Archlinuxarm On C3x00

[greguu]

Hi,

this thread is about to get ALARM running on the C3x00 series.

We aim to provide a basic functioning console only ArchLinuxArm for C3x00.

No intention to support  Xorg, Touchscreen and over-clocking at this stage.



NOTE : Please post in the new threads if you have questions / issue with kernel or rootfs.




GitHub HowTo : https://github.com/danboid/ZALARM-install

GitHub Kernels : https://github.com/greguu/linux-4.4-cxx00/releases/

GitHub RootFS : https://github.com/greguu/alarm-zaurus-c3x00/releases

[ArchiMark]

Thanks for sharing this....

If my work ever slows down and I have some time, I'd like to give this a try....

[danboid]

Hi daalnroti

I haven't used my C3000 in about 4 or more years but I'd like to make use of it again, mainly as a pocket SSH client. It seems better suited to that than my smartphone - with or without a BT keyboard - even if its specs are feeble in comparison.

I was excited to see you have got Arch running on the c3x00 as that is my preferred Linux distro/OS these days (I've been impressed with it on my BananaPi)  but I was disappointed to read suspend doesn't work. I can live without X or the touchscreen but I'd definitely want to be able to suspend. Have you tried to get suspend to work? Which 3x00 model are you running Arch on?

Why kernel 3.11.3 vs a more recent one? Is that the last one that supports C3x00 devices?

My last (failed) attempt to get something runnng on my Z was Debian 7 IIRC. If I'm really out of luck with suspend under Arch with your kernel then I'm thinking I might try the latest OpenBSD. Have you tried Net or OpenBSD on the Z? Are there any other modern Linux distros we can run on the Z apart from Arch and Debian? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks

[ArchiMark]

Hi danboid,

I'll let daalnroti chime in about Arch and suspend....somehow suspend always seems to be an issue this sort of thing I've found on other distros and devices....

As for OpenBSD, it has been the most active distro around here the past few years.....

See this thread for a fairly recent update....as well as other threads in that forum section..

https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showto...mp;#entry281633

Mark

[danboid]

Thanks ArchiMark!

I'm going to try installing OpenBSD on my C3000 tonight. I've been wanting an excuse to run BSD somewhere - I'm currently waiting for FreeBSD to get released for my BananaPi. I tried PC-BSD and DragonFlyBSD on my laptop recently but the hardware support and performance as a desktop computer is crap compared to (Arch) Linux.I can see how ZFS is a big win for servers so I'm hoping to use that on my BPi, although you could say ZFS doesn't make as much sense without RAID.

I'm kinda surprised you kept your Z when you have a Pandora and you sold your Netwalker and N900. What has kept you using your Z (and reading these forums)?

I see hrw (ex-OZ / Angstrom dev) now works on ARM stuff for RedHat. I wonder what happened to Meanie?

I've just noticed I've been a user of these forums for almost a decade now! That's pretty scary in a  way but also shows how cool the Z was that I still want to use it ten years on. I see you've  almost entered your OESF teens Archimark!

[ArchiMark]

Thanks ArchiMark!

I'm going to try installing OpenBSD on my C3000 tonight. I've been wanting an excuse to run BSD somewhere - I'm currently waiting for FreeBSD to get released for my BananaPi. I tried PC-BSD and DragonFlyBSD on my laptop recently but the hardware support and performance as a desktop computer is crap compared to (Arch) Linux.I can see how ZFS is a big win for servers so I'm hoping to use that on my BPi, although you could say ZFS doesn't make as much sense without RAID.

I'm kinda surprised you kept your Z when you have a Pandora and you sold your Netwalker and N900. What has kept you using your Z (and reading these forums)?

I see hrw (ex-OZ / Angstrom dev) now works on ARM stuff for RedHat. I wonder what happened to Meanie?

I've just noticed I've been a user of these forums for almost a decade now! That's pretty scary in a  way but also shows how cool the Z was that I still want to use it ten years on.

You might want to read OmegaMoon webpage on OpenBSD install....while info is old, it still might be of some help...although there is (at least was...) Zaurus install info through OpenBSD related site..and readme file.....

