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Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!

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stolk Page Icon Posted 2007-11-11 7:09 AM
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Dear Acid,

You may be right about the less stable nature of CF cards. Otherwise it is difficult to explain the changing patterns while booting the same CF with the same files.

My major problem is probably lack of linux knowledge, I do not manage to " load/copy" the jffs2 file properly on the second partition. Using knoppix I follow old man's instructions, but somehow it doesn't find and/or copy the file system to the second CF partition.
That is probably my situation and therefor the reason why the SOHO image kind of works. In stead of starting with a JFFS2 file the SOFO image is a compressed file that can be 'easily' unpacked to the CF card.

Why do other builds have the JFFS2 format ? Probably need to acquire some more basic Linux skills.... Can't we publish an unpacked jffs2 file system on the wiki?

There may also be phisical diferences between the the various MBPros. With or without internal modem, with or without docking station connector etc...
I notice diferent behaviour of our machines. For instance when I clean the internal RAM with the special image files, it won't boot from CF card anymore afterwards. Understand that others did not experience this.

Still quite convinced we will achieve some good progress together. Although do not have much time and travel a lot, intend to contribute as much as possible.

grt

leo

Edited by stolk 2007-11-11 7:58 AM
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Intrepid-Eddie Page Icon Posted 2007-11-11 11:51 AM
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I think I may have figured out why my attempt to boot LX did not work. I un-tarred the rootfs file to my laptop so I could delete various files so I could get the size small enough to fit on my CF. Well, when the time came to put the files on the CF, I just used a 'cp -r' command. Probably didn't preserve all the correct file permissions/settings/etc.

Going to try again later today...
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salmonito Page Icon Posted 2007-11-11 1:17 PM
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Intrepid-Eddie - 2007-11-11 11:51 AM

I think I may have figured out why my attempt to boot LX did not work. I un-tarred the rootfs file to my laptop so I could delete various files so I could get the size small enough to fit on my CF. Well, when the time came to put the files on the CF, I just used a 'cp -r' command. Probably didn't preserve all the correct file permissions/settings/etc.

Going to try again later today...

Eddie, I always changed permission and the owner on the content of soho-image... maybe that's why I had problems?.... Good guess I hope
Acid Snoop thanks for the last Rapidshare upload, how about a pass?

Edited by salmonito 2007-11-11 1:17 PM
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stolk Page Icon Posted 2007-11-11 3:14 PM
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Hi

Couple of hours further. Now able to monitor via serial cable.
Also found this usefull script to "mount a JFFS2" file system at: http://maemo.org/community/wiki/ModifyingRootImage

It seems useful, now managed to have the 14 Mb gpe-image unpacked on second (ext2) partition of the cf card.
Nevertheless loading the gpe failed: see what happened:

-----------------------------------------------
Load RAM image info: size = 3659808
NETBOOKPRO Linux26
K123m
Loading 50% complete...
Loading 100% complete...
Resetting to RAM module.
Command> 
netBookPro boot menu
--------------------
1) Run main OS
!) Clean start main OS
2) Begin YMODEM load
3) Show configuration
4) Audio test
5) Display test
6) Touch test
7) RAM test
8) NAND ECC
F) Erase flash file system

Command> Power state is now Run (8)

starting power monitor

IP: routing cache hash table of 1024 buckets, 8Kbytes

TCP: Hash tables configured (established 8192 bind 16384)

NET: Registered protocol family 1

NET: Registered protocol family 17

Epson S1D13XXX FB Driver, (c) 2004 Simtec Electronics

s1d138xx: s1d13806: revision 0

s1dfb-nbp: s1d13806: initialsing netbookpro settings

Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 100x37

fb0: s1d13xxx framebuffer device

RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0

RAMDISK: Loading 8192KiB [1 disk] into ram disk... <7>nbp-battmon: nbp_battmon_setstate: returned 0

nbp-battmon: Battery monitor ready

|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|<6>nbp-battmon: system restarted

/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\done.

VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).

