linux on htc magician

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evildarknight

Senior Member
Jun 16, 2008
102
1
paradise
i've been trying to find who is working on this project?
whats the updates?
where are the updates??
i have found only old post and threads about this
and old download links.:confused:
 

pH5

Member
Oct 23, 2005
5
0
I am working on the kernel, but we need some more people for userspace support (be that android, openmoko, or just plain and simple angstrom images - making dialer and sms applications etc. work). The best place to get current information about linux on magician is the #htc-linux IRC channel on freenode.net.
 

evildarknight

Senior Member
Jun 16, 2008
102
1
paradise
cool

ok cool i dont have much time to dedicate now as i'm involve with other projects i may be able to help you with userlands at the end of the year i pm you when i'm ready
really excited about this:)
 

cest73

Senior Member
Mar 2, 2009
120
1
lock n' load marines ;-)

I know my way around tweaking/hacking HW to get working under linux...

did to few times back with some stuff on adestop PC.

1. I need a running kernel
2. A terminal
3. SDK and IDE for userland tools (GNU suite)
4. A ipk repository to leech from
5. duded and fellows of all sorts
6. time

Already done for the 1 and partly for the 2

shall we?
 

cest73

Senior Member
Mar 2, 2009
120
1
progress

although i liked qtopia better, i put that Armostrong thingie (foun in the tmp folder of our ftp server here...

The kernel is 2.6.21 hh20

1. and it boots to the gui
2. it let make me calls (777 answered right)
3. it shows incoming calls (although won't pick up the hook)
4. It begun showing messages (half way through upgrade)
5. It has ateminal and a touch type keyboard (querty lol)
6. it let me define usb0 network device
7. It let me log in via ssh as root (pasword is empty: just hit enter)

then i fiddled with the ipkg tool:

I managed to let it run trough squid proxy when i couldn't make it route...

file: /etc/ipkg.conf
Code:
# Must have one or more source entries of the form:
#
#   src <src-name> <source-url>
#
# and one or more destination entries of the form:
#
#   dest <dest-name> <target-path>
#
# where <src-name> and <dest-names> are identifiers that
# should match [a-zA-Z0-9._-]+, <source-url> should be a
# URL that points to a directory containing a Familiar
# Packages file, and <target-path> should be a directory
# that exists on the target system.

# Proxy Support
#option http_proxy http://proxy.tld:3128
#option ftp_proxy http://proxy.tld:3128

option http_proxy http://172.31.0.3:3128
option ftp_proxy http://172.31.0.3:3128

#option proxy_username <username>
#option proxy_password <password>

# Offline mode (for use in constructing flash images offline)
#option offline_root target

dest root /
lists_dir ext /var/lib/ipkg

172.31.0.3:3128 is the URL of my proxy - edit as appropriate before storing to the sd card

If all goes well i promise...

... i make an image (128MB) of the whole SD card i used...

;-)
 
Last edited:

cest73

Senior Member
Mar 2, 2009
120
1
Ah harrr sharky

a thought beastie this one !
:mad:

got to see the end of the upgrade of ipkg and got the device hang...

another hard reset ahoy
:-(

see if it boots again?
(stay tuned...)
 

cest73

Senior Member
Mar 2, 2009
120
1
at least it boots...

no X this time ?
just the blank screen...

have to troubleshoot :(
 

cest73

Senior Member
Mar 2, 2009
120
1
???? got a funny menu on the screen and couldn't get pass it?

boy a wish someone here had any clue :)
 

cest73

Senior Member
Mar 2, 2009
120
1
???? got a funny menu on the screen and couldn't get pass it?

boy a wish someone here had any clue :)

it seems it has problem with default calibration:

the X appears but the calibrator fails :-(

EDIT:
nope, it was DBUS - failing to start due of missing users!
 
