LeTux OS


johnicboom

johnicboom

Fresh as a buzzard
Joined
May 3, 2016
Messages
76
Age
42
Location
Chicago, IL, USA
Trying to boot the latest LeTux OS on the Pyra after seeing Askarus' post here:

Maintained list of all remaining issues. Call to help.

At the time of writing this, I am working hard on the hardware side to finally get the Pyra production up and running again. However, there is also a lot of work that needs to be done on the software side. First, there are several issues that never got fixed since the beginning, Second, Debian...
pyra-handheld.com pyra-handheld.com

Here's how I prepared my SD Card (info from here: https://projects.goldelico.com/p/gta04-makesd/):

In my Downloads folder:
wget -O makesd "https://git.goldelico.com/?p=gta04-makesd.git;a=blob_plain;hb=HEAD;f=makesd" chmod +x makesd

Double-checked SD Card device (Pyra's left SD slot):
sudo fdisk -l
mine is mmcblk3

Wrote image to SD card:
sudo DEV=/dev/mmcblk3 ./makesd pyra-4gb

This boots to tty1, but no Fn keys work, so I can't type most symbols. This is what I see:
LeTux-Stable-Pyra4gb-Sm.png


Askarus, is this how it fails for you and ED?

I tried adding "-v stable" like this:
sudo DEV=/dev/mmcblk3 ./makesd -v stable pyra-4gb
and it appears to be the exact same image as not specifying a version.

I tried adding "-v latest", but it can't find this file:
"!! could not find https://download.goldelico.com/letux-debian-rootfs/latest-armhf-pyraos.tbz

I tried adding "-v unstable", but it can't find the kernel file:
"could not find https://download.goldelico.com/letux-kernel/unstable-lpae/uImage

I didn't have a ton of time today, but I'll dig into this some more this week and see what I can find out. If anyone has any pointers, I'm all eyes and ears.
 
This is more that what we got. For us, the installer failed. Maybe there was some update within the last few months since we have tried.
It is great news that you were able to get it to boot.
I do not call this a failure.

It most likely does not have funkeymonkey/pyrainput, so it is natural that the fn keys do not work. I guess you need to ssh into t or use an external keyboard.
Can you type "-" (FN+X) if so, you can type underscore via FN+SHIFT+X.

EDIT:
I will definitely give it an other try. This already helps a lot. I am not sure if I will do this today because I need a bit of a break after all those news post and an other day spent on finally fixing the keyboard on Bookworm.

Being able to boot LeTux should be enough.

If you want to help me further, see how easily we can get a network connection. Not sure if USB to LAN works. If that is the case, then I can install XFCE and Modemmanager to test LTE.

If you have an LTE version and want to test the modem, you can enable/disable it via
Code: 
sudo /usr/share/pyra/scripts/letux/wwan-on
sudo /usr/share/pyra/scripts/letux/wwan-off

At least that is how it is done on the Pyra.
 
Last edited:
Pyra keyboard can't type anything that needs the Fn keys, so:
- _ /
are all not possible for me. As you suggested, an external keyboard works perfectly.

I am able to connect to wifi by doing the following, though it's possible one of the first 2 steps is redundant. I need to reflash my sd card later and see exactly what is needed:
ifconfig wlan0 up

Since running
ip link
still showed that wlan0 was DOWN, I ran:
ip link set wlan0 up

To save my WiFi network name & key:
wpa_passphrase WLAN_NAME WLAN_PASSWORD > /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
replacing WLAN_NAME with my actual SSID, and WLAN_PASSWORD with my actual password

Connected using the wext driver, hoping it would work:
wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -D wext

Turned on DHCP:
dhclient wlan0

I could ping 8.8.8.8, so I tried an
apt update
and it worked! :D

Finally, I tried installing XFCE:
apt install xfce4
when asked, I chose lightdm, and then over-wrote /etc/x11/xinit/xserverrc with the package maintainer's version.

I can't start XFCE using
startxfce4
LeTux_XFCE4_Error-Sm.png

I foolishly did not check that log before shutting down. :oops:

I can try again later today or tomorrow, now that I've refreshed my SD Card with a fresh LeTux. I'm sure I made a novice mistake or am just missing something important. We'll see!
 
Last edited:
johnicboom said:
Pyra keyboard can't type anything that needs the Fn keys, so:
- _ /
are all not possible for me. As you suggested, an external keyboard works perfectly.

I am able to connect to wifi by doing the following, though it's possible one of the first 2 steps is redundant. I need to reflash my sd card later and see exactly what is needed:
ifconfig wlan0 up

Since running
ip link
still showed that wlan0 was DOWN, I ran:
ip link set up

To save my WiFi network name & key:
wpa_passphrase WLAN_NAME WLAN_PASSWORD > /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
replacing WLAN_NAME with my actual SSID, and WLAN_PASSWORD with my actual password

Connected using the wext driver, hoping it would work:
wpa_supplicant -B -i wlp3s0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -D wext

Turned on DHCP:
dhclient wlan0

I could ping 8.8.8.8, so I tried an
apt update
and it worked! :D

Finally, I tried installing XFCE:
apt install xfce4
when asked, I chose lightdm, and then over-wrote /etc/x11/xinit/xserverrc with the package maintainer's version.

