Operating Systems
From AleutiaWiki
Contents |
BIOS
First things first, you can increase the performance of the E2 in the BIOS by going to:
Advanced > CPU Configuration > VIA Processor Power Management and Enabling. Power consumption doesn't not increase and the CPU performs faster.
Also, the amount of memory allocated for the GPU can be reduced.
Chipset > Northbridge VIA CX700 Configuration > AGP & P2P Bridge > OnChip VGA Configuration > VGA Frame Buffer
(reduce from 64MB to 8MB).
Installation Instructions (from CD to CF card).
1) Burn the above .iso to CD.
2. Boot from that CD (using a USB optical drive or mounting to a USB stick). I found the best results with the CF card not in its slot but rather connected using a USB card reader (in this case a multi card reader).
Once it has booted up, make sure to mount the CD using the Mounting utility in the Puppy Menu.
3. Puppy Menu -> Setup -> Puppy universal installer.
4. I found that with my PC + USB CF-reader, the correct option was "USB Flash drive, later move CF to IDE adaptor", since I started on USB but the E2 recognizes the CF over IDE.
5. On my setup the next options are sda Generic USB SD Reader sdb Generic USB CF Reader, size 967.6 MiB sdc Generic USB SM Reader sdd Generic USB MS Reader for which the second is obviously correct. Your items may be different, depending on the type of multicard reader. (You may also need to drag the bottom right corner down & to the right to see all options.)
6. I have not gotten the default "Install Puppy to sdb1" to boot -- it makes the CF fine but the E2 hangs before even finding the kernel. Here I choose the second option: "Superfloppy". Click on the second puppy.
See (*) below if you do not get an option to format it as in 7.
7. I chose FORMAT_vfat, so that users can put their CF into a Mac/Windows/Linux box & load files directly. Otherwise (with ext3), only linux users (or those with special tools) could modify it outside of puppy.
8. Hit enter at the "SANITY CHECK: formatting /dev/sdb" also hit enter when prompted afterwards. This actually makes it FAT32, whereas most CF cards come formatted as FAT16, it seems.
9. Hit OK to continue
10. The files are on the CD.
11. Hit OK, assuming the live-CD is still in the drive.
That's it! After it says the following (and you hit enter once at the beginning, once at the end) you'll be done!
ABSOLUTE FINAL SANITY CHECK! You are about to install Puppy to /dev/sdb, with boot parameter pmedia=ideflash. The files vmlinuz, initrd.gz, pup_xxx.sfs, syslinux.cfg (and maybe zdrv_xxx.sfs if it exists. pup_xxx.fs may be inside initrd.gz) will be written to /dev/sdb and Syslinux will be used to make it bootable.
Press ENTER key to continue, CTRL-C to abort: Making sdb bootable... Copying vmlinuz... Creating syslinux.cfg... Creating marker file for wakepup boot floppy... Copying initrd.gz... Copying .sfs files... Finished, press ENTER key to continue:
The CF finishes unmounted, so you can pop out the card & test it on
the E2 once that last box goes away.
Ubuntu
The Aleutia E2 ships with Ubuntu 8.04.1. Of course, we allow our users to run any distro they want. Successfully tested distributions include Puppy Linux (2.17, 3.01, 4.01), Debian Etch, Damn Small Linux, Fedora 9, as well as Windows XP (Home and Pro).
Ubuntu is one of the most user-friendly linux distroes out there, and the comunity is humongous. Ubuntu is developed by Canonical Ltd. and is released under the GNU GPL. Anyhow, Ubuntu is able to run off of the CFcards and the E2 can run it pretty well, this gives us the possibility to run a complete desktop operative system on the Aleutia E2.
Ubuntu Lite
(http://ubuntulite.tuxfamily.org/)
This begins with a simple download, and then grabs and prepares remaining packages over the internet. So you'll need to have your E2 connected via the ethernet port.
Getting started
- Go to Get Ubuntulite section of website.
- Download the Mini Installer CD (this is quite a small file <20MB). Burn the .iso to CD or DVD.
- Insert a Compact Flash card into the slot on the E2 (You'll want 2GB+ though the speed of the CF card is not too important).
- Connect a USB optical drive or mount the .iso to a USB pen drive and connect that.
