NEW Debian/Linux Installation Guide version 2.1

[musa]

Are you using ubuntu / unity?

Yes I am. I am using the standard desktop.

Use Gnome
The other modes is nothing but trouble.

Her is my desktop

Nice one! Now why does it look like OSX?

I chose this theme because I think it's nice. I've never even used mac

I found the Linux kernel doesn't like to start from the flash drive left in my Apple keyboard. The 39 kernel complains it can't mknod to a read only filesystem. 39NH gives ata failures and read errors. PW-1.2 also fails on reads end ends up in a kernel panic!

IIRC it is only PW-1.2 that can boot Ubuntu. I don't understand. On my AmigaOne XE I have no such trouble. I can use any A1 kernel with Debian or Ubuntu with no trouble. With no usual booting delays or sluggishness apart from what would be expected. But on the X1000 it's all complicated with all these kernels needed that easily break and some took ages to boot. And they cannot be booted off a harddisk. The X1000 has certainly got to be better hardware than an A1 so I don't why there was so much trouble running Linux on it.

I have absolutely no problems installing Linux on my X1000.
I'm using one of the USB ports on the front and insert usb card after I started CFE.
When I installed linux I transfer my kernel to a cf card and set up the startup code in cfe. I installed Ubuntu before the wizard came out because I have the opportunity to make a kernel that could boot ubuntu.
I try so many times but only got a decent result out of ubuntu if I use Gnome.

[daz]

I found the Linux kernel doesn't like to start from the flash drive left in my Apple keyboard. The 39 kernel complains it can't mknod to a read only filesystem. 39NH gives ata failures and read errors. PW-1.2 also fails on reads end ends up in a kernel panic!

Perhaps you should attach it somewhere else maybe? I've found USB under CFE to be a little flakey at times, this sounds like one of them.

IIRC it is only PW-1.2 that can boot Ubuntu. I don't understand. On my AmigaOne XE I have no such trouble. I can use any A1 kernel with Debian or Ubuntu with no trouble. With no usual booting delays or sluggishness apart from what would be expected. But on the X1000 it's all complicated with all these kernels needed that easily break and some took ages to boot. And they cannot be booted off a harddisk. The X1000 has certainly got to be better hardware than an A1 so I don't why there was so much trouble running Linux on it.

Sigh.. there you go about the A1 again. The A1 is 10 years old now, there are enough of them to be a mainstream platform for Linux. Don't believe me? Go to http://www.kernel.org. Download the latest kernel source. Unpack it, and look in arch/powerpc/platforms you'll find a directory called 'amigaone' This contains the code needed by an Amigaone SE/XE/micro kernel

The X1000 is an entirely new platform, the only machine in the world with a SB600 and powerpc together. Linux support code for the special methods used to connect them does not write itself, Varisys provided the foundation, now the X1000 linux port is maintained by 3* people - 1 spending a couple of hours a month on the kernel, 1 creating installs for new distributions, and 1 writing the install guide.

Anyway rant over... For Ubuntu you'll need to use vmlinuxpw-1.2 or vmlinux39cf, both have been shown to work.

Linux runs extremely well on the X1000, I've had almost no kernel panics during use, and other people are finding the same.

As to the kernels being easy to break, there does seem to be an intermittent initialisation problem, I am leaning towards this being related to the fact both cores are in use and something is getting setup too early, I am trying to find out what, but not having much luck. Some people seem to be affected (you/me) everyone else seems not to. I just reboot if it is not starting correctly.

My linux installation boots fine of a HDD, or did you mean the kernel cannot be loaded from a HDD? That would be a CFE problem not a linux one, also they can be loaded from a HDD, but it must be a FAT formatted one. Just stick your kernels on a CF card in the CF slot. What other use do you have for that?

Regards
Darren

* I've only seen three people adding to the ports, there are a lot more using it though.

[trevordick]

My linux experience on the AmigaONE X1000 is far superior in every aspect to the performance on my A1-XE, Pegasos II and Sam Flex. It is fast, responsive and usable. Relatively easy to install and genrally very stable.

Are you mixing up the various kernels and distros. I have all the kernels installed on my cf card and have set up the boot menu to choose the Linux distros I want to run. I do not have any of the issues you mention as long as I follow the instructions in the installation guide. A new version will be released to betatesters soon.

Trevor

[mechanic]

also they can be loaded from a HDD, but it must be a FAT formatted one. .

Just to be clear.....only the /boot partition needs to be FAT.

[Hypex]

Perhaps you should attach it somewhere else maybe? I've found USB under CFE to be a little flakey at times, this sounds like one of them.

Yes I've had trouble getting it to read in kernels someimes and had to format a few keys to get it to work. Or work again.

