Gentoo on Nokia 770 N800 PDA ?

Message

EOF · Post by **EOF** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 9:56 am

Has somebody tried this? Since on the devices is already running a debian based linux this should be possible more easily than putting gentoo on a windows based pda.

I really want to try this, but I dont know what is the best way to start. Can I start from the developmentenviroment
scratchbox and install from there like installing gentoo from knoppix or is the better way to install it (or the only possible?) like described here
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_setup_gent ... ded_system or here
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-518041.html

Demonstration of the linux power of the devices:

KDE running on the N800 (see pictures and a vid if you do not believe)

http://www.internettablettalk.com/forum ... 233&page=4

Quake 2 together with bluetooth keyboard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPh2Os0D8pY

derverstand · Post by **derverstand** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 3:54 pm

Personally I'd not attemp this. Gentoo is very nice for use on a desktop/laptop (->workstation). In my opinion the big advantage of gentoo is the portrage - and this will not be working on the embedded device. So you have to cross compile anyway. BTW: The system has to be slim anyway. This means you likely will compile simple apps anyway. So why not building a complete own distro? I attempted this once for the n770.
/BR

EOF · Post by **EOF** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 9:20 am

I guess you are right. A complete new distro would make more sense. It is just sad the Maemo is not completly free and Nokia already dropped official support for a device which is on the marked for 1 year.

At the moment you can buy a new Nokia 770 for 140$ and perhaps less ...

Lubomir · Post by **Lubomir** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 7:05 am

I am thinking of getting an N800 only to be able to play with gentoo when i am on the way (I cant take every time my notebook, when i go to dentist and do not know how long i must wait. When the physician call me, then i furst must close the programs ans shut down. I never have done something, and never will try that

. It would be nice to have a smal device to go online over bluetooth and my Nokia N95 (umts/hsdpa).

For the zqurus there was also gentoo available

http://gentooforzaurus.opensistemas.com/

So, is there no chance to get that running?

s_j_newbury · Post by **s_j_newbury** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 10:05 pm

Lubomir wrote:
For the zqurus there was also gentoo available

http://gentooforzaurus.opensistemas.com/

So, is there no chance to get that running?

That's really old and uses the old ABI.. The N800 kernel and maemo userspace is EABI.

alexxy and myself have independently bootstraped modern gentoo for ARM which could work on the N800.

s_j_newbury · Post by **s_j_newbury** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 10:07 pm

Biggest problem with the N800 for Gentoo is storage space. It only has limited flash space AFAIK.

Kasumi_Ninja · Post by **Kasumi_Ninja** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:46 pm

I really would like to see Gentoo on the n800 ^^

benny1967 · Post by **benny1967** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:06 pm

I'd love to see a way to get gentoo running on the Nokia tablets.

While it's true that it probably wouldnt make any sense to compile right on the tablet and one would have to cross-compile, gentoo with the power of USE-flags is *the* way of building small apps without any unnecessary components. - Besides, I'm used to it and it would be nice to have the same system running not only on my desktop-PCs and laptops, but also on the tablets. (And we could still go and use the resulting binaries as a base for something we call a "new distribution".)

The only real problem I see is that Nokia uses some hardware that isn't supported by free drivers. IIRC that's sound and WLAN and/or bluetooth. Not beeing able to use these components would really render the device useless

Nokia uses quite a lot of proprietary software on top of that, so when they decide to no longer support a model (as they did with the 770), there's no chance for users to get bugs fixed.

This alone would be a good point for *some* attempt to get whatever distribution running on the tablets, working around the known problems. This distribution could as well be gentoo.

Cyker · Post by **Cyker** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 8:54 pm

s_j_newbury wrote:Biggest problem with the N800 for Gentoo is storage space. It only has limited flash space AFAIK.

The N800 has the most potential space out of all of the Nokia tablets.

It only has 128MB RAM, but comes with 256MB miniSD in an SD adaptor card, BUT unlike the others it has twin SDHC slots so potentially you could have 32GB split over both cards

Kasumi_Ninja · Post by **Kasumi_Ninja** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 9:41 pm

Cyker wrote:
s_j_newbury wrote:Biggest problem with the N800 for Gentoo is storage space. It only has limited flash space AFAIK.
The N800 has the most potential space out of all of the Nokia tablets.