Freeing init memory: 72K

/linuxrc: 78: cut: not found
FATAL: Module i2c not found.
FATAL: Module i2ckbd not found.
cardmgr[673]: watching 2 sockets
cardmgr[673]: socket 0: ATA/IDE Fixed Disk

hda: CF Card, CFA DISK drive

ide0 at 0xc8820000-0xc8820007,0xc882000e on irq 94

hda: max request size: 128KiB

hda: 2006928 sectors (1027 MB) w/1KiB Cache, CHS=1991/16/63

hda: hda1 hda2

ide-cs: hda: Vcc = 3.3, Vpp = 0.0

cardmgr[673]: unsupported card in socket 1

cardmgr[673]: exiting

hda: hda1 hda2

hda: hda1 hda2

hda: hda1 hda2

hda: hda1 hda2

kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds

EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.

Pivoting filesystem
/linuxrc: 124: [: not found
/linuxrc: 124: cannot open dev/console: No suchKernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!


Does anybody understand where it goes wrong? CF card seems unsupoprted???
Somehow happy that I start understanding Linux better.
Other side of the coin is that it still doesn't work/load.

grt

leo
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Intrepid-Eddie Page Icon Posted 2007-11-11 11:04 PM
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salmonito - 2007-11-11 12:17 PM
Eddie, I always changed permission and the owner on the content of soho-image... maybe that's why I had problems?.... Good guess I hope
Acid Snoop thanks for the last Rapidshare upload, how about a pass?


Maris, I got LX loaded (minus a few large apps...). For me, the problem was definitely the way I copied the files over to the CF. Here's what I did that worked:

1. untarred the LX rootfs on my laptop and whittled away some larger apps so I could fit it all on a 128MB CF.
2. partitioned and formatted a 128MB CF -- 39MB FAT16 for partition 1, 89MB ext2 for partition 2
3. copied nBkProOs.img to partition 1
4. used tar to copy the rootfs files to partition 2:
tar cf - * | ( cd /target; tar xfp -)
5. put the NBP into BooSt mode, inserted the CF, and viola!

It does take a few minutes to boot into the system, so be patient (especially if you can't monitor what's going on via serial link).

Initial thoughts.... clean interface somewhat reminiscent of the old netbook psion epoch OS. To be honest, I don't really care for it. I much prefer the e17 interface I saw in a few tantalizing screenshots (I think Koen got it working).

It did recognize my Linksys WiFi PCMCIA card and connected to the network. Couldn't do much as I had to delete Firefox to fit the rootfs on the CF.

I will personally be much happier with a newer build. Especially once I get a microdrive....

--Eddie
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Intrepid-Eddie Page Icon Posted 2007-11-11 11:18 PM
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stolk - 2007-11-11 2:14 PM
...
Does anybody understand where it goes wrong? CF card seems unsupoprted???
Somehow happy that I start understanding Linux better.
Other side of the coin is that it still doesn't work/load.

grt

leo


Leo, try this (if you haven't already):

1. Format your CF with only one partition and make it FAT16.
2. Put all of these files on the CF:
NBLXLoad.sh -- you'll have to create this file yourself as the link no longer works (the script is about in the middle of this page: http://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&st... )
nBkPro.img -- file is here: http://www.linuxtogo.org/~anonymous/nBkPro.img
nBkProOs.img_cf (rename to nBkProOs.img) -- file is here: http://linuxtogo.org/~florian/nBkProOs.img_cf
gpe-image.jffs2 (do NOT unpack this file) -- file is here: http://www.linuxtogo.org/~anonymous/gpe-image.jffs2
3. Enter BooSt mode on the NetBook Pro, insert the CF, and good luck!

The reason I'm giving these instructions is because this distro seems to be the one people have had the best luck getting to boot without much difficulty.

Let us know how it goes!


--Eddie

Edited by Intrepid-Eddie 2007-11-11 11:19 PM
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sonic1200 Page Icon Posted 2007-11-12 7:52 AM
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Hello,

I do the procedure to install linux into the NBP. I have downloaded all files into my CF card (a 64mb card) and when I insert it into the NBP, the process start but the screen stay blank with some blinking colored pixel at the upper left corner of the screen and nothing else! I have waiting about 30minutes but it seems to be nothing. What's wrong? Another question, can I use an SD card to do the installation. It appears to work when I insert the SD card with theses files but I have the same problem (blank screen with colored pixel !)

Thank you.

Nicolas.