I can't start XFCE using
startxfce4
View attachment 39324
I foolishly did not check that log before shutting down. :oops:

I can try again later today or tomorrow, now that I've refreshed my SD Card with a fresh LeTux. I'm sure I made a novice mistake or am just missing something important. We'll see!
Click to expand...

Man, this is super valuable information. Thank you. It will save me a lot of time once I am back to investigating the LTE issue.
 
Okay, I had a chance to run through at least the wifi connection on a fresh LeTux flashing.

We do not need the ip link command, so to connect to wifi, here's the whole process after booting:

Username is:
root
Password is empty, so just hit enter to log in

Enable the wireless interface (found using the command iwconfig)
ifconfig wlan0 up

Save my WiFi network name & key:
wpa_passphrase WLAN_NAME WLAN_PASSWORD > /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
(replacing WLAN_NAME with my actual SSID, and WLAN_PASSWORD with my actual password)

Connect using the wext driver:
wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -D wext

Turn on DHCP:
dhclient wlan0


Now to work on getting into xfce.

PS: I did have a mistake with the device name in the connection step in my original attempt, so I corrected it in that post to not throw anyone off, and it's correct in this one now, too.
 
Okay, wait. You say the login in `root`.
"Some stuff behaves differently as root, especially graphical stuff.

Maybe you want to create a regular user and log in as that one.
It is just a guess but there is some chance that X may behave differently as root.

Tomorrow we will be out for Gamescom. One Tuesday we set up the booth. Before or after that there will be some free time for me. I'll put LeTux on my list.
 
I haven't had a chance to do much digging in that direction, yet, sorry.

One of the things I did do, though, was add a new user "john" and try with that, but I'm getting the error
Fatal server error: (EE) no screens found(EE)
in my xserver log, which is the same error I got as root.

I did some quick searching but didn't find a solution, yet. I'll have more time to poke around tomorrow morning.

I really appreciate the suggestions. Sorry I'm not more knowledgeable, but stuff like this helps me learn, so maybe one day I will be. :)

Hope you and everyone with you has a great time at Gamescom

I also reflashed my sd card a different way, so it starts with xfce4:
./makesd pyra-4gb -r xfce4
I know you said it didn't really matter, but I was hoping maybe it would work better than the default setup, but that's where I see that "no screens found" error. I'll go back to the default setup and verify it's the same before introducing other possible issues by deviating from the standard.
 
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I suggest using sudo instead of logging on as root. Only use it for admin don't run X11. Safer and better chance of things working as an unprivileged user, which is the goal.
 
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johnicboom said:
In my Downloads folder:
wget -O makesd "https://git.goldelico.com/?p=gta04-makesd.git;a=blob_plain;hb=HEAD;f=makesd" chmod +x makesd

Double-checked SD Card device (Pyra's left SD slot):
sudo fdisk -l
mine is mmcblk3

Wrote image to SD card:
sudo DEV=/dev/mmcblk3 ./makesd pyra-4gb
Click to expand...

Okay, I did that.
  • SD Card was in the left slot off my Pyra
  • The installation ended successfully
  • I shut down my Pyra
  • SD card still is in the left SD card slot
  • I reboot
  • -> Pyra boots into emmc
So my issue is that my Pyra simply won't boot from the LeTux card.
I can boot our SD card that we use for testing without any issues.
 
Okay, on Discord we did a lot of testing and apparently I can not get it to work.

The SD card acts as if it has no OS installed. It misses some boot parameter.
Maybe someone can find out what it is.

I'd love if a few other people who own a Pyra could make a LeTux SD card and see if it works for them.
It's just this and does not take long.
Do it on your Pyra to be save

johnicboom said:
In my Downloads folder:
wget -O makesd "https://git.goldelico.com/?p=gta04-makesd.git;a=blob_plain;hb=HEAD;f=makesd" chmod +x makesd

Double-checked SD Card device (Pyra's left SD slot):
sudo fdisk -l
mine is mmcblk3

Wrote image to SD card:
sudo DEV=/dev/mmcblk3 ./makesd pyra-4gb
Click to expand...
 
My knowledge is only based on LeTux SD cards for the OpenPandora. If the OpenPandora should boot from SD card the right shoulder button must be pressed during power on and than the SD card can be chosen a boot source. To skip the steps a file in the rootfs of the SD card can be added to trigger the boot from SD card without interaction.

Maybe there is something similar for the Pyra. Just have a look root folder of the partitions from your testing SD card and see if there is an additional (text) file not present on the LeTux SD card.
 
