Re: New kernel for Zaurus

Serge Medentsev wrote:
> 
> A cross-post from "zaurus-general" list...
> 
> I've noticed that the kernel used by Sharp and OZ is quite old. Well, it's
> actually more than a year old if you consider that linux-2.4.6-rmk1-np2
> kernel is dated July 2001, embedix patch is dated December 2001 and the
> latest Sharp diff is dated March 2002. 

True. kergoth has a 2.4.18 (19?) mostly working. He'd likly be eager to
have others look at it at this point.

> And you should also consider that the
> kernel is lamost identical for 5000 and 5500 models.

Indeed, this should be just a config difference at this point.
> 
> The question is - why are we stuck with old kernel and embedix distibution?
> There were so many bugs fixed since 2.4.6 and so many new features added...
> I just feel myself like using a year old machine rather than a brand new
> SL-5500 ;-)

When the project was done for sharp this was the latest. With all the
focus on other aspects of the development the kernel patches have not
been brought up to the latest yet.

> 
> Can't we just build a kernel for 5500 using the sources from
> http://www.arm.uk.linux.org/developer/release-2.4.0.shtml ? The interesting
> fact is that if you build 1.13 Sharp ROM version for 5000 it seems to use
> Tom Riker's config files (while 2.12 for 5500 uses Sharp's config).

Well, it's Tim. But ok. ;-)

OZ (OpenZaurus) includes the complete build instructions. I'd suggest
you make improvements or config changes there.

> 
> I've never tried to cross-compile anything before (never needed to do so)
> but now I'm wondering how difficult will it be to insert new kernel into the
> Sharp's or OZ distro? It should be very easy to copy the root file system
> from running Zaurus and using it "as is". Then take a new ARM-Linux kernel,
> cross-compile it on Linux desktop, merge the modules with root fs, put
> everything back into SL-5500. I realise it is not and easy task but not
> impossible since I'm talking about the kernel only (OZ guys did a nice job
> of building everything else).

From the OZ team: thanx! ;-) You should thank the uClibc folk (hi Erik)
for starting it and the TuxScreen folk for enhancing it. ;-)

OZ is a good place to start with alternative builds. I understand TinyX
was in the works for OZ. This may be done, I've no checked back.

> 
> The main questions are:
> 
> 1. Am I missing something fundamental?

Nope. Just time. ;-)

> 2. Both OZ and Sharp use Embedix code for Zaurus. Is there a good reson for
> that? Can't we move away from Lineo and use ARM-Linus source tree?

The SD driver has not been open sourced due to http://www.SDCard.org/
licensing requirements. I'm happy to build SD modules for the OZ kernels
though.

> 3. Although I do have some programming experience, I've never wrote anything
> for Linux before and not very good at C programming (I'm more into Delphi,
> Java and PHP stuff). Will it make my attempt to build a new kernel for
> Zaurus using ARM-Linux sources almost impossible?

Well, let's just say it will be a learnign experience. ;-)

> 
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-- 
Tim Riker - http://rikers.org/ - [email protected]
Lineo CTO - [email protected] - http://www.Lineo.com/
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