Quote

1. Format your CF with only one partition and make it FAT16.
2. Put all of these files on the CF:
NBLXLoad.sh -- you'll have to create this file yourself as the link no longer works (the script is about in the middle of this page: http://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&st... )
nBkPro.img -- file is here: http://www.linuxtogo.org/~anonymous/nBkPro.img
nBkProOs.img_cf (rename to nBkProOs.img) -- file is here: http://linuxtogo.org/~florian/nBkProOs.img_cf
gpe-image.jffs2 (do NOT unpack this file) -- file is here: http://www.linuxtogo.org/~anonymous/gpe-image.jffs2
3. Enter BooSt mode on the NetBook Pro, insert the CF, and good luck!
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salmonito Page Icon Posted 2007-11-12 8:51 AM
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Intrepid-Eddie - 2007-11-11 11:04 PM

Quote
salmonito - 2007-11-11 12:17 PM
Eddie, I always changed permission and the owner on the content of soho-image... maybe that's why I had problems?.... Good guess I hope
Acid Snoop thanks for the last Rapidshare upload, how about a pass?


Maris, I got LX loaded (minus a few large apps...). For me, the problem was definitely the way I copied the files over to the CF. Here's what I did that worked:

1. untarred the LX rootfs on my laptop and whittled away some larger apps so I could fit it all on a 128MB CF.
2. partitioned and formatted a 128MB CF -- 39MB FAT16 for partition 1, 89MB ext2 for partition 2
3. copied nBkProOs.img to partition 1
4. used tar to copy the rootfs files to partition 2:
tar cf - * | ( cd /target; tar xfp -)
5. put the NBP into BooSt mode, inserted the CF, and viola!

It does take a few minutes to boot into the system, so be patient (especially if you can't monitor what's going on via serial link).

Initial thoughts.... clean interface somewhat reminiscent of the old netbook psion epoch OS. To be honest, I don't really care for it. I much prefer the e17 interface I saw in a few tantalizing screenshots (I think Koen got it working).

It did recognize my Linksys WiFi PCMCIA card and connected to the network. Couldn't do much as I had to delete Firefox to fit the rootfs on the CF.

I will personally be much happier with a newer build. Especially once I get a microdrive....

--Eddie

Eddie I had it running yesterday, the trick was to sudo tar right inside the CF card. Before I did it in Windows. And it loaded and was beautiful. Later I loaded development packages from OpenZaurus feed 3.5.4.1 and the thing stopped working and booting ipkg install gcc, gcc-symlinks, binutils-symlink, make... I guess I have replaced some libraries. ipkg is pretty cool. I am looking for microdrive as well. The CPU scaling soft would be great too. I dont know how fas mine runs. On CE there was an app and I used my PRO with 600 Mhz when needed.
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jmsauvage Page Icon Posted 2007-11-12 12:21 PM
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Hello,

thanks for all your advices.

I tried with a SD card. The image boots but the screen remain black with a red and white blink on the top left corner

Do you have any tool to make a correct header of a BooSt image from a compiled kernel?

Jean-Michel
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stolk Page Icon Posted 2007-11-12 2:32 PM
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Leo, try this (if you haven't already):

1. Format your CF with only one partition and make it FAT16.
2. Put all of these files on the CF:
NBLXLoad.sh -- you'll have to create this file yourself as the link no longer works (the script is about in the middle of this page: http://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&st... )
nBkPro.img -- file is here: http://www.linuxtogo.org/~anonymous/nBkPro.img
nBkProOs.img_cf (rename to nBkProOs.img) -- file is here: http://linuxtogo.org/~florian/nBkProOs.img_cf
gpe-image.jffs2 (do NOT unpack this file) -- file is here: http://www.linuxtogo.org/~anonymous/gpe-image.jffs2
3. Enter BooSt mode on the NetBook Pro, insert the CF, and good luck!

The reason I'm giving these instructions is because this distro seems to be the one people have had the best luck getting to boot without much difficulty.

Let us know how it goes!
--Eddie


Well it didn't work, all kind of dev/hda/ errors. further on it took me quite some time to get the memory back (with old man NAND cleaner) and reload WinCE 4.2

bit demotivated now...

leo

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Maris
Maris Page Icon Posted 2007-11-12 4:07 PM
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stolk - 2007-11-12 2:32 PM

Quote
Leo, try this (if you haven't already):

1. Format your CF with only one partition and make it FAT16.
2. Put all of these files on the CF:
NBLXLoad.sh -- you'll have to create this file yourself as the link no longer works (the script is about in the middle of this page: http://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&st... )
nBkPro.img -- file is here: http://www.linuxtogo.org/~anonymous/nBkPro.img
nBkProOs.img_cf (rename to nBkProOs.img) -- file is here: http://linuxtogo.org/~florian/nBkProOs.img_cf
gpe-image.jffs2 (do NOT unpack this file) -- file is here: http://www.linuxtogo.org/~anonymous/gpe-image.jffs2
3. Enter BooSt mode on the NetBook Pro, insert the CF, and good luck!

