Fienix - New PowerPC Distro

[xeno74]

Great news!

Website updates, finally. Check it out!

Includes the new images. Only minor changes but if you want to test it for me that would be cool.
-Changed default Window Manager back to Marco Adaptive
-Uses newest stable 5.5 kernel
-Includes "Fienix-GPU-Bandage" - see the second troubleshooting topic here. I made this to try to make an easy way for people with GPUs that need fbdev. Idk, let me know what you think please.

I also simplified instructions. A lot. I think it looked too intimidating for new users.

-Casey

[SteveH]

I have been having problems with my installation of Ubuntu - the laptop I was running it on crashed and refused to reboot so I have reinstalled Ubuntu version 20.04.
Steve

OK, so I have reinstalled Ubuntu and followed the new simplified instructions from Casey but get a CFE message on the X1000 saying "I/O error" (https://newsnumeracy.files.wordpress.co ... x_cfe1.jpg). Can I first check my USB is correctly formatted - here is what I see in gparted: https://newsnumeracy.files.wordpress.co ... ix_usb.jpg
I had used "dd" to copy the new image onto the stick and then went back into gparted to resize the FIENIX-DISK partition. Do the settings look correct? If so, I will try again with a fresh USB stick.
Steve

[xeno74]

OK, so I have reinstalled Ubuntu and followed the new simplified instructions from Casey but get a CFE message on the X1000 saying "I/O error" (https://newsnumeracy.files.wordpress.co ... x_cfe1.jpg). Can I first check my USB is correctly formatted - here is what I see in gparted: https://newsnumeracy.files.wordpress.co ... ix_usb.jpg
I had used "dd" to copy the new image onto the stick and then went back into gparted to resize the FIENIX-DISK partition. Do the settings look correct? If so, I will try again with a fresh USB stick.
Steve

Please try another USB disk.

Thanks

[xeno74]

Hi All,

I successfully upgraded Fienix on my X5000/40 and X1000 today and got the new Mesa 20.0.4!

Many thanks to Casey!

Screenshot of Fienix PowerPC with the kernel 5.7-rc3 and with Mesa 20.0.4:



Cheers,
Christian

[xeno74]

Hi All,

We have an initrd for the kernel 5.5 with intructions for booting Fienix. With an initrd you can boot Linux with the name of the partition. You have to use the partition name "FIENIX-DISK" instead of "FIENIX" in the bootargs.

Download: initrd-5.5-rc7-X1000_X5000.tar.gz

Screenshot with instructions for creating and booting initial ramdisks:



Cheers,
Christian

[xeno74]

Hi All,

I only successfully upgraded my Fienix installations to version 3.0-20200426 on my X1000 and X5000/40 last weeks. Additionally I tested the Fienix image in a virtual e5500 QEMU/KVM-HV machine on my X5000/40 successfully.

Today, I successfully copied the Fienix image 3.0-20200426 with "dd" to the Amiga On The Lake Fienix USB pen drive under ubuntu MATE 16.04.6 PowerPC on my X1000.

After that I was able to boot it with the following CFE commands from the AOTL USB pen drive:

Code: Select all

setenv bootargs "root=/dev/sdd2 rootdelay=5"

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boot -elf -noints -fatfs usbdisk0:vmlinux-5.5

I wasn't able to boot the zImage-5.5. Error message: I/O error.

Then I rebooted to ubuntu MATE 16.04.6 PowerPC again and successfully expanded the file system "FIENIX-DISK"with "GParted" to the total size of the AOTL USB pen drive.

I didn't need Skateman's new resize tools for expanding the file system "FIENIX-DISK"with "GParted" under ubuntu MATE 16.04.6 PowerPC.

Screenshot of Fienix 3.0-20200426 with the stable kernel 5.5.11 booted from the AOTL USB pen drive:



It wasn't really a difficult task to copy the Fienix img to a USB pen drive and it didn't take a long time.

Please use a good USB pen drive for example from SanDisk with a big size.

Cheers,
Christian

[MichaelMerkel]

I have been having problems with my installation of Ubuntu - the laptop I was running it on crashed and refused to reboot so I have reinstalled Ubuntu version 20.04.
Steve

OK, so I have reinstalled Ubuntu and followed the new simplified instructions from Casey but get a CFE message on the X1000 saying "I/O error" (https://newsnumeracy.files.wordpress.co ... x_cfe1.jpg). Can I first check my USB is correctly formatted - here is what I see in gparted: https://newsnumeracy.files.wordpress.co ... ix_usb.jpg
I had used "dd" to copy the new image onto the stick and then went back into gparted to resize the FIENIX-DISK partition. Do the settings look correct? If so, I will try again with a fresh USB stick.
Steve

exactly the same here. i tried 2 usb sticks already one brand new sandisk 64gb (just bought last week) and an older one. i can access the files on the stick and copy them e.g. drom amigaos. so the stick is "working" in general.

regards...
michael

[Hypex]

I must have grabbed a slightly earlier release. It was from this year but wasn't the big 8GB image. Just small 4GB image that needed set up on USB,

Somehow the new one can boot off "/dev/usbdrive" so there is some magic going on there.

