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Debian on the n900 / Configuring NOLO

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cwebber at dustycloud

Nov 25, 2009, 8:10 PM

Post #1 of 9 (1758 views)
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Debian on the n900 / Configuring NOLO

Hello all,

I'm interested in exploring installing Debian on the n900. I assume
that for the most part, if I loosely follow these instructions:
http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/arm/apds03.html.en

... that it may be possible to do so.

However, I realize I need to configure the bootloader to load off the SD
card. This is proving a bit hard to do, however, as I cannot find any
documentation on configuring the NOLO bootloader. So even if I install
the system, I don't know how to get it to boot! :)

Advice on this is appreciated. (Any other advice to heed while
exploring this I am receptive to hearing as well...)

Thanks,
- cwebb
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kimmo.hamalainen at nokia

Nov 25, 2009, 11:16 PM

Post #2 of 9 (1720 views)
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Re: Debian on the n900 / Configuring NOLO [In reply to]

On Thu, 2009-11-26 at 05:10 +0100, ext Christopher Allan Webber wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I'm interested in exploring installing Debian on the n900. I assume
> that for the most part, if I loosely follow these instructions:
> http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/arm/apds03.html.en
>
> ... that it may be possible to do so.
>
> However, I realize I need to configure the bootloader to load off the SD
> card. This is proving a bit hard to do, however, as I cannot find any
> documentation on configuring the NOLO bootloader. So even if I install
> the system, I don't know how to get it to boot! :)
>
> Advice on this is appreciated. (Any other advice to heed while
> exploring this I am receptive to hearing as well...)

Did you try giving it as the kernel command line:
./flasher -broot=/dev/mmcblk1

Didn't work for me, though. It seems the kernel module needed for the
memory cards is not loaded yet.

-Kimmo

>
> Thanks,
> - cwebb
> _______________________________________________
> maemo-developers mailing list
> maemo-developers [at] maemo
> https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-developers

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trippin1 at gmail

Nov 25, 2009, 11:21 PM

Post #3 of 9 (1718 views)
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Re: Debian on the n900 / Configuring NOLO [In reply to]

On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 4:10 AM, Christopher Allan Webber
<cwebber [at] dustycloud> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
Hiya,

> However, I realize I need to configure the bootloader to load off the SD
> card. This is proving a bit hard to do, however, as I cannot find any
> documentation on configuring the NOLO bootloader. So even if I install
> the system, I don't know how to get it to boot! :)
>
> Advice on this is appreciated. (Any other advice to heed while
> exploring this I am receptive to hearing as well...)
>

Thanks to Carsten Munk, bootmenu gained N900 support:
http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=344412&postcount=16
> Thanks,
> - cwebb
> _______

Best Regards,
Faheem
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>
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dufkaf at seznam

Nov 26, 2009, 12:31 AM

Post #4 of 9 (1731 views)
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Re: Debian on the n900 / Configuring NOLO [In reply to]

Kimmo Hämäläinen wrote:
> On Thu, 2009-11-26 at 05:10 +0100, ext Christopher Allan Webber wrote:
>> However, I realize I need to configure the bootloader to load off the SD
>> card. This is proving a bit hard to do, however, as I cannot find any
>> documentation on configuring the NOLO bootloader. So even if I install
>> the system, I don't know how to get it to boot! :)

This was not possible (or documented if possible) on previous devices.
It would be great to have bootloder configurable. But anyway, it is
quite unlikely there is mmc and ext2 support inside NOLO.

Workaround was changing root early in boot sequence. For previous
devices it was like this even for stock system - initfs (/dev/mtd3) is
set as root in kernel command line and it does some initialization and
then does pivot_root into real root (/dev/mtd4). bootmenu was the
solution. See https://wiki.maemo.org/Booting_from_a_flash_card

With N900 initfs is not used (even if currently present on device !?)
and root is hardcoded in kernel command line. Initial bootmenu changes
for N900 is there but I am still not sure whant option is the best when
there is no initfs.

The current easy way is to change /sbin/preinit in rootfs in flash but
it is not optimal.

I am thinking about some way to modify kernel command line in currently
flashed kernel on the fly and possibly also attaching small initramfs
filesystem to it. Any tips regarding this would be helpful. I guess
unzipping, changing commandline and re-gzipping and reflashing kernel is
doable but I am not sure if initramfs can be attached to kernel or it
needs to be loaded by bootloader separately.

>>
>> Advice on this is appreciated. (Any other advice to heed while
>> exploring this I am receptive to hearing as well...)
>
> Did you try giving it as the kernel command line:
> ./flasher -broot=/dev/mmcblk1

Is this commandline stored somewhere in config partition for N900? It
would be great to have it there. Sounds like good enhancement request
for bugzilla :-)

So far the -b option was only one time option when you have usb cable
with flasher attached so it is not usable for changing boot sequence
permanently.

> Didn't work for me, though. It seems the kernel module needed for the
> memory cards is not loaded yet.

True. mmc interface is compiled as module now. I wonder why (when
considering that we have one mmc card hardwired inside).