It only has 128MB RAM, but comes with 256MB miniSD in an SD adaptor card, BUT unlike the others it has twin SDHC slots so potentially you could have 32GB split over both cards

It should be possible to install Gentoo on those cards

Cyker · Post by **Cyker** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 12:14 am

I should hope so!!!

Play.com are selling N800s ridiculously cheaply at the moment...

Kasumi_Ninja · Post by **Kasumi_Ninja** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 12:17 am

Cyker wrote:I should hope so!!!

Play.com are selling N800s ridiculously cheaply at the moment...

So does nokia

Cyker · Post by **Cyker** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 12:21 pm

I think it was £200 from Nokia, whereas play.com were £130... mmm.. should I get one? I was going to get an Eee but they bumped the price up and I don't think it's worth £340...

Kasumi_Ninja · Post by **Kasumi_Ninja** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 12:48 pm

Cyker wrote:I think it was £200 from Nokia, whereas play.com were £130... mmm.. should I get one? I was going to get an Eee but they bumped the price up and I don't think it's worth £340...

It's £169.99 exactly the price as on nokia's site

Cyker · Post by **Cyker** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 9:57 pm

Aww that sucks... it's gone back up then... Last time I looked at it, it said £130!!

£170 is not as good a deal...

Out of curiosity, you got a link to the £170 Nokia one? Just curious 'cause this one definitely says 200...! (Well, 199.99, but I'm rounding up)

Kasumi_Ninja · Post by **Kasumi_Ninja** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 10:08 pm

Cyker wrote:Aww that sucks... it's gone back up then... Last time I looked at it, it said £130!!
£170 is not as good a deal...

Out of curiosity, you got a link to the £170 Nokia one? Just curious 'cause this one definitely says 200...! (Well, 199.99, but I'm rounding up)

W00t, on exact the same (Dutch) Nokia site the N800 costs 255 euro's which is equivalent to £170. If I were you I'd ask Nokia for an explanation. Anyhow the N800 is worth every single penny

http://www.nokia.nl/link?cid=EDITORIAL_161378

Cyker · Post by **Cyker** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 10:29 pm

WAAA?!
GAH! I'm ripped off again!!!

Oh well, that's living in the UK for you.
Well, on the bright side, at least it's not Norway...

(Thanks for indulging my curiosity BTW... and also for helping me uncover this fiendish price-fixing plot!

)

Kasumi_Ninja · Post by **Kasumi_Ninja** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 8:27 pm

Well it seems that Gentoo on the N800 might run: http://www.internettablettalk.com/forum ... post129530

Lubomir · Post by **Lubomir** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 10:43 pm

Could i also use gentoo on the newer N810? Have someone started installing gentoo?

I am thinking about getting a OQO e2 or an N810 ...

http://www.oqo.com/intl/products/modele ... tions.html

EOF · Post by **EOF** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 1:46 pm

Aniruddha wrote:Well it seems that Gentoo on the N800 might run: http://www.internettablettalk.com/forum ... post129530

If you do further search in the forum you see that debian is already running on the N800 and the 770. The problem is that there are only few interested people and most
of the drivers are closed source

.

GNUtoo · Post by **GNUtoo** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 1:47 pm

normaly someone would think that given that there are cross-toolchain,uclibc profiles etc...it woud be doable to install gentoo on a pda but it's not the case because the cross-toolchains in gentoo don't handle the cross-compilation well:
for instance i wanted to cross-compile weechat for arm but as the compilation depends on running tests it failled...
openembedded,and scratchbox can handle this...prefer openembedded in order to build a full distro...

but last time i tried there was no n800 profiles on open-embedded repositories,mabe that's because they have too much proprietary things...mabe you'll be able to install a custom linux distro but...you won't be able to get the same functionalities as the normal n800 tablet distro

slonopotamus · Post by **slonopotamus** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 6:53 am

Maybe i'm a bit late, but... http://slonopotamus.org/gentoo-on-n8x0

red-wolf76 · Post by **red-wolf76** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 5:13 pm

Don't worry folks. The N900 is coming with a 600MHz processor, 1 Gig of RAM and 32 Gig of storage, expandable with up to 16 Gig micro-SD.

Spidey · Post by **Spidey** » Sun May 02, 2010 2:35 am

Just bought a N900. The default linux is OK, but I'd be very happy to run Gentoo. All I need is control over my packages, and a minimal setup.
I think I'll have problems setting up the phone features, but as dual boot solution, it may be viable.

Anyone had any progress yet?