Debian armhf

[Linux-SWAT]

Again, i highly doubt these problems comes from the kernel.


You should use a stable for now, getting a fully working OS, then play with unstable after. This way, you work with safety, and avoid losing time on random bugs.

 

[smilnovi]

I have tried installing wheezy (armhf doesn't exist in stable, wheezy will become stable 7.0), which is testing version of Debian, and I have similar situation. Random crashes, segfaults. So, either both unstable and testing debian armhf are... unstable, or something else is in question. I do remember that a longish time ago, libc and kernel liked to be "compiled to each other" (using same header files and stuff, kernel being compiled under the specific version of libc and of course, arhitecture), otherwise you would get a lot of issues similar like I have now. I had firsthand experience with that situation.


The autoboot.txt that you have posted isn't quite ok, it has to be

[I]

setenv bootargs root=/dev/mmcblk0p1 rw rootwait vram=6272K omapfb.vram=0:3000K mmc_core.removable=0

ext2load mmc 0 0x80300000 /boot/uImage

bootm 0x80300000

[/I]

(rw instead of ro) because otherwise I get rootfs mounted as readonly, and then really nothing works.


I will try to either create full qemu environment to compile the kernel, or setup some crosscompile environment, because for now my debian armhf pandora is extremely unstable.


BTW, what does mmc_core.removable=0 option in autoboot does? It marks rootfs as nonremovable and unmountable?

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Never heard of the link between kernel and libc.


Indeed the ro was needed only for Slack.


mmc_core.removable=0 is set to allow suspend to ram without crash.

 

[smilnovi]

Well, it was an dissapointment.


Even with the latest libc package that showed up today morning, the system is still unstable. Compiling kernel didn't help, and you were right again. Well, I had to try, to clear out all of the possibilities.


I will try to narrow down the errors and segfaults so that I can send my reports to the Debian armhf team, but for now, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. In the armel there is no support for omap3, so I'm not sure if it is usable beyond chroot environment. And I'm not sure how can I use x11 apps as an user with chroot.


I'm quite sure Debian guys will clear out the problems eventually, but in the meantime I'll have to decide what to do next.


BTW, about the kernel and libc, it was around 1997, when kernel guys and GNU guys had an issue with libc, and at that time you had to be carefull which kernel and libc combination you were using. Well, it doesn't aplly now. <_<

 

[smilnovi]

Debian just borked totaly, now it won't even update packages for some reason. Well, nevermind, I will wait for the Debian guys to fix this.


In the meantime I'm trying out the Slackware that you have prepared, and I must say that I really really like it. Great work! I think I will become one of the users.


Thank you for your help with Debian armhf, it still needs a lot of work, so I would recommend for anyone willing to try it out, to either wait a couple of months, or be prepared to random crashes and daily fscking of FS...

 

[smilnovi]

Hi to all!

Sorry to reawaken the old thread!

I'd just like to say that I have managed to run the armhf variant on my newly upgraded 1GHz Pandora without any dealbreaking issues, using Zaxxon 3.x kernel. Currently I'm working on it to make it fully usable on pandora, so I'd like to open an topic soon under the "other OS" section, where I think futher discussion about it would be more appropriate.

Hopefully I will be able to make it fully functional as possible. Since it is an armhf ABI most of the existing PNDs won't work, but I think it is an non-issue. Debian has tons of SW available for almost every purpose, also this is an SID version so the bleeding edge stuff is there, and Zaxxon still remains in NAND just an reboot away.

If that is ok, I would like to also update the current wiki page on Debian on SD as I progress in setup.

 

[EvilDragon]

Thanks for that information, sounds promising


I'm continuosly working on adding more information here on our site as well and want to make articles about different OSes as well.


Having ArchARM, Slackware and Debian as SD-Card bootable OS surely is attractive

 

[Linux-SWAT]

I published the SL4P 14.0 build system.

If you don't need to use it, you'll find all things necessary to achieve a complete port.

http://pandorawiki.org/Software_projects/OS/Slackware/Build-system

 

[rohezal]

The hard floating point can improve the speed a small bit, nice to hear it