Need to update my sig again.....I had a Pandora.....but sold it earlier in the year, as I've just been so busy with work the past few years, I haven't had the time I thought I would to play with little mobile computers.... I have been following the next-gen Pandora progress, the Pyra, and it is moving along quite well now. So, it will be available later this year or early next year....might get one just for fun....

I had sold my Z's a few years back, but then about a year ago, I read about OpenBSD on Z, so, got another one....played a bit with it when I first got it a year ago with Ubuntu, Debian, etc....then discovered that OpenBSD seemed to be a current distro option. Then early this year ran into some snags with making packages I wanted to use plus being busy with work, so haven't touched the Z since then....

Hadn't read the forums in almost 6 months I think, but got another email notification about a post the other day, so, while I was here, I checked on new posts and found this one...

Arch on Z would be great, but I'd want xorg, etc, so, don't think it will be option for me at this point....

Will be great to here if you have some luck with the latest OpenBSD....please post in one of the OpenBSD section threads we've had going with your experience...

As for Meanie, that is THE question......he just disappeared one day....although when I checked a few months ago, his Z pages were still up....best I can tell he was very busy with work and couldn't deal with Zaurus stuff and everyone pestering him for updates and questions....

Yes, you and I are some of the 'old-timers' here......those were fun times when the Z was still in production....just wish that Sharp had released a C4000 series with a slightly larger display, built-in wifi and a USB port.....that would have been great for me....

 

Mark

[danboid]

I'd heard about the Pyra. I might get one IF Imagination finally release a fully working Linux/X/Wayland driver, like they've said they would for the last decade or whatever it is. Otherwise, they should've gone for the Tegra K1 / X1 or an Adreno chipset supported by Rob Clarks Freedreno driver. My Pandaboard was always shit under X because the PVR drivers were absolute trash with no open alternative.

Funny to hear you ended up selling your Z's only to buy another a year ago! The C3000 was a crazy cool device when it got released. I got mine signed by RMS at a talk he did in Manchester a few years ago but unfortunately I chose a bad ink/pen and his sig got smudged.

I'll let you know how I get on with my OpenBSD installl. I'll prob send a report into the BSD Now webcast too as they'll love it!

[danboid]

The BPi is a cool bit of budget ARM computing kit, I must say. Mine runs Arch off a 2.5" SATA SSD and has an uptime of over 6 months now  - 187 days thus far, with  no fan and entirely powered by the one USB port. Having SATA makes a huge difference to the system performance, of course.

I'm half tempted to buy the Nvidia Shield TV Pro, or at least I will be if someone gets a SATAIII SSD into it and if you get full OGL accel with FLOSS drivers under proper AArch64 Linux! That'd be a notable upgrade over the BPi for my leading ARM device!

[ArchiMark]

I'd heard about the Pyra. I might get one IF Imagination finally release a fully working Linux/X/Wayland driver, like they've said they would for the last decade or whatever it is. Otherwise, they should've gone for the Tegra K1 / X1 or an Adre no chipset supported by Rob Clarks Freedreno driver. My Pandaboard was always shit under X because the PVR drivers were absolute trash with no open alternative.

Sorry, not familiar with the products you're referring to...but understand your point....    

Funny to hear to ended up selling your Z's only to buy another a year ago - the C3000 was a crazy cool device when it got released.

Yep, who woulda thunk it....  

I got mine signed by RMS at a talk he did in Manchester a few years ago but unfortunately I chose a bad ink/pen and it got smudged.

Is that Richard Stallman you're referring to or ?..................

I'll let you know how I get on with my OpenBSD installl. I'll prob send a report into the BSD Now webcast too as they'll love it!

Sounds good.....

The BPi is a cool bit of budget ARM computing kit, I must say. Mine runs Arch off a 2.5" SATA SSD and has an uptime of over 6 months now  - 187 days thus far, with  no fan and entirely powered by the one USB port. Having SATA makes a huge difference to the system performance, of course.

Sorry, have no idea what BPi is......but sounds good......like I said, I've been way too busy with work the past few years....  

I'm half tempted to buy the Shield TV pro, or at least I will be if someone gets a SATAIII SSD into it and if you get full OGL accel with FLOSS drivers under proper AARCH64 Linux. That'd be a notable upgrade over the BPi for my leading ARM device!

Ummm, no idea what the Shield TV pro is either.....guess I gotta get out more.....  

