| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Aquous
l33t
Joined: 08 Jan 2011
Posts: 700
|
 Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 6:19 pm Post subject: Gentoo on a Wondermedia WM8650 tablet? |
 |
|
So, I just got this tablet which identifies itself as a 'Wondermedia WM8650'. It's running Android 2.2 and I hate it already. I would like to completely wipe Android and install a proper distro, preferably Gentoo, in its place.
I've never used Android before, so there are a few things I need some help with...
- how do I become root?
- when I become root, can I just set up a Gentoo chroot and install grub normally instead of the Android bootloader?
Thank you for your time  |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
NeddySeagoon
Administrator
Joined: 05 Jul 2003
Posts: 55251
Location: 56N 3W
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 7:27 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Aquous,
Proceede with caution. Google will tell you how to root your device - if it breaks, you get to keep the pieces as the process will void your warranty.
The Wondermedia WM8650 is based on an ARM 11 CPU core. You won't want to build anything on that so you should cross compile from a desktop system.
The hard bits will be kernel and graphics support - there might not be any outside of Android.
_________________
Regards,
NeddySeagoon
Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Aquous
l33t
Joined: 08 Jan 2011
Posts: 700
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 8:08 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Hi Neddy, thanks for the input
| NeddySeagoon wrote: | | The Wondermedia WM8650 is based on an ARM 11 CPU core. |
/proc/cpuinfo identifies it as "ARM926EJ-S rev 5 (v51)" which, according to Google and Wikipedia, is ARM9.
I've managed to root the device. I can get a chroot up but I would prefer to boot Gentoo directly.
I have the source code to the custom kernel for this chip, so that part will be easy, but how do I tell the bootloader to pass the kernel something like 'root=/dev/sdb1' (assuming my SD card will be sdb1)? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
NeddySeagoon
Administrator
Joined: 05 Jul 2003
Posts: 55251
Location: 56N 3W
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 8:22 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Aquous,
You probably don't.
The kernel can contain an embedded command line. Try using that.
Also /join #gentoo-embedded on irc.freenode.net
_________________
Regards,
NeddySeagoon
Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
panyo
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 02 Jan 2004
Posts: 86
|
| Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 2:46 am Post subject: |
|
|
[quote="Aquous"
I've managed to root the device. I can get a chroot up but I would prefer to boot Gentoo directly.
I have the source code to the custom kernel for this chip, so that part will be easy, but how do I tell the bootloader to pass the kernel something like 'root=/dev/sdb1' (assuming my SD card will be sdb1)?[/quote]
I believe these products, like earlier wondermedia netbooks use v-boot which loads u-boot.
You can see some source for u-boot here:
https://github.com/atsidaev/u-boot-wm8650
and a simple tutorial here:
http://gitorious.org/linux-on-via-vt8500/pages/HowToUbootScriptcmd |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
Gentoo on Alternative Architectures
