[ARMedslack] mini root fs && Openmoko Freerunner

Wed Feb 10 21:23:46 UTC 2010

That would work very well if you don't mind loosing the native mechanism 
for flashing the device with firmware. So it kind of depends on what you 
want to build, but it is certainly possible to use an sdcard to gain 
more disk space for the rootfs.

Brian Kelley wrote:
> maybe an sdcard install would be better to get around the 512 megs of 
> nand,, then 16gigs+ is possible
>
> --- On *Wed, 2/10/10, Wybrand Lohman /<w.lohman at chello.nl>/* wrote:
>
>
>     From: Wybrand Lohman <w.lohman at chello.nl>
>     Subject: Re: [ARMedslack] mini root fs && Openmoko Freerunner
>     To: "Slackware ARM port" <armedslack at lists.armedslack.org>
>     Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 5:11 AM
>
>     Stuart Winter wrote:
>     >
>     > I'm really curious about people will use ARMedslack for. For me,
>     ARM has
>     > always been for Desktop machines (since ARM CPUs were
>     manufactured for the
>     > Acorn archimedes range), so I consider ARMedslack aimed at
>     desktops and
>     > server usage on those machines rather than hand held gadgets.
>     >
>     >
>     Two things really. I intend to use it as a server platform. Now
>     that the GuruPlug Plus (with two NIC's) comes out in April, it
>     offers everything I need to replace my x86 server. And once those
>     ARM based netbooks hit the market, as they've been promising for
>     sooo long now :-( ARMedslack will find it's place on one of those.
>
>     I also see some good possibilities in the SheevaPlug&ARMedslack
>     combo. One thing for example is as an update server on the other
>     side of a VPN, so to safe bandwidth. I know several locations
>     where they use an x86 desktop running 24x7 for that. ARMedslack
>     running on a SheevaPlug will offer greatly more efficiency and
>     reliability and yet keep the price point below €100,- TCO. How
>     cool is that? :D
>
>
>     Brian Kelley wrote:
>     >the openmoko freerunner is another good choice
>
>     I tried that, but I found it was not without difficulty. I have
>     been able to get /something/ going on the Freerunner, but the
>     device is so limited in terms of disk space, while it's also
>     exotic in terms of hardware and method of install. A bit like what
>     Stuart now did with building a mini rootfs (interesting
>     development there) I build a roofts of my own to act as a sort of
>     bridgehead allowing me to interface with the Freerunner.
>
>     The thing is, you can't really install a very limited version of
>     ARMedslack on a device like that. With all you can shave off,
>     it'll still be too big. I took the initrd from the ARMedslack
>     installer, which offers a busybox environment with dropbear and a
>     nice collection of networking, maintenance and diagnosis tools in
>     under 25MB or so.
>
>     The stock kernel, although it didn't panic and kept booting, was
>     spitting out errors like crazy. It needed some hefty adjustments,
>     and the quickest route was to just 'steal' a kernel and it's
>     modules from another Openmoko distro and put that in the image.
>     But then you have a Freerunner that boots in 3 minutes or so,
>     draining the battery and still does nothing more than offer an ssh
>     login. For X, you need something like tinyX or one of it's
>     variants. This needs to be compiled to accept the touch screen as
>     it's primary input device. And then a WM on top that is capable of
>     being steered by the touch screen. Neither of which I had any
>     success in.
>
>     But even if you do succeed in that, you still have no telephony
>     capability on the Freerunner. Let alone that you can start
>     optimizing it for the HUGE power efficiency that's needed. (Is
>     there such a thing? Somehow 'huge' and 'efficient' seem
>     contradictory to me)
>
>     My personal opinion is that it /can/ be done. I was interested in
>     it not so much for the smartphone side of the Freerunner, but more
>     because as a handheld embedded device it could do all sorts of
>     tricks. I wanted it to act as a sort of thin client, mounting a
>     network share and pull it's software from there. That would negate
>     the limited disk space, and offer maximum flexibility (perhaps at
>     the cost of mobility). But you'd need to get the touch screen
>     going, no mather what.
>
>     To conclude. It's possible to start with ARMedslacks initrd, steal
>     or recompile a kernel (+modules), add something like tinyX and a
>     WM and get the device going. It's a tremendously good learning
>     opportunity, if nothing else. But it's not really ARMedslack
>     anymore by then, more ARMedLFS without a manual.
>     I think the strength of Slackware is that it offers a very
>     complete environment that allows you to build whatever you want,
>     be it a router, headless server, multi-media system or a desktop
>     as lean or bloated as you can imagine. But to cramp all that power
>     and flexibility into an embedded device as the Freerunner wont be
>     without difficulty.
>
>     Sorry 'bout the long read. And with that, we return to the order
>     of the day.
>
>     Greets,
>     Wybrand
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