Selecting an operating system for your new Lemote Yeeloong
Daniel Clark
Selecting an operating system for your new Lemote Yeeloong
In most cases your laptop is shipped as-is from the factory in China. You may not want to use the pre-installed operating system. This document goes over most of the options that are relatively easy for non-developers to install and use.
Unless otherwise noted, all of the below instructions require a USB key formatted with the ext2 file system.
1. Rescue Media
It is useful to have a USB key you can boot from if something goes wrong.
Download http://dev.lemote.com/files/resource/download/rescue/rescue-yl and put that file on the base directory of a USB key.
Insert the USB key in your Yeeloong.
Turn on the Yeeloong and press the “Del” key to get to the PMON 2000 (BSD licensed boot firmware, called BIOS on x86 systems) command line.
Load it via usb from the PMON command line:
load /dev/fs/ext2@usb0/rescue-yl
g console=tty root=/dev/sda1 rootdelay=8
You have now a working rescue system with Busybox.
2. Parabola GNU/Linux
Due to being on the GNU free distributions list - http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html - this is the operating system currently recommended for use on the Lemote Yeeloong by Freedom Included.
Install instructions are available from https://wiki.parabolagnulinux.org/MIPS_Installation
You will need to have another operating system running before installing Parabola. Due to the gNewSense installer being broken, it is probably easiest to do the install with Rescue Media (see above) or the Chinese variant of Debian GNU/Linux (see below).
Freedom Included, Inc. donated Yeeloongs to some Parabolla developers to help make this port possible.
3. Gentoo GNU/Linux
Gentoo is probably the fastest current distribution. Freedom Included also helped this project; we hope the work will eventually be ported over to the fully free Ututo variant of Gentoo.
The Gentoo handbooks - http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/ - explain how to do the install. All stages are available in the experimental/mips/stages/ directory of Gentoo mirrors, for example http://distfiles.gentoo.org/experimental/mips/stages/
You can track up-to-the-minute work at the git repository -
http://git.overlays.gentoo.org/gitweb/?p=proj/loongson.git;a=summary
4. Debian GNU/Linux (BJLX / Chinese variant)
This section describes how to install Debian modified for the Yeeloong by the Beijing Loongson & Debian Users Club.
Note that mainline Debian is working on supporting the Yeeloong / Loongson at this point, but as of January 2012 this Chinese distribution seems to be much easier to install and to work better.
The (slight) Debian variant at http://www.anheng.com.cn/loongson/install/ uses the Yeeloong's built-in tab recovery mode to install - so you just put a USB key in your Yeeloong with the latest vmlinux and .lzma files and press tab at bootup when prompted, and then answer some questions.
Note that after the install you'll need to take a few minutes to change the default language from Chinese to your native language. :-)
Here is an example of the full install process; you'll want to visit the web site to make sure that the 2011-10-10 image is still the most recent install image before you do your install. We recommend the LXDE image as it uses substantially fewer computing resources than Gnome.
wget \
http://www.anheng.com.cn/loongson/install/loongson2_debian6_lxde_20111010.tar.lzma
wget \
http://www.anheng.com.cn/loongson/install/vmlinux
(become root)
Format a USB stick with the ext2 file system and copy the vmlinux and .lzma file(s) over to it, and then safely remove it from the computer.
Insert the USB stick into the Yeeloong and turn on the Yeeloong. In reply to prompts do:
“Press Tab to recover” -> press Tab
“Press U to USB recover” -> press U
“Press C to continue” -> press C
“Press Y to recover” -> press Y
And then answer the questions you are asked.
After the install is done press “Enter”, machine should power off. After that, power the machine back on.
After a short wait you'll be on the LXDE main screen, but most things will be in Chinese.
To change to English,
a. Open the LXDE main menu by clicking on the icon on the lower left-hand side of the screen
b. Select the 4th item from the bottom with the right angle and scissors icon
c. Select the option second from the top named “LX” with the icon of a computer monitor next to it.
A terminal window should open.
Type “sudo -i” to become root; now would be a good time to do “passwd” to change your root password, so you can recover more easily should anything go wrong.