However, whatever is going on, now I can leave my USB key in the keyboard and have Ubuntu Linux boot up when I select it from the menu.

This contains the code needed by an Amigaone SE/XE/micro kernel

Yes I am aware of this. The files are needed to compile Linux for the A1. But there have been patch files since the A1 was brought out. They didn't happen over a long period.

The X1000 is an entirely new platform, the only machine in the world with a SB600 and powerpc together.

I can see there is a needed config to be worked out. Which I expected Varisys would have done when doing testing. And there is also a arch/powerpc/platforms/pasemi directory to build on. But by comparison there isn't much difference between the A1 and X1000 situations as each has needed a custom kernel config in order to compile a kernel. Except the X1000 seems to have competing kernels with different features and the A1 has different updated versions from one particular author building on previous work.

As to the kernels being easy to break, there does seem to be an intermittent initialisation problem,

Right now my boots are stable so I am happy. I am currently taxing the system my building a Linux kernel.

My linux installation boots fine of a HDD, or did you mean the kernel cannot be loaded from a HDD?

Yes that is what I meant. Booting kernel off HDD.

What other use do you have for that?

Nothing. I don't use it. But I don't want to buy a card to waste most of the space on it sitting in a slot just to boot an OS.

[Hypex]

My linux experience on the AmigaONE X1000 is far superior in every aspect to the performance on my A1-XE

Mine is on par. In fact it even seems slower. When I drag windows around it is jaggered. Openijng simple text files takes about five seconds. My A1200 could do that faster! A friend asked why Linux is so slow on my A1.I am used to it. Plus I find the speed okay. Except it does choke doing simple things like reading text files. I'd be shocked to show him my X1000 Ubuntu!

Are you mixing up the various kernels and distros.

Not that I know of. I am using the specified kernel for the distro I intend to use. I.e. PW-1.2 with Ubuntu.

I only try other kernels, with this one distro BTW now, if I get problems and start experimenting. But all seems stable now thanks.

[trevordick]

@Hypen

Mine is on par. Infact it even seems slower.

Hmmm! Not sure why this should be? The following link is a video I uploaded to googledocs:-

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_LUnF ... 0dzbXNSRW8 [no login is required}

It was grabbed/recorded in realtime from my AmigaONE X1000 running MintPPC 11. I recorded this video some months ago and at the time 2D/3D gfx card hardware acceleration was not activated. The video is in ogv format and ~108MB in size and download is not recommended for anyone with a slow internet connection. The desktop size is 1920x1080 (full colour). Any video artefacts (if any) are the result of the screen grab. The video will play in Xine, MoviePlayer, VLC, Mplayer etc.

Check it out, I think you will find that performance is far in excess of any other "Next Generation" Amiga running Linux and more that acceptable.

TrevorD

PS Now going back to running AmigaOS 4

[Hypex]

Thanks for the Link Trevor.

Mint may run better than Ubuntu. But right now it's all in vain. I'm afaird my Linux is all up the duff again. The other night I simply booted it up and experimented by compiling a kernel whick took the better half of an hour. However tonight I tried to boot up Linux and now it's stopped working again! Argh!!

I don't know what is going on. I haven'tt changed my setup and I shut it down everytime. I have a key I leave in my Apple keyboard as CFE can pick it up. The kernel loads but now I am back to the SATA errors I was getting before and it ends up in a kernel panic. I've tried to boot it four times in a row! Why is a Linux kernel so hard to riun on the X1000!?

[daz]

Thanks for the Link Trevor.

Mint may run better than Ubuntu. But right now it's all in vain. I'm afaird my Linux is all up the duff again. The other night I simply booted it up and experimented by compiling a kernel whick took the better half of an hour. However tonight I tried to boot up Linux and now it's stopped working again! Argh!!

I don't know what is going on. I haven'tt changed my setup and I shut it down everytime. I have a key I leave in my Apple keyboard as CFE can pick it up. The kernel loads but now I am back to the SATA errors I was getting before and it ends up in a kernel panic. I've tried to boot it four times in a row! Why is a Linux kernel so hard to riun on the X1000!?

You need to read my latest thread on the X1000 beta forum

Regards
Darren

[trevordick]

Why is a Linux kernel so hard to riun on the X1000!?

I don't know why you are having so much trouble, but I think your problem might be that you have your kernels on a USB flash drive attached to your Apple keyboard.

As Daz suggested copy the kernels to a CF card. It's much more convenient and the latest kernels produced by Daz include the ability to read and write from the CF card under Linux. I have all the kernel versions stored on the CF card.

BTW I could have produced the same screenrecoder video in both Ubuntu or Debian Wheezy (and probably even Fedora if I checked?)

I have also sent you a PM

Trevor