Debian Linux one-click installer for Motorola Defy - now with lxde desktop!

[xdaid]

This is my one-click installer to get debian linux 5.0 working on Defy.
Here we go, debian with desktop and all the graphic stuff!

FIXED - NEW APK - Tested on different Froyo roms: China 0.26, CEE 3.4.2-155, Finnland

New faster mirror: http://dogsr.us/debian-img.zip
Many thanks to texasice

1) copy the apk to your phone, install, open the app
2) click "download debian-img.zip" (wifi recommended)
3) click "install debian"
4) done

Terminal emulator not required!
but this time you need androidVNC (android-vnc-viewer) in order to display the lxde desktop.
So, make sure to install androidVNC - it's free, available on the market too - then start with debian installation.

The installation process will take several minutes, so, be patient

Once debian is installed press "boot debian" button, you'll be automatically redirected to androidVNC:
to access the debian desktop provide the data listed below then click "Connect".
Important: Let some debian stuff load, wait 5-10 seconds before clicking "Connect"

Password: password
Address: localhost
Port: 5901

Et voilà, you'll get debian-lxde on your defy, ready to run your favorite linux apps.

Once done, make sure to close debian properly, this is important:
from the androidVNC menu click "Disconnect", go back to DebOnDroid and click "quit debian" button.
* You may need to click "quit debian" twice in some cases.

As you can imagine, to remove debian just click "remove debian".
This will delete debian image and links, not the downloaded zip file (which can be used again). This file is placed in /sdcard/debian/, can be deleted manually.

Note:

You need 1,83Gb free on sdcard (1,5 for debian image + 339 for installation file).
debian-img.zip (339mb - file hosted on scdevs.com) contains the image of debian filesystem.
Once extracted the image size is 1,5Gb, so the "disk space" available for debian will be 1,5Gb.

All stuff is in the storage card, even if you download and install new linux apps no space in the defy's main storage is taken.

The storage card is accessible from debian too.

If you prefer to download the compressed image file (debian-img.zip) from PC, here are a couple of links:
http://dogsr.us/debian-img.zip
http://www.scdevs.com/debondroid/debian-img.zip
The downloaded file must be placed in "/sdcard/debian", so make a folder called "debian" in the root of the sdcard and copy the file there.

Credits to cocus, me, and many other guys who share info over the net.
enjoy!

Please post feedbacks, even if it works or not, it works flawlessy on my Defy and i wish to know how it works on different (Defy) roms.


euro beers
american beers

 

[reinsen]

hey, im not really into that linux stuff, but im curious.

is it (theoretically) possible to create a linux based OS/GUI for the defy?
so that the phone doesnt run on android but linux?

i can imagine that this is nearly impossible because of all the drivers and stuff...

what was your intention to use linux for on the defy anyway?

 

[xdaid]

hey, im not really into that linux stuff, but im curious.

is it (theoretically) possible to create a linux based OS/GUI for the defy?
so that the phone doesnt run on android but linux?

i can imagine that this is nearly impossible because of all the drivers and stuff...

what was your intention to use linux for on the defy anyway?

hi, the final goal is getting a linux GUI able to use the mobile's graphic chip. Some attemps has been made, take a look here (thx to cocus for this link):

http://labs.igep.es/index.php/How_to_get_the_Ubuntu_distribution

At the moment you can have a linux GUI in your phone but it is only accessible via vnc (running locally in your phone) due to linux has not access to the graphics on android.

Running debian on our defy is not so useful but definitely interesting, however, some cool stuff can be done, for example you can use the command
"apt-get install ..."
which is a powerful tool to download and install new linux packages, in this case you'll get those packages installed on your phone.

Right now i used apt-get to install the gftp tool (ftp client for linux) in my defy, it works perfectly, although i have to use the command line

 

[cocus]

hey, im not really into that linux stuff, but im curious.

is it (theoretically) possible to create a linux based OS/GUI for the defy?
so that the phone doesnt run on android but linux?

i can imagine that this is nearly impossible because of all the drivers and stuff...

what was your intention to use linux for on the defy anyway?