Do “dpkg-reonfigure locales” and deselect all of the options starting with “zh_” and choose “Ok”. When prompted to choose a default locale on the next screen, choose “en_US.UTF-8”.
Now do “shutdown -r now” - after your system reboots, everything should be in English.
Note you may need to press Fn-F5 in order to turn on wifi and then wait a few seconds before wifi / the network-manager tray icon will work.
5. OpenBSD
If you prefer *BSD operating systems, take a look at http://www.openbsd.org/loongson.html
6. NixOS GNU/Linux
There is a version of the NixOS - http://nixos.org/nixos/ - that works on the Lemote Fuloong mini-pc, a computer that uses the same processor as the Lemote Yeeloong netbook.
(Freedom Included donated Fuloongs to the NixOS development team when it looked like we'd be able to sell them in bulk in the US, which turned out not to be the case.)
If you want a project and are an experienced GNU/Linux developer, you could get it running on the Yeeloong if you'd like to spend some time. See http://nixos.org/wiki/Multiplatform_NixOS and the NixOS mailing list archives.
Javier Vasquez
> ... operating systems on the Yeeloong... (Note that this list purposefully only includes
> distributions that are easy for English-only speakers to install/use.)
>
>
> 1. *Rescue Media*
> ...
>
> 2. *Parabola GNU/Linux*
> ...
> You will need to have another operating system running before installing
> Parabola.
You might install ArchLoong, and then move to parabola... See below, :-)
>
> 3. *Gentoo GNU/Linux*
> ...
>
> 4. *Debian GNU/Linux* (BJLX / Chinese variant)
> ...
>
> 5. *OpenBSD*
> ...
>
> 6. *NixOS GNU/Linux*
> ...
Not sure if you're missing gNewSense
(http://www.gnewsense.org/Projects/Lemote) and ArchLoong
(http://www.archloong.info/archlinux). You didn't enumerate
gNewSense, though you mentioned its installer is broken (if it's, I'd
guess not for good)...
gNewSense should be easy on English, and for the ArchLoong the
installation instructions are in English, and if one is used to the
Arch way, then it should be not much of a problem, :-) BTW, gNewSense
is in the free list as well as parabola...
The lemote community has more complete list here:
http://dev.lemote.com/code/linux-loongson-community
--
Javier.
Daniel Clark
On 1/4/12, Daniel Clark <dcl...@pobox.com> wrote:
> 2. *Parabola GNU/Linux*
> ...
> You will need to have another operating system running before installingYou might install ArchLoong, and then move to parabola... See below, :-)
> Parabola.
Not sure if you're missing gNewSense
(http://www.gnewsense.org/Projects/Lemote) and ArchLoong
(http://www.archloong.info/archlinux). You didn't enumerate
gNewSense, though you mentioned its installer is broken (if it's, I'd
guess not for good)...
gNewSense should be easy on English, and for the ArchLoong the
installation instructions are in English, and if one is used to the
Arch way, then it should be not much of a problem, :-) BTW, gNewSense
is in the free list as well as parabola...
The lemote community has more complete list here:
http://dev.lemote.com/code/linux-loongson-community
Michał Masłowski
[...]
> You will need to have another operating system running before
> installing Parabola. Due to the gNewSense installer being broken, it
> is probably easiest to do the install with Rescue Media (see above) or
> the Chinese variant of Debian GNU/Linux (see below).
Connecting the disk to an x86 machine with a SATA port running GNU/Linux
might be easier, although the installation wiki page might be unclear
about it.
ri...@happyleptic.org
these distribution (o32, n32...)
Roman Mamedov
mt...@mtjm.eu (Michał Masłowski) wrote:
> Connecting the disk to an x86 machine with a SATA port running GNU/Linux
> might be easier, although the installation wiki page might be unclear
> about it.
Not an option for SSD-based Yeeloongs/Fuloongs, which come with a ZIF-connector IDE SSD, not a SATA disk.
--
With respect,
Roman
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Stallman had a printer,
with code he could not see.
So he began to tinker,
and set the software free."
Nicolás Reynolds
> On 1/4/12, Daniel Clark <dcl...@pobox.com> wrote:
> > ... operating systems on the Yeeloong... (Note that this list purposefully only includes
> > distributions that are easy for English-only speakers to install/use.)