Last edited:

evildarknight

Senior Member
Jun 16, 2008
102
1
paradise
was a bit offline these days my magician is broken some stupid chip burn out after years of good service i ve sent it to taiwan for repair but i have little hope
i ll see if i can buy another one on ebay these days
we should talk on irc one of these days cest73 (althought i am usually online at weird hours)
 

cest73

Senior Member
Mar 2, 2009
120
1
elivildarkknight,
Im +01h off Greenwich, so we shall try it?
:)

OTOH:
the main issue regarding useable Liunx is:

1. A fast hard-reset able ROM (bare 2003SE) [i don't have now]
2. A SD card reader [i have]
3. A decent image of a working kernel [have the 2.6.21 hh20 of Armstrong's 2008.1]
4. A way to make magician respond to a ssh log in upon USB connect [i seek the way right now]
5. A decent userspace stack able to bring all magician's HW to life [once we can make it 'network']
6. A decent environment before the X or any WM is started for fallback [this can be done IMHO]
7.
 

evildarknight

Senior Member
Jun 16, 2008
102
1
paradise
try to get in touch with phillip zabel he is working on the kernel and can help you on the image there is a working qtopia image floating around you can try to see the config they used for the display and other stuff a booting kernel with an image on sd should be ok for a start ;)
the developers of blueangel also may help i ll try to see who is working on there image
i'm at +5 GMT the main problem is that i have few free time because of exams and real life
my magician is going to Taiwan for repair now so i m left with the hermes right now :mad:
will be happy to help you anyways
in april i'll be more on irc try to keep us update on your work
:)
 
Last edited:

cest73

Senior Member
Mar 2, 2009
120
1
roger to that

ok:)
we shall take the time then...

i thought about a ncurses based teminal keyboard emulation controlled with the jog dial...
 

cest73

Senior Member
Mar 2, 2009
120
1
continued troubleshooting for magician...

it appears i miss the calibration procedure somehow
As i can't use it as a normal phone under moko yet, i'm limited for how long i'm able to play with it...
:(

I will try again today to get at least something launched over that X...

I somehow like more the QT stack?
 

cest73

Senior Member
Mar 2, 2009
120
1
progress report...

My distro is Slackware so i found this:

http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/USB_Networking#Slackware_.28tested_with_12.1.29
Does not even work, but the page was useful:

When i connect the Magician while running Linux, i get to a terminal and become root:
Code:
# dmesg
there i see that usb0 is now available:
Code:
usb0: unregister 'cdc_subset' usb-0000:00:1d.1-2, Linux Device
usb 3-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 19
usb 3-2: configuration #1 chosen from 2 choices
usb0: register 'cdc_subset' at usb-0000:00:1d.1-2, Linux Device, 16:ce:a6:75:bd:58
usb 3-2: New USB device found, idVendor=0525, idProduct=a4a2
usb 3-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
usb 3-2: Product: RNDIS/Ethernet Gadget
usb 3-2: Manufacturer: Linux 2.6.21-hh20/pxa27x_udc

so i manually bring up the usb0 from my host:

Code:
# ifconfig usb0 192.168.0.200
# ifconfig usb0 up
# ping 192.168.0.202 -c4
PING 192.168.0.202 (192.168.0.202) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.0.202: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=1.25 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.202: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=1.96 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.202: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=1.76 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.202: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=1.56 ms
#

You have to know the rest for the routing to the internet to be successful...

i hope this helps a bit?
 

cest73

Senior Member
Mar 2, 2009
120
1
adding the parameter
Code:
psplah=false
to the default.txt:
Code:
set KERNEL zImage
set CMDLINE "root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 console=tty0 rootdelay=1"
bootlinux

to be:
Code:
set KERNEL zImage
set CMDLINE "root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 console=tty0 rootdelay=1 [U]psplah=false[/U]"
bootlinux
disables the nice spalsh screen while boot-up, allowing one to see why the darn thing is hanging...
:)
 

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  • 2
    Working 3.4.0

    if i use startup.txt and kernel provided in this package "Angstrom-x11-image-glibc-ipk-2009.X-stable-magician.rootfs.rar" i just get a white screen:
    1. linux starts - console says a few lines - last line is "jumping to kernel"
    2. then screen fades to white and stays like this

    i had this white-screen with a lot of linux packages already. But i know i don't have this, when i use a older zImage. So i replace the zImage by version r13 "zImage-2.6.21-hh20-r25-magician.bin"

    Now it looks different: screen goes also white - but the console returns immediately.
    the boot process seems to start. it writes a lot of lines (what hardware found etc.) , then ends with:
    VFS: mounted root (ext2 filesystem)
    freeing init memory: 84K
    kernel panic - not syncing: no init found. try passing init= option to kernel.

    Any advice ?

    Thanx!

    Hello (everybody),
    I managed to boot Magician with nearly latest vanilla kernel (~3.4.0). Problem with whitescreen is mostly with power GPIO initialization (working hh-version wasn't long/never in vanilla tree). After some other changes in source code I was able to boot into console (X server intentionally disabled), using usb-client emulation of ethernet, irda (with little success only - bad PC dongle).