I keep reading about Arctic Fox. But is this a moving target that must be downloaded separately? Because it's not in the one I downloaded which surprised me as Fienex is a custom build. I found a download link but it wasn't a deb which concerns me as I've tried to run Firefox on x86 after downloading it and got lost without an icon and couldn't see an installer inside. So once it's downloaded what do you do with it?

[xeno74]

So once it's downloaded what do you do with it?

You can start it with

Code: Select all

./arcticfox

[xeno74]

Instructions for Booting Fienix 3.0-20200426 With an Initial Ramdisk.


With an initial ramdisk (initrd) you can boot Fienix 3.0-20200426 with the name of the partition. You don't need to know the device file of the root partition on your disk.

NOTE: I recommend you to use older Radeon HD 6xxx, 5xxx, and 4xxx series graphics cards. With these graphics cards you have hardware 3D acceleration. I use a Radeon HD6970 (Cayman XT) in my X1000 and X5000. The Cayman cards are the fastest and last released Radeon cards with support for hardware 3D acceleration on Linux PPC Big Endian. New cards don't always work on Linux PPC and they can't use hardware 3D acceleration.

Prepare the USB Disk

You will need an 8 GB or larger USB disk in a very good quality for example a SanDisk Ultra USB drive. Please don't use cheap and old USB drives.

1. Download the initrd for the stable kernel 5.5: initrd-5.5-rc7-X1000_X5000.tar.gz
2. Download Fienix 3.0-20200426: fienix-soar_3.0-20200426.img.tar.gz
3. With your system powered on, insert a USB disk that is at least 8 GB into a USB port
4. If you use Linux then determine the /dev path to your USB disk using one of the below methods:
   • In a terminal as su or sudo, enter "fdisk -l"
   • In a terminal as su or sudo, enter "parted -l"
   • Check the GParted menu in the upper-right corner
5. These instructions assume the /dev path to your USB disk is /dev/sdz; however, your actual /dev path is likely to be different - use the actual /dev path to your USB disk
6. In a terminal as su or sudo, enter the below command:

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   dd if=/path/to/fienix-soar_3.0-20200426.img of=/dev/sdz

   where "/dev/sdz" is the /dev path to your USB disk
   NOTE: this is a multi-partition disk image; do not attempt to copy the image to a specific partition - you need to enter the /dev path to the disk, not to a partition (use "/dev/sdz", not "/dev/sdz2")
   
   If you use Windows then you can copy the Fienix img with the USB Image Tool (On the left panel, select your USB disk and then click the "Restore" button and select the Fienix disk image).
7. Copy the intial ramdisk (initrd-5.5.img) to the first partition of your USB disk (FIENIX-BOOT)

Boot to Fienix

IMPORTANT: CFE firmware does not recognize USB devices on power-up unless they are connected to the first USB port, which is normally reserved for the keyboard. You will need to insert the USB disk AFTER you have entered CFE. Alternatively, you may use a USB hub to connect both the keyboard and the USB disk to the first USB port. These instructions will assume that when using a USB stick you will insert it in the top left USB port on the front of the AmigaOne X1000 case AFTER you have entered CFE. It is not possible to boot Fienix off an Amiga FFS partition.

With the following commands you can boot Fienix 3.0-20200426 with an initial ramdisk from a USB disk:

1. Code: Select all

   setenv bootargs "root=LABEL=FIENIX-DISK rootdelay=5"

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   ramdisk -z -addr=0x24000000 -fatfs usbdisk0:initrd-5.5.img

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   boot -elf -noints -fatfs -z usbdisk0:zImage-5.5

   It takes a long time. I would recommend you vmlinux-5.5 instead:

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   boot -elf -noints -fatfs usbdisk0:vmlinux-5.5

NOTE: I had some problems to load the initial ramdisk and the zImage from the FAT32 FIENIX-BOOT partition. I formatted this partition with FAT16 and copied the initial ramdisk and the kernels to this partition. After that I was able to load the initial ramdisk and boot Fienix with the zImage-5.5 or with vmlinux-5.5. I think we should use FAT16 for the FIENIX-BOOT partition in the future.

username: fienix
password: fienixPW
root password: rootAdminPW

I successfully tested these instructions with my A-EON AmigaOne X1000 today.

Screenshot:



Please test it.

Thanks,
Christian