Native (non qemu) install for Hasty-armv5el (and eventually debian)

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1

So I finally got the debian-installer image to load (part way) on the
beagleboard.

But I'm running into what i hope is just a trivial problem of failing
to include the omapfb modules into the image. (Basically the omapfb
fails to load, and will restart continuously.) Since I won't be able
to hack on this tonight, I thought i'd let the community enjoy it a
day or two early.

.config i used for building:
http://rcn-ee.homeip.net:81/dl/beagle/oer2/di-defconfig

Notes are here: (ALPHA-TEST Debian Installer Native (hasty-armv5el ->
dist-upgrade (hasty-armv6el/etc)) ALPHA-TEST)
http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardHandheldsMojo

PS, The build box is also working on Koen's latest uImage, which may
solve the problem, it'll be uploaded here when done:
http://www.rcn-ee.com/deb/debian-installer/

Regards

2

talk about strange switch to console F2/F3 and type mount -a..

3

laughs, keyboard in console F1 controls frame buffer in F2/F3 when you
do this... :wink:

4

This fails at "No partitionable media" the mmc card is mounted, it
just doesn't detect /dev/mmcblk0 as a valid partition.

5

Are you expecting to be able to use the ncurses installer over serial
console to install debian?

I have had problems using qemu, it is so slow that it takes many
hours, and eventually crashes before the install completes.

I tried these instructions:
http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardHandheldsMojo

I end up booting the system, but I get lots of errors like:
uncorrectable error : <3>end_request: I/O error, dev mtdblock0, sector 0

Eventually the system resets and never boots.

I appreciate any support

Sean

6

Are you expecting to be able to use the ncurses installer over serial
console to install debian?

Nope, I'm not.... Only LCD/DVI+USB(keyboard/mouse/ethernet) setups,
serial will only show boot/debug/dmesg... :wink:

I have had problems using qemu, it is so slow that it takes many
hours, and eventually crashes before the install completes.

What version? What distro? What arch?

In most cases other then ubuntu 8.10 i've had the best luck
recompiling qemu from svn trunk.. (8.10's default version actually
seems to work, 8.04's (x64/386) failed, debian lenny's failed (haven't
tested updated version that hit the repo's last week)) Otherwise one
of my main goals with the both the debian and mojo ports is to move
away from qemu.. It was a great first step, but now that other things
are working upstream, it's time to move on.. (Plus it installs way
faster! :wink: Well until it couldn't find the /dev/mmcblk partitions...
should have that fixed sometime this week.)

I tried these instructions:
http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardHandheldsMojo

I end up booting the system, but I get lots of errors like:
uncorrectable error : <3>end_request: I/O error, dev mtdblock0, sector 0

Normal, those are the nand blocks, debian/mojo doesn't know what to do
with them. (Could add an fstab entry to ignore them)

The other issue, it takes 3-4 reboots for extfsck to 'fix' the ext3
partition. This is other reason my goal is to get away from qemu
since the date does not get correctly passed to the install, so as you
create the disk the time stamp of each file is messed up. Next on
first boot with real hardware, the beagleboard does not have the
correct time, see's the ext3 with another odd time and thinks the disk
is corrupt. After 3-4 reboots the ext3 partition should be 'fixed',
just make sure your bootargs in uboot had the 'ro' option, so that
debian/mojo will fix the partition. (angstrom needs 'rw' i believe)..

BTW, This is really hard/impossible to debug, unless you have the
LCD/DVI plugged in, I've seen people just sit and wait for a serial
response they will never get, only to turn on the lcd to see a login
prompt waiting the whole time...

Eventually the system resets and never boots.

Reset halts beagle board. That's a known bug(for me, first saw it in
august), I've never looked on the wiki for it, but i've seen the issue
on my original B4 board, along with the two B5's i have now. Just
remove power and reapply.

7

Are you expecting to be able to use the ncurses installer over serial
console to install debian?

Nope, I'm not.... Only LCD/DVI+USB(keyboard/mouse/ethernet) setups,
serial will only show boot/debug/dmesg... :wink:

Ok, unfortunately I don't have a working monitor at the moment. I'm
getting an LCD soon.

I have had problems using qemu, it is so slow that it takes many
hours, and eventually crashes before the install completes.

What version? What distro? What arch?

ubuntu x86, not sure what version.

In most cases other then ubuntu 8.10 i've had the best luck
recompiling qemu from svn trunk.. (8.10's default version actually
seems to work, 8.04's (x64/386) failed, debian lenny's failed (haven't
tested updated version that hit the repo's last week)) Otherwise one
of my main goals with the both the debian and mojo ports is to move
away from qemu.. It was a great first step, but now that other things
are working upstream, it's time to move on.. (Plus it installs way
faster! :wink: Well until it couldn't find the /dev/mmcblk partitions...
should have that fixed sometime this week.)

I will try compiling qemu from svn.

I was going to look through the installer scripts to make it aware of
/dev/mmcblk. Otherwise, maybe you can use a symlink to something it
can detect, but I haven't gotten this far.

I tried these instructions:
http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardHandheldsMojo

I end up booting the system, but I get lots of errors like:
uncorrectable error : <3>end_request: I/O error, dev mtdblock0, sector 0

Normal, those are the nand blocks, debian/mojo doesn't know what to do
with them. (Could add an fstab entry to ignore them)

Ok, that is good to know.

The other issue, it takes 3-4 reboots for extfsck to 'fix' the ext3
partition. This is other reason my goal is to get away from qemu
since the date does not get correctly passed to the install, so as you
create the disk the time stamp of each file is messed up. Next on
first boot with real hardware, the beagleboard does not have the
correct time, see's the ext3 with another odd time and thinks the disk
is corrupt. After 3-4 reboots the ext3 partition should be 'fixed',
just make sure your bootargs in uboot had the 'ro' option, so that
debian/mojo will fix the partition. (angstrom needs 'rw' i believe)..

I ran fsck after I killed qemu but before I booted in the beagle, I
think it fixed the filesystem then.

BTW, This is really hard/impossible to debug, unless you have the
LCD/DVI plugged in, I've seen people just sit and wait for a serial
response they will never get, only to turn on the lcd to see a login
prompt waiting the whole time...

I need to get an LCD soon!

Sean

8

Quick update, Still in the process of finding all the needed fixes for
mojo handhelds.

However the Debian Lenny native netboot install works quite well,
takes about 20-30 minutes depending on your network connection and how
many packages you install. (yes it's armv4t, but atleast your not
using qemu... :wink: )

http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardDebian