Linux on 7" mini netbook ARM-VT8500 ?

[dwinston91]

the mem=512 is in reference to my SD card (2GB), since I am trying to run it completely on the card like a LiveCD version of Ubuntu. The bootm command was modified from the bootm command from the Marvell Dove LiveCD install directions, found here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ARM/MarvellDoveKarmicInstall

[dwinston91]

Now we're getting somewhere... The script is actually running now. I just have to clean it up and figure out the details. But at least I can see the script working.

[sleeky24]

Well my netbook turned up today finally! Using it right now actually - cannot wait to see some people runninng linux on these. I will post up the specs of my netbook and the vendor and see iff it the same as others.

[dwinston91]

nextvolume, what synatx did you use when you printed out environment variables using textout for the following information:

I was able to print the following variables using textout (PARTIAL LIST).
These are their default values:

bootcmd = nand readblob 100000; go 100000
fbaddr = 3800000
stdout = serial
ipaddr = 192.168.1.2
netmask = 255.255.255.0
NoBootInformation = 1
NoBootProgressBar = 1
Board name: VT8500_Benign

I am able to use textout with regular strings. I just can't seem to find the right syntax for using it with
other commands like printenv.

I tried : textout 0 0 printenv ffff00
but that didn't work.

[PerChristensen]

Things are taking off thanks to efforts from all,great.

Getting my netbook to be mounted via USB cable under MSwindows by crossing pins as described at CNM silver book website only made Windows on hostmachine go down,but my board also is different from pics. of the CNM board.

I found a Windows mkimage.exe working OK after adding a cygwin1.dll to the folder.It was possible to copy nonbinary data from Dr_Narvi / shade_emry SD card scriptcmd file to .txt file and with mkimage.exe recompile a working new scriptcmd.

Windows users can download at

www.hyfse.com/armVT8500/mkimage-win.zip

To use unzip in a folder and run from CMD prompt.Man page + a few notes stolen from a developing board site is includet in the zipfile.

[nextvolume]

To print variables with textout you do it like this:
textout 0 0 "${name_of_variable}" ffffff

where name name_of_variable is the name of the variable

@PerChristensen: I don't think the instructions for the Gumstix will work, as at least as I understand it, the machines' memory map is quite different.

[dwinston91]

Thanks nextvolume, that helps a lot!

[PerChristensen]

nextvolume,thank you for joining this thread,your knowledge is of great value.

The copy of gumstix note in zipfile was ment as example of syntax more than as example of scriptcmd file to be used on our system.So what it`s all about is that MSwindows users also have a mkimage utility to play with.

To clarify:To check if the MSwindows mkimage.exe utility worked I made a script.txt file in the directory where my mkimage.exe reside.The script.txt file only contained the plain text starting from "setenv lcdparam..." copied from the original SD card scriptcmd file (that is with the original u-boot header cut off).

As suggested by gumstix I did

mkimage -A arm -O linux -T script -C none -a 0 -e 0 -n scriptcmd -d script.txt scriptcmd

and a new scriptcmd file with new binary u-boot header popped up in the directory.When copied over the original SD card scriptcmd file located in the SD /script folder it could execute full update of my SmartBook when SD card inserted in the book.

The mkimage.exe produced file is 2 183 bytes while original is 2 122 bytes.

I have tried to make a bootable SD card with u-boot in root to see if it would override the default bootloader,but with no success.

The level of discussion now is above my skills (strings for me is something with Mantovani and his orchestra),but I learn a lot and will continue to contribute when I feel I have something to add.

[nextvolume]

Finally! I found randomly how to work around the via_ata_interrupt issue and I've got Linux up and running on this netbook, from SD card, even. =P
I simply give a fatload command with a very small file as argument and wait a bit.
Hopefully it won't screw up your Windows CE installation, though I've not tested that yet.

It's still a very long way to a decent distribution (which is hard since the kernel is not really for this hardware), but you can telnet to it and play with it a bit.

Here is how you load it:
1) Get the files here, http://tails92.sepwich.com/files/eas...sypc_linux.tgz
2) Put the script directory in the archive on a SD card
3) Put the SD card into the SD card slot into your easy pc notebook.
4) Power on the easy pc notebook
5) Some messages will be printed on the screen when it loads stuff on RAM.
When the screen blanks and scrambled things begin appearing on the screen,
reboot.

6) Now your netbook will display a cut 1024x768 image on a 800x480 screen.
Let Linux boot, and do not power off the system when Booting appears.

7) Now Linux will boot and it will display its messages on the screen.

Some times there will still be the "via_ata_interrupt" issue, reboot until
it goes out.

The first time you will do this probably a Kaser Netclient logo will appear on the screen, and it won't mount anything as root filesystem. It seems that it needs to build the bad blocks table for the NAND flash in the notebook, and that seems to take a while. I recommend to wait around 30 minutes, and then power off your system by pressing the power button.

Now reboot and keep the SD card in it. Do the same thing and now if all goes well you should be able to telnet to local IP 192.168.1.12. Use root as username, and you will receive a shell prompt, you can then play with it.

In this archive I've included several things, like dmesg, some things from /proc, etc.

Now I think the best solution will be creating a root filesystem from scratch, and I think that unless a way to change the framebuffer resolution is found this system is best used remotely.

To restore the original resolution download this file and replace the scriptcmd file in the script directory on the SD card with it. Then boot with the SD card inserted as usual and follow what appears on the screen.

[PerChristensen]

A huge step forward,and good work,nextvolume.
I get the "via_ata_interrupt" issues on almost every boot.Once booting stopped at RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0, and I waited half an hour,but could not come any further.But funny to see a sharp Linux boot sequence on the screen.