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<baaba>
Hi, I have a problem, I debootstrapped debian, I can chroot fine to the sd card on my nanonote but if I try to boot pressing M as the wiki says there is a glitchy screen and nothing happens, I have to reset the ben using the button at the bottom
<baaba>
do you know what could cause this issue ? By the way this is debian 8
<mth>
are you using a kernel from Debian or a NanoNote-specific kernel?
<baaba>
the only thing I didn't do was installing fakeroot
<mth>
did you run the command as real root then?
<baaba>
well yes
<baaba>
I only have a root user on my nanonote
<mth>
some packages refuse to do certain actions as real root, but they'll usually print a warning about that
<baaba>
but I can chroot fine to debian
<mth>
(to avoid breaking systems where people accidentally run it as root)
<mth>
sid is older than Debian 8.0, so maybe some new steps are requried?
<mth>
you could try installing sid first and then dist-upgrading to 8.x
<baaba>
but sid is just debian unstable
<baaba>
it should be even more recent
<mth>
ah, it's not a release name?
<baaba>
nope
<mth>
do you have a serial connection? that would help seeing error messages if the screen isn't working
<baaba>
I don't think so
<baaba>
well I have an arduino
<baaba>
if it can help
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<paul_boddie>
baaba: Sounds like a kernel loading issue to me. Which kernel are you using?
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<baaba>
It says Linux BenNanoNote 3.3.8 #4 PREEMPT
<baaba>
maybe not #4 PREEMPt
<baaba>
3.3.8
<paul_boddie>
Have you made it available on the SD card itself in the /boot directory?
<baaba>
yes i did
<paul_boddie>
One thing you have to be careful about is how init gets called.
<baaba>
oh
<paul_boddie>
OpenWrt uses a different convention to Debian, at least the version shipped with the Ben.
<baaba>
well i ran "ln -s /sbin/init /etc/preinit"
<baaba>
in the chroot
<baaba>
do you think a more recent kernel would work ?
<paul_boddie>
You might experience issues with older kernels. Certainly, recent Debian relies on systemd-related features that the shipped kernel won't have configured.
<paul_boddie>
I guess if you've done the second-stage debootstrap in your chroot and have fixed up the preinit thing then that should work.
<paul_boddie>
I run User Mode Linux instances for various things, and I had to change the kernel configuration to let Debian Jessie run where Wheezy had been fine before.
<paul_boddie>
I guess that if you somehow force the debootstrap to use sysvinit instead, that might save you a kernel recompile.
<baaba>
okay thanks, well I will try to boot but I already did all of that and it didn't work, maybe I should try a more recent kernel as you said
<paul_boddie>
I did test Jessie on the Ben and it did work. Maybe I should see which kernel I was using.
<baaba>
there is a strange thing by the way, when trying to boot on debian the bottom of the screen has some kind of artifacts
<paul_boddie>
However, I don't think I got a mainline kernel working until fairly recently, and I was mostly using the OpenWrt one instead, albeit recompiled, but not a much newer version.
<paul_boddie>
The boot process involves U-Boot in NAND initialising various things and then trying to execute /boot/uImage, if I remember correctly.
<baaba>
what do you think about the small artifacts ?
<baaba>
only at the bottom of the screen
<paul_boddie>
What happens after that is up to the kernel. When I was getting my own payload instead of Linux running, I saw all sorts of strange screen effects when things went wrong.
<baaba>
oh okay
<paul_boddie>
OK. So I see that my (slow-booting) Debian is running 4.7.2. That's the mainline kernel with no patches necessary.
<baaba>
is it a problem that my sd card is /dev/mmcblk0p1 and not /dev/mmcblk0
<baaba>
well no
<baaba>
the contrary
<paul_boddie>
cat /proc/partition will show you what's going on. The first partition is what will provide the root filesystem.
<paul_boddie>
Modifier keys don't seem to work with this kernel. :-/
<baaba>
the 4 first lines end with mtdblock[0..3]
<baaba>
then comes the mmcblk0
<baaba>
should I try to compile linux mainline for the ben nanonote ?
<paul_boddie>
I don't think that's a problem.
<paul_boddie>
I'll have a look at the other kernel.
<baaba>
okay thanks
<paul_boddie>
OK, so I'm actually running Debian 7.7 in my rootfs, not Debian 8. This is with kernel 3.3.8 (or 4.7.2 as noted before).
<paul_boddie>
I must have another partition somewhere with Debian 8, though.
<baaba>
Oh okay :o well it should work then…
<baaba>
but it doesn't :(
<baaba>
maybe I should copy the kernel again to the sd card
<paul_boddie>
As I noted, the systemd stuff might be demanding certain kernel features that you would need to enable. Otherwise the kernel will panic and just hang the Ben.
<baaba>
so better try to put a recent kernel you think ?
<paul_boddie>
Give 4.7.2 a try or maybe a later kernel. That was the latest one when I looked, I think.
<baaba>
okay thanks, but I don't really know how to compile it, I tried getting the toolchain for the ben nanonote but it wouldn't compile, do I need it or only gcc ?
<paul_boddie>
I guess you're running Debian on your other computer. If so, there are decent cross-compilers for unstable which I use in a chroot.
