Netbook Pro I've found a working linux distro!

Hi,

I'll have a Netbook Pro soon, and I'm even very very interested in running Linux on it.

Just one stupid question: Wouldn't it be easier to try to boot Linux from external memory (CF/USB...) somehow, instead of flashing the ROM's? Is saw such a solution with the Compaq IA-1. Surely it would not be the final solution, but it would be one!

oldman

@oldman:

Possibly. It could even be better in that you'd have a larger amount of storage memory to work with.

I don't know whether that has been done or attempted, though I do recall seeing a few bits about doing just that. The problem is, getting the NBP to boot from the CF.

I think, though, that at some level, the internal memory needs to be flashed -- if for nothing else than to tell the NBP to boot from the CF.

Anyone know if this has been done?

Have not seen anything like this Eddie...

Eddie: if the bootloader already supports this, no need to flash. if it doesnt, then it is a tough case.

Rats. Well, looking into getting some more info out of Psionteklogix. (I know, not bloody likely, but what the hell...)

So far, they claim they have no info on any "in-house" linux version ever being pursued. Same story I got from them when I called a few years ago.

Other questions I've got in the queue with them:

1. Any undocumented "administrative" features/functions... such as telling the NBP to boot from CF.
2. What app/utility did they use to create the .img files for WinCE.

In the past, they've been rather unresponsive, so I'm encouraged by their quick replies so far. Will let you all know what they come back with.

Hi,

I think it must be possible to boot from external memory. With the installation described in http://www.linuxtogo.org/~anonymous/ a linux kernel is started from CF or SD (after reset, Ctrl-D or so), and that kernel runs a script which writes the root file system to the nands. I think instead of doing that, it could already be the final kernel which simply mounts a root file system on SD or CF. There have to be two partitions on the CF or SD card: a FAT partition with a nBkProOS.img to start the kernel, and the linux root partition. I think the nBkProOS.img must have flags 0x10003 instead 0x10013 for not beeing written to the nands (see netbook-booting.txt). In fact, on http://linuxtogo.org/~florian/index.php is a file named "nBkProOs.img_cf" which has 0x10003, and there is a sub-directory named "netbook". Did anyone try these files? As far as i understand http://www.hentges.net/tmp/logs/irc/%23oe/2007/July/20070721_oe.log , a man named Florian had a running linux. I'm still waiting for my Netbook Pro, otherwise I would have tried already.

oldman


Edited by oldman 2007-10-20 10:12 AM

oh your desc sounds like boost will flash the linux kernel.. but not boot it off CF card without flashing - so this doesnt tell us if it is capable of that or not.

Edited by cmonex 2007-10-20 11:04 AM

@cmonex: But what else could the flag bit 16 = 0 be good for? Forget it, read on:

---

I had too much time today. So I inspected the file nBkProOs.img_cf I was talking about. I cut off the first 260 bytes, decompressed it and browsed with a hex viewer. The kernel version is 2.6.9-rc1-bk18-nb1. The initrd contains an exciting sh script commented as "Netbook LX initial ramdisk boot script". Mainly, it does the following things:

1.) Print the kernel version.

2.) Try to mount /dev/hda1 temporarily and look for NBLXLoad.sh. If it's there, execute it. Remember, that script writes the root fs to the nands. I think /dev/hda1 must be the first CF partition.

3.) Try to mount /dev/hda2 (must be the second partition of CF). If that fails, try to mount /dev/mtdblock/0 with -t jffs2 (must be the nand memory). If that even fails, report an error and start a /bin/sh as an "Emergency shell" and exit.

4.) Take the previously mounted file system as the root file system and run /sbin/init in there.

Thus, the script has the option to mount and run a second CF partition as the root fs - similar to what I supposed with my previous post (they must have stolen my idea ;-)

Okay. Maybe one of you wants to do what I will do when I get my Netbook Pro (on your own risk!). For a first try, I would put that nBkProOs.img_cf renamed to nBkProOs.img on a FAT16-formatted CF, without any other files or partitions. Then boot that CF (reset, turn on while holding Ctrl-D, BooSt should appear, insert CF). On success, a kernel version should appear, an error message and the emergency shell. If this really works, it would be so wonderful, because we would have a running kernel!

