slonopotamus.org gentoo-on-n8x0

Booting

2010-01-26T03:08:33+04:00

back I assume you know how to partition and format your SD card. If not, Gentoo isn't likely a distro of your choice. So, create a separate partition 2GB at least (mmcblk1p3 in my case) for Gentoo and a separate one for swap (I used mmcblk1p2). Download bootmenu and unpack it.

Choosing CFLAGS

2009-09-26T22:18:48+04:00

Back First of all, I strongly recommend reading ARM architecture Wikipedia entry. Both N810 and N800 tablets have ARM1136JF-S CPU, which supports: * Thumb-2 * wp>Jazelle * VFP * EDSP From info above we can easily set -mtune=arm1136jf-s (make binaries tweaked to run as fast as possible on ARM1136JF-S) and -mfpu=vfp (use VFP for floating point operations).

Initial cross-bootstrap

2010-01-11T12:11:36+04:00

back Read this if you want to know how I ported Gentoo and/or want to do it yourself. First I tried using existing arm OABI stages. Two problems. You'll immediately hit #462677. That can possibly be fixed by using kernel >=2.6.25. However one of my goals is minimal intervention in device preinstalled software (initfs, kernel, maemo image). Second: although Gentoo has some documented way of changing CHOST, I don't believe it is possible to perform OABI->EABI migration. Correct me if I'm wrong.

GPS setup

2009-06-11T02:06:22+04:00

back Basic GPS Install needed packages emerge gps5300driver gpsd Configure /etc/conf.d/gpsd GPS_DEV="/dev/pgps" RC_NEED="gps5300driver" GPSD_OPTS="-b -n -P /var/run/gpsd.pid -F /var/run/gpsd.sock" Add startup scripts rc-update add gps5300driver boot rc-update add gpsd default

Known issues

2010-01-09T17:53:29+04:00

back 'Unknown HZ value' warning from top/ps It is a procps bug. This warning doesn't break anything. emerge pygtk results in 100% cpu usage by gcc on gtk.c for inadequate amount on time (tens of hours) This is a lack of optimization in gcc due to what it needs a lot of RAM (400mb on my amd64 desktop) in order to compile gtk.c file. Build pygtk without -O optimizations.

Custom Kernel

2009-09-26T22:17:57+04:00

back Misc Notes mainline Linux 2.6.30 will include p54spi driver for wifi

Running in QEMU

2010-05-21T09:09:31+04:00

Back If you have powerfull desktop/server box, you can run n8x0 stage on it. Main reasons to do so are CPU speed (and quantity) and RAM amount (several packages cannot be built on N8X0 due to insufficient RAM). We'll use QEMU user emulation + wp>binfmt_misc. Due to the need to pass additional args to QEMU (cpu model), we'll create wrapper script that'll call QEMU with it.

Sound setup

2009-09-01T01:16:25+04:00

back :!: This thing assumes you're running diablo kernel Run scripts/n8x0-password.pl from n8x0 overlay and add what it says to /etc/portage/mirrors. $ /usr/local/portage/layman/n8x0/scripts/n8x0-password.pl Please add this line to /etc/portage/mirrors : n8x0

Wireless setup

2009-08-18T10:58:17+04:00

back WiFi :!: This thing assumes you're running diablo kernel emerge sys-kernel/diablo-sources eselect kernel set linux-2.6.21-diablo cd /usr/src/linux && make nokia_2420_defconfig && make modules && make modules_install Install sys-apps/n8x0-env with USE='nokia-osso-linux wifi' from n8x0 overlay.

X11 setup

2009-05-09T01:03:35+04:00

back Install sys-apps/n8x0-env with USE='X' from n8x0 overlay. Run rc-update add nokia-tablets-pointercal default. Uncomment following line in /etc/ts.conf: module_raw input Create /etc/X11/xorg.conf with following contents. FIXME Keypad up/down/left/right doesn't work with this config.