Official or Unofficial Mele A2000 Images Available?

[linuxguy]

I've read various threads, most of which are somewhat old. Before I start down the path of trying to pull things together myself, I thought I would ask if there is an official or unofficial build available?

My intention is to have a SATA drive attached. So obviously SATA support is required. Booting for NAND or SATA is fine, though SATA is preferred.

Thanks.

[linuxguy]

I know this isn't ArchLinux, but I wanted to follow up. Since I really didn't want to spend the time playing with different changes and modifications, this is what I did. This saved me from having to read lots of posts with lots of variations and customizations required for my A2000.

This was my starting point: http://guillaumeplayground.net/

This provided the base OS: http://guillaumeplayground.net/mele-a20 ... nstall-v1/
I was able to simply dd the image to my sdcard. Boot my Mele, and it was running and accessible via SSH on ethernet.

Next I upgrade the kernel to provide access to the full 1G of RAM: http://guillaumeplayground.net/mele-arm ... el-update/ I'm running 3.0.42+ because I need SATA.

Next I ran PIMP_MY_MELE script, which made it headless. My drive should be in today so I'll be able to verify SATA works. According to comments, SATA does work.

Again, I know this isn't ArchLinux, but it is a fast start for Linux on Mele. Besides, those looking for a kernel on which to build an ArchLinux system for the A1000 and A2000 Mele, now have another option on which they can move forward. The kernel supports SATA, ethernet, and WIFI. While I've not connected via WIFI, scans do locate APs in my area.

[WarheadsSE]

Well, the current kernels have all of that.

[linuxguy]

Another quick follow up. SATA support in the links above is completely unreliable. I no longer consider it an option at all. Within a minute or two of continuously hitting the SATA interface, the drive simply disappears. So it looks like I will be chasing an ArchLinux solution in the near future.

[linuxguy]

Here is another update.

I started following the instructions provided here: http://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=4903

When I get to the point of updating the system via, "pacman -Syu", it fails. This failure, in turn, led me to the following link: http://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=5669

And so I try the following, per that thread:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'pacman -R localepurge
pacman -Syu --ignore filesystem,bash
')

When I get to, "pacman -S bash", it once again fails.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '(1/1) checking package integrity [######################] 100%
(1/1) loading package files [######################] 100%
(1/1) checking for file conflicts [######################] 100%
(1/1) checking available disk space [######################] 100%
(1/1) upgrading bash [######################] 100%
call to execv failed (No such file or directory)
error: command failed to execute correctly')

Executing something as simple as, "useradd", results in:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'useradd: PAM: Module is unknown
')

So at this point, it appears Mele A2000 is a bit of a dead end on ArchLinux. Perhaps someone has some advice to get me going again? At this point, I'm still only running with half my memory detected.

Another interesting side note, as this point, even the root user is locked out. All commands related to user management seem to result in "Module is unknown" errors. For root, the password is not what I set. The password is not the default.

I guess the good news is the SATA driver appears to be rather stable. So assuming I can get to the point where I can maintain the system, things look promising.

[pepedog]

Precede commands with this, and use full paths
/usr/lib/ld-2<hit tab key here> /usr/bin/pacman -Su
Don't reboot until commands work without the usr lib thing

[linuxguy]

Okay. Giving that a try...

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '[root@alert etc]# /usr/lib/ld-2.17.so /usr/bin/pacman -S bash
warning: bash-4.2.045-4 is up to date -- reinstalling
resolving dependencies...
looking for inter-conflicts...

Targets (1): bash-4.2.045-4

Total Installed Size: 3.40 MiB
Net Upgrade Size: 0.00 MiB

Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y
(1/1) checking package integrity [######################] 100%
(1/1) loading package files [######################] 100%
(1/1) checking for file conflicts [######################] 100%
(1/1) checking available disk space [######################] 100%
(1/1) upgrading bash [######################] 100%
call to execv failed (No such file or directory)
error: command failed to execute correctly
')
Also tried the whole shebang. That failed too.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '[root@alert etc]# /usr/lib/ld-2.17.so /usr/bin/pacman -Su
:: Starting full system upgrade...
resolving dependencies...
looking for inter-conflicts...

