Currently I switched to Arch as main alternative OS for N900 and encourage everyone to do this.


So, we've got 12.04 booting.
Thanks to PanzerSajt, Estel, Pali, freemangordon, Skry, Aravinda, NIN101, MohammadAG, skykooler, apachelogger, mpoirier, 白い熊 and others

12.10 thread: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=87002

Check what's working and what's not in the wiki (needs updating by users): https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ARM/n900#Hardware_support

• Get
  • Linux PC (instructions are for Ubuntu, but other distros might work as well)
  • N900 with U-Boot
  • 4Gb+ microSD card
  (optional) Make backups of all your data.

• Insert microSD card (it will be completely erased) into your N900 (or cardreader).
  
  (optional) Launch X-Terminal on your N900 and execute " cd ~/MyDocs ".

• Connect N900 (or cardreader) to PC in Storage Mode.
  
  (optional) copy /lib/firmware/ folder from your N900 to your PC.

• Execute this code on the PC:
  
  Code:

  sudo apt-get install bzr
  bzr branch lp:ubuntu-n900
  cd ubuntu-n900
  sudo bash install.sh

  To update to the latest revision use
  
  Code:

  cd ubuntu-n900
  bzr pull

You can return to any revision using
Foreword by freemangordon: A custom kernel compiled by unknown.obvious (meego n900 adaptation + dto=14 patch + ARM errata 430973) is the only one working good with Ubuntu yet:
Debs: http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...&postcount=253
Source: http://code.google.com/p/n900/source...ce-2.6.37-n900
To install it easily update to revision >= 106 and unpack the downloaded archive in the ubuntu-n900 directory. The script will look for if you select a custom kernel option. Warning: stock kernels don't even boot.

uboot-pr13 will try to boot from your microSD card automatically (use run noloboot to start Maemo).
There is an ubuntu.item for the Bootmenu (rev 84+) generated in the root filesystem, but it's not yet confirmed to work, we are waiting for someone to test/fix it.

You can check the code here:
https://code.launchpad.net/ubuntu-n900

Feel free to fix anything and edit wiki (it needs you even if you didn't fix anything ):
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ARM/n900
Please post even if you succeed. Template is generated by the script in the end. Most of the selected options are stored in options subdirectory. You can check script revision with
If you want to make a patch, please make