Need help to clarify issues of OS CLONING and Easy Debian installation
 

Just bought N800, updated to latest OS. want to Clone OS to SD and install Easy Debian. questions:

0. is still there SD card issue? I mean some brand of cards are not good to use with N800?

1. which memory card is INTERNAL and which EXTERNAL? I think the one besides the battery is so called INTERNAL, am I wrong?
probably solved:
* The external card device is /dev/mmcblk1 (mounted at /media/mmc1)
* The internal card device is /dev/mmcblk0 (mounted at /media/mmc2)

2. I can follow http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...ning+made+easy to close OS to SD.
Can I Clone first and then Install Easy Debian?

3. after OS is cloned to SD, there will be 3 partitions in the SD. where will be Easy Debian installed to, under folder Debian in partition 2?

4. is there is a good way to solve Free space problem of Easy Debian?
4.1 what does it mean to make a partition?
4.2 what is IMAGE file? is it debian.img.ext?
4.3 does it mean using resize2fs is a good way for lazy guy like me?
4.4 what is ENTIRE CONTENT of IMAGE? can I do it in my case?
thanks

Re: Need help to clarify issues of OS CLONING and Easy Debian installation
 

0. yes. i have experienced battery drain with my a-data SD card, which would probably be worse if the whole OS was on the card. bottom line: brand DOES matter. stick with SanDisk or search the forums for a more detailed answer.
1. correct. internal is next to the battery.
2. yes.
(i'm not smart enough to answer the other questions. :) )

Re: Need help to clarify issues of OS CLONING and Easy Debian installation
 

3. Easy debian will download an image file and store it where you tell it to IIRC. So it will be "installed" to where you told it to download to. The other option is of course to download the rootfs tarball that I believe Qole has floating around and extract that to an empty partition (there's that evil word again) on an SD card (any SD card, internal or external).

4. Most everything you asked is answered in qole's post..
4.1 In windows you are used to seeing C: and D: drives.. a lot of times that is the same hard drive - different partitions. A partition is just a separated space on a hard drive. The programs sfdisk and cfdisk help create partitions.. also I believe people got the gparted program working under easy debian that will also partition SD cards.
4.2 IMAGE_FILE is a setting in /home/user/.chroot that points to EITHER the Image File (yes, debian.img.ext) or the partition you made for Easy Debian (IE: /dev/mmcblk1p2).
4.3 - This was linked in qole's post, This outlines the step by step.
4.4 - Yes of course.. anyone can do it. There are several ways to do it.. But I don't have the tablet in front of me or a Linux box handy to get the exact syntax's so I'll leave that for someone else. You can use Tar, DD, or just cp -R from one location to another.

It would probably be a lot easier to help you if you outlined exactly how you wanted your END game to look.. and then we can tell you the process to go about getting there.

Re: Need help to clarify issues of OS CLONING and Easy Debian installation
 

I'll just add that Easy Debian uses very little space in your main file system, so it can be used without cloning to SD. The image file that you have to download and extract (debian-final.img.ext2) goes onto your SD card.

The free space problem that is often discussed is caused by people trying to install too much stuff into their 1.1GB Debian image file. If you want to download tons of extra software, I recommend a partition. If you just want the included apps, and maybe a couple of small, extra packages, then you can probably use the image file.

Re: Need help to clarify issues of OS CLONING and Easy Debian installation
 

I like the idea of using a partition. may i use a directory instead of a partition? because there only 3 partitions made after Coning OS? i have to find a tool which i do not know if there is any to make another partition?

I read another post and do you mean the disadvantages of using partition is gone if I do this:
quoted from Qole:
If you want to update your system, you can try the trick I mentioned above. First, from inside Debian chroot, issue an "apt-get clean" command. Then, from a root maemo prompt (or add "sudo" in front of the mount command):
Code:

mkdir -p /media/mmc1/debian-apt-archives/partial
mount -o bind /media/mmc1/debian-apt-archives /debian/var/cache/apt/archives

Note the /media/mmc1/debian-apt-archives path can be anything you want, as long as there is enough space there (50-100 MB).

Then, from inside the Debian chroot, you can issue an "apt-get upgrade" and all should be well.

thanks

Re: Need help to clarify issues of OS CLONING and Easy Debian installation
 

Technically you COULD use a directory... although I think that would screw with some of Qole's "easy" scripts.. since it's trying to mount an image or device .. not just chroot to an already active directory.

