[Gta04-owner] QtMoko v49

[Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Am 22.11.2012 um 12:57 schrieb Neil Jerram:

> 
> On Thursday, November 22, 2012 09:35:06, Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:
>> 
>> Am 22.11.2012 um 10:23 schrieb Griera:
>> 
>>> Hi:
>>> 
>>> On Thu, 22 Nov 2012 09:59:00 +0100
>>> "Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller" <hns at goldelico.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Hi Radek,
>>>> 
>>>> Am 22.11.2012 um 09:13 schrieb Radek Polak:
>>>> 
>>>>> On Thursday, November 22, 2012 01:44:59 AM EdorFaus wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> The reason this is not possible, is because one of p1..p4 is used up by
>>>>>> the extended partition that contains the remaining partitions (as the
>>>>>> primary table only has room for 4, and we have to know where to find the
>>>>>> rest).
>>>>> 
>>>>> Yup i have noticed it now too. So for next QtMoko release the recommended 
>>>>> partition scheme is:
>>>>> 
>>>>> p1 - small fat - used for gta04-init and for upgrading the NAND bootloader
>>>>> p2 - ext4 with rootfs for QtMoko
>>>>> p3 - ext3 with rootfs for SHR
>>>>> p4 - extended partition
>>>>> p5 - FAT with media
>>>>> p6..p9 - optinal - can be used for more distros, that use gta04-init
>>>> 
>>>> Looks very complicated to me and makes it even more difficult to burn
>>>> a working SD card than before.
>>> 
>>> Difficult, but only have to do once. And the advantage is that you can
>>> have multiple distributions on one card for testing.
>> 
>> Yes, but IMHO it can be simplified even more by not requiring a specific
>> scheme by QtMoko.
>> 
>> The latest bootloader supports to have up to 4 different distributions on
>> one SD.
>> 
>> Unfortunately we didn't hear any recent progress form Replicant.
>> 
>>> 
>>> Regards. Griera.
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> So this enables us to boot 2 distros on SD from the bootloader menu and 
>>>>> inifinitely more using gta04-init.
>>>>> 
>>>>> This looks like only sane schema to me. We cant skip the first FAT because you 
>>>>> would have no way to flash new bootloader then. And also gta04-init is using 
>>>> 
>>>> The FAT partition is intended to be used only on a separate SD card to flash
>>>> the bootloader. Since this is probably not done every day and is best done
>>>> through the hw-validation image (which needs 2 partitions incompatible to
>>>> your scheme), I would simply ignore that special case for a QtMoko SD card.
>>>> 
>>>>> it for the advanced booting to extended partitions and to chroots.
>>>>> 
>>>>> We also cant skip the p4 since we need separate partition for media.
>>>> 
>>>> The other question I have is why QtMoko needs to recommend a SHR partition?
>>>> 
>>>> Since I am a friend of "KISS", I would recommend that every distro simply
>>>> is expanded to any (properly) formatted *single* partition.
>>>> 
>>>> So if the SD has 4 partitions it is like 4 disks on a single physical rack.
>>>> And the AUX boot menu allows to choose which disk. If it only has one - fine! 
>>>> 
>>>> If the user wants to have a FAT media partition, let him create one and
>>>> make the distro search/find/mount it.
>>>> 
>>>> The above scheme could IMHO be recommended by gta04-init and not
>>>> by QtMoko since it is a third stage bootloader.
>>>> 
>>>> Just my 3ct,
>>>> Nikolaus
>>>> 
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Gta04-owner mailing list
>>>> Gta04-owner at goldelico.com
>>>> http://lists.goldelico.com/mailman/listinfo/gta04-owner
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Gta04-owner mailing list
>>> Gta04-owner at goldelico.com
>>> http://lists.goldelico.com/mailman/listinfo/gta04-owner
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Gta04-owner mailing list
>> Gta04-owner at goldelico.com
>> http://lists.goldelico.com/mailman/listinfo/gta04-owner
>> 
> 
> I'm inclined to prefer more simplicity here.  I'd like:
> 
> p1: distro 1 e.g. QtMoko
> p2: distro 2 e.g. SHR
> p3: distro 3 e.g. Replicant
> p4: media, maps, docs
> NAND: bootloader, Debian/LXDE

Yes, that is what I have in mind as sort of maximum installation. But no specific order of the distros required.

> 
> Demonstrating multiple OSes is important for me as part of showing off how cool the GTA04 is.  (And also when there are specific applications only provided by one OS.)

Exactly.

> 
> For rescue I'm happy to use a separate SD card, so I don't need an initial FAT partition in my main card.
> 
> If the bootloader already allows me to choose between the distros, I don't think I need gta04-init anymore - Radek, does gta04-init have other benefits that I'm missing?
> 
> Regards,
> Neil
> _______________________________________________
> Gta04-owner mailing list
> Gta04-owner at goldelico.com
> http://lists.goldelico.com/mailman/listinfo/gta04-owner