Frantisek
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cwebber at dustycloud

Nov 30, 2009, 8:21 PM

Post #5 of 9 (1633 views)
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Re: Debian on the n900 / Configuring NOLO [In reply to]

Faheem Pervez <trippin1 [at] gmail> writes:

> Thanks to Carsten Munk, bootmenu gained N900 support:
> http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=344412&postcount=16

Thanks for this information, and actually all of the information in this
thread.

It is good to hear that bootmenu is working on the n900, but IMO this is
just a workaround for the root of the problem: the NOLO bootloader
clearly sucks, is non-free, and is just plain unconfigurable (or if it
is configurable, there seems to be non documentation on that). Is there
any chance that something both free and configurable like U-Boot might
be ported to the N900 anytime soon?

Thx,
- cwebb
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cvm at cs

Dec 1, 2009, 12:13 AM

Post #6 of 9 (1630 views)
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Re: Debian on the n900 / Configuring NOLO [In reply to]

Quoting Christopher Allan Webber <cwebber [at] dustycloud>:
> It is good to hear that bootmenu is working on the n900, but IMO this is
> just a workaround for the root of the problem: the NOLO bootloader
> clearly sucks, is non-free, and is just plain unconfigurable (or if it
> is configurable, there seems to be non documentation on that). Is there
> any chance that something both free and configurable like U-Boot might
> be ported to the N900 anytime soon?
>
> Thx,
> - cwebb
NOLO's purpose is simple - set up an environment to execute a zImage
from the NAND area or load a zImage from USB. Or allow for flashing
the NAND/eMMC through USB. In this case, noone says you cannot include
a bootmenu in that zImage that selects a new root. Even though it
might be non-free, it does do its job quite well. Works for me,
personally.

I doubt u-boot will be ported due to the lack of JTAG and that it's a
bit of risky business in terms of bricking your device trying to port
it. :)

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dufkaf at seznam

Dec 1, 2009, 1:04 AM

Post #7 of 9 (1632 views)
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Re: Debian on the n900 / Configuring NOLO [In reply to]

Carsten Valdemar Munk wrote:
> . Or allow for flashing
> the NAND/eMMC through USB.

Oh, right, if it can flash eMMC then the mmc code is in, so loading
kernel from mmc is one NOLO bugzilla enhancement away ;-)

> In this case, noone says you cannot include
> a bootmenu in that zImage that selects a new root.

Since I posted previous mail I have checked this and it looks like
attaching some sort of initrd/initramfs is not available for arm
architecture. It is very platform and bootloader dependent.
https://linuxlink.timesys.com/forum/1021
http://www.denx.de/wiki/view/DULG/CombiningKernelAndRamdisk

Also It is nontrivial to unzip kernel, modify command line and zip it
again. It is implement at linker level
piggy.S:
-----
.section .piggydata,#alloc

.globl input_data

input_data:

.incbin "arch/arm/boot/compressed/piggy.gz"

.globl input_data_end

input_data_end:

-----

The input_data_end label is used in decompressor code
(size=input_data_end-input_data) and whole image is zipped so different
text yields different length.

For out tablets it is still of course doable to modify decompressor code
directly and change the size there. It is not very clean, though.

Again, having kernel commandline stored inside config partition and NOLO
using it instead of builtin command line would be ideal situation.

> I doubt u-boot will be ported due to the lack of JTAG and that it's a
> bit of risky business in terms of bricking your device trying to port
> it. :)

It should be possible to modify any current free bootloader to appear as
zImage becoming 3rd stage bootloader. zImage is run with basic hardware
already initialized and MMU still off so any bootloader code should be
happy with this.

Also there is this old LAB idea
http://handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/HpIpaqH2200LAB

Also kexec is another option.

So basically we either need free bootloader that can show on-screen menu
and load kernel etc. or use linux kernel and userspace code to do this
(kexec, pivot_root).

Frantisek
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dufkaf at seznam

Dec 1, 2009, 1:38 AM

Post #8 of 9 (1631 views)
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Re: Debian on the n900 / Configuring NOLO [In reply to]

Frantisek Dufka wrote:
> Oh, right, if it can flash eMMC then the mmc code is in, so loading
> kernel from mmc is one NOLO bugzilla enhancement away ;-)

> Again, having kernel commandline stored inside config partition and NOLO
> using it instead of builtin command line would be ideal situation.
>

FWIW I have created bug for this
https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6468
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cwebber at dustycloud

Dec 1, 2009, 5:52 AM

Post #9 of 9 (1626 views)
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Re: Debian on the n900 / Configuring NOLO [In reply to]

Great! Thank you Frantisek!

Frantisek Dufka <dufkaf [at] seznam> writes:

> Frantisek Dufka wrote:
>> Oh, right, if it can flash eMMC then the mmc code is in, so loading
>> kernel from mmc is one NOLO bugzilla enhancement away ;-)
>
>> Again, having kernel commandline stored inside config partition and NOLO
>> using it instead of builtin command line would be ideal situation.
>>
>
> FWIW I have created bug for this
> https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6468
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