2007-12-31 - Unslung 6.10-beta Release
2007-12-30 - SlugOS 4.8-beta Release
2007-12-29 - OpenWrt/NSLU2 Kamikaze 7.09 Release
2007-12-28 - Angstrom/NSLU2 2007.12 Release
2007-12-27 - Debian/NSLU2 Stable 4.0r2 Release

All of these new releases are available at

http://www.slug-firmware.net/

See http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.misc.nslu2.linux/20610 for
an explanation of the pros and cons of each different firmware
distribution, and the installable packages available for each.

Thanks to everyone in the NSLU2-Linux, OpenWrt, Angstrom, OpenEmbedded
and Debian projects who contributed to these releases.

Remember, if you find any of the firmware or packages that the
NLSU2-Linux project provides useful, feel free to make a donation to
the project at

http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/Main/Donate

We are currently in need of about $500 to buy a RAID controller card
and some disks for our autobuild machine to support all this new
firmware with up-to-date package feeds …

1. ipkg install tzdata
2. ipkg install your desired tzdata-* packages.  For instance, I use “tzdata-australia“.
3. Enable your desired timezone by symlinking it to “/etc/localtime“.  Adjust the following example command line for your locality.
• ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Australia/Adelaide /etc/localtime
4. The “date” command should now show the correct time for your timezone.  If it is not correct, then install the “ntpclient” package, and use it to set your clock.

Note that this technique should work on any OpenEmbedded-based Linux distribution.

Unfortunately, it does not have the normal hotplug agent scripts that you expect to find on a desktop Linux distribution.

So you have to roll your own:

1. Run “mv /sbin/hotplug /sbin/hotplug.freecom“
2. Create a new “/sbin/hotplug” shell script (the following is an example of how to automatically enable USB networking for an OpenMoko phone):

   #!/bin/sh
   
   case $1 in
     ( usb )
       case $PRODUCT/$INTERFACE in
         ( 1457/5122/212/2/6/0 ) # OpenMoko GTA01 cdc-ether
           case $ACTION in
             ( add )
               ifconfig usb0 192.168.0.200 up
               ;;
             ( remove )
               ifconfig usb0 192.168.0.200 down
               ;;
           esac
           ;;
       esac
       ;;
   esac
   
   /sbin/hotplug.freecom "$@"
   

3. Run “chmod ugo+x /sbin/hotplug” to ensure that your new hotplug script is executable.
4. See http://linux-hotplug.sourceforge.net/?selected=usb for the list of environment variables you can use to distinguish different devices.

To do this on OpenMoko (or any other OpenEmbedded-based distribution for that matter, for instance SlugOS or Angstrom):

1. Edit /etc/init.d/dropbear by replacing “DROPBEAR_PORT=22” with “DROPBEAR_PORT=2222” (or any other unused port).
2. Run “ipkg install -force-depends openssh” to install openssh.
3. Make sure you have set a root password before rebooting (use “passwd” to set it).
4. Reboot (dropbear will restart on the new port, and openssh will start on the normal ssh port).
5. Check that openssh is now serving on port 22 by logging into the device over ssh.
6. Run “ipkg remove -force-depends dropbear” to remove dropbear.
7. Then run “ipkg install openssh-sftp” to install support for the sftp protocol which sshfs uses.

Update: this problem with UNREG_BUSY has now been fixed with the patch that I submitted.

In /etc/pulse/session, replace:

 load-sample startup /usr/share/openmoko/sounds/startup_openmoko.wav

with:

 load-sample startup /usr/share/openmoko/sounds/touchscreen_click.wav

(or any other subdued wav file you wish to upload onto the device).

Update: The OpenMoko team has sensibly replaced the load startup sound with a much more unintrusive sound.

• Install the required kernel modules for bluetooth
• ipkg install kernel-module-hci-usb kernel-module-l2cap kernel-module-rfcomm
• depmod -a
• ipkg install bluez-utils
• Edit /etc/default/bluetooth to enable hcid and dund.
• Change the pin and host settings in /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf, and make sure that the class is 0×3e0100 (not the default value, which is for a PDA like a Zaurus, not a “Computer” device like the Neo which can accept and route tcp/ip network connections coming in over dund or pand on the bluetooth network)
• Reboot and test with ‘hciconfig’ with a bluetooth dongle plugged in.
• Install the required kernel modules for ppp
• ipkg install kernel-module-ppp-async kernel-module-bsd-comp kernel-module-ppp-deflate
• depmod -a
• ipkg install ppp
• Edit /etc/ppp/options as follows:
  
noauth
crtscts
lock
local
proxyarp
ktune
192.168.1.XX:192.168.1.YY
ms-dns 192.168.1.ZZ

  (edit the last two lines to suit your network topology, the first IP address
  is your gateway device, the second IP address will be assigned to the client,
  and the third IP address is your DNS server)

“make qemu” will build qemu-neo1973, download the latest official openmoko images, flash the images into the virtual NAND flash, and run the emulator.

Other targets are “make download-images” (to download the latest official images), “make flash-qemu-official” (to flash those images) and “make flash-qemu-local” (which will flash your latest locally built images), which can then be followed by “make run-qemu” or “make run-qemu-snapshot” to run the emulator with the most recently flashed images.

Make sure you have the “lynx” and “netpbm” packages installed on your build host first.

Note that MokoMakefile does *not* replace bitbake, or svn, or monotone, or openembedded, or qmake, or anything else. It is a wrapper around all that to make it easy to set up and maintain a development environment that fully complies with the setup instructions published by OpenMoko.

Here are the steps to use it:

1/ Make sure your build host is set up according to:

http://www.openembedded.org/wiki/OEandYourDistro

2/ Create your $OMDIR directory

mkdir /home/moko ; cd /home/moko

3/ Grab MokoMakefile

wget http://www.rwhitby.net/files/openmoko/Makefile

4/ Start building

make openmoko-devel-image

This will set up the recommended directory structure as described in http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Building_OpenMoko_from_scratch, will download all the required software (from the right places with the right versions), and will immediately start building an image.

Once you have done this, you can choose to continue using the MokoMakefile to initiate your subsequent builds, or you can go into the build directory and run bitbake commands manually. The choice is yours.

The nslu2-linux project has successfully used a similar MasterMakefile for more than two years, and we have found it to be an invaluable tool for getting new developers up and running with a build environment which is configured the same as all the other existing developers. It brings the same repeatability to build environment creation and maintenance as that which OpenEmbedded brings to the main task of actually building embedded software distributions.

Since this MokoMakefile is what runs my personal build environment, it will always be kept up to date with the latest build instructions. I will also be extending it to support building other OpenMoko stuff.

I would be happy for the OpenMoko core team to put this in a repository somewhere where I (and they) can update and maintain it. Alternatively, I could start a MokoMakefile project at projects.openmoko.org if they don’t want to pick it up and use it internally.

MokoMakefile is recommended by 1 out of 1 new developer on #openmoko, who said “For some reason last night I couldn’t get my manual install of everything to work (bb complained about my bbpath I think) … but with your makefile, it works great!”

I am creating a MokoSlug firmware distribution for the NSLU2 for this purpose. It will be based on the Angstrom distribution, which is built using the OpenEmbedded build system (the same build system which is used for the OpenMoko software).

Like the SlugOS firmware distribution for the NSLU2, it will initially run from internal flash but will allow you to boot from an external USB disk or flash key if you need more storage for installation of additional software packages.