[pkg-fso-maint] GSoC d-i / FreeRunner project?

[Gaudenz Steinlin]

On Sat, Mar 27, 2010 at 08:06:10PM +0100, Thibaut GIRKA wrote:
 
> Well, I can build kirkwood network-console target, take the initrd, and
> push it in a uImage together with the kernel from pkg-fso.
> Then, d-i boots, and without much surprise, fails to load module
> g_ether... 

This is because a kernel udeb containing the g_ether module is missing.
The necessary code to load the module if present is in d-i though. This
is one of the few bits of freerunner support already commited to d-i.

> 
> I've tried to run a kernel built from the linux-2.6 package with a
> custom config, but it panicks without printing anything on the screen...
> Furthermore, I didn't manage to generate a linux.bin file (well, I've
> generated one, but it's 3GB large), and could only build a uImage with
> the uImage target.

I'v uploaded the diff to the kernel package[1] I was working on. This is
non working stuff, but should give you an idea of what needs to be done.
Recent discussions on the openmoko kernel mailinglist suggest that
2.6.32 has everything needed to boot a freerunner and access the uSD
card.

> 
> So, here are my current thoughts about porting d-i on the FreeRunner:
> * The d-i config itself should be easy, and very close to the one for
> the kirkwood target. The only thing I'm not too sure of yet is how we
> should do the preseeding. Using a preseed file, or with oldsys-preseed
> like the kirkwood target?

You should use a preeseed file. Oldsys-preseed is only for devices where
the configuration space for the factory firmware contains usefull
network configuration (like on NAS devices). 

> * I guess one wants to have a FreeSmartphone/whatever task containing
> the packages currently installed by install.sh?
> * A gta02 flavour of the Debian kernel is needed, but right now, I don't
> really know how to achieve that.

The name of the flavour was decided to be s3c24xx. This name is based on
a rather lengthy discussion with the d-i and kernel teams during debconf. 

I've uploaded my work in progress diff for d-i to [2]. This is also non
working stuff and probably does not even apply anymore, but should also
give you an impression of how things should be.

Gaudenz

[1] http://tmp.durcheinandertal.ch/kernel_gta02.diff
[2] http://tmp.durcheinandertal.ch/d-i_gta02.diff


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Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
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