Is it possible to install the Debian Efika MX ARMHF image directly to the "onboard" storage? (e.g. /dev/sda)

I'd like to replace the instance of Ubuntu with Debian Hard-Float (ARM / Efika MX).

Instructions?

Thanks for the help!

--
Jeremy

Hi.

Everything is possible :-)

You can make an archive from the SD rootfs first on another computer, copy the archive to a USB stick.
Then, you boot from the SD card, mount the internal drive (sda) and delete the existing rootfs. Extract the archived rootfs from the USB stick in its place.

Make sure you make appropriate changes to /etc/fstab for instance.

Should all of this go very wrong, make sure you can re-image the system with the SD card here:
http://www.powerdeveloper.org/platforms/efikamx/linux

None of what I just said here is officially supported by Genesi, so the forums here are the way to get help for this should you need it.


Johan.

_________________
Johan Dams, Genesi USA Inc.
Director, Software Engineering

Yep, I have a blog... PurpleAlienPlanet

If I'm deciphering your suggestion(s), here are the steps one could take to install Debian locally:

1) Download the Debian SDHC image
http://www.powerdeveloper.org/asset/by-id/126

2) Put the image on the SDHC media
~/tmp $ xz –dc efika-armhf+3d-20110925.img.xz | dd of=/dev/sdf

3) Mount the SDHC media and create an archive of the rootfs
/mnt/sdf2/ $ tar -cvf /mnt/usb/efika-armhf+3d-20110925.tar .

4) Reboot the MX Smartbook using the SDHC media

5) Delete the instance of Ubuntu on the rootfs (/dev/sda2)
/mnt/sda2/ $ rm -Rf .

6) Extract the archive (e.g. from USB media) to /dev/sda2
/mnt/sda2 $ tar -xvf /mnt/usb/efika-armhf+3d-20110925.tar

What about the boot loader? Will /dev/sda1 (/boot) need to be updated as well?

Thanks again!

Hi.

The bootloader and the kernel (on sda1) should be fine.


Johan.

_________________
Johan Dams, Genesi USA Inc.
Director, Software Engineering

Yep, I have a blog... PurpleAlienPlanet

Does the kernel not have to be recompiled for armhf support?

_________________
Adventum in altum

Hi.

No, the kernel does not need to be recompiled since it is the userspace ABI that changes with ArmHF.
Kernel image and kernel modules are not affected by the userspace ABI.


Johan.

_________________
Johan Dams, Genesi USA Inc.
Director, Software Engineering

Yep, I have a blog... PurpleAlienPlanet

I think the armhf demo image contains an older version of the kernel so you may want to backup /lib/modules and restore it after you put the armhf root onto the Efikia. The initrd would also likely need to be updated too. I can try and test installing the armhf image to my efika's internal storage later tonight and write some steps here, then I would know for sure.

Actually it should be much easier;

Do the same thing Johan suggested (make a tarball of the SD card). You will find a script that does this ON THE INSTALLER CARD for the standard Maverick (it's called maketarball). All you need to give it is the root directory and a location for the tarball (it will perhaps call it maverick-date.tar.gz though, sorry).

You can then get the installer card, replace the /home/oem/maverick-* tarball with your tarball and it will install that. If you change the name, edit /home/oem/oem-installer too (it's something like line 8).

We've been shipping a self-installing SD card for a little while now. We're about to make more of an effort with armhf as official Ubuntu releases past Maverick are basically not usable on ARM platforms (too many bugs, and yes I have Pandas and Beagles to compare; they're worse). There will be a Live (i.e. desktop), self-installing SD card before the end of the year. I am kind of waiting for the archive to stabilize a little for a few features though.

_________________
Matt Sealey

Post Script:
I'm awaiting the arrival of the SDHC media I ordered from Amazon.

I don't have an "oem" user, the default user associated with my Smartbook is "efika".

Thanks again for the help! I'll post details as I progress.

Apologies for the newbie question, but how do you get it to boot from SDHC?

Just stick it in and boot the machine, atleast that's how it works on the nettop.

Frank.

Does it work on the smarttop too ?

Hello,
Yes wihtout problems as you don't change the kernel version.

You do the first on a SDCard and then after a working boot with your Debian Sid armhf on it you can then begin to work to do the stuff for the /dev/sda

Just think about /etc/fstab, /boot/boot.script and making a new /boot/boot.scr

I did it and the armhf is really faster than the Ubuntu armel image in the smarttop by default.

Pascal.

I did this way:

Flashed an SD Card with the latest Maverick image.
Flashed a second one with Debian-Armhf-3D image and made a tarball of its rootfs.

Placed the obtained tarball in the /home/oem folder of Maverick SD installer card and modified the oem-installer file accordingly.

Rebooted, but without success.

Booted again with Armhf-3D SD card to check out which kernel it ran:
So the installer didn't place a uImage and uInitrd in the SSD bootfs for the 2.6.31.14.25-efikamx kernel.

I added them copiyng from SD Card bootfs:
Now the SB booted fine and kernel boot messages appeared on screen, but I got a blank screen.
Got a shell with ALT+F1 to log in, but no luck.
It returns "login incorrect" with demo and root default passwords.

Sorry for the long post.
Some hint?
thank you

Stan

Hi.
These steps should work fine - can you tell me how it failed exactly?


Johan.

_________________
Johan Dams, Genesi USA Inc.
Director, Software Engineering

Yep, I have a blog... PurpleAlienPlanet