For the GUI: The hardware of the Defy is THE SAME of the BeagleBoard xM (http://beagleboard.org/hardware-xM). I've installed X11 on my defy, and the video driver for the OMAP3 FrameBuffer device (kind of extension for Xorg desktop (x11)).
As the Kernel of Defy firmware currently loads the driver, we really dont have to hack anything. (I think)
In fact, it doesn't work at all, but at least, the screen goes black, and the X11 omap3 driver detects the graphic device. There are some kind of fail initliazing the "plane":

(EE) omapfb(0): OMAPFBScreenInit: Plane setup failed: Invalid argument

Fatal server error:
AddScreen/ScreenInit failed for driver 0

And if I run it again:

(EE) omapfb(0): Driver can't support depth 24
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

Fatal server error:
no screens found

Now, I've reached another error, I think its a stupid error, because the driver relies on the boot arguments... And I think it is impossible to add or modify any argument on the boot.

(II) LoadModule: "omapfb"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/omapfb_drv.so
(II) Module omapfb: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
        compiled for 1.7.4, module version = 0.1.1
        ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 6.0
(II) omapfb: Driver for OMAP framebuffer (omapfb) and external LCD controllers:
        omap1/2/3, S1D13745, HWA742
(WW) Falling back to old probe method for OMAPFB
(WW) VGA arbiter: cannot open kernel arbiter, no multi-card support
(II) Running in FRAMEBUFFER Mode
(WW) Error opening /sys/devices/platform/omapfb/ctrl/name: No such file or directory
(WW) Can't autodetect LCD controller, assuming internal
(II) LCD controller: internal
(II) omapfb(0): VideoRAM: 0KiB (SDRAM)
(II) omapfb(0): Creating default Display subsection in Screen section
        "Builtin Default fbdev Screen 0" for depth/fbbpp 16/16
(**) omapfb(0): Depth 16, (--) framebuffer bpp 16
(==) omapfb(0): RGB weight 565
(==) omapfb(0): Default visual is TrueColor
(--) omapfb(0): Virtual size is 0x0 (pitch 0)
(**) omapfb(0):  Built-in mode "current"
(==) omapfb(0): DPI set to (96, 96)
(II) Loading sub module "fb"
(II) LoadModule: "fb"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/libfb.so
(II) Module fb: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
        compiled for 1.7.7, module version = 1.0.0
        ABI class: X.Org ANSI C Emulation, version 0.4

Backtrace:
Floating point exception at address 0x2938

Fatal server error:
Caught signal 8 (Floating point exception). Server aborting

 

[zmesler]

hey, im not really into that linux stuff, but im curious.

is it (theoretically) possible to create a linux based OS/GUI for the defy?
so that the phone doesnt run on android but linux?

i can imagine that this is nearly impossible because of all the drivers and stuff...

what was your intention to use linux for on the defy anyway?

Let me make your day...Android IS Linux and you are using it right now.

 

[xjlfu]

amazing work !

at last, can we use linux apps on our android system?

 

[xdaid]

amazing work !

at last, can we use linux apps on our android system?

Once you get into the debian shell you can download, install and use any linux package. But note, you won't have graphic UI, it's just console. This means it's better to install stuff that works with command line.

Soon an new installer for debian + lxde (GUI for debian) should be ready, you will be hooked to a vnc to see the GUI and all the apps with graphic UI ... i will post it as soon as possible

 

[xjlfu]

Once you get into the debian shell you can download, install and use any linux package. But note, you won't have graphic UI, it's just console. This means it's better to install stuff that works with command line.

Soon an new installer for debian + lxde (GUI for debian) should be ready, you will be hooked to a vnc to see the GUI and all the apps with graphic UI ... i will post it as soon as possible

thanks for your great works

if it can work find , it will easy to port Linux apps to android plantform, isnt it?

