@mongrol I have had the same issues with Arch on a netbook as well.. I think wpa_supplicant is missing something.. Did you try NetworkManager?

FYI, Network Manager is mostly a front-end for wpa_supplicant. I use wpa_supplicant alone on Arch. It needs to be run with a proper configuration file. For me, Arch's wpa_supplicant package came with a very thorough example configuration file. Read Arch Wiki and Gentoo Wiki for help.

Guys, sorry for the noob question...

When installing Arch where do you chroot from? Obviously not a PC since they are different architectures.

So I tried from n900 and there is no chroot and it's not in the repos.

I know I'm probably missing something obvious so sorry again.

Guys sorry for the noob question but where is chroot in maemo, or how do I get it? I can't install arch because of this.

First update of the year:

Kernel upgrade to 3.5.7
SGX 2D and 3D stuff sorted out
Bluetooth driver, works at least partially

This should update kernel and gfx drivers:
pacman -Syu ti-omap3-sgx-bin xf86-video-fbdev-sgx-git

Pacman might throw you some errors, this is because different versions of sgx kernel module of the running kernel and userspace. Ignore them and reboot if the update went ok otherwise.

If you have any of the -pvr packages installed, remove them and all configuration files those come with, before upgrading, just in case.

Edit:
I think someone asked for dm-mod and crypto-stuff. Those should be included now as modules, if I missed something out let me know. There is also DisplayLink framebuffer and DRM driver modules, in case I or someone else gets adventurous.

I also enabled ordinary watchdog support, it looks like there is something wrong with it currently but in the case of watchdog shutting your system, see /etc/systemd/system.conf.

Bluetooth hw address can be set by editing /etc/bluetooth/bdaddr to your liking. That file gets sourced on boot. To actually test BT, you also need to do systemctl start bluetooth. I could use some help testing and debugging that one.

Edit:

Now, for most, everything seems to be ok but there are few who had trouble booting the kernel on fresh install. No idea for now what is the cause for them, but if it affects you, and you're absolutely sure your uboot is correctly configured, try booting with this zImage, instead the uImage that comes packaged.

Looks like exactly my case. After uboot starts kernel, phone just turns off with screen attenuating slowly, like if i remove the battery. Nothing got printed on screen by kernel, only common uboot stuff. I have tried image you suggested (first converted it to uImage) and got the same result. And I am pretty sure with uboot config. Thanks, it will be nice to have up-to-date distribution on n900.

It's been a while since this question was posted, but it might be usefull anyway...

Usually when I install things from a chroot, I have this wireless problem as well. It's from a different system (Gentoo), but my notes say this:

As root:
Make sure the output of the above command is added to your config file.

After that, the content of your wpa_supplicant should look something like this (again, these are my Gentoo notes, so look into which parts you need and how they are supposed to applied):

When that is done you need to start wpa_supplicant, feeding it the information you have just gathered and saved.

Again: These are notes for a different OS, so make sure you know what interface to use wlan0 or whatever it is that ifconfig tells you.

This should get your wireless up and running.

I still don't know what causes this, if anything. I can not reproduce it myself and for majority it seems to work. zImage does work when loaded with flasher for those who have had this issue.

Problem does not seem to be related to uboot versions, though booting working with flasher might suggest that. Only update to kernel that might have something to do with this is the patch for atags support. Then again, I can't reproduce this behaviour under any condition.

People started popping out stating "it wont boot" and I finally reproduced this myself by upgrading to latest u-boot, with 2012.04 it works, with 2012.10 it does not. I'll keep you posted.

Edit:
Downgraded back to 2012.04-2 and the kernel runs fine. Those in desperate need can find the relief here.

Edit2:
So far according to user reports I'm currently missing the logic behind this behavior: There is user who has u-boot 2012.10 and he is able to boot the kernel with it. We have the same hw revision and identical menu items and such, works for him, not for me.

U-Boot 2012.10-rc3-1 in Maemo repository currently can't boot 3.x kernels, reason being compiler/autobuilder related. U-Boot 2012.10-rc3-1 available on Pali's site is apparently compiled with more recent compiler, and I can confirm that it does indeed work. Mystery solved.