[danboid]

Damn! I didn't get to clean up my typos before you replied!

Yep, Richard Stallman signed my C3000! I've got a crappy video of it too but its more like an audio recording.

I bought my BPi and PSU from newit.co.uk. Its like the RPi 2 but with the advantage of including a SATA2 port and gigabit ethernet for the same very low price- ~£30. It makes for a cool, budget ARM computer. There is a NetBSD port already but I'm holdiing out for FreeBSD as I want ZFS.

The Nvidia Shield has just been released in Europe. Its got a fast 64bit ARM CPU, powerful Nvidia Maxwell GFX chipset (with open drivers like the Tegra K1 I'd hope but I'm not 100% it's there yet)  3GB RAM, USB3 ports, gige etc for about £150. The Pro version has a SATA HD so it'd make for a poweful and modern ARM Linux computer that can compete well with modern Intel stuff. It runs Android by default but Phoronix did benchmarks of it running Ubuntu a while back.

[danboid]

http://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/linux...pro-and-nouveau

[greguu]

Hi daalnroti

I haven't used my C3000 in about 4 or more years but I'd like to make use of it again, mainly as a pocket SSH client. It seems better suited to that than my smartphone - with or without a BT keyboard - even if its specs are feeble in comparison.

I was excited to see you have got Arch running on the c3x00 as that is my preferred Linux distro/OS these days (I've been impressed with it on my BananaPi)  but I was disappointed to read suspend doesn't work. I can live without X or the touchscreen but I'd definitely want to be able to suspend. Have you tried to get suspend to work? Which 3x00 model are you running Arch on?

Why kernel 3.11.3 vs a more recent one? Is that the last one that supports C3x00 devices?

My last (failed) attempt to get something runnng on my Z was Debian 7 IIRC. If I'm really out of luck with suspend under Arch with your kernel then I'm thinking I might try the latest OpenBSD. Have you tried Net or OpenBSD on the Z? Are there any other modern Linux distros we can run on the Z apart from Arch and Debian? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks

Hi danboid,

simple answer to Xorg, suspend and touchscreen. I have not tried and investigated the issue. I had a pretty good setup with debian before, except suspend everything worked.

My Z is mainly for SSH console work. However, it does not mean suspend is still broken, someone needs to spent some time testing and figuring it out I guess.

Why kernel 3.11.3 ? Well that was the last time I went through the effort of compiling one. ArchLinuxArm still works with it and I see no reason to upgrade until it breaks.

There are hardly any changes to the zaurus code in the kernel anymore.

ArchLinuxArm runs very well, fast and stable. Slightly more memory usage because of systemd. You need to limit your tty sessions to 4, everything is fine. Boots up pretty quick.

ArchLinux pacman is fast when updating and installing, compared to apt-get. Packages a pretty fresh.

Just let me know if you are keen on testing it out and have issue.

Cheers!

[greguu]

and by the way, I have been running ArchLinuxArm on C3100 since June 2012, rolling release and still going. No issues with updates, except the odd systemd issue asking for a newer kernel. Since 3.11.3 all good so far.

[danboid]

Archi:

obsd no bootio!

https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=34386

Any ideas?

[ArchiMark]

Damn! I didn't get to clean up my typos before you replied!

Yep, Richard Stallman signed my C3000! I've got a crappy video of it too but its more like an audio recording.

I bought my BPi and PSU from newit.co.uk. Its like the RPi 2 but with the advantage of including a SATA2 port and gigabit ethernet for the same very low price- ~£30. It makes for a cool, budget ARM computer. There is a NetBSD port already but I'm holdiing out for FreeBSD as I want ZFS.

The Nvidia Shield has just been released in Europe. Its got a fast 64bit ARM CPU, powerful Nvidia Maxwell GFX chipset (with open drivers like the Tegra K1 I'd hope but I'm not 100% it's there yet)  3GB RAM, USB3 ports, gige etc for about £150. The Pro version has a SATA HD so it'd make for a poweful and modern ARM Linux computer that can compete well with modern Intel stuff. It runs Android by default but Phoronix did benchmarks of it running Ubuntu a while back.

http://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/linux...pro-and-nouveau

Thanks for all the info, got it now!