Debian Etch Recovery.img

[mewtwo]

I can't answer all your questions, but let's start with the ones I can ;-).

OK I have few questions
 - what is the GPU on this thing?

Well, it's a SoC, so there is no real GPU with any fancy stuff, ok, it seems to have some 2D acceleration (If the Ingenic website wasn't down now, you could find it out more specific)
If you're looking for a xorg.conf, hm, there is one.

- where is the kernel?  If I want to build a kernel, I don't even know where to store it (I'm used to /vmlinuz)

It gets loaded by U-Boot, if you want to build your own kernel, see Compiling a Kernel

- what is that "rootfs" root filesystem?  I'm used to devices like /dev/sdX or /dev/hdX
It seems to be a yaffs filesystem, can someone confirm?

Yes, yaffs2 to be certain. It's a filesystem for NAND Flash devices without wear leaving - you are accessing the bare silicon.

yaffs: dev is 7940 name is "1f:04"
yaffs: Attempting MTD mount on 31.4, "1f:04"
yaffs: auto selecting yaffs2
block 3802 is bad
block 6033 is bad
block 7235 is bad
root dev name=1f:04
VFS: Mounted root (yaffs filesystem).

 - dmesg shows that there are 5 partitions on the NAND, but I have no idea how to access them.  Anyone has a clue???  The kernel and bootload seem to be in there for exemple, and I was wondering if those partitions were "mountable"

NAND device: Manufacturer ID: 0xec, Chip ID: 0xd3 (Samsung NAND 1GiB 3,3V 8-bit)
NAND_ECC_NONE selected by board driver. This is not recommended !!
Creating 5 MTD partitions on "NAND 1GiB 3,3V 8-bit":
0x00000000-0x00100000 : "bootloader partition"
0x00100000-0x00400000 : "kernel partition"
0x00400000-0x00500000 : "mac partition"
0x00500000-0x00a00000 : "mini rootfs partition"
0x00a00000-0x40000000 : "yaffs2 rootfs partition"
No NAND device found!!!

 - what is the wifi module?  iwconfig says I have only eth0 and lo0.  I looked in /lib/module, but can't find one that adds eth1 when modprobe'd

check lsusb, but usually it's a ZyDAS ZD1211B (there is this ZyDAS Ascii art in dmesg, too)
You can usually turn on the wifi by

Code: [Select]

echo 1 > /proc/jz/iwifithere was some wifiup program in the default OS and 3MX, i don't know if it does some additional mandatory voodoo. I still have the problem with the kernel modules - without installing modutils I can't load modules/connect to the internet, but without modules to mount fat USB or internet I can't install modutils 

- what device is the SD reader supposed to be?  the kernel reports a mmca device and a mmca1 partition when I plug the card in, but I don't see it in /dev

JZ MMC/SD driver registered
...
Partition check:
 mmca:<7>hub.c: port 1, portstatus 100, change 0, 12 Mb/s
hub.c: port 2, portstatus 101, change 1, 12 Mb/s
hub.c: port 2 connection change
hub.c: port 2, portstatus 101, change 1, 12 Mb/s
 mmca1

 - is there a way from the computer to make a backup back to the SD card, or to a NFS drive (and then how could I create the file to put on the SD card again?)

Well, you could use sshfs/scp, but that's a but too much for the little CPU.. slows things down a bit.. (But sshfs/scp is the easiest method as it works everywhere as long as you have an sshd running)
The fastest way is probably taring the root fs on the mipsbook and zipping it on the PC.
As wicknix said before:

They (the Recovery files) are just root file systems compressed as .tar.bz2 and renamed to .img basically.

[LilYoda]

  "make uImage"     OK now I'm gonna have to try this... 

I see in the xorg.conf they're using the framebuffer as the display device, so I'll give it a shot.

I see you got stuck without network.  You won't be able to use dhclient until you connect to the network
That means you need to connect at first with a static IP and a wired ethernet cable.
This is my /etc/network/interfaces and /etc/resolv.conf that I used to connect with static IP first

/etc/network/interfaces

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auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.13.20
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.13.0
broadcast 192.168.13.255
gateway 192.168.13.254

auto eth0
You need to update the file with your IP range, IP address, default gateway, etc...

