Booting natively to Arch Linux ARM install on a Pogoplug Pro

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Booting natively to Arch Linux ARM install on a Pogoplug Pro

Postby xenoxaos » Thu Jan 06, 2011 2:40 am

I just got this working a little while ago...so it is far from perfect!!

Booting directly into Arch Linux ARM install can be done on the pro. Currently, it's not pretty! Actually, it's quite ugly.
Requirements:
Serial cable for the device
SATA HDD
eSATA enclosure/dock (or how I have it, an sata cable, and the power board from an old external hdd for power)

I formatted the drive on my dockstar, and extracted the base Arch Linux ARM install install to the drive. You could do it any way you like, I just did it that way.

Take the drive, connect it to the SATA port on the PPPro's board.
Boot to pogoplug's root OS
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
mkdir /tmp/SATA
mount /dev/sda1 /tmp/SATA
')
Copy /lib/modules/2.6.31.6_SMP_820 and lib/modules.old to your SATA's /tmp/SATA/lib
unmount the sata drive and reboot

interrupt the uboot and type in

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
setenv bootargs "root=/dev/sda1 rootfstype=ext3 console=ttyS0,115200 mem=128M"
run boot_nand
run boot
')

and watch the magic happen.

Now, once inside, things won't quite work. No drivers are loaded for usb or ethernet, no wireless tools....

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
modprobe usbcore
modprobe mii
modprobe gmac gmac_offload_tx=0
modprobe ehci-hcd
modprobe usb-storage

ifconfig eth0 up
dhcpcd eth0
')

and now you have a partially working Arch Linux ARM install on a pogopro
Arch Linux ARM exists and continues to grow through community support, please donate today!
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Re: Booting natively to Arch Linux ARM install on a Pogoplug Pro

Postby oddballhero » Thu Jan 06, 2011 8:17 am

It also looks like if you can load the modules in /lib/modules/2.6.31.6_SMP_820, you can get the cloud engines my.pogoplug.com services to work with Arch Linux ARM. No chroot needed. If your going to use the sata port, the serial cable is moot. Blparam has no adverse effect, so for usb users should work. Now with setenv bootargs "root=/dev/sda1 rootfstype=ext3 console=ttyS0,115200 mem=128M". Does that mean that it is loading the kernel from root or is it loading the kernel from nand and just looking for root on the drive? Basically, what does uname -a say?

MTD: /dev/mtd0
type: 4
flags: 0x400
size: 1048576
erase size: 131072
write size: 2048
oob size: 64
-- Writing parameter 'baudrate=115200'
-- Writing parameter 'loads_echo=0'
-- Writing parameter 'rootpath=/mnt/ARM_FS/'
-- Writing parameter 'netmask=255.255.0.0'
-- Writing parameter 'run_diag=yes'
-- Writing parameter 'stdin=serial'
-- Writing parameter 'stdout=serial'
-- Writing parameter 'stderr=serial'
-- Writing parameter 'console=console=ttyS0,115200'
-- Writing parameter 'mainlineLinux=no'
-- Writing parameter 'CASset=min'
-- Writing parameter 'enaMonExt=no'
-- Writing parameter 'enaCpuStream=no'
-- Writing parameter 'enaWrAllo=no'
-- Writing parameter 'pexMode=RC'
-- Writing parameter 'disL2Cache=no'
-- Writing parameter 'setL2CacheWT=yes'
-- Writing parameter 'disL2Prefetch=yes'
-- Writing parameter 'enaICPref=yes'
-- Writing parameter 'enaDCPref=yes'
-- Writing parameter 'sata_dma_mode=yes'
-- Writing parameter 'MALLOC_len=1'
-- Writing parameter 'ethprime=egiga0'
-- Writing parameter 'netbsd_en=no'
-- Writing parameter 'vxworks_en=no'
-- Writing parameter 'bootargs_root=root=/dev/mtdblock2 ro'
-- Writing parameter 'ceboardver=REDSTONE:0.1'
-- Writing parameter 'bootdelay=3'
-- Writing parameter 'disaMvPnp=no'
-- Writing parameter 'ethmtu=1500'
-- Writing parameter 'usb0Mode=host'
-- Writing parameter 'nandEcc=1bit'
-- Writing parameter 'ethact=egiga0'
-- Writing parameter 'bootcmd=nand read.e 0x800000 0x100000 0x300000; setenv bootargs $(console) $(bootargs_root); bootm 0x800000'
Erasing 128 kb @ 0xa0000
Writing 2048 kb @ 0xbf800
Last edited by oddballhero on Thu Jan 06, 2011 9:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Booting natively to Arch Linux ARM install on a Pogoplug Pro

