Mailing List Archive

On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 12:12 PM, wireless <wireless@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
> On 10/05/11 13:06, wireless wrote:
>> Hello,
>> Anyone set up embedded linux on an ARM (A8 or A9)
>> based chip?
>
> Sorry for being unclear:
> Anyone set up embedded Gentoo on an ARM (A8 or A9)
> based netbook? (
>
> Asus Eee Transformer or such?)
> If so which make or model?
>
> Caveats?
>
>
>> Anyone working on an early version of the A15 chip
>> with embedded linux?
>
>> If so, got any notes or information related to
>> the installation process?
>
>
> James
>
>
>

I do, on my EfikaMX smartbook, the only caveats being that some parts
are non-free, though I have sources, so I need to re-write the ebuilds
and build the tarballs for it still. I've been installing gnome 3.2
on there, so it's going a bit slow at the moment. One caveat of using
a "modern" desktop-y system is that consolekit seems to need
CONFIG_AUDITSYSCALL which doesn't exist for ARM devices yet.

--
Best Regards,
Steev

Steev Klimaszewski <steev@genesi-usa.com>
Senior Software Engineer, Genesi USA, Inc.

On 10/05/11 14:05, Steev Klimaszewski wrote:

>> Anyone set up embedded Gentoo on an ARM (A8 or A9)
>> based netbook? (


> I do, on my EfikaMX smartbook, the only caveats being that some parts
> are non-free, though I have sources, so I need to re-write the ebuilds
> and build the tarballs for it still. I've been installing gnome 3.2
> on there, so it's going a bit slow at the moment. One caveat of using
> a "modern" desktop-y system is that consolekit seems to need
> CONFIG_AUDITSYSCALL which doesn't exist for ARM devices yet.


Ah, this is good news, I was just looking at the A8 version.

Do you have minicom working on the usb ports (using an FTDI
usb-2-serial chip?).

Have you cobbled together some sort of wired ethernet
(usb-2-ethernet) of some type or do you just use
wireless Ethernet?

You gonna put a doc into the hadbook like trimslice?



http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/base/embedded/handbook/?part=4&chap=10


I'm itching to do this, but, I wanted to wait on the A15 chip
(Omap5). Alas I may jump in before that A15 is shipping....


James

On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 1:40 PM, wireless <wireless@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
> On 10/05/11 14:05, Steev Klimaszewski wrote:
>
>>> Anyone set up embedded Gentoo on an ARM (A8 or A9)
>>> based netbook? (
>
>
>> I do, on my EfikaMX smartbook, the only caveats being that some parts
>> are non-free, though I have sources, so I need to re-write the ebuilds
>> and build the tarballs for it still.  I've been installing gnome 3.2
>> on there, so it's going a bit slow at the moment.  One caveat of using
>> a "modern" desktop-y system is that consolekit seems to need
>> CONFIG_AUDITSYSCALL which doesn't exist for ARM devices yet.
>
>
> Ah, this is good news, I was just looking at the A8 version.
>
> Do you have minicom working on the usb ports (using an FTDI
> usb-2-serial chip?).

Being as I work for Genesi (see my sig) I have a debug board, when I
need it (technically I don't since I had to give mine up but if I
needed to I could get one from someone else in the company) worst case
scenario, if something bad happens I can boot from an SD card and fix
it.

> Have you cobbled together some sort of wired ethernet
> (usb-2-ethernet) of some type or do you just use
> wireless Ethernet?

I use wifi on the smartbook, but the default config for the 2.6.31
kernel in use has support for all usb->ethernet devices.

> You gonna put a doc into the hadbook like trimslice?
>

I thought there was one floating around somewhere. Eventually I
might, but I don't have as much free time as I would like, and I
dislike xml, so if I did, I'd make a text file and shoot it off to
armin76 or nightmorph or someone to make it all pretty for the web.

>
> http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/base/embedded/handbook/?part=4&chap=10
>
>
> I'm itching to do this, but, I wanted to wait on the A15 chip
> (Omap5). Alas I may jump in before that A15 is shipping....

Being as our company uses Freescale chips, I'm looking forward to the
mx6, although it will probably be a while before anything comes out in
the consumer space based on it. Quad core will be nice.

>
> James
>
>
>
>
>



--
Best Regards,
Steev

Steev Klimaszewski <steev@genesi-usa.com>
Senior Software Engineer, Genesi USA, Inc.

> Being as I work for Genesi (see my sig) I have a debug board, when I
> need it (technically I don't since I had to give mine up but if I
> needed to I could get one from someone else in the company) worst case
> scenario, if something bad happens I can boot from an SD card and fix
> it.

Um that's good to know. sorry for being un_observant....

> I use wifi on the smartbook, but the default config for the 2.6.31
> kernel in use has support for all usb->ethernet devices.

Good to know


> I thought there was one floating around somewhere.

http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/base/embedded/handbook/?part=4&chap=8

Not my day for astute observations.....

> Being as our company uses Freescale chips, I'm looking forward to the
> mx6, although it will probably be a while before anything comes out in
> the consumer space based on it. Quad core will be nice.

Yep, very cool. Know what would be keen?

Put a Jtag connection to the outside case for experimenters
to use, as well as any extra Digital or Analog IO not used
by the genesi build out. You know a "hackers's ARM netbook"
since we're chatting.....

Do We get an embedded linux discount on these netbooks?

What the timeframe to ship the quad core?

I'm most likely to run kde on this pup....
So do you do "native compiles" or cross-compile
everything new you add?


James