Debian on NAND

[oldpenguin]

oops 
Looks like an old problem

https://www.olimex.com/forum/index.php?topic=538.msg2550#msg2550

I've made it so far and now I can't  program the damned image !
I don't have access to Win7 64 bits.
Any ideas ?

BTW why do they use Windows so much in China ?

[oldpenguin]

Update !
I resorted to an old faithfull win XP and managed to program the flash
(Driver installed, start livesuit, start board in fel mode and SysUpdate. The sw makes lots of comments about deleting essential files on flash. I just answered yes to everything)

Linux boots ups !

And now the bad surprise: /lib folder is empty ! So the system is isolated from the world and I have no way to put anything inside.

I checked and confirm that a13_olinuxino_hwpack has been created with correct rootfs under sunxi-bsp, but rootfs.ext4 /lib is empty. Don't known why it hasn't been copied.

Time to retry.

[olimex]

we have some progress today with the help of HEHOPMAJIEH
tomorrow if we are lucky will have Debian XFCE4 image which could be burned to A13-OLinuXino-WIFI NAND

[oldpenguin]

That would be fantastic !
I did manage to generate and program images, but I am struggling with all kind of difficulties.
First I have to manually populate the rootfs.ext4 with kernel modules and call make hwpack after.
Then I tried to activate the 4.3" LCD. Changed the a13_olinuxino.fex and called make livesuit ROOTFS=rootfs.ext4 but it didn't solve. The only way it worked was booting up, mount the nanda partition and change both script.bin and script0.bin
Finally I ended up with a very small root partition (347MB). I also have a nandd partition that is not mountable.
I will have to dig further into the scripts to check if there is some way to changed the partitions size.
But if a pre-built image is available, I will be very happy.

[techn]

And now the bad surprise: /lib folder is empty ! So the system is isolated from the world and I have no way to put anything inside.

I checked and confirm that a13_olinuxino_hwpack has been created with correct rootfs under sunxi-bsp, but rootfs.ext4 /lib is empty. Don't known why it hasn't been copied.

This sounds like that you are booting to initfs.

called make livesuit ROOTFS=rootfs.ext4 but it didn't solve

Currently it doesn't support .ext4 extension but gzipped rootfs. I'll try to add support for ext4 too.

[oldpenguin]

Hi techn

And now the bad surprise: /lib folder is empty ! So the system is isolated from the world and I have no way to put anything inside.

I checked and confirm that a13_olinuxino_hwpack has been created with correct rootfs under sunxi-bsp, but rootfs.ext4 /lib is empty. Don't known why it hasn't been copied.

This sounds like that you are booting to initfs.

I dont't think so. If I populate my rootfs.ext4 manually, this information will appear in the generated image. I'm just complaining that the lib/modules directory is not being copied automatically.

called make livesuit ROOTFS=rootfs.ext4 but it didn't solve

Currently it doesn't support .ext4 extension but gzipped rootfs. I'll try to add support for ext4 too.

I managed to changed the rootfs partition size modifying allwinner-tools/livesuit/a13/default/sys_config_linux.fex
Unfortunately, after boot, the partition size always reports 347M (with df -h), although fdisk -l reports the correct size.

[techn]

I dont't think so. If I populate my rootfs.ext4 manually, this information will appear in the generated image. I'm just complaining that the lib/modules directory is not being copied automatically.

Didn't notice that part on your post
You are right. lib/modules isn't copied there automaticly. modules are located in fat partition.
I did this on purpose. Plan was to add symbolic link from fat partition to to rootfs. That way you don't need to modify rootfs partition everytime you update kernel.

But suggestion welcome

I managed to changed the rootfs partition size modifying allwinner-tools/livesuit/a13/default/sys_config_linux.fex
Unfortunately, after boot, the partition size always reports 347M (with df -h), although fdisk -l reports the correct size.

347M most likely comes from rootfs.ext4 size. Maybe there is way to make partition larger without increasing file size. Patches welcome.

Btw. I noticed that Ithamar is proceeding with OSS packing tools. Maybe soon we will get replacement.
https://github.com/Ithamar/awutils

[usernaME]

Hi, what about Debian on NAND??? some good news?

[oldpenguin]

Unfortunately no

I confirmed a few days ago that mtd drivers are still in experimental state in u-boot and kernel.

So, there is still no reliable way of running something from NAND flash.

It sure works if you just want to play with it. I've been running debian on flash for months, but I won't even try to put something like that in production.

[Neksn]

Hello,

this post was no update almost 2 years, I want know is there any update or solution for Linux on NAND?

Thank you

Neksn