> >
> > ...
> >
> > 1. *Rescue Media*
> > ...
> >
> > 2. *Parabola GNU/Linux*
> > ...
> > You will need to have another operating system running before installing
> > Parabola.
>
> You might install ArchLoong, and then move to parabola... See below, :-)
Hi, this might be a little more difficult, since afaik archloong uses the o32
abi and we're using n32.
we can work on installable media too :)
Daniel Clark
Javier Vasquez
Both lack a good amount of packages porting. Archloong installation
is pretty easy. There's a live image you call from pmon, and then to
install from it, feels just like Arch. On the other side, some
non-free stuff is removed from Parabola, which is the purpose of it
(and what's important to you), but there are limitations with
multimedia and the like, which not everyone might like. So having a
totally free, and a non so free versions of Arch is nice and healthy.
BTW, parabola calls its loongson distribution mips64el, which I don't
understand yet, given they are not using n64, :-) And another thing
that is a mistery to me is why parabola ported mplayer2, and not
mplayer, whereas archlinux is already dropping mplayer2 from
community, and mplayer remains there... So at the end, you need to
see overall what affinity you have with the distro, regarding the
different aspects of it (might be the most important one is freedom,
performance might be it, also media sharing).
Just my $0.02...
--
Javier.
Michał Masłowski
> understand yet, given they are not using n64, :-)
Both n32 and n64 require 64-bit CPUs and can use native 64-bit
registers, so there is something 64 in them. If I remember correctly,
Gentoo also used the mips64el name with n32.
> And another thing
> that is a mistery to me is why parabola ported mplayer2, and not
> mplayer, whereas archlinux is already dropping mplayer2 from
> community, and mplayer remains there...
Parabola mips64el contains packages which are/were used by its
developers (or sometimes which are just easy to build), this might have
been the reason for choosing mplayer2. "Porting" an mplayer is probably
limited to just disabling OpenGL support (it's not useful on a YeeLoong)
and building it.
Daniel Clark
--
\|/ Daniel JB Clark | Activist; Owner
FREEDOM -+-> INCLUDED ~ http://freedomincluded.com
/|\ Free Software respecting hardware
Alexandre "asm"
3. Gentoo GNU/Linux
Gentoo is probably the fastest current distribution. Freedom Included also helped this project; we hope the work will eventually be ported over to the fully free Ututo variant of Gentoo.
When you write that "Gentoo is probably the fastest current distribution". Are you refering the fastest on Lemote Yeloong or in general sense (any machine)?
Regards,
asm.
Daniel Clark
Lluís Batlle i Rossell
> 2012/1/4 Daniel Clark <dcl...@pobox.com>
>
> >
> >
> > Gentoo is probably the fastest current distribution. Freedom Included
> > also helped this project; we hope the work will eventually be ported over
> > to the fully free Ututo variant of Gentoo.
> >
>
> When you write that "Gentoo is probably the fastest current distribution".
> Are you refering the fastest on Lemote Yeloong or in general sense (any
> machine)?
And, fastest doing what task? :)
Lluís Batlle i Rossell
> On Sun, Jan 8, 2012 at 10:07 AM, Alexandre "asm" <asm...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > 2012/1/4 Daniel Clark <dcl...@pobox.com>
> >
> >>
> >>
> >> Gentoo is probably the fastest current distribution. Freedom Included
> >> also helped this project; we hope the work will eventually be ported over
> >> to the fully free Ututo variant of Gentoo.
> >>
> >
> > When you write that "Gentoo is probably the fastest current distribution".
> > Are you refering the fastest on Lemote Yeloong or in general sense (any
> > machine)?
> >
>
> I was using the specific sense (on the Lemote Yeeloong only). Due to its
> use of a faster ABI then most distros which still use o32 (I think all
> except parabola and gentoo are still o32 based?), and also having a bunch
> of loongson2f-specific tweaks in apps etc.
