Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!

Paul,

Here's where I started: http://www.openembedded.org/wiki/OEandYourDistro

From the sounds of it, Ark Linux is "tailor made" for building OE, but the tool chain can be set up in just about any distro.

I didn't get very far, though. I have some spotty RAM in my Linux machine, and that's sort of a show-stopper for building software.

Keep us informed!

--Eddie

Thanks Eddie,

I just got back home after a month or so on the road. I have to get back up to speed so to speak.

Paul

Has any of the above mentioned lx stuff been released on a wiki somewhere?

Paul

Not sure. (I'm assuming you're talking about the source and/or binaries for Psion LX.) If it has, then it hasn't been mentioned here. There has been some talk back and forth of posting the LX source in a more publicly-accessible location, but I'm not aware that it's been done.

Someone else on the forums made a link available to where the sources could be downloaded, but didn't want the link made public (bandwidth restrictions).

Cheers,
Eddie

Thanks, I was recollecting viewing a wiki site with the images that were working and wondered if other info was on the site. For some reason, I couldn't find the reference.

Paul

OK,so I read all the info I found here: http://linuxtogo.org/gowiki/NetbookPro
and I have to say that I have been waiting for this for a long, long time...!

Problem is I do not have a second NB pro to try all this. Is there a way to revert to WinCE in case I have to??? Bcz I can't hold myself until I get my hands on a second NB Pro...

you just need a blank cf card. you can boot from it an leave the internal flash untouched.

step by step guide is in this thread

http://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10543&start=106
(maybe also look at this: http://www.yargybot.com/Familiar/BackupHowto.html)

after mounting them i created some tbz. it's easier than jffs2 mountig to extract it from an archive

i use the gpe image of http://linuxtogo.org/~florian/index.php at the moment.
it works very well!!! and even better (faster) than Psion LX. Psion LX has more apps i think. but its old so i dropped it for the OE distribution. i hope i can use angstrom some time soon. but i didn't figure out how to pack the kernel to a boot image.

Edited by scops 2008-03-05 3:07 AM

Hi guys! I put my NB in to the box for I've been very busy, now I am ready to work with it again. Eddie how is Arch Linux? Did any of you have successfully installed gcc or g++ on NB to natively compile programs, for development? Did you ever use the ipkg with adding the mirror to OpenZaurus 3.4.5.1 for GPE image and (don't know which for LX) they allow you to install programs from repository. Every time I got something installed from there, libraries were installed; my NB stopped working. So basically any luck with cross compiling and installing apps. I hope to start working with OE soon... I will be glad to hear any new cool things you did with the GPE or LX on your NB Pro. Maris

Hello all,

I've been attempting to use oldman's instruction to copy the jffs2 file system to a block device but I keep getting device does not exist error. I cut and pasted so I know I made no mistake and I tried it on two machines with the same result. Any ideas? Does anyone have a tarball of the file system instead of the jffs2 image?

thanks

Paul

Maris,

If you want to set up the OE toolchain, and you don't mind what flavor of Linux you use, then Arch is the way to go. It's not my favorite distro, but it is incredibly easy to get the toolchain set up on it.

I'm still stuck with my flaky RAM modules in my laptop, so can't do any compiling myself. Hasn't occured to me to play around with compiling apps directly on the NB Pro. Hmmmm.... need to look into this.

--Eddie

Hi Eddie, I got Ubuntu now it the same distro I use at work every day. I have tried Arch, did not have patience to set up the X. So... I have used the toolchain that came with my single board computer (Arm920 Samsung 2410) processor to cross compile my own little hello world.c and it worked on Netbook Pro. I am due to start digging OE. I am not quite getting the concept of OE, is it like Win CE platform builder? How do they do distros with it, Psion LX for example. There is no "IDE" as such... well.
If someone could tell me what the easiest thing I can do with OE (apart from cross compiling) to start... What was the first thing you were planning to do Eddie? Thanks

Hi Maris,

I could be a bit off in my descriptions, so anyone with better info -- please correct me! OE is essentially a "meta" linux distribution for embedded applications. Meaning, it has everything it needs to be compiled to a Zaurus platform, an iPaq platform, a NetBook Pro... etc, etc. In that way, the concept is similar to the WinCE platform builder. There are certain configuration files/scripts you tweak to customize for a particular platform. Yeah, the lack of an IDE makes it little more involved, but from what I gathered, it isn't too bad (easy for me to say, since I haven't ever done it). Couldn't really say what the easiest thing to do with it is, though.

For the most part, I was planning on creating a custom distro for my NBP. Just have the apps and utilities that I want on it. After getting a good feel for that, I would probably dabble a bit in creating some custom apps for my own personal use.

Good to hear you got a basic cross-compile to work. That might be a little less intensive on my laptop's RAM... maybe I'll give that a try.

Cheers,
Eddie

As far as the wiki concerns, which has been mentioned a few posts earlier, acid_snoop and I have been working on it, but it has to be approved before it can be released. So please have some more patience.

w_m0zart, thank you for your work.
By the way what is the status with LX sources?
As far as OE concerned I should go here:
http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/unstable/autobuild/netbook-pro/
and here:
http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/unstable/armv5te/machine/netbook-pro/
Get the stuff, integrate it with OE and then build according the Angstrom wiki and OE wiki, right? I really regret that I have not enough knowledge about building GNU/Linux systems, just how to use them... What are your thoughts on building new kernel for NB because 2.6.9 is really old.
I have started new thread: http://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=12230&posts=1&start=1 so we can work towards new kernel on NB Pro.

Is there anyone with a nbkpro.img script just to erase the NAND on the Netbook Pro?
I'm unable to get into BooST superuser mode at the moment, due to lack of supplies at my current location.
I'm trying to revert to WinCE after an apparently broken Angstrom build..
That and I basically did everything wrong. I use the NAND flashing kernel by mistake, which replaced CE, then I figured I'd go ahead and run the full NAND flash setup and load the jffs2 into it... failed on that account.
So now I have a partitioned NAND that the CE image won't load into because the nbkpro.img included with that doesn't reformat/partition the flash.
I really need my netbook running again :/

Thanks,
muriani