    I think it would be in small time possible to run full X server, but there is problem with my Magician. In one test it fell disassembled on the floor and LCD connector plastic stripe is damaged (2-3 wires on both sides).

    Is Linux on Magician still desired topic so I can try repair LCD stripe and finish vanilla kernel patches? (But even when it is I don't know if I can this stripe successfully repair.)

    is it possible to return to Windows (Cotulla or Windows mobile) in case if experiment with Linux fails?
    Yes it is, if you boot with haret.exe and not touching internal flash ;). Just press HW reset button.

    P.S. Sorry for bad english.
    2
    Done! I managed to boot into my own "distribution". It does not have any useful software, but it works (kind of :D).

    Bootup sequence:
    1) Boot into windows mobile (tested with sdhc card patch).
    2) Create two partitions on SD card (FAT for windows mobile and ext2 for linux).
    3) Copy haret and kernel image into FAT
    4) Copy rootfs into ext2
    5) Boot into windows mobile
    6) Attach USB between Magician and LINUX (!) machine
    7) Run haret from FAT
    8) Linux should start booting if not power reset and start from 1) (or maybe you have different revision?, LCD=samsung)
    9) REPLUG usb cable (usb GPIO is not implemented, windows sets that)
    10) On Linux machine set ethernet over usb: ifconfig usb0 192.168.4.1 up (you can set NAT too)
    11) You should be able to login over SSH with user/pass=root/pokus
    12) Xorg -noreset -retro & export DISPLAY=:0; xeyes &

    Root filesystem is here: ulozto dot net/x6P845U8/to-okias-tar-bz2 . Kernel is 3.7 (patched vanilla) but I heard, some of my patches are not required in 3.11+.

    Touchscreen data are a bit unstable (developer's version) I will try to improve them (or update to 3.11).

    Are there some hardware hackers, who owns Magician? I need help with certain things (for example data chip (1 wire PIC used as eeprom?) from my battery burned so I cannot use it). Of course if someone willing to send me a spare battery I will not refuse ;).

    I would like to know if touchscreen works for everyone other (if you paint rectangle, does cursor really move in rectangle, etc..)?

    If someone wants patches against 3.7 please send me e-mail.
    1
    Hello (everybody),
    I managed to boot Magician with nearly latest vanilla kernel (~3.4.0). Problem with whitescreen is mostly with power GPIO initialization (working hh-version wasn't long/never in vanilla tree). After some other changes in source code I was able to boot into console (X server intentionally disabled), using usb-client emulation of ethernet, irda (with little success only - bad PC dongle).

    I think it would be in small time possible to run full X server, but there is problem with my Magician. In one test it fell disassembled on the floor and LCD connector plastic stripe is damaged (2-3 wires on both sides).

    Is Linux on Magician still desired topic so I can try repair LCD stripe and finish vanilla kernel patches? (But even when it is I don't know if I can this stripe successfully repair.)


    Yes it is, if you boot with haret.exe and not touching internal flash ;). Just press HW reset button.

    P.S. Sorry for bad english.

    Yes, you should continue this project!!! What OS are you going to run once you get the kernel perfect? I know some people are still interested in this but might not visit this forum daily and a lot of people just read the forums and not comment on them.
    1
    Yes, you should continue this project!!! What OS are you going to run once you get the kernel perfect? I know some people are still interested in this but might not visit this forum daily and a lot of people just read the forums and not comment on them.
    Wow I actually didn't expect any answer :D. I got my Magician nearly for free, because of wearing-out of hardware and case, so it is possible that it fall apart before working system (actually i don't even know how to repair LCD without high risk of total destruction).

    With this basics I didn't think much about final OS, but my kernel debugging ran with one of OpenMoko distribution (with hh kernel tree) from this forum. Actually userspace is irrelevant for me and it can be even custom distribution (I don't know which or if some applications are without GPL'ed source and if is possible to make calls with OM). Maybe some other GUI programmer can do this ;).
    1
    look who's been busy lately :D

    @pc2005,
    I would recommend to post the patches in more than one single place, it is sadly common practice while surfing lately, to find discontinued hosting and code lost to "bit-rot"...
    ;)
    Also I see You are going deep :good:
    :D
    Keep up with the good stuff (hope someone comes to help soon...)