The reason I'm giving these instructions is because this distro seems to be the one people have had the best luck getting to boot without much difficulty.

Let us know how it goes!
--Eddie


Well it didn't work, all kind of dev/hda/ errors. further on it took me quite some time to get the memory back (with old man NAND cleaner) and reload WinCE 4.2

bit demotivated now...

leo


Don't despair, keep trying, it is worth it, the Psion LX .... . Try nBkProOs.img from other sources listed in this forum for example"linuxtogo.org/ ~anonymous" on the 1st page. That setup worked for me.
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oldman Page Icon Posted 2007-11-13 3:41 AM
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Puh... folks.. ok, once again:

The nBkProOS.img(_cf) from florian and the one from the LX package are made for
flash-less usage with Linux in an ext2 file system in 2nd CF partition. This must not be
put together with the files NBLXLoad.sh, nBkPro.img and *.jffs2.

Only the nBkProOS.img from http://www.linuxtogo.org/~anonymous/ is made for flashing,
because it has the header flag bit 4 set, which means "Copy to OS partition" (= copy
to Flash ROM). And only this one should be used with the files NBLXLoad.sh, nBkPro.img
and a *.jffs2.

It is possible to "unpack" a jffs2 into an ext2 (see one of my earlier postings).

Kernel and initrd always come from the nBkProOS.img, not from jffs2 or ext2.

---

@Acid Snoop: Could you explain what things are in the password-protected area
of http://rapidshare.com/users/DTJKMP ? Does it contain additional sources for the kernel
and the bootstrap program? Are there any tools for making images? And are there any
technical descriptions for the NBP hardware?
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Intrepid-Eddie Page Icon Posted 2007-11-13 9:00 AM
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oldman - 2007-11-13 2:41 AM
...
The nBkProOS.img(_cf) from florian and the one from the LX package are made for
flash-less usage with Linux in an ext2 file system in 2nd CF partition. This must not be
put together with the files NBLXLoad.sh, nBkPro.img and *.jffs2.

Only the nBkProOS.img from http://www.linuxtogo.org/~anonymous/ is made for flashing,
because it has the header flag bit 4 set, which means "Copy to OS partition" (= copy
to Flash ROM). And only this one should be used with the files NBLXLoad.sh, nBkPro.img
and a *.jffs2.
...


Hmmm... now that's interesting. If I use the Florian nBkProOs.img and the other three files from ~anonymous (as described in my post), I get a better flash and boot (much, much fewer errors and don't get the WARNING text) than if I use the nBkProOs.img from ~anonymous.

You've really piqued my interest with this... going to have to play around with various combinations of the three OS images.
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Acid Snoop
Acid Snoop Page Icon Posted 2007-11-13 9:46 AM
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oldman - 2007-11-12 11:41 PM
@Acid Snoop: Could you explain what things are in the password-protected area
of http://rapidshare.com/users/DTJKMP ? Does it contain additional sources for the kernel
and the bootstrap program? Are there any tools for making images? And are there any
technical descriptions for the NBP hardware?


First of all sorry, there was so much stuff to do the last days. First so your question oldman...

The files inside the password protected folder contains all the sources needed to build the whole PsionLX OS from scratch. It contains (as far as i've seen) the whole sourcecode the PsionLX is made of.

So but there's a little problem after all, since Psion never released the PsionLX to public domain. I would suggest to create an non-disclosure-agreement or an confidential-disclosure-agreement for all the people want to have the sources.
(Because the files inside although containing informations about the developer)

I think in doing so we all will be on the safe side so that no one of us will get in trouble.
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sonic1200 Page Icon Posted 2007-11-13 11:55 AM
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I use the file nBkProOs.img from linuxtogo.org/ ~anonymous . It seems to be working better but after waiting about 2 hours, the screen stay despitely black and nothing appears on the screen (I don't have a serial cable to monitor the install yet).

Thank you.

Nicolas.
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