Debian on the Vogue

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I've been running Debian natively from my SD card for a while, so I decided I'd share the [relatively easy] instructions. First, though, here's the status of the hardware support...

* X11 is working quite nicely. 480x640 resolution is best for using E17.
* I'm trying to think up a solution for the 3D accelerator. LLVMpipe works but it's not much faster than classic Mesa. Maybe that's because I'm only testing performance with Mupen64Plus and SuperTux :P Ideally we would have an open-source OpenGL ES 1.0 driver with an OpenGL 1.3 wrapper/Gallium state tracker, but unfortunately Qualcomm closed it :(
* The hardware buttons don't generate input events (except the power button, which apparently makes SDL windows fullscreen).
* USB function ether works. This means you can SSH into it or update packages without a data connection (I don't think data even works).
* Sound doesn't work because Android doesn't use ALSA - or maybe because DZO hasn't written the proper driver...
* Camera(s) would need a Video4Linux driver; again, not my area :P
* Bluetooth is untested.
* GPS needs userspace work (gpsd?) - maybe the HTC Dream page at HTC-Linux.org has info...
* Calling - untested because: 1) I doesn't got the software, and 2) even if it worked, I have no one to call :P

If you're willing to wait indefinitely for those things to be fixed (or if you don't care), all you need is a Debian chroot on an EXT2-formatted SD card and my special NBH. The NAND should also work*, but Debian probably wouldn't fit on it. These instructions should also work for Ubuntu, Gentoo, FSO/OpenMoko, Angstrom, ARMedSlack, Fedora, or what have you - the only requirements are ARMv6 or lower and a semi-standard root filesystem layout (i.e. /sbin/init).

For those of you who don't trust binaries, I've uploaded my patches to the kernel and tinboot needed for Debian to boot. For everyone else, I have NBH files ready. Just flash the NBH, insert your SD card, and it should boot.

Links:
http://www.mediafire.com/?mnv2memddug (source)
http://www.mediafire.com/?immywzmmqjn (binaries)

*LogFS patch included and enabled in my NBH.

Interesting, i'm going to have to try it out, any chance of getting it bootable from within android, like haret is with windows?

what exactly is debian??

is it like ubuntu thats on my computer

Originally Posted by jadenj5

what exactly is debian??

is it like ubuntu thats on my computer

yes
10char

little confused though, where do I get the debian root files though

Debian Root

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Instructions to build your own RootFS follow. If you're lazy, Google for a pre-built one.
If you're on Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install debootstrap
sudo debootstrap --arch armel --foreign unstable root/ http://http.us.debian.org/debian

Substituting "unstable" for "stable" or "testing", "root/" with the the path to the directory you want the rootfs in (probably your SD card mountpoint), and your country code in ftp.??.debian.org (or another mirror). You might also need to do

 sudo mount -o remount,rw,dev,exec $MOUNTPOINT

to your SD card (which, again, should be ext2-formatted) for debootstrap to work.

Then to complete the bootstrap:

sudo apt-get install qemu-kvm-extras-static
sudo cp /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static $ROOTFS/usr/bin/
sudo chroot $ROOTFS

From inside the chroot, do

/debootstrap/debootstrap --second-stage

Then, apt-get install whatever you want on the phone (after configuring /etc/apt/sources.list), exit the chroot, unmount the card, insert it in your phone, and boot!

You'll need - at the very least - xserver-xorg-video-fbdev and xserver-xorg-input-evdev *WITHOUT* installing the other video or input drivers. And a desktop/window manager. If you haven't used Debian before, try e17.

Thanks man, i'm going to go check it out

If you're lazy, Google for a pre-built one.

can't find one.?

If you're on Ubuntu:

ubuntu 10.04 debootstrap doesnt know about stable/testing/unstable names, but knows about lenny, squeeze, sid (:

okay, I maked Debian unstable rootfs - here it is (127MB tar.bz2). here is dpkg -l.
root password is "1", apt sources.list is configured to most close to me mirror. I also added /proc into fstab.

how to pack my rootfs into .img image now?