PanDebian

[Gregor]

Does the pandebian installer write to the rootfs? After reflashing the newest firmware, pandebian doesn't start any more with its loopback file.


Before I'm forced to start over, is there something I can do to the rootfs to make it work again? Thanks

It does not write to the rootfs. It is sensitive to mountpoints though, if your card doesn't have a label and so always mounts as /media/mmcblkwhateverhurfaderp then you need to make sure it mounts as the same name. I don't know if this behavior has changed between firmwares, but it does carry the caveat that if your card has no label, you need to put it in the same slot.


If any of this has changed, you can fix it with some manual intervention by recreating the auto-generated launcher PND.

 

[cosurgi]

... if your card has no label, you need to put it in the same slot.

how can I label a card?


btw, guys, forget ubuntu. It's not ready for pandora. Ubuntu is focused on ease of use, read: crippling stuff. Crippled stuff won't work on Pandora, because Pandora usually uses those parts that aren't useful on other architectures.

 

[Gregor]

how can I label a card?

If your card is FAT and you're not using Windows, you need mtools. I can't help too much with this, but look up mlabel in particular ... you'll just need to configure /etc/mtools.conf to know where to look for the card, then mlabel it. If you're using Windows or Mac OS X, Idonno, poke around in your pretty GUI until a flying paperclip does it for you.


If your card is ext{2,3,4,12,whatever}, tune2fs -L <label> /dev/whatever

 

[the_marshal]

Thank You !　This is great... I installed it and it seem to work fine. Installed Openoffice and some SIP client I will be testing. I only started ekiga for now and it's complaining about not being able to open the alsa device. Haven't really have time to test things properly though.


ALso, I remember there was a "easy debian" for my Nokia N800 which worked pretty much the same way. Installed Openoffice on my N800 actually. It was cool but start-up time were slow. On the Pandora it's performing a lot better (not surprising!). Openoffice interface isn't optimized for small screen but by making the interface smaller and reorganizing things it's not so bad. For those who don't know under the option > display menu it's possible to scale down the interface from the usual 100%.

 

[debernardis]

I have found that, while the wifi internet connection works with programs inside pandebian, the 3g connection with an usb modem (through modemmanager and nertwork manager) does not. Do you have any hint I could fix that?


Thanks

 

[peelie]

can the pnd install to an SD card or does it install to nand?

 

[Gregor]

can the pnd install to an SD card or does it install to nand?

It cannot install to NAND. It can only install to an SD card.

 

[peelie]

can the pnd install to an SD card or does it install to nand?

It cannot install to NAND. It can only install to an SD card.

thanks


this seems really cool, what do you call this not a dual boot debian virtual machine?


anyways anyone know how to get sound working on pandebian?

 

[debernardis]

I have found that, while the wifi internet connection works with programs inside pandebian, the 3g connection with an usb modem (through modemmanager and nertwork manager) does not. Do you have any hint I could fix that?


Thanks

I have someway solved this issue (thanks to the advice of Qole on Maemo forums, who developed the chroot version of Debian for the Maemo devices), and I think that it may need some tweaking on the PanDebian pnd by Gregor.


Basically, /etc/resolv.conf on the chroot is not a link to /etc/resolv.conf on the nand.


I erased the /etc/resolv.conf on the chroot and copied brutally there the /etc/resolv.conf from the nand, and magically 3g internet gets to work.


I also have somme difficulties to understand the role of pandetc directory, and I hope you can give me some light on it.


To solve the problem, first you operate on the real root (nand). You want that the directory /var/run/ppp is hardcoded and not created once the 3g dongle opens an internet connection, so fire up a terminal and do:

sudo mkdir /var/run/ppp

Then you want that in your chroot, /var/run/ppp is the same as real root's (nand) /var/run/ppp. This is because when connecting the 3g dongle and starting connection, /var/run/resolv.conf becomes a symlink to /var/run/ppp/resolv.conf. The lack of it stops internet connection in the chroot, because the chroot as is now has no /var/run/ppp.