NixOS uses n32 too. I don't know on the amount of tweaks though. :)
Daniel Clark
Lluís Batlle i Rossell
> 2012/1/8 Lluís Batlle i Rossell <vi...@viric.name>
>
> > On Sun, Jan 08, 2012 at 11:22:33AM -0500, Daniel Clark wrote:
> > > On Sun, Jan 8, 2012 at 10:07 AM, Alexandre "asm" <asm...@gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > > 2012/1/4 Daniel Clark <dcl...@pobox.com>
> > > >
> > > >> 3. *Gentoo GNU/Linux*
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > >> Gentoo is probably the fastest current distribution. Freedom Included
> > > >> also helped this project; we hope the work will eventually be ported
> > over
> > > >> to the fully free Ututo variant of Gentoo.
> > > >>
> > > >
> > > > When you write that "Gentoo is probably the fastest current
> > distribution".
> > > > Are you refering the fastest on Lemote Yeloong or in general sense (any
> > > > machine)?
> > > >
> > >
> > > I was using the specific sense (on the Lemote Yeeloong only). Due to its
> > > use of a faster ABI then most distros which still use o32 (I think all
> > > except parabola and gentoo are still o32 based?), and also having a bunch
> > > of loongson2f-specific tweaks in apps etc.
> >
> > NixOS uses n32 too. I don't know on the amount of tweaks though. :)
>
>
> Oh, did NixOS get running well on the Yeeloong as well as the Fuloong?
>
> I just knew about it on the Fuloong from when we donated some of those to
> NixOS developers.
Ah no no, I know of fuloong. I have no idea about the yeelong. As far as I know,
rixed and me have nixos on fuloongs only.
Alexandre "asm"
On Sun, Jan 8, 2012 at 10:07 AM, Alexandre "asm" <asm...@gmail.com> wrote:
When you write that "Gentoo is probably the fastest current distribution". Are you refering the fastest on Lemote Yeloong or in general sense (any machine)?
I was using the specific sense (on the Lemote Yeeloong only). Due to its use of a faster ABI then most distros which still use o32 (I think all except parabola and gentoo are still o32 based?), and also having a bunch of loongson2f-specific tweaks in apps etc.
Good news! I will test it as soon as that possible. :)
Matt Turner
Cool. Our IRC channel is #gentoo-mips on Freenode.
Javier Vasquez
>>>
>>> I was using the specific sense (on the Lemote Yeeloong only). Due to its
>>> use of a faster ABI then most distros which still use o32 (I think all
>>> except parabola and gentoo are still o32 based?), and also having a bunch
>>> of loongson2f-specific tweaks in apps etc.
BTW, any distro using "-mabi=64"? Is it actually possible or not?
Thanks,
--
Javier.
Javier Vasquez
Ups, just to clarify, that would be I believe n64. gcc also offers
"-mabi=o64" but that's similar to n32, it's like 32 bits having some
regs and funtion args in 64 bits... So I really was asking for what
gcc offers as plain 64, or what I believe would be n64...
Thanks,
--
Javier.
Lluís Batlle i Rossell
Nixos is n32 based too - I noticed the list of non-o32 missed it. It should be
easy to try that mabi 64 on nixos, but why would you want that?
Javier Vasquez
According to this:
http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/WhatsWrongWithO32N32N64
n64 provides 64 bits "pointer", meaning addresses, whereas n32
doesn't, and that's the major difference, right? To me that means
able to address bigger physical memory... But beyond that, here:
http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/TheCaseForN32
They recommend n64 and dropping n32 given there's gain in addressing
space, still there's the gain in 64 bits registers as there is for
n32, and there's one less ABI to support.
I was just wondering, if there was then any n64 distro out there...
To the extent I've look, seems not, :-)
Thanks,
--
Javier.
Lluís Batlle i Rossell
> I was just wondering, if there was then any n64 distro out there...
> To the extent I've look, seems not, :-)
Well, the fuloongs I have don't need more virtual addresses (1GB of RAM, I won't
run programs that want 6GB virtual addresses, for example).
And having the programs storing 64-bit pointers instead of 32-bit, makes them
use more ram for certain data structores. If I remember correctly, I tried the
memory usage of i686 vs x86_64 of the same version of firefox+libs (only the
architecture in difference), and the x86_64 was taking 50% more RAM.
Additionally, this year started the development for the amd32 ABI in binutils.
