either way I hope you're soon up and running, I'm likely to need lots of help!  

The dist-upgrade I mentioned in an earlier post appears to have completed. I'm looking at a graphical login and the led stopped flashing a minute or two ago. It has taken approx 1 hour to complete. Wish me luck!!

I was wrong, I had to quit from it and answer some questions at the console. Hope I answered correctly!

[adf]

I get nothing about installation components. the kernel loads a few things decides to set root and panics.
 you may be right about the low capacity card, the problem is that here in Ak a low capacity card is likely to be something that has been on the shelves for a few years and is being sold at its original retail markup--or close. I really don't want to shell out 40-50 bucks for a 128M SD, and the smallest I have here is 1G.  I could try a small partition of my 4g, but that doesn't sound hopeful. I guess I'll call around for a small SD

[adf]

I get nothing about installation components. the kernel loads a few things decides to set root and panics.
 you may be right about the low capacity card, the problem is that here in Ak a low capacity card is likely to be something that has been on the shelves for a few years and is being sold at its original retail markup--or close. I really don't want to shell out 40-50 bucks for a 128M SD, and the smallest I have here is 1G.  I could try a small partition of my 4g, but that doesn't sound hopeful. I guess I'll call around for a small SD
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=167780\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

The more I think about it the more I think you might be on to something. I had a look around hda1--as far as I can tell, the extraction went fine- which means that something possibly didn't get extracted to the nand flash. This would fit your ideas about what might be happening.

[adf]

I get nothing about installation components. the kernel loads a few things decides to set root and panics.
 you may be right about the low capacity card, the problem is that here in Ak a low capacity card is likely to be something that has been on the shelves for a few years and is being sold at its original retail markup--or close. I really don't want to shell out 40-50 bucks for a 128M SD, and the smallest I have here is 1G.  I could try a small partition of my 4g, but that doesn't sound hopeful. I guess I'll call around for a small SD
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=167780\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

The more I think about it the more I think you might be on to something. I had a look around hda1--as far as I can tell, the extraction went fine- which means that something possibly didn't get extracted to the nand flash. This would fit your ideas about what might be happening.
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update, I accidentally tried with a cf card in, the console scroll showed that it used cf card services to identify the card before it tried to set root on my internal, and crashed with the same kernel panic.

For now, I am taking meanie's view to be most accurate, and returning to pdaxii13 to await developments