Sent from my MB525 using XDA App

 

[Perilla_]

Waiting that new version...

 

[cocus]

Here is my one-click installer to get debian linux 5.0 working on Defy.
So far it's console only, but i'm planning a debian + lxde installer.

- copy the apk to your phone, install, open the app
- click "download debian.img.bz2" (wifi recommended)
- click "install debian"
- done

Note:

You need 890mb free on sdcard.
debian.img.bz2 (90mb - file hosted on scdevs.com) contains the image of debian filesystem.
Once extracted the image size is 800mb, so the "disk space" available for debian will be 800mb.

The installation process will take several minutes, so, be patient

As you can imagine, to remove debian just click "remove debian".
This will delete debian image and links, not the downloaded bz2 file (which can be used again). This file is placed in /sdcard/debian/, can be deleted manually.

All stuff is in the storage card, even if you download and install new linux tools no space in the defy's main storage is taken.

Last note, the storage card is accessible from debian too.

Credits to cocus, me, and many other guys who share info over the net.
enjoy!

Please post feedbacks, even if it works or not, it works flawlessy on my Defy and i wish to know how it works on different (Defy) roms.


euro beers
american beers

Hey, I've tested Squeeze, and it works nicely. Even LXDE and all the stuff related.

 

[Perilla_]

Still waiting...

 

[xdaid]

Still waiting...

Still working.. but almost done.

I had a little issue to make the underlaying terminal coexist with the lxde term, now solved.
Atm all it's working but i'm looking for a better way, i'd like to launch debian with no terminal interface, so the user can go directly to the vnc once "boot debian" button is pressed.

 

[Perilla_]

Nice nice I only want some info about if it was going.

Thanks for your work

 

[m11kkaa]

Thank you for this work!
Can you please implement an option to choose this VirtualImage-size?

 

[m11kkaa]

Sry for double-posting but I have an interesting question:
Can we chmod an Android2.3-system using this method?
This would be very great because so we could experiment with newer kernels etc.

 

[xdaid]

Sry for double-posting but I have an interesting question:
Can we chmod an Android2.3-system using this method?
This would be very great because so we could experiment with newer kernels etc.

honestly i have no idea but, in my opinion, there's no chance to chroot android2.3 for 2 reasons:

1) debian provides all the tools you need to build a filesystem image which can be mounted easily

2) I think android is not so "open" as debian, i mean, probably gingerbread will detect the underlaying eclair or froyo and won't boot at all (but, i can be wrong, i never tried such a thing).

 

[dbk3r]

after downloading image, the install process wont start, (nothing happens).
- term emu and your installer have su rights.

- running jboogie3 orange

????

 

[xdaid]

after downloading image, the install process wont start, (nothing happens).
- term emu and your installer have su rights.

- running jboogie3 orange

????

a dialog with a message should appear, even when the installation fails..
i'm trying to figure out what goes wrong after you press the install button.

Tested on Eclair EU deblur, France and (modded) Froyo China, the installation starts all the times, but not tested on jboogie3

PS. is busybox properly installed?

 

[m11kkaa]

Does anyone know, if there is an ARM-version of XAMPP/LAMPP or anything else?
Because it's very much work to install and configure everything myself.

Edit: I did it myself now. The problem were the user-setting in the mysql-server but now it works very well.
Edit2: Ther semms to be some right-problems. I have to run the server (mysql, apache2) as root so they can start.
Is there any solution?

 

[dbk3r]

a dialog with a message should appear, even when the installation fails..
i'm trying to figure out what goes wrong after you press the install button.

Tested on Eclair EU deblur, France and (modded) Froyo China, the installation starts all the times, but not tested on jboogie3

PS. is busybox properly installed?

Busybox is not installed
Dialog..installin Debian appears and disappers a second later


Sent from my MB525