Multiboot With Sharp Rom

[koan]

Hi

I am trying to get my 3200 to multiboot with the Sharp ROM. I flashed NAND to my original Sharp back up, installed the kexec boot loader (from Cortez IIRC) and have Zubuntu 1 and 2 on two SDHC card partitions, working fine.

Currently, the HDD has the original layout so that shouldn't be a problem. Which kernel do I use to boot from kexec to Sharp ?

I had a kernel, downloaded from someone on OESF I guess, and it boots into QPE but the SD card driver doesn't work, dmesg shows lots of messages
pxa_sd_wait_id_response: responce time out (cmd=01 MMC_STAT=0x2142)
At first I thought this was due to the SDHC card but when I swap to a 1 GB SD card it isn't recognised.

Thanks in advance

[xamindar]

I would imagine any Sharp based kernel should be fine. I use evilJazz's kernel which I think includes the tetsu patches and some other things like the audio driver that allows to set bass and trebble options in sharp rom. My setup is debian on internal microdrive and use kexec to boot into sharp rom, works great. It has been a while but I remember I had to modify quite a few things to get it to boot properly and work. Sharp rom runs some really strange scripts to mount the internal microdrive partitions. Regarding SD, not sure why it doesn"t work. All Sharp kernels I have ever used work fine with the Sharp sd module.
If you want me to check anything on my c3100 that may help you just let me know.

[koan]

I would imagine any Sharp based kernel should be fine. I use evilJazz's kernel which I think includes the tetsu patches and some other things like the audio driver that allows to set bass and trebble options in sharp rom.

Thanks. I tried evilJazz's kernel but during it's start up it hangs at a "Kernel panic: Attempted to kill init!" There are several lines on screen similar to "Function entered at [<c00ead00>] from [<c00ecde4>]" plus " r8 = 00000000 r7 = 00000001 r6 = C3E9F560 r5 = C3FB70CC r4 = C3FB7800". What boot parameters do you use, if any ?

I found a Sharp 3200 original ROM file on Tetsu's website but after showing the Sharp logo screen it hangs (no message), not even the line starting "INIT".

[RX Shorty]

Tried the Cacko rom?

Download here

[xamindar]

"Kernel panic: Attempted to kill init!"

This kill init sounds familiar. Pretty sure I had that problem a few times. But I'm sorry, I can not remember what caused it.

I found a Sharp 3200 original ROM file on Tetsu's website but after showing the Sharp logo screen it hangs (no message), not even the line starting "INIT".

Is your internal microdrive partitioned exactly how Sharp had it? If not, the Sharp rom will not boot at all. I modified my internal microdrive so in turn I had to modify a few scripts on the Sharp rom. That included mounting the NAND read/write to I can make permanent changes. I think it was a rofilesys something script in /etc but not for sure. Did you read through the debian eabi thread? It has a very descriptive howto.

[koan]

I booted from a 1 GB SD card using the kernel that worked and this time the SD driver worked. When I compared it to the one I tried from the 8 GB SDHC it was identical. I booted again via the 8 GB card and after waiting for a bit the SD driver seemed to work. I then installed Bucchi's SDHC driver.

The kexec kernel takes a long time to boot because it is probing the NAND partitions for bootable kernels. It would be nice to be able to press a key to skip this bit.

After thinking about it some more, what I'd really like to do is to run the Sharp ROM off SD card and install something like Zubuntu 2 to NAND because that would really benefit from a speed up. I have the Sharp ROM on my 750 so I only need it on my 3200 as a back up.

[koan]

And it's a real shame that the evilJazz kernel doesn't boot as I would like to use his enhanced sound driver. I will try to boot with it from the 1 GB SD.

[gojira]

I booted from a 1 GB SD card using the kernel that worked and this time the SD driver worked. When I compared it to the one I tried from the 8 GB SDHC it was identical. I booted again via the 8 GB card and after waiting for a bit the SD driver seemed to work. I then installed Bucchi's SDHC driver.

which kernel are you using?  I could never get this to work...

The kexec kernel takes a long time to boot because it is probing the NAND partitions for bootable kernels. It would be nice to be able to press a key to skip this bit.

After thinking about it some more, what I'd really like to do is to run the Sharp ROM off SD card and install something like Zubuntu 2 to NAND because that would really benefit from a speed up. I have the Sharp ROM on my 750 so I only need it on my 3200 as a back up.

if you boot straight into debian or unbuntu you can then do a regular kexec to the sharprom kernel -- much faster than waiting for the multiboot kernel nand search

[koan]

which kernel are you using?  I could never get this to work...

I'm not sure, I may have downloaded it while browsing the Debian EABI thread or possibly there was a Sharp kernel included with Andromeda ? I can post it here if you want to try.

In fact, I downloaded a kernel that you made in the Cacko hddfix thread but that did a kernel panic for me.

if you boot straight into debian or unbuntu you can then do a regular kexec to the sharprom kernel -- much faster than waiting for the multiboot kernel nand search

I hadn't considered that. I guess I was too much into the idea of using a multiboot loader. Would regular kexec be able to see the extended partitions on a SD card ? I bought a large SD because I wanted to be able to run Andromeda, Zubuntu, Android, pdaXrom, Cacko, etc all off one card. Unfortunately, using kexec as a multiboot loader, it can only see the primary partitions.

[gojira]

I can post it here if you want to try.

please do

Would regular kexec be able to see the extended partitions on a SD card ?

you load the new kernel into memory from a running system, so it should work with anything you can mount

[koan]

you load the new kernel into memory from a running system, so it should work with anything you can mount

OK, thanks. I think I will investigate running Cacko on SD.

Kernel to boot Sharp ROM attached (compressed with gzip because of the attachments system). gunzip it and rename to zImage.

[koan]

I am trying to bring the Wiki up to date on this subject and also boil down some of the very long threads into a more readable form.

Please check out https://www.oesf.org/index.php?title=Multibooting and add anything if you can.

[xamindar]

I just decided to read up on the zubuntu subject. I had no idea it used a kexec kernel that allowed you to boot anything. I am still just booting into debian and then launching a script to kexec into the sharp rom. I am going to have to give this thing a try and see if I can get this kexec kernel to boot my sharp rom with the eviljazz kernel I have been using. Does anyone know if I need to have a kernel-cmdline file in my boot folder for my sharp rom even though this kernel has the kernel commands compled into it? Guess I'll just try without and add it if I need to.

[xamindar]

Wow, it worked the first try. Was able to use the kexec kernel to boot my sharp kernel into my sharp rom installed on nand. Only thing is it scans the nand partitions which for some reason takes FOREVER. Anyone know of a way to tell it not to sense I don't have any kernels there? I imagine it probably involves compiling a new kernel. Also, the sharp kernel gets stuck on the multipartition SD card and I have to eject it to let the boot process finish. Also can't read that SD card once booted either, I'll have to look into that. Still able to read all my other, normal SD and SDHC cards though so no big loss. Now to install as many roms as possible on the SD card and try them all out!