2. Flashing The Multiboot Kernel
The
OpenEmbedded guys came up with kexecboot some time ago, a small kernel image used as multiboot menu. It is capable of booting all sorts of distro's. For instance, buy yourself a 4Gb SD card, split it up in, let's say 4 equally sized partitions, and install whatever you like on each partition, whether it be the original Sharp ROM, pdaXrom, Cacko, Angstrom, Debian or OpenBSD. Just make sure you install Zubuntu of course. A simple reboot lets you choose which distro to start. Because the multiboot kernel is very small, this also works for the older devices with less flash memory. Great stuff!
So hopefully this is one of the last times you needed to flash your Zaurus. From now on, if you want to try some distro, simply extract the filesystem on a CF or SD memory card. Multiple partitions are supported, and multiple filesystems (gzip, cramfs, romfs, xfs, minix, ext3, ext2, reiserfs, jfs). Simply create a /boot directory in the root of the filesystem. Rename the the kernel image to zImage and copy it into the /boot directory. Create a file named kernel-cmdline containing the kernel startup command line and optionally add a file named image.nfo containing a description of the distro, all in the /boot directory. After rebooting the device your new distro will show up in the boot menu automatically.
Installation of the multiboot kernel on the Zaurus is done in the usual way:
1. Download the kernel for your device from one of the options below, and put the kernel together with the generic
updater.sh onto a FAT formatted SD memory card. You can check the integrity of the downloaded files with the
md5sum <filename> command. The checksum should match the hash value on the right.
Make sure there isn't floating an initrd.bin file around on the SD card!
2. Remove battery and power adapter cable
3. Wait for 5 seconds
4. Replace battery, close and lock battery cover
5. Attach power adapter cable
6. Keep OK button pressed while pressing on/off switch
7. From the Japanese menu, choose option 4 (Update), then 2 (SD) and finally Y
Flashing starts, and the kernel is flashed. After flashing is complete, the machine is rebooted.
Now make sure you exchange the FAT formatted SD for the ext2/ext3 formatted SD with the Zubuntu filesystem. If you weren't quick enough, don't despair, do the exchange and reboot again.
If you've done everything right, the bootmenu is displayed like below (with one option to start with).