The programs to make partitions I already listed... cfdisk and sfdisk. Both I think are available in the App Manager.

However if you've already cloned then you can't just up and "make" a new partition without losing your current one. You need to either RESIZE your current partition, and then make a new one on the remaining space, or use your EXTERNAL SD card to store Easy Debian.

I'm not sure you'll have enough space to use your 2GB Internal SD card for BOTH a cloned OS, and Easy Debian. While Technically possible... neither OS will have any room left for many apps.

You have an N800.. nevermind.. you're internal SD card could be any size.

It's best to do something like I've done,
Flash -> Diablo
Internal -> Diablo
External -> Mer

Just instead of a bootable Mer.. you just use the External for your Easy Debian. Use cfdisk or sfdisk to repartition your external card, put a 100MB or so FAT partition at the front, then however many GB you want for Easy Debian (up to the max of the card). You'll have to create the filesystems (assuming mmcblk0 is device):
Then setting up your /home/user/.chroot respectively.

If you want to resize your SD cards partitions to add one for easy debian... Have fun.

(maybe try totally starting over?? Use the install-tools by penguinbait to Clone to SD instead of the easy one.. that way you create a file that lists your partitions, make 4.. 1 FAT, 1 swap, 1 ext2 for Maemo, 1 ext3 for Debian.. then install tools will do all this for you.. but you lose data.)

Re: Need help to clarify issues of OS CLONING and Easy Debian installation
 

If you put your files in a directory, use IMGFILE=none and CHROOT=/your_directory in the .chroot file, and it should work. But this isn't the best way to do it; if something crashes in the chroot, you can't clean up very well (because you can't tell the system just to kill everything in a certain mounted partition, since that partition is the main system partition), and also, it seems to be a bit slower. I know, slower is weird. But true. Oh, and of course, you can only use a directory in a Linux file system, since you need file permissions to work. And not in your home directory.

You could repartition your SD card on a Linux desktop computer using gparted. Or, you can do the repartitioning on-tablet using PenguinBait's GParted for the tablets.

Re: Need help to clarify issues of OS CLONING and Easy Debian installation
 

Well.. technically using gparted is doing what I said.. It "resize's" the current one.. and adds a new one...

It's just the "easy" way :P.

Thanks for the note on that.. probably better choices.

Re: Need help to clarify issues of OS CLONING and Easy Debian installation
 

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound like I was correcting you, I was just suggesting some "easy" ways to do it.

Re: Need help to clarify issues of OS CLONING and Easy Debian installation
 

thanks all of you.
I think I can handle it like this:
0. I had already updated the firmware and OS in the flash
1. I will Clone Os
2. install app to be able to gain root
3. download the repartition tool to make one or two more partitions.
any suggestions on the size of the partition used for easy debian?
4. install easy debian following the instructions.

let me imagine, please tell me if i am right:
I use application manager to install easy-deb-chroot and then run Debian Image Installer in the Extras menu to install easy debian. if everything goes well, the easy debian and applications should be installed in proper directories which are created by the installer automatically.
(are there many directories created or everything is put in the directory called /debian?)
5. after that, i will follow Qole's instruction to
First, from inside Debian chroot, issue an "apt-get clean" command. Then, from a root maemo prompt (or add "sudo" in front of the mount command):
Code:
mkdir -p /media/mmc1/debian-apt-archives/partial
mount -o bind /media/mmc1/debian-apt-archives /debian/var/cache/apt/archives

please kindly correct me or confirm

another question: the N800 uses WPA and my home wifi is WPE. Can i connect N800 into the network? I forgot keys so I had not tried yet.

Re: Need help to clarify issues of OS CLONING and Easy Debian installation
 

Want to point out you can only have 4 primary partitions.. if the clone auto-makes 3, you can only add 1 more.. unless make extended partitions.

The second part about remounting the app cache doesn't actually increase your ability to store apps very much.. it simply allows you to use a separate partition or media card to store the CACHED deb files from apt. Depending on what you're installing.. those files can take up a lot of space.. but those files are also compressed. If you don't have the space to download 300MB of cached deb files, you certainly won't have the space to install them if they are downloaded to an alternate location - because it'll be more than 300MB of space.

OTOH.. if you have enough space to install what you installing, but not download AND install it.. (IE: You need 400MB to install package X,, package X is 100MB in size, you only have 450MB available).. then using your two commands will help.. because it'll download the deb (100mb) somewhere else.. and then install the 400MB to your root.. leaving you with 50MB left.