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Here's an image of my LeTux 16GB SD card:

This is the command I used to create it:
sudo dd if=/dev/mmcblk3 of=/media/john/Pyra_SD/Images/LeTux_Pyra-4gb_16GBcard.img bs=1M status=progress

There is a text file on the root of the "rootfs" partition called makesd.info:
+++ this system was created by makesd (https://projects.goldelico.com/p/gta04-makesd/) at Wed 28 Aug 2024 08:27:49 AM CDT +++ DEV=/dev/mmcblk3 ./makesd pyra-4gb 1: fat p: s:5% n:boot b:/+https://download.goldelico.com/letux-u-boot/Pyra+LC15-4GB/stable/* k:/+https://download.goldelico.com/letux-kernel/stable-lpae/uImage dt:/+https://download.goldelico.com/letux-kernel/stable-lpae/device-trees.tbz r:none m:none c:none 2: ext4 p: s:95% n:rootfs b:/+none k:/+none dt:/+none r:https://download.goldelico.com/letux-debian-rootfs/stable-armhf-pyraos.tbz m:https://download.goldelico.com/letux-kernel/stable-lpae/modules.tgz c:none 3: none p: s:0% n: b:/+none k:/+none dt:/+none r:none m:none c:none 4: none p: s:0% n: b:/+none k:/+none dt:/+none r:none m:none c:none

And one on the root of the "boot" partition called uEnv.txt:
# fdtfile=omap5-letux-cortex15+pyra.dtb bootdir=/ bootfile=uImage bootfilecmd=bootm console=ttyO2,115200n8
 
johnicboom said:
Here's an image of my LeTux 16GB SD card:

This is the command I used to create it:
sudo dd if=/dev/mmcblk3 of=/media/john/Pyra_SD/Images/LeTux_Pyra-4gb_16GBcard.img bs=1M status=progress

There is a text file on the root of the "rootfs" partition called makesd.info:
+++ this system was created by makesd (https://projects.goldelico.com/p/gta04-makesd/) at Wed 28 Aug 2024 08:27:49 AM CDT +++ DEV=/dev/mmcblk3 ./makesd pyra-4gb 1: fat p: s:5% n:boot b:/+https://download.goldelico.com/letux-u-boot/Pyra+LC15-4GB/stable/* k:/+https://download.goldelico.com/letux-kernel/stable-lpae/uImage dt:/+https://download.goldelico.com/letux-kernel/stable-lpae/device-trees.tbz r:none m:none c:none 2: ext4 p: s:95% n:rootfs b:/+none k:/+none dt:/+none r:https://download.goldelico.com/letux-debian-rootfs/stable-armhf-pyraos.tbz m:https://download.goldelico.com/letux-kernel/stable-lpae/modules.tgz c:none 3: none p: s:0% n: b:/+none k:/+none dt:/+none r:none m:none c:none 4: none p: s:0% n: b:/+none k:/+none dt:/+none r:none m:none c:none

And one on the root of the "boot" partition called uEnv.txt:
# fdtfile=omap5-letux-cortex15+pyra.dtb bootdir=/ bootfile=uImage bootfilecmd=bootm console=ttyO2,115200n8
Click to expand...
Thanks, downloading.
 
No idea, sorry for the noise, but are you using a regular Pyra or an early prototype to test it? IF a prototype, might teh boot order have changed or something ? some handling of some mux for emmc or SD ? I don't know. MAybe it's the hardware booting first from emmc, and not the image...
 
johnicboom said:
Here's an image of my LeTux 16GB SD card:

This is the command I used to create it:
sudo dd if=/dev/mmcblk3 of=/media/john/Pyra_SD/Images/LeTux_Pyra-4gb_16GBcard.img bs=1M status=progress

There is a text file on the root of the "rootfs" partition called makesd.info:
+++ this system was created by makesd (https://projects.goldelico.com/p/gta04-makesd/) at Wed 28 Aug 2024 08:27:49 AM CDT +++ DEV=/dev/mmcblk3 ./makesd pyra-4gb 1: fat p: s:5% n:boot b:/+https://download.goldelico.com/letux-u-boot/Pyra+LC15-4GB/stable/* k:/+https://download.goldelico.com/letux-kernel/stable-lpae/uImage dt:/+https://download.goldelico.com/letux-kernel/stable-lpae/device-trees.tbz r:none m:none c:none 2: ext4 p: s:95% n:rootfs b:/+none k:/+none dt:/+none r:https://download.goldelico.com/letux-debian-rootfs/stable-armhf-pyraos.tbz m:https://download.goldelico.com/letux-kernel/stable-lpae/modules.tgz c:none 3: none p: s:0% n: b:/+none k:/+none dt:/+none r:none m:none c:none 4: none p: s:0% n: b:/+none k:/+none dt:/+none r:none m:none c:none

And one on the root of the "boot" partition called uEnv.txt:
# fdtfile=omap5-letux-cortex15+pyra.dtb bootdir=/ bootfile=uImage bootfilecmd=bootm console=ttyO2,115200n8
Click to expand...

[ 3.472953] ---[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(179,2) ]---

I tried via both, Etcher and dd. No luck. Your image gets recognized and boots bot leads to the kernel panic above.
I tested a 32 and a 16 gb card.
 
Oh, wow. At least that's better than we were doing, I guess... I wonder if makesd will create a card that will boot for you now.
 
No idea. MAybe send the whole log ?
Is your kernel command line right ? is there a root= parameter with the right device ? Is that device brought up ok?
 
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