/etc/resolv.conf

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domain home.com
nameserver 192.168.13.21
Change with the IP address of your DNS server

You should have access to the net now

Then run the following in the console

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apt-get update
apt-get remove module-init-tools
apt-get install modutils
EDIT: the system might whine that some of the keys are too old, etc...  if that's the case, throw in a couple of "apt-get upgrade" in there, to get up to date packages (including the keyring package causing apt to whine about invalid keys)

Once all upadted, and the module .deb switch is done,  revert your /etc/network/interfaces to

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auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

iface eth0 inet dhcp
auto eth0
And it seems you need to reboot after you plug the cable to get an IP (haven't found out why yet...)

[mewtwo]

ah, thx, if static ip works things look better.
If you want to go for the 2.6 Kernel, you should check out this, but beware, this might not be fixed yet.

[Unhban]

Thanks LilYoda, that's a nice little guide to getting started.....

Unh.

[LilYoda]

Looks like I'm going to have to add

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modprobe zd1211b
echo 1 > /proc/jz/iwifi
to /etc/rc.local if I want wifi at boot time.  Does anyone know if that drains the battery significantly even when not associated with an AP?

[mewtwo]

Well, I don't know how much power it consumes, but the wifi gets quiet warm when in use.
However, after sorting out the module and dhcp problem I installed xserver-xorg-video-fbdev and all dependencies and used the xorg.conf from Epc700 wiki - but when I startx, I get

(EE) open /dev/fb0: No such file or directory
(EE) No devices detected.

[duttydea]

I was wondering if some one could post a link to a basic Etch version with a windows maker like jwm or fluxbox etc..

I have tried to get Ethernet working but it wont work!! (i know i'm doing something wrong, i have been trying to piece together instruction from post in this thread) My Linux knowledge sucks!!

I would really appreciate it!!

cheers

[mewtwo]

for wifi I also needed to use the wifiup tool from the default os - so the script to enable wifi would be

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echo 1 > /proc/jz/iwifi
modprobe zd1211b
wifiup eth1

But still no X here.
Oh, and how to use the realtime clock (/proc/jz/rtc) for the system clock? Right now it starts at 0:0 1.1.1970 after every reboot

[LilYoda]

I added ntp to have a correct clock  

And even though I have WiFi up,  I can't associate to my AP with a WPA authentication :'(  I'm suspecting my module or card don't support WPA very well.  And to try new modules like zd1211rw, I need to move to a 2.6 kernel first, it seems...

I was wondering if some one could post a link to a basic Etch version with a windows maker like jwm or fluxbox etc..

If one day I ever get it working, I plan to do this, yeah 

[utd_grant]

Oh, and how to use the realtime clock (/proc/jz/rtc) for the system clock? Right now it starts at 0:0 1.1.1970 after every reboot

Epoch fail !   

[Unhban]

Chuckle! Well talking of clocks and dates and stuff, I have the following problem in 3MX 3.1 so does this mean there's some sort of weird fault generally?  (read the end of the initial post)

http://linuxlaptopforum.ark2webdesign.co.uk/index.php/topic,536.msg3581.html#msg3581

Or perhaps it's just that these machines were initially designed by Dr.Emmett Brown whilst on his travels? 

Unh.

[mewtwo]

hm, seems like the Debian wpa_supplicant doesn't support -D zydas so I have to use the one from the default os.
For usb hotplug: I did load the usb-storage module, there is some information in dmesg after loading this module, but the devices don't get a dev entry - that's what udev does. But according to wikipedia, udev didn't appear before 2.6.18, so the 2.4.20 etch would still use devfs - but I can't find this in the repositories. So should I try udev, or does that need kernel support? What is the default OS using?

[LilYoda]

udev won't install (tried it)
Which is one of the reasons I'm trying to get a 2.6 kernel on this beast...

[mewtwo]

MAKEDEV works:

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modprobe usb-storage #I guess this should go to /etc/modules
#Plug in USB stick
cd /dev
./MAKEDEV sda
mount sda /mnt
Tada. Your thumbdrive is now mounted to /mnt
Still have to figure out how to mount the sd card.

[LilYoda]

  awesome!!!

Now why isn't hotplug doing that, I don't know (it should be, I think hotplug was the system before udev)