gNewSense metad was going be the next major version of gNewSense. Parkes will now be the next major version, based on Debian Squeeze instead of Debian Lenny. MetaD (and Parkes when available) supports the mipsel architecture (Lemote Yeeloong). MetaD is a work in progress and could have used some polishing, but it is both usable and 100% free already, and will probably remain similar to its current state until Parkes becomes available. The instructions in this page refer to installing the mipsel version of metad.
Please do NOT add any sort of information about Lemote, the Yeeloong netbook or other distributions here. Such information is available in Lemote.
Contents
Installation
A simplified version of this processes can be found in a PDF here.
To install, see the following steps:
Check that bug 32865 has been fixed. If it is not yet fixed, submit patches or install with debootstrap. Use the same script as for squeeze and point it at gNewSense mirror URL (as opposed to the official Debian mirror).
Obtain a netboot image: download initrd.gz and vmlinuz.
- Boot the image
- For USB boot:
Copy vmlinuz and initrd.gz to a USB disk. USB disk must be well formatted in ext2 (a sudo fdisk -l should give no error on /dev/sda), FAT32 doesn't work.
Power up the machine and press the <DEL> key to get to the PMON2000 prompt.
- Type:
load (usb0,0)/vmlinuz initrd (usb0,0)/initrd.gz g console=tty no_auto_cmd
Notes: you may have to type the load command twice. The initrd command takes around 3 minutes on Lemote Yeeloong. If there is no valid network connection, the system will try and boot its hard disk.
- For TFTP boot:
Copy vmlinuz and initrd.gz to your TFTP server.
Power up the machine and press the <DEL> key to get to PMON2000 prompt and type:
ifaddr rtl0 <addr.of.your.laptop> # to set the ip address of your Yeeloong, e.g. 192.168.1.31 load tftp://<addr.of.your.tftp-server>/vmlinuz # to load the linux image on your tftp server, e.g. 192.168.1.30 initrd tftp://<addr.of.your.tftp-server>/initrd.gz # to load the initial ram disk image g console=tty no_auto_cmd # to set the console
- For USB boot:
- Follow the installer process. Note that if you get errors after partitioning along the lines of "couldn't write partition table to disk because it is busy", you will need to reboot and restart the installation, at which time the install will work (sometimes a reboot is required for the installer to see the partition table changes).
- For GRUB, the installer will ask 2 things:
- Linux command line
- Linux default command line See the GRUB section for what these should be.
Note: sometimes, GRUB won't be installed by the installer. Read further to know how to boot your installed system with the USB key (or TFTP).
Once finished, you can check which disks are available and which kernel is installed with:
devls dir (wd0,0)/boot
If you installed your system at the first partition of the first hard drive, it can be booted with:
load (wd0,0)/boot/vmlinux-2.6.31.6-libre1 initrd (wd0,0)/boot/initrd.img-2.6.31.6-libre1 g console=tty no_auto_cmd root=/dev/hda1 rootdelay=8
If, for instance, you installed gNewSense to the third partition of the internal disk, you'll have to change (wd0,0) to (wd0,2) and hda1 to hda3. Note: if the dir (wd0,0)/boot command gives you only one delo.2nd file, you have to boot your installed system from USB key (or TFTP):
load (usb0,0)/vmlinux-2.6.31.6-libre1 g console=tty no_auto_cmd root=/dev/hda1 rootdelay=8 machtype=8.9
Once you are on your system, install the kernel you want:
sudo aptitude update sudo aptitude install linux-image-2.6.xx.y-libre-lemote
Where xx and y are numbers, see Kernels section in this page.
The default load and the g parameters are saved respectively in the "al" and "karg" variables. To make your system boot gNewSense it is sufficient to set the al variable:
set al (wd0,0)/boot/vmlinux-2.6.31.6-libre1
Note that loading a symlink from the BIOS, like /boot/vmlinux which points to the right kernel, does not work. The actual kernel is expected. This means that you need to upgrade this variable each time when you install a new kernel. An alternative would be a hard link or a copy of the file to a static name. On the other hand, loading initrd through a symlink does work.
