pdaXrom-ng linux bootable for Lemote YeeLoong 8089 Notebook

[sashz]

Hello!

I have successful cross-compiled pdaXrom-ng linux (
http://wiki.pdaxrom.org/index.php/Lemote_YeeLoong_8089_Notebook ) for
lemote notebook. It uses gcc4.4.1 n32 toolchains. System includes lxde
desktop, firefox 3.5.2 (it uses r0bertz patches), mplayer firefox
plugins, swfdec firefox plugin, pidgin, ekiga, abiword, gnumeric etc.
All works quite stable.

Download http://wiki.pdaxrom.org/downloads/lemote/pdaXrom-ng-yeelong-8089-n32-20090825.tgz
(70MB)

Copy pdaXrom-ng distribution to USB flash drive. Then unpack the zip
file to USB root directory. Please note, that flash partitions must be
ext2 or ext3. For system booting use a PMON2000 command line - turn on
a notebook and press DEL. Enter the following commands in appeared
command line:

load /dev/fs/ext2@usb0/boot/vmlinux
initrd /dev/fs/ext2@usb0/boot/initrd.img
g console=tty root=/dev/ram0 no_auto_cmd

Screenshot: http://wiki.pdaxrom.org/images/1/11/Yeeloong-pdaxrom.png

[Frederic Muller]

Hi!

Sounds really cool. How's the performance/responsiveness compared to a
"normal" Linux distro on the same machine? How much work do you think is
needed to get a Gdium compatible version or would your build work as
well? Main differences are the GPU driver and the WIFI card.

Thanks a lot.

Fred

[Zhang Le]

Cool! Great!

--
Zhang, Le
Gentoo/Loongson Developer
http://zhangle.is-a-geek.org
0260 C902 B8F8 6506 6586 2B90 BC51 C808 1E4E 2973

[Fai Wong]

2009/8/26 Zhang Le <r0b...@gentoo.org>:

Sounds funny, but one question, what is the main difference between
this pdaXrom and a normal distribution like debian/gentoo with selected
packages ?

[sashz]

> Sounds really cool. How's the performance/responsiveness compared to a
> "normal" Linux distro on the same machine? How much work do you think is
> needed to get a Gdium compatible version or would your build work as
> well? Main differences are the GPU driver and the WIFI card.

I have preinstalled lemote debian, but i didn't touch it too much.
For gdium - add kernel config, specific patches, and driver for x11
video. If you have links for it, i can add and build it for your test.

[sashz]

> Sounds funny, but one question, what is the main difference between
> this pdaXrom and a normal distribution like debian/gentoo with selected
> packages ?

It uses crosscompilation - much more faster then any native
compilations even with distcc etc. I use ubuntu host with 2 x Xeon
2.66 , full build time for this bootable ~ 1hr 15m. ;)

[LazyFai]

So the difference is actually in the build system rather than the
resultant operating system right?

[Zhang Le]

That's impressive.

Did you met any problems?

When I was trying cross compiling, I found Qt (Qt3 at that time) can't be cross
compiled. Because it builds qmake according to host, which is mips64el, and yet
qmake runs on build machine, so it does not work. It can't be too difficult to
solve this problem only, but I was afraid there were more problems like this,
so I gave up and turned to cross distcc.

[sashz]

> So the difference is actually in the build system rather than the
> resultant operating system right?

yes! i think normal linux distros is bad idea for low powered
devices. You can spend 1 day with native compilation and 1 hrs with
crosscompilation.

[sashz]

> When I was trying cross compiling, I found Qt (Qt3 at that time) can't be cross
> compiled. Because it builds qmake according to host, which is mips64el, and yet
> qmake runs on build machine, so it does not work. It can't be too difficult to
> solve this problem only, but I was afraid there were more problems like this,
> so I gave up and turned to cross distcc.

you need to use ./configure -xplatform xxx instead -platform xxx, it
will create native host qmake, moc, uic but crosscompile sources.

[Zhang Le]

Thanks for the tips.

I think I should pick up cross compile again, :)

Although, I don't have Xeon, hehe.

[sashz]

> I think I should pick up cross compile again, :)
>

sure ;)
all patches which i use for crosscompilation is here
http://pdaxrom.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/pdaxrom/trunk/pdaXrom-ng/patches/

How-to build stuff on ubuntu host

install next packages:

sudo aptitude install autoconf automake bison build-essential cmake
flex gawk gperf intltool libbz2-dev \
libcap-dev libglib2.0-dev libxml-simple-perl libxml2-dev lzma m4 rpm
subversion \
texinfo x11-xkb-utils xmlto zlib1g-dev zip libgtk2.0-dev libtool
libgd2-xpm-dev libsdl1.2-dev

get the build system from svn repo:

svn co http://pdaxrom.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/pdaxrom/trunk/pdaXrom-ng

cd pdaXrom-ng

Compile and install mips64el n32 crosscompiler:

sudo ./build-crosstools-yeeloong-n32.sh

crosstools will in /opt/mips64el-ls2f-linux/toolchain/bin/

clean work directory from old files:

sudo ./build-crosstools-yeeloong-n32.sh clean

to build minimal bootable system (not need sudo anymore):

./build-linux-basic-yeeloong-n32.sh clean
./build-linux-basic-yeeloong-n32.sh

check images/ directory for generated files.

to build full lxde desktop:

./build-linux-yeeloong-n32.sh clean
./build-linux-yeeloong-n32.sh

You can build mipsel o32 abi toolchains also:

./build-crosstools-yeeloong.sh

and system:

./build-linux-basic-yeeloong.sh

or

./build-linux-yeeloong.sh

[Zhang Le]

Cool! Thank you so much!
Maybe it's time for me to buy a Core i7, ;)

[Frederic Muller]

Dear Sashz,

I'm taking on your offer:

for the kernel, the most recent kernel we have is on philv's git
(unfortunately, a bit out of date):
http://git.linux-cisco.org/?p=linux-mips.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/linux-gdium


For Xorg, the ABSOLUTE latest version of the Xorg driver and SM502
driver in the kernel both work very well.

If you have any specific issue please do contact philv at philippe (at)
cowpig.ca as he will be the right person in that case.

Thanks a lot.

Fred

sashz wrote: