Install Arch Linux ARM on netbook with IMAPX200

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Install Arch Linux ARM on netbook with IMAPX200

Postby ocaino » Mon Feb 03, 2014 3:56 pm

Hello everyone,
I have a Kira N8000 netbook from Airis (a spanish company), which came with Android preinstalled.
There is a Debian (Raspbian) based distro adapted to this device by a group of people. It works ok, but it comes with a lot of packages preinstalled I don't need, and of course it's not Arch!
I have tried some of the Arch Linux ARM images with no luck. I tried fiddling with them, but I'm not a programmer... and understand almost nothing about kernel compiling and u-boot :(

Would it be possible, in your opinion, to adapt one of the existing ALARM releases to run on this device?

Thanks

Some info about the device:
Specs from the official website:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'â')€¢ 8" Wide TFT (800x480)
• ARM11 up to 1 GHz Processor
• Memory 512 MB DDR2
• Storage Flash 4 GB
• WLAN - LAN 10/100
• 3x USB - SD Card Reader
• Dimensions 225 x 151 x 32 mm.
• Weight 0.70 Kg.
• Android OS


$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'cat /proc/cpuinfo

Processor : ARMv6-compatible processor rev 5 (v6l)
BogoMIPS : 791.34
Features : swp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp java
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 6TEJ
CPU variant : 0x1
CPU part : 0xb36
CPU revision : 5

Hardware : IMAPX200
Revision : 0000
Serial : 0000000000000000
')
ocaino
 
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Re: Install Arch Linux ARM on netbook with IMAPX200

Postby WarheadsSE » Mon Feb 03, 2014 4:19 pm

BYOK and a bootloader, and the v6h rootfs should work, since that has a floating point.
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Re: Install Arch Linux ARM on netbook with IMAPX200

Postby ocaino » Mon Feb 03, 2014 4:43 pm

Thanks for the quick reply.

I have some knowlegde on the kernel compiling steps (based on what I've read on PKGBUILDs and a couple of guides), but don't know how to proceed with u-boot.

Should I start experimenting with a vanilla kernel or one of the official Arch Linux ARM PKGBUILDs?
ocaino
 
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Re: Install Arch Linux ARM on netbook with IMAPX200

Postby WarheadsSE » Mon Feb 03, 2014 4:46 pm

I don't recognize that processor family directly, so I would assume you will need to hunt down the support for it.
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Re: Install Arch Linux ARM on netbook with IMAPX200

Postby ocaino » Tue Feb 04, 2014 4:06 pm

Hello,
I have cross-compiled a first test kernel, and now I have zImage and Image files under arch/arm/boot/
Now, to make it bootable by the bootloader I need to run the following commands
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
$ mkimage -A arm -T script -d <script.scr> <script.img>
$ mkimage -A arm -O linux -T kernel -C none -a 0x80008000 -e 0x80008000 -n "Linux kernel" -d arch/arm/boot/zImage uImage
')
to create a script containing boot parameters and the bootable kernel, respectively.

Is this correct?
And where do I get the -a and -e address values from?

Thank you for your help.
ocaino
 
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Re: Install Arch Linux ARM on netbook with IMAPX200

Postby WarheadsSE » Tue Feb 04, 2014 4:28 pm

Your existing image's kernel and uboot should have that
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Re: Install Arch Linux ARM on netbook with IMAPX200

Postby ocaino » Tue Feb 04, 2014 4:42 pm

Ok, thanks!
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
$ mkimage -l uzImage.bin
Image Name: Linux-2.6.32.9
Created: Sun May 6 13:11:58 2012
Image Type: ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
Data Size: 2385512 Bytes = 2329.60 kB = 2.28 MB
Load Address: 40008000
Entry Point: 40008000
')
It just doesn't boot, but I'll keep trying with other kernel configurations.

Is there any difference between running make and make uImage? I've read the latter one in some guides.

Thank you.
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Re: Install Arch Linux ARM on netbook with IMAPX200

Postby WarheadsSE » Tue Feb 04, 2014 4:56 pm

Of course there is a difference. One makes a uImage.

Also, 2.6.32.9 is not necessarily going to be new enough for systemd.
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Re: Install Arch Linux ARM on netbook with IMAPX200

Postby ocaino » Tue Feb 04, 2014 5:15 pm

Thanks, I will search information about the differences between uImage Image and zImage.

The output I posted earlier is from the debian based distro kernel. I'm trying to compile a 3.10.28 kernel (for no particular reason).
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Re: Install Arch Linux ARM on netbook with IMAPX200

Postby ocaino » Tue Feb 04, 2014 7:06 pm

I have found the kernel source of a tablet that has the same processor infotmic imapx210 (kernel version 2.6.32.9). It seems that the debian based distro guys are using this to build their kernels with support for this architecture.
Inside the source directory there are the following directories matching "imap":

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
./sound/soc/imapx200
./arch/arm/plat-imap
./arch/arm/mach-imapx200
./include/config/serial/imapx
./include/config/serial/imap
./include/config/snd/imapx
./include/config/snd/imapx200
./include/config/mmc/sdhci/imap
./include/config/fb/imap
./include/config/mtd/nand/imapx200
./include/config/imap
./include/config/imapx200
./drivers/bluetooth/imapx200_bluetooth
')

Is it possible to reuse these files with a newer kernel?
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