GRUB
GRUB is the preferred way of booting gNewSense. If you need to manually configure it, add the following menu entry to your /boot/boot.cfg file:
default 0
timeout 0
showmenu 0
title Boot with GRUB
kernel (wd0,0)/boot/grub.elf
args some-dummy-string Note: some-dummy-string is required to work around a bug which causes grub to fail loading. Also make sure that /etc/default/grub has these lines (run sudo update-grub for changes to take effect):
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet" GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="console=tty no_auto_cmd machtype=8.9"
PMON2000 Boot file (boot.cfg)
If you would rather avoid grub, you can try booting directly using PMON2000. Assuming you have installed your system on /dev/hda1, your boot file (/boot.cfg or /boot/boot.cfg) should have the following parameters (adjust kernel and partition numbers to your own setup):
default 0
timeout 3
showmenu 1
title gNewSense metad - hda1
kernel (wd0,0)/boot/vmlinux-2.6.27.7-libre
initrd (wd0,0)/boot/initrd.img-2.6.27.7-libre
args console=tty no_auto_cmd root=/dev/hda1 rootdelay=8
title gNewSense metad - rescue via USB
kernel (usb0,0)/boot/rescue
args root=/dev/sda1 console=tty no_auto_cmd rootdelay=7
#initrd (usb0,0)/boot/initrd.img
title gNewSense metad - reinstall via USB
kernel (usb0,0)/gns/vmlinux
initrd (usb0,0)/gns/initrd.gz
args console=tty no_auto_cmd
Correct gNewSense metad sources.list
# Primary repositories deb http://archive.gnewsense.org/gnewsense-three/gnewsense metad main deb-src http://archive.gnewsense.org/gnewsense-three/gnewsense metad main ## gnewsense security deb http://archive.gnewsense.org/gnewsense-three/gnewsense-security metad/updates main deb-src http://archive.gnewsense.org/gnewsense-three/gnewsense-security metad/updates main
Correct gNewSense parkes sources.list
The next target for a gNewSense release is codenamed "Parkes", these sources entries will work for that release:
# Primary repositories deb http://archive.gnewsense.org/gnewsense-three/gnewsense parkes main deb-src http://archive.gnewsense.org/gnewsense-three/gnewsense parkes main ## gnewsense security deb http://archive.gnewsense.org/gnewsense-three/gnewsense-security parkes/updates main deb-src http://archive.gnewsense.org/gnewsense-three/gnewsense-security parkes/updates main
Kernels
Linux 2.6.37
This kernel changes /dev/hda* to /dev/sda*. Edit /etc/fstab, grub.cfg and boot.cfg accordingly. Failing to do so will either prevent your Yeeloong from booting or break suspend to disk.
apm is gone since >2.6.32. pm-suspend still works. You can also cat to /sys/power/state.
This image has not been tested much yet.
Linux 2.6.32.9
This is the latest available kernel. Includes latest logo 100gnu+freedo
Install with:
sudo apt-get install linux-image-2.6.32.9-libre-lemote
To know whether machtype=8.9 is required, see the mail from Alexandre Oliva on gNewSense-dev mailing-list.
Linux 2.6.32.3
New features:
- a GNU logo next to Freedo
- built to avoid CPU lock-ups
If you don't have it yet you can install it with:
sudo apt-get install linux-image-2.6.32.3-libre-lemote
This kernel still needs the machtype=8.9 boot parameter.
Linux 2.6.32.2
It shows Freedo when you boot it. If you don't have it yet you can install it with:
sudo apt-get install linux-image-2.6.32.2-libre-lemote
To make power off and suspend work, add the machtype=8.9 boot parameter. E.g. in boot.cfg:
args console=tty no_auto_cmd root=/dev/hda1 resume=/dev/hda2 rootdelay=8 machtype=8.9
Linux 2.6.31.6
Install it with:
sudo apt-get install linux-image-2.6.31.6-libre1
To make wifi start at boot time make sure you have yeeloong-base installed.
Linux 2.6.30.9
I packaged a deblobbed derivative of Linux 2.6.30.9 from Lemote's loongson branch.
Improvements: it provides working wifi, apm, webcam by default.
Install it with:
sudo apt-get install linux-image-2.6.30.9-libre++
If you use the wireless chip, don't forget to install its driver, which is packaged separately:
sudo apt-get install linux-rtl8187-yeeloong-2.6.30.9
-- Robert Millan
Linux 2.6.27.7
You can install a linux with beta suspend-resume (to disk only) support by following the instructions at the rms linux for you page.
Note: It appears that lemote ships newer Yeeloongs with 2.6.27.1 linux with s2disk; this may be a stable Linux with suspend/resume support. We are investigating.
Network
If your network connections are managed by NetworkManager (default in a regular desktop setup) then make sure that only the "lo" interface is configured in /etc/network/interfaces: comment or remove all lines referring to other interface (e.g. eth0, wlan0). After rebooting it could be that you can't connect properly. If that's the case then re-try a few times by clicking on the NetworkManager icon and then your network interface.
Wireless may not be working, you have to activate wlan0 interface first (see Documentation/Wireless). A bug has also been reported.
Bugs
File your bug reports at Savannah, under Category "gNewSense 3" and Item Group "mipsel". Check if your problem hasn't been reported already first.
Xserver "(EE) Silicon MotionCannot read V_BIOS (5)" error
For those of you who get this error with the X.org Xserver refusing to start up with this error do:
sudo apt-get remove xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
Then restart your computer.
Reference (mailing list): http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnewsense-users/2009-09/msg00110.html