That is x86_64 instructions and 32-bit addresses. At least me, I was waiting for
this. :)
I even was running for a while a 64-bit kernel with 32-bit OS where I had only
some specific programs built for 64-bit - those who needed more virtual
address space.
Regards,
Lluís.
Matt Turner
<j.e.va...@gmail.com> wrote:
> BTW, any distro using "-mabi=64"? Is it actually possible or not?
The Gentoo stages I'm shipping are o32/n32/n64 (n32 default), so
without too much effort you could switch to n64, but n32 should be
better for the vast majority of applications.
Daniel Clark
On Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 12:04:59PM -0600, Javier Vasquez wrote:Well, the fuloongs I have don't need more virtual addresses (1GB of RAM, I won't
> I was just wondering, if there was then any n64 distro out there...
> To the extent I've look, seems not, :-)
run programs that want 6GB virtual addresses, for example).
I even was running for a while a 64-bit kernel with 32-bit OS where I had only
some specific programs built for 64-bit - those who needed more virtual
address space.
Deng Xiyue
This is a very helpful summary information for Loongson users.
On Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 6:05 PM, Daniel Clark <dcl...@pobox.com> wrote:
> [..snip...]
> 5. OpenBSD
>
>
> If you prefer *BSD operating systems, take a look at
> http://www.openbsd.org/loongson.html
>
>
Just wondering if anyone has experience installing and running OpenBSD
on a Loongson box. According to their project page, the hardware
support is complete for most Loongson2f based systems including
Fuloong and Yeeloong laptop, which I guess is even in better shape
that Linux counterpart. It will be great to know more. Thanks.
--
Regards,
Xiyue Deng
Lluís Batlle i Rossell
Really? weird. The n32 binutils build perfect for me. Maybe there was some big
leak in some program he used to build the toolchain. I don't think binutils
should need more than 32-bit virtual space, other than in case of a bug.
On the other hand, I remember how the boost 'jam' program needs more than 2GB in
x86_64...
And recently, the firefox people had problems building firefox in a 32-bit
address space.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Firefox-Source-Code-Is-So-Big-It-Hit-the-32-Bit-Virtual-Address-Space-Limit-240112.shtml
Regards,
Lluís.
Michał Masłowski
>> avoid cross-post issues) mentioned that n64 would be good (at least to have
>> available somewhere) so more virtual memory could be used - the use case he
>> gave was that compiling and debugging some things requires more RAM then
>> can be achieved with current hardware + n32-limited virtual memory.
n64 would be good for building WebKit with debug symbols on a machine
with more than 2 GiB of RAM, since ld needs more than 2 GiB of virtual
memory to link it unless using special options, documented as making the
link slower (it takes many minutes on a YeeLoong, since it uses much
swap).
>> I think he actually had a chicken-and-egg scenario where he couldn't
>> compile 64-bit binutils because of memory limits.
There are unrelated difficulties with cross building Parabola's
toolchain for other architectures/ABIs.
> And recently, the firefox people had problems building firefox in a 32-bit
> address space.
> http://news.softpedia.com/news/Firefox-Source-Code-Is-So-Big-It-Hit-the-32-Bit-Virtual-Address-Space-Limit-240112.shtml
They have a gigabyte more of virtual memory, although it's not
surprising that two different browser-like projects have such problems.
carlos perez
yeeloong
It's called "loongson2_debian7_lxde_20131120.tar.lzma" and apparently was uploaded in November 2013. I tried to install it using the instructions listed here but after the install, attempting to launch just brings up a blank screen (unlike debian 6 lxde which works perfectly).
Anyone know how to install this new one?
zhongjj
could you get the penguin while launching ?
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h0ost
> There is a new Debian lxde file by BJLX at
> www.anheng.com.cn/loongson/install/
>
> the instructions listed here but after the install, attempting to launch
> just brings up a blank screen (unlike debian 6 lxde which works perfectly).
>
> Anyone know how to install this new one?
>
>
you using? The readme file in the /install/ directory, or are you
referring to some other document?
liu shiwei
Initrd.img load too slow . Please update pmon ,or disable initrd.img.....
Yunqiang Su
> Initrd.img load too slow . Please update pmon ,or disable initrd.img.....