<paul_boddie>
(I just checked another partition on the Ben and it had Debian 7.3.)
<baaba>
oh okay
<paul_boddie>
It's been a while since I looked at Linux/Debian on the Ben. Most recently, I was messing around with my own payload being launched from the bootloader instead.
<baaba>
oh okay
<baaba>
:p
<paul_boddie>
I'll check in on this later, but getting a cross-toolchain working is handy, anyway.
<baaba>
you must be a pro
<baaba>
Well I tried to compile the ben nanonote toolchain but it wouldn't
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<paul_boddie>
You want whatever it is that provides mipsel-linux-gnu-gcc.
<paul_boddie>
Probably the gcc-mipsel-linux-gnu and binutils-mipsel-linux-gnu packages.
<baaba>
I'm running fedora, it has gcc-mips64-linux-gnu
<baaba>
I suppose it's not good
<paul_boddie>
Keep posting your progress if you like, but I have to do other stuff. ;-)
<baaba>
okay :p
<paul_boddie>
You want 32-bit MIPS little endian (mipsel).
<paul_boddie>
I haven't tried building the OpenWrt toolchain for a while, but it should still build.
<arossdotme>
what plastic are laptops (lids) mostly made from?
<paul_boddie>
Yes, there are probably some special keys that can be used.
<paul_boddie>
Was just trying to initialise a Jessie rootfs with the 3.3.8 kernel, but it seems to hang after setting up.
<baaba>
maybe it doesn't work because of how my sdcard is partitonned
<baaba>
oh
<paul_boddie>
I may try and boot now and see if I reproduce what you got before.
<baaba>
okay :p thanks for helping
<paul_boddie>
No problem! Got to keep people using these things. :-)
<baaba>
if i copy dumbly my old sdcard contend to my new one but new partition, is it supposed to work ?
<paul_boddie>
You can do dd to copy to and from partitions. I don't know whether that answers your question, though.
<paul_boddie>
It looks like Debian 8 plus 3.3.8 won't work. I suspect systemd. Will look at doing a rootfs using sysvinit instead.
<baaba>
oh okay
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<baaba>
you can't boot but you can chroot
<baaba>
right ?
<wpwrak>
forced upgrades suck :-( ubuntu 16.10 no longer has xchat. and hexchat "it's just exactly like xchat" of course isn't
<paul_boddie>
Is hexchat tightly integrated with systemd? ;-)
<baaba>
:p
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<baaba>
how many partitions do you have on your sdcard for debian 8 + linux 3.3.8 ?
<paul_boddie>
3: 1 for the rootfs, 1 for swap, 1 for backups. But only the first two will be used.
<baaba>
oh okay thanks
<baaba>
I thought the fact that there is a single partition on my sd card was the problem
<paul_boddie>
You only need one partition really.
<paul_boddie>
Well, you really need swap if you want Debian. Otherwise stuff like apt won't work.
<baaba>
oh okay
<baaba>
Is there any other up to date OS for the nanonote ?
<paul_boddie>
I don't think so. As for Debian, I'll see if I can't persuade it to switch to sysvinit.
<paul_boddie>
Otherwise, a recompiled kernel might be necessary. Or I could try Devuan. :-)
<baaba>
Okay :p
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<paul_boddie>
Trying again now. Given the poor documentation and multistrap's "silently ignored" features with preseeding, I await failure.
<paul_boddie>
But I could also try hacks with preinit before switching to Devuan. ;-)
<baaba>
What is the preinit ? :p The wiki says to create a symbolic link of /bin/init to /etc/preinit i believe
<paul_boddie>
It seems to be an OpenWrt thing. They configure the kernel to use /etc/preinit as the init program for some reason.
<baaba>
oh okay
<baaba>
by the way there is no systemd in debian 7 ?
<paul_boddie>
That's right: Wheezy uses sysvinit. As I noted, when I set up some User Mode Linux instances for Jessie, I noticed that my kernels didn't boot those instances, whereas they did for Wheezy.
<baaba>
oh
<paul_boddie>
OK. I obviously didn't read the mind of the developers, and the Ben still doesn't init, so I'll try a preinit hack.
<baaba>
how are you planning to do that ?
<paul_boddie>
When my preinit file finishes configuring, instead of linking to /sbin/init, I'll invoke some apt magic and hopefully force systemd out.
<paul_boddie>
s/instead of/before/
<qi-bot>
paul_boddie meant: "When my preinit file finishes configuring, before linking to /sbin/init, I'll invoke some apt magic and hopefully force systemd out."
<baaba>
cool bot !
<baaba>
ok, i am going to bed ! good luck :p
<paul_boddie>
Thanks! You'll read what I find out in the logs.
<baaba>
okay thanks :p
<paul_boddie>
Well, sysvinit doesn't seem happy with /run/initctl, but it's not over yet.
<paul_boddie>
OK, I get a login after "preinit" now.
<paul_boddie>
And booting from MMC/microSD works.
<paul_boddie>
So, the trick was to put sysvinit-core in the package list for multistrap.
<paul_boddie>
Lots of advice about preseed files and excluding systemd may only be relevant for debootstrap, but that may be fixed by now as well.
<paul_boddie>
So, 3.3.8 works with Debian 8, but you must use sysvinit-core in the packages list.