To get this result, you need to change the file /mount.sh in the debian chroot, adding the line

mount --bind /var/run/ppp var/run/ppp

after the already existing line mount --bind /var/run etc/pandetc


And that's it. Now when the 3g dongle initiates connectivity, the change in resolv.conf is propagated to the chroot, and the chrooted applications can work with the internetz


I'm going to ask EvilDragon if it's possible to add the /var/run/ppp directory in Hotfix5 so that it's ready when needed and the PanDebian installer need not modify rootfs on his own.


Thanks,


Ernesto

 

[ToastBucket]

Ok, so I'm a little confused. This installs itself to an SD card, so whenever you put in that SD card you have access to whatever apps you've installed through Debian? And once you install this, does Debian need to be installed over this? or will it work once I install the extend.

 

[Gregor]

Ok, so I'm a little confused. This installs itself to an SD card, so whenever you put in that SD card you have access to whatever apps you've installed through Debian? And once you install this, does Debian need to be installed over this? or will it work once I install the extend.

This is not an extend and is separate from the extends system. It installs Debian, as well as a launcher that will active a menu. From that menu you can access Debian and all of its installed apps, as well as install new ones.

 

[ToastBucket]

So I can just put this on an SD card and run it, then when it's done installing that's it? Is it safe to remove the SD card without turning it off?

 

[beatgeek]

For some reason, while Pandebian is running, my wifi keeps cutting out. This has prevented me from being able to download a complete base install of Debian, since it automatically skips things whenever the wifi cuts out. Toggling wifi off/on gets it working again, but it's too late, it's already skipped a bunch of packages. Then when it went to install the packages, it got stuck on extracting bash (I left it going for 2 hours), presumably because it didn't have all the packages it needs?


Another note- when the wifi seems down and I've started Chromium to make sure; when trying to load a webpage it pops up a note at the bottom about using a proxy... I don't know why it's trying a proxy- it never says that while the wifi works.

 

[debernardis]

So I can just put this on an SD card and run it, then when it's done installing that's it? Is it safe to remove the SD card without turning it off?

I wouldn't remove the sd card while pandebian is still running, because this might trash the loopback file. It would be necessary to develop a script to unmount all the directories on the chroot, and the loopback file itself. Same care should be exerted if debian is installed on a real partition.

 

[cosurgi]

Has anyone tried this on HF5? I tried to install two times, and it failed.


I have a 32GB SD card for debian, with last 0.5GB for swap partition. I let pandeboan to reformat the first partition, then I eject and reinsert the card, when asked to do so. Then the installation continues in an xterm, I see some stuff unpacked, etc. And in the end it says that it failed (I know, you want the exact message... but I forgot - I'll tell you the exact message when I'll try next time).


I tried with both lenny and squeeze.


It is a fresh HF5 reinstall. I am installing pandebian without any "fiddling".

 

[debernardis]

Has anyone tried this on HF5? I tried to install two times, and it failed.

I've only propagated my previous install (from some hf5 beta) to my present hf5 and it still works. Didn't try yet to make an install under hf5 final.


FYI I use a loopback file, not a partition. Try this way.

 

[cosurgi]

I tried once again to install, still on a partition, not loopback. And I discovered that the problem is coming from filesystem suddenly becoming read-only during the installation process.


I am running a badblocks check on my SD card, right now.

 

[cosurgi]

badblocks ran OK, no errors.


Has anybody successfully installed PanDebian on a partition?


I am trying once again, on a partition. This time I noticed that there is a /dev/loop0 mounted read-only under /mnt/pnd/PanDebian, and it has only 128kb size. Is that normal?


Currently debowait is downloading all packages, and I can see them appear in /media/PanDebian/var/cache/apt/archives


However, if it will try, after downloading, to install on that very small readonly loopback /mnt/pndPanDebian, then of course it will fail.

 

[debernardis]

I am trying once again, on a partition. This time I noticed that there is a /dev/loop0 mounted read-only under /mnt/pnd/PanDebian, and it has only 128kb size. Is that normal?

I think it contains just Gregor's installer scripts, and is opened by the pnd subsystem when you click on the PanDebian installer.

 

[cosurgi]

ok, I think hat my SD card was faulty. It is installing without any problems so far, for 4h already, on a different card.