- Boot the E2 and it'll default to the optical drive.
- On boot, you'll see an Ubuntu logo and be given the option of a command-line install or a standard install. Select command line by typing: CLI
Configuration (45 minutes)
Command line Ubuntu installs take a long time on any system and this process will take about 45 minutes.
- Set your region and keyboard
- Provide the system with a name (i.e. aleutia) and set the sudo password (i.e. 123456) of your choosing.
When the installation is complete, you'll be faced with a command line interface asking for login. Provide your login (i.e. aleutia) and password (i.e. 123456).
Installing Ubuntulite (40 minutes)
- Once you've logged in (and are still connected to the internet), type this into the command line:
wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/ubuntulite/nouveau/install_ubuntulite_nouveau
- Once that has downloaded, type this:
sudo bash install_ubuntulite_nouveau
- This will take about 40 minutes and then you'll be prompted to reboot the system, which you can do with:
sudo shutdown -r 0
You'll now have a fast, lightweight distribution.
Adding Firefox, Zoiper, other Apps:
To add Firefox, open the terminal and type:
sudo apt-get install firefox
You'll be prompted for your password and can then install Firefox 3.
To add Zoiper, download from:
http://www.zoiper.com/zlinux.php
Open terminal:
tar zxf zoiper207-linux.tar.gz
./zoiper
Start Zoiper.
Really Lightweight Linux
To install a rather lightweight version of Ubuntu, start with installing a command line interface (CLI) version of Ubuntu. Once this finishes, you will be surprisingly sent to a command line interface.
Enter 'sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list', remove the # from all of the other lists to make sure you download all of the necessary files. Then run 'sudo apt-get update' and 'sudo apt-get upgrade' to update the system.
Install XOrg system for the window manger by entering 'sudo apt-get install xorg'
Install icevm by entering 'sudo apt-get install icewm iceconf icewm-themes menu'. I had some issues with apt-get not knowing what iceconf was, but eventually got it to work.
I choose XDM as the login manager, its not pretty, but for the moment it works well and is rather lightweight. 'sudo apt-get install xdm'.
Install Firefox with "sudo apt-get install firefox".
Install iDesk (for a desktop manager) with "sudo apt-get install iDesk". Install XFE for a window manager with 'sudo aptitude install xfe'.
Still need to get a few things working, as well as see how it really works with an E2, but seems to work well.
Zoiper OS
This OS is a custom distribution, based on Icepup Deluxe 1.2.
Download Icepup Deluxe ISO.
Icepup is a light weight distribution which provides a GUI, Firefox 2, and a text editor.
Attempted to install Zoiper using instructions:
1) Download zoiper207-linux.tar.gz 2) Extract Zoiper. If you don't use a GUI application for archive processing, here is the command line:
tar zxf zoiper207-linux.tar.gz ./zoiper
3) Start Zoiper.
But received error message on extraction. sh-3.00# tar zxf zoiper207-linux.tar.gz sh-3.00# ./zoiper ./zoiper: /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6: version `CXXABI_1.3.1' not found (required by ./zoiper)
Indicating error with compiled ALSA library, critical for Zoiper use.
Puppy Linux
Our first product, the E1, shipped with Puppy linux 3.01 pre-installed. This gave us a stable and fast system.
Barry Kauler Is the Inventor of Puppy linux, at his site: http://puppylinux.org/home he provides a general portal to both download sites and other puppy related information, much information can be gathered here, the forums is hosted by Jhon Murga and is found at http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/, here the people new to the environment can ask questions and find solutions to their problems. The comunity around puppy linux is evergrowing and helpful.
Puppy linux emphasizes on being small and functional, this has spawned an army of different puppy versions, some of theese are listed on the main site: Puplpets and many more are to be found at the old wiki: WikiPuplets
Error Messages
One message that frequently occurs when booting from CD is:
Looking for Puppy in done Looking for pup_save.2fs in sda1... ERROR, cannot find Puppy on 'idecd' boot media PUPMODE=1 PDEV1= Exited to initial-ramdisk (/dev/ram0) commandline... (the Linux-guru can now debug, 'e3' editor is available) bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
To get around this type: puppy PMEDIA=usbstorage on the boot screen that comes up right at the start.
