FatdogArm Beta1/2/3/4- 16 April 2016

[amj]

@jamesbond

Thank you for your feedback. I had no idea there was a full vs frugal issue as well.

I'm not trying to port fd-arm to RPi2. I was just curious to see if I could get it to boot. That's a much smaller ambition than trying to get it to work! I did get X to start and had the fd-arm desktop on my monitor with the pretty picture of a seagull. And that is as far I will take it. However I am now convinced that it could be ported by someone with sufficient knowledge to do it.

[mories]

@jamesbond
Hardware : BCM2709
This is the information from /proc/cpuinfo necessary to rc.platform.


As you say it is perfectly possible to run FatdogArm as is on RPi2:

a) working kernel, patched with aufs (I think Debian kernels are like this; but make sure that aufs is built-in and not configured as a module)
Berryboot's kernel
b) working kernel modules; 1) collect them, 2) depmod them, and 3) mksquashfs into kernel-modules.sfs and put them inside FatdogArm's initrd.
Berryboot's kernel-modules
c) working bootloader, raspi2 already has one
In config.txt:
initramfs FatdogArm's initrd modified with kernel-modules above
And in cmdline.txt, the paremeters needed for FatdogArm
d) tweak for /etc/rc.d/rc.platform to get stuff prepared at boot time. This really depends on the devices exposed by raspi2; see mories post above for what to do.

[jamesbond]

@jamesbond
Hardware : BCM2709
This is the information from /proc/cpuinfo necessary to rc.platform.


As you say it is perfectly possible to run FatdogArm as is on RPi2:

a) working kernel, patched with aufs (I think Debian kernels are like this; but make sure that aufs is built-in and not configured as a module)
Berryboot's kernel
b) working kernel modules; 1) collect them, 2) depmod them, and 3) mksquashfs into kernel-modules.sfs and put them inside FatdogArm's initrd.
Berryboot's kernel-modules
c) working bootloader, raspi2 already has one
In config.txt:
initramfs FatdogArm's initrd modified with kernel-modules above
And in cmdline.txt, the paremeters needed for FatdogArm
d) tweak for /etc/rc.d/rc.platform to get stuff prepared at boot time. This really depends on the devices exposed by raspi2; see mories post above for what to do.

Thank you mories. I've updated rc.platform per your information. Just two more questions:
a) where can I get this berryboot kernel/modules? All I can see seems to be the installer.
b) The "SwapBuffersWait" parameter in 20-gpudriver.conf - is that really necessary? What happens if we don't use that parameter (ie, use whatever the default is in fbturbo)?

cheers!

[mories]

Thank you mories. I've updated rc.platform per your information. Just two more questions:
a) where can I get this berryboot kernel/modules? All I can see seems to be the installer.
b) The "SwapBuffersWait" parameter in 20-gpudriver.conf - is that really necessary? What happens if we don't use that parameter (ie, use whatever the default is in fbturbo)?

cheers!

a) On the website of berrybot (http://www.berryterminal.com/doku.php/berryboot) is the link for Download Berryboot for the quad-core Raspberry Pi 2 (http://downloads.sourceforge.net/projec ... 2-only.zip)

In that zip are:
- kernel (kernel_rpi2_aufs.img)
- modules and firmware (shared.tgz)

b) I don't know.
I copied this configuration from the Ubuntu Mate distribution for RPi2, and everything seems to work correctly.
I have not checked what happens if you do not specify.

Edit:
I tested running without SwapbuffersWait option, and everything seems to work normally.
Perhaps this parameter is not required, as I read also that "enabled" is the option by default for that parameter in the module fbturbo.

[jamesbond]

Thank you mories. I'll upload an experimental FatdogArm package for raspi2, I'll put a notice here when it's there. It's experimental because I can't test it.

EDIT: http://distro.ibiblio.org/fatdog/broken/raspi2/
This uses berryboot's kernel. I'm not exactly sure how to get the kernel and initrd installed in a berryboot setup - but there you go. Perhaps mories can explain more.

[don570]

I'm not exactly sure how to get the kernel and initrd installed in a berryboot setup

instructions to make an image for berryboot

http://www.berryterminal.com/doku.php/b ... tributions

____________________________________

[mories]

@jamesbond
Your experimental package to use FatdogArm natively/"traditionally" on RPI 2 operates correctly.
How to install it would be:
- put vmlinuz.rpi2 and initrd.rpi2 in the partition that has the firmware / bootloader (bootcode.bin, start.elf ..) of RPI 2
- put fd-arm.sfs on the same partition or any other
- In config.txt include:
initramfs initrd.rpi2
[pi2]
kernel=vmlinuz.rpi2
- in cmdline.txt include all FatdogArm own parameters:
pkeys=xx savefile=yyy basesfs=zz:zz:zz ........