Postby xenoxaos » Thu Jan 06, 2011 9:36 am

As of right now, eth0 doesn't come up on boot. So, ssh doesn't come up either. Also, USB isn't built into the kernel either, so it won't find the root partition.

I'm working on compiling the kernel, so maybe in a few days we'll be further.
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Re: Booting natively to Arch Linux ARM install on a Pogoplug Pro

Postby oddballhero » Thu Jan 06, 2011 10:02 am

So you're booting the kernel from the nand and looking for root on the drive. Since you are redoing the kernel, how about building it with kexec on just for kicks?

like http://wiki.meego.com/ARM/N900/Install/kexec
Last edited by oddballhero on Fri Jan 07, 2011 11:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Booting natively to Arch Linux ARM install on a Pogoplug Pro

Postby xenoxaos » Thu Jan 06, 2011 11:16 am

To get networking on startup add this to /etc/rc.conf
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'MODULES=(mii gmac)
')

and this to /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'options gmac gmac_offload_tx=0
')

For some reason, I can't get the network to come up when it's built into the kernel. It just locks up and I have to power cycle.
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Re: Booting natively to Arch Linux ARM install on a Pogoplug Pro

Postby d1dd1 » Fri Feb 11, 2011 9:36 pm

Any news on this?

I have a PP Pro on the way to me.

Will the SATA-Port work and what speed is supported by the Hardware?

Is it possible to replace the Mini-PCI-Express Wireless card with a SSD - maybe to boot from it ??

Thanks
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Re: Booting natively to Arch Linux ARM install on a Pogoplug Pro

Postby WarheadsSE » Mon Feb 14, 2011 2:59 pm

Sata port:
SATA II, no multiplexers, no hotplug.

mPCIe:
untested, we don't own them, and so we've not tried them.
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Re: Booting natively to Arch Linux ARM install on a Pogoplug Pro

Postby Geoff » Wed Mar 09, 2011 5:38 pm

This sounds like great progress. I like Odd's idea to build in kexec:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('oddballhero', 'S')ince you are redoing the kernel, how about building it with kexec on just for kicks?
like http://wiki.meego.com/ARM/N900/Install/kexec

Then the first kernel could use the "mkelfimage" tool on the fly to package the second kernel together with its ramdisk and boot arguments, that it finds on whatever device (usb, sata, mini-pcie SSD). The second kernel could presumably load from its accompanying ramdisk any additional kernel modules needed for the specific hardware. This way, a system could be packaged on a USB stick that could be plugged into any armel-based plug device. That matches up with what I already enjoy being able to do: load any flavor of Linux onto a USB stick and use that to boot up any laptop.
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Re: Booting natively to Arch Linux ARM install on a Pogoplug Pro

Postby beelzebub » Wed Mar 30, 2011 3:42 pm

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mikestaszel', 'E')dit: It's on already. It should all work, nevermind...

What does it mean?

Any other news on here?

Regards
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Re: Booting natively to Arch Linux ARM install on a Pogoplug Pro

Postby WarheadsSE » Wed Jul 06, 2011 3:11 pm

Minor update:

At the moment, kexec, despite being enable in the kernel, doesn't seem to work.
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