Targets (90): binutils-2.23.1-3 ca-certificates-20130119-2 coreutils-8.21-2
cracklib-2.8.22-3 cronie-1.4.9-4 cryptsetup-1.6.1-2
curl-7.30.0-1 dash-0.5.7-4 dbus-1.6.10-1
device-mapper-2.02.98-4 dhcpcd-5.6.8-3 diffutils-3.3-1.1
dirmngr-1.1.1-1 e2fsprogs-1.42.7-2 expat-2.1.0-2 file-5.14-1
filesystem-2013.05-2 findutils-4.4.2-5 gawk-4.1.0-1.1
gcc-libs-4.7.2-4 gettext-0.18.2.1-1 glib2-2.36.2-1
glibc-2.17-5.1 gmp-5.1.2-1 gnupg-2.0.20-2 gpgme-1.4.1-1
grep-2.14-2 groff-1.22.2-3 gzip-1.5-3 inetutils-1.9.1-6
iproute2-3.9.0-2 iptables-1.4.19.1-1 iputils-20121221-2
jfsutils-1.1.15-4 kbd-1.15.5-4 keyutils-1.5.5-5 kmod-13-2
krb5-1.11.2-4 less-458-1 libarchive-3.1.2-1 libassuan-2.1.0-1
libcap-2.22-5 libedit-20130601_3.1-1 libffi-3.0.13-3
libgcrypt-1.5.2-1 libgpg-error-1.11-1 libidn-1.26-1
libksba-1.3.0-1 libldap-2.4.35-4 libnl-3.2.21-1
libpcap-1.4.0-1 libpipeline-1.2.3-1 libsasl-2.1.26-4
libusbx-1.0.15-1 linux-sun4i-3.0.57-5 lvm2-2.02.98-4
lzo2-2.06-1 man-db-2.6.3-3 mdadm-3.2.6-4 mkinitcpio-0.14.0-1
mpfr-3.1.2-1 ncurses-5.9-5 net-tools-1.60.20130531git-1
openntpd-3.9p1-22 openssh-6.2p2-1 openssl-1.0.1.e-3
pacman-4.1.1-1 pam-1.1.6-4 pciutils-3.2.0-3 pcre-8.33-1
perl-5.18.0-1 pinentry-0.8.3-1 popt-1.16-6 ppp-2.4.5-6
procps-ng-3.3.8-1 psmisc-22.20-1 reiserfsprogs-3.6.22-2
shadow-4.1.5.1-6 syslog-ng-3.4.1-3 systemd-204-3
systemd-sysvcompat-204-3 sysvinit-tools-2.88-11 tar-1.26-4
texinfo-5.1-1 uboot-mkimage-2013.01.01-1 util-linux-2.23.1-2
which-2.20-6 wpa_supplicant-2.0-4 xfsprogs-3.1.11-1
zlib-1.2.8-1

Total Installed Size: 276.15 MiB
Net Upgrade Size: -7.28 MiB

Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y
(90/90) checking package integrity [######################] 100%
(90/90) loading package files [######################] 100%
(90/90) checking for file conflicts [######################] 100%
error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)
filesystem: /bin exists in filesystem
filesystem: /sbin exists in filesystem
filesystem: /usr/sbin exists in filesystem
Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.
')

Also tried this, per the other thread:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '/usr/lib/ld-2.17.so /usr/bin/pacman -Syu --ignore filesystem,bash
')
Which results in lots of warnings and finally:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', ':: The following packages cannot be upgraded due to unresolvable dependencies:
binutils ca-certificates coreutils cracklib cronie cryptsetup curl
dash dbus device-mapper dhcpcd diffutils dirmngr e2fsprogs expat
file findutils gawk gcc-libs gettext glib2 glibc gmp gnupg gpgme
grep groff gzip inetutils iproute2 iptables iputils jfsutils kbd
keyutils kmod krb5 less libarchive libassuan libcap libedit
libffi libgcrypt libgpg-error libidn libksba libldap libnl libpcap
libpipeline libsasl libusbx linux-sun4i lvm2 man-db mdadm
mkinitcpio ncurses net-tools openntpd openssh openssl pacman pam
pciutils pcre perl pinentry popt ppp procps-ng psmisc
reiserfsprogs shadow syslog-ng systemd systemd-sysvcompat
sysvinit-tools tar texinfo uboot-mkimage util-linux which
wpa_supplicant xfsprogs zlib

Do you want to skip the above packages for this upgrade? [y/N] Y
looking for inter-conflicts...
there is nothing to do
')

[linuxguy]

Special thanks to pepedog for the PM which set me off in the right direction to get things working. Was real touch and go.

As he previously stated, use the following to access pacman:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '/usr/lib/ld-2<hit tab key here> /usr/bin/pacman -Su')

Next I did:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '/usr/lib/ld-2.17.so /usr/bin/pacman -Syu --ignore filesystem,bash.pacman,glibc')

That results in a lot of errors and warnings, however, it does get some packages updated. The errors are:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'call to execv failed (No such file or directory)
error: command failed to execute correctly
')

After that, pacman would no longer run because libarchive had been updated. Tried to use LD_PRELOAD, but that didn't work. To work around that, I created a symlink from the currect libarchive to the version it said was missing. For me this was libarchive.so.13 to libarchive.so.12. Once I had pacman running again, I continued to move forward.

Next, I tried to create backup copies of /bin, /sbin, and /usr/sbin. Seems something had already deleted /bin at this point so I had to hope things would be okay. Next I created a backup copy of /usr/bin. Then I copied the contents of /sbin and /usr/sbin into /usr/bin.

Now I installed bash. I don't recall if I had to force it or not. After that, I installed glibc, filesystem, and pacman, together, forcing them. With paranoia in mind, I installed bash, glibc, and pacman again. Again, I don't recall if I had to force them again. Next I tried to install filesystem again. I do recall I had to force it again. Next I did filesystem, glibc, bash, and pacman. Once again forcing them. Ya...paranoia.

At this point commands like ls were working. So I decided to SSH into the box again, while maintaining my current SSH session. It worked! Since basic commands were working and it once again appeared I had SSH access, I rebooted the box. After reboot, I was once again able to SSH into the box.

At this point I proceeded to cleanup my backups created above and to delete my libarchive symlink.

So far, so good.

Again, thanks to pepedog for his helpful PM.

Next, is to tweak the system to allow for all memory to be available and install various packages I require.

[pepedog]

Sorry, forgot to mention libarchive symlink.
I told you it wasn't hopeless