With that the RPi2 must start FatdogArm at the "traditional" way.


By the way, what are the changes to fd-arm.sfs regarding the Beta3 version: only rc.platform and method of SFS compression, or has more changes included?

Thank you very much for your interest and effort in putting this good distribution available on more platforms, and especially in such a large and widespread as RPI 2.

[smokey01]

For Christmas I was given a Rasberry Pi 2 Model B. It also came with a case, power supply, wireless keyboard and usb wifi adaptor. It looks like I'm ready to go.

Progress thus far has not been so good. I connected it to one of my TV's via a HDMI cable and applied the power. I expected to see a no OS found as I hadn't installed it to the micro-usb card but all I got was no signal. Is this normal?

Anyway my next step was to copy an OS to the usb. I chose Barry's raspi-sd-4gb-sap6-5.105.img.xz first. I tried to install it to a 2GB card but it failed. I guess it needs a 4GB card although Barry's instructions said 1GB or greater would do.

I gave up on that and moved over to Fatdog which I'm far more comfortable with. Looking at this thread is causing me some confusion as well. Before I continue I think I will duck out and buy an 8GB micro-usb card.

Many more questions to follow.

[jamesbond]

@mories:

By the way, what are the changes to fd-arm.sfs regarding the Beta3 version: only rc.platform and method of SFS compression, or has more changes included?

Mainly rc.platform from you. There may be others, I've worked on FatdogArm on and off, but now I'm not on the laptop that has the repository so I can't recall the history of changes. I'll update this post when I have that info available.

Actually I kind of forget the compression I used in beta3, I simply used "xz" because it makes for the smallest upload Did I use gzip? (I don't keep old copies in my local disk).

Thank you very much for your interest and effort in putting this good distribution available on more platforms, and especially in such a large and widespread as RPI 2.

You're welcome, and thank you for contributing the steps and testing them. If this works, I'm going to move it from the "test" directoryt to the released version and put your instructions there. Somebody has offered me as Raspi2 (thank you!) but as of now I still don't have it, so I can't test anything.

@smokey1:

Progress thus far has not been so good. I connected it to one of my TV's via a HDMI cable and applied the power. I expected to see a no OS found as I hadn't installed it to the micro-usb card but all I got was no signal. Is this normal?

I don't have a raspi2, but this is normal for many ARM boards. They don't have a BIOS (they only have IPL - Initial Program Loader), so if you boot-up without SD-card then you'll see nothing because the HDMI output device isn't even initialised yet.

I gave up on that and moved over to Fatdog which I'm far more comfortable with. Looking at this thread is causing me some confusion as well. Before I continue I think I will duck out and buy an 8GB micro-usb card.

Generally the steps to install Fatdog is like this:
a) format SD-card to the format supported by the bootloader. Different ARM boards have a very specific formatting instructions; you will fare better if you read a little about the partition layout and format before doing anything. For Raspi2, there is berryboot - it may be able to prepare the SD-card from scratch.
b) You need to install the SPL (Secondary Program Loader), usually by "dd". Then you install to install the bootloader (usually U-boot) and its configuration files; these usually are files you copy to the partition you prepared in step a). Again, for Raspi2, there is berryboot that could probably setup the bootloader for you automatically.
c) Copy over vmlinuz, initrd and fd-arm.sfs to the partition too; and configure the bootloader config files to load Fatdog's vmlinuz and initrd. For raspi2, instructions is by mories above.

For currently supported platforms, I have a "kernel packages" that contains SPL, bootloader, vmlinuz, initrd and the install instructions in a convenient tarball. The fd-arm.sfs is generic and will work for all supported platforms. For Raspi2, however, I only have the vmlinuz, initrd; the SPL and bootloaders must come from elsewhere (probably berryboot). If you have more questions mories will be able to help as he has managed to get a proper FatdogArm installation running.

[amj]

I attempted to follow mories instructions as far as I could:

initrd and vmlinuz in the boot partition, fd-arm.sfs in the root partition. Three extra lines added to config.txt.

I do not have a copy of the fd-arm cmdline, and the instructions above for modification are non-specific. So I booted-up with the cmdline from the Puppy raspi skeleton.

The current Puppy raspi skeleton has a 75Mb FAT boot partition (big enough for initrd and vmlinuz, but not for the fd-arm.sfs). The root partition (mmcblk0p2) is an unjournalled ext4 partition. There is also a small swap partition (mmcblk0p3).