Then the next try could be to create that second CF partition with a suitable distribution on it. If that even works, the next step could be the installation on nand: change the flags to 0x10013 (adapt header checksum - don't ask me), have a NBLXLoad.sh and so on.

If it all works, and if we do not get more information nor tools, someone should hack out how the nBkProOs.img is made, for being able to insert a newer kernel version and so on.


oldman

ok. HOW did you decompress that image?

Just a quick update on my attempt to get more info from Psionteklogix...

Got a response back that indicated they had the info I was asking for, but they want a customer number/ID from me so they can open a support request ticket.

I didn't purchase my NBP from them (got it from Expansys), so I don't have a customer ID. Does anyone here have one? If so, log on to Teknet website and submit a support ticket requesting the relevant information. Could prove to be fruitful.

In the meantime, I'm still pressing them for the info.

The zlib source package contains an example program called zpipe.

Here are the complete commands for showing the boot script:

wget http://linuxtogo.org/~florian/nBkProOs.img_cf
dd bs=1 skip=260 if=nBkProOs.img_cf of=nBkProOs.img_cf.no-header
zpipe -d < nBkProOs.img_cf.no-header > nBkProOs.img_cf.no-header.decompressed
dd bs=1 skip=9331088 count=2591 if=nBkProOs.img_cf.no-header.decompressed

oh, if you could link to this zpipe, i'd be very grateful. because using zlib functions didnt work.

@oldman:

Per your comments, here's what I tried and what happened--

FAT16 formatted a CF card and put the renamed img file on it.
Put NBP into Boost mode.
Inserted CF.
Looked pretty good at the beginning... looked like it was loading (got the percentages...)
Screen went black for a few seconds.
Something flashed on the screen -- too fast to tell, but looked like a white screen with text or perhaps a full screen image.
Back to a black screen with a few barely-noticeable pixels pulsing in the upper left corner of the screen.

That's it.

Tried a few variations, but they all had the same results. Willing to try any other suggestions, though!

@Eddie: Very sad. And I have no idea what to try next, at the moment.

@cmonex: I installed zpipe this way:
wget http://www.zlib.net/zlib-1.2.3.tar.gz
tar xvfz zlib-1.2.3.tar.gz
cd zlib-1.2.3/examples/
gcc zpipe.c -lz -o zpipe
su
cp zpipe /usr/local/bin

I still find it all very strange. We have two setups ( http://www.linuxtogo.org/~anonymous/ and http://linuxtogo.org/~florian/nBkProOs.img_cf ), and both are not working just a little, though they are looking quite professional and progressive. Someone did a lot of work there, but no sources and no tools can be found. Both images are made with kernel version 2.6.9-rc1-bk18-nb1. On http://www.linuxontour.de/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?forum=24&topic_id=7535 is a screenshot showing exactly that kernel version running. It is said that the problem would be missing knowlege about flashing the nands, but on the other hand it really seems possible to run a linux without any flashing. I read something about a 256KB RAM version of the Netbook Pro. Maybe maybe maybe, the images have been made for that version and are not functioning with 128KB RAM???

The next step of hacking could be to disassemble one of the images for understanding how the kernel is started. Thereby, besides, the 256KB/128KB question could be answered. The kernel source tree contains a good documentation about how to start the kernel on arm CPU's (see linux/Documentation/arm/Setup and linux/include/asm-arm/setup.h). This could be compared against the image code. I already started disassembling a bit, but I would have to study the arm instruction set first. It's very time consuming. And it's so depressive to re-engineer a non-functioning system, because maybe after many hours of work you stand in front of an insurmountable wall, where others already have been long time ago. Nevertheless, maybe I will get the time and craziness for trying it.

But please don't stop trying to get more infos, tools and sources. I think, especially contacting Jon Bradbury ("jonb" in the irc logs) would be very valuable. See:
http://www.expansys.de/ft.aspx?k=95102
http://www.expansys.de/ft.aspx?k=95097
http://www.hentges.net/tmp/logs/irc/%23oe/2007/July/20070721_oe.log
http://ibot.rikers.org/%23oe/20070723.html.gz
http://lists.linuxtogo.org/pipermail/angstrom-distro-devel/2007-October/000780.html