[pkg-fso-maint] GSoC 2010: Debian Installer on Freerunner

Sun Mar 21 22:45:14 UTC 2010

On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 10:53:04PM +0100, Thibaut GIRKA wrote:
> 
> > > Regarding the FreeRunner, I've got one since the beginning of the year,
> > > and I use it as my sole phone.
> > > I have flashed SHR unstable on the NAND, and I've manually (reading the
> > > so-called install.sh script) installed Debian on a µSD card, although I rarely
> > > use it.
> > 
> > For porting d-i to it it would be good if we could get you a second
> > freerunner or if you have another phone you could use during this
> > time... Calls won't work during installation ;-) And you probably will
> > do many installations...
> 
> Yeah, I have another phone that I can use, that's not an issue :)
> 
> > > I haven't tried d-i on the FreeRunner yet, but I think the main
> > > issues/things to do would be:
> > > * Starting d-i. I can see two ways of doing it:
> > >   - Putting it on a µSD card, maybe not the easiest thing if there's
> > > already something on it.
> > >   - Using kexec on a host system to run d-i without altering the
> > > partition table beforehand.
> > 
> > I and Luca Capello (gismo) worked on d-i for the freerunner at Debconf
> > 9. We decided back then that whatever method we choose it should be
> > supported by the factory default settings of the u-boot on the
> > freerunner. 
> > 
> > This means that you have to combine the kernel and initramfs into one
> > u-boot image. This is possible but a bit tricky to get right. 
> 
> Yeah, I've made some tests, and I can see how to create a multi-file
> u-boot image.
> I have yet to build a kernel along with an initramfs and see how to boot
> it properly :)
> 
> > > * Using the kernel from pkg-fso
> > 
> > This won't work. Period. If you want to integrate your work into the
> > official d-i you have to use a kernel built from the linux-2.6 package
> > in the main archive. 
> > 
> > So first all the bits to support the freerunner so that it can run d-i
> > must go into Linus kernel tree. As the kernel team most probably won't
> > accept any patches not accepted upstream. 
> > 
> > We basically need glamo mmc support in addition to basic boot support
> > for the freerunner to be able to support d-i. The glamo mmc support is
> > needed to access the SD card because the SD card is connected to the
> > glamo. 
> > 
> > Then we need a kernel configuration for the s3c24xx architecture and a
> > patch to enable an image for this architecture for linux-2.6. The kernel
> > configuration should be as similar as possible to the configurations of
> > the other kernel images (especially the other arm images). This is where
> > I stopped by the end of last year because of lack of time. If you want
> > to continue this work I can provide you with a partially working patch
> > for linux-2.6. 
> 
> Can't we use, for a start, linux-2.6-openmoko as it is?
> 
> > > * Hacking g-i to work with the touchscreen and
> > > provide an on-screen keyboard.
> > 
> > Gismo and I were rahter targetting the network-console mode of d-i that
> > is used on headless NAS devices. The idea was that d-i would setup the
> > usb network and you could connect to it by sshing over this usb network.
> > I think that would be far easier. I will need networking anyway to
> > download packages and wifi is not an option for the installer because
> > the support for connecting to encrypted networks in d-i is minimal AFAIK
> > and ar6000 won't most probably go upstream ever and therefore not be
> > included in the Debian kernel.
> 
> Didn't think about that, but I guess it's the way to go.

You may want to get into contact with the guy who added kirkwood
support to Debian. There is support for network based installation
with d-i on this platform.

> > >   As far as I know, directfb is being dropped in favor of X11, so, it
> > > shouldn't be that much of an issue.
> > > * Including all those things in a fairly lightweight initrd.
> > 
> > It depends on your definition of lightweight. I would call all the d-i
> > initramfs (it's technically not an initrd anymore) fairly heavyweight. 
> 
> Well, with X and so, it might have been quite challenging.
> 
> > I expect the core d-i part of all of this to be small and not very
> > difficult. AFAIR we had it already running until the bootloader step at
> > Debconf with a custom version of the pkg-fso kernel. The hard parts are:
> > - Create a kernel package for the freerunner based on the linux-2.6
> >   package in main
> > - Figure out the best layout for booting Debian in parallel to another
> >   distribution in NAND and configure u-boot to do the right thing and
> >   warp all this into an udeb for the d-i.
> > - Post installation stuff like creating a fso/freerunner task which gets
> >   automatically installed if a freerunner is detected. 
> > 
> > 
> > I would be willing to be your mentor if your commited to properly integrate
> > your work into the existing Debian infrastructure (like useing a kernel
> > based on linux-2.6, make your modifications so that they are acceptable
> > to the d-i team). My d-i knowledge is a bit rusty, but I think I know
> > the basic things and could point you in the right direction if you have
> > any questions.
> 
> I was planning to use the kernel package in pkg-fso, at least at the
> beginning, because I don't know the main differences yet.
> I'm interested in having a clean kernel package, however, I have no
> experience in kernel hacking.

You should definitely contact luca. He was the one creating the
first pkg-fso kernel package and he is the one working on a Debian
main package afair. For the Debian main kernel package I believe
most drivers could be done with module-assitant. The mainline kernel
should provide CPU and audio support at least. As far as I know
there is still no support for the display and touchscreen stuff,
which is probably the crunchpoint. Apart from this the vibrator didn't
work when I compiled the driver as module instead of compiling support
into the kernel.

-- Sebastian
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