The bootloader found initrd and then attempted to load fd-arm.sfs. At that point in time the boot partition was not yet mounted. So the load failed.

Immediately afterwards, the root partition was mounted. Failed attempts to mount the root partition as ext3 and ext2 were followed by an apparently successful mount as ext4.

If the fd-arm.sfs file must go in the boot partition, then the skeleton will need to be updated with a larger boot partition. Three questions:

• Which ext format is appropriate for the root partition?
• Is there any need for a swap partition?
• What exactly should cmdline.txt contain?

[amj]

@smokey01

Yes, get an 8Gb or 16Gb card. 4Gb will not work for odd technical reasons that have never been explained.

Barry's sap6 (aka alpha4) will boot on a RPi2 provided you make the modifications listed here. It's the same procedure for both alpha4 (sap6) and zap6. First boot can be quite slow, be patient!

I'm not sure what type of TV you are trying to use as monitor. Old fashioned TV's need to be connected via the video out socket and changes to config.txt are required. You would, at a minimum, need to add a sdtv_mode= instruction and comment out the hdmi_force_hotplug=1 instruction. As for modern HDMI TV's ... I don't have one.

sdtv_mode=0 NTSC
sdtv_mode=2 PAL

See these sites for more details:

Code: Select all

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/config-txt.md
http://elinux.org/RPiconfig
http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/tags/config.txt/info

[mories]

My SDCard layout is as follows:
1) mmcblk0p1 , FAT, 127 MB
It contains:
- The content of http://downloads.sourceforge.net/projec ... 2-only.zip
- initrd.rpi2 & vmlinuz.rpi2

2) mmcblk0p2 , EXT4, rest of the SDCard
Here you can put fd-arm.sfs in any directory, e.g. /fatdogarm

As indicated above:
- In config.txt include:
initramfs initrd.rpi2
[pi2]
kernel=vmlinuz.rpi2

- in cmdline.txt include all FatdogArm own parameters:
The parameters for FatdogArm, as indicated in http://distro.ibiblio.org/fatdog/web/ar ... .html#docs :
"FatdogArm shares most of its features with Fatdog64, so please refer to Fatdog64 documentation."
Kernel Command Line Parameters (aka Boot Options)

So, I have included in cmdline.txt for my tests: pkeys=es waitdev=3 savefile=none basesfs=device:mmcblk0p2:/fatdogarm/fd-arm.sfs
But you can use the options you want according to your needs.

I hope this is enough to run FatdogArm (at the native/"traditional" way) in your RPi2.

[don570]

In the config.txt file for the first time booting I put hdmi_safe=1
This avoids having to 'guess' the settings


# Uncomment if you get no picture on H ... dmi_safe=1

This is explained here

_________________________________________________

[ally]

@ mories

could you provide a full copy of your config.txt, a bit confused

followed what I think you mean but am unable to boot

cheers

[amj]

Thank you mories, and you too jamesbond.

The only change I made to what I had already done was to add

Code: Select all

pkeys=es waitdev=3 savefile=none basesfs=device:mmcblk0p2:/fd-arm.sfs

to the cmdline from the Puppy raspi skeleton.

With that done the system booted OK. Device tree boot using the standard RPi2 .dtb file.

Geany works. Xine works (including playing video in fullscreen mode).

And I'm posting this with the fd-arm built in Seamonkey browser.

Of course there may be problems ahead. I've had the system up for less than an hour, hardly an exhaustive test.

I can't find any way of changing the mouse buttons. Please don't tell me I condemned to using a right-handed mouse!

[ally]

@ amj

copy of your config.txt?

[amj]

@ally

Since I don't know how you are trying to boot, this may or may not be of any use to you:

Code: Select all

# refer: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/config-txt.md
# refer: http://elinux.org/RPiconfig
# refer: http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/tags/config.txt/info
#device_tree=
# Use HDMI mode even if no HDMI monitor is detected
#hdmi_force_hotplug=1
# Specify monitor type
#hdmi_group=2
#hdmi_mode=35
# Specify GPU memory allocation
#gpu_mem_1024=64
initramfs initrd.rpi2
[pi2]
kernel=vmlinuz.rpi2

As you can see, the only active element in my config.txt is the three special lines mories listed above.

[ally]

I was trying to follow mories instructions

copied files as directed and then tried to modify the config.txt as his instructions but does not boot

thanks, will try again

[ally]

success!!

thanks all

[ally]

hi jb

I have install samba 4 from the repository but with a missing libcap dependency

I have failed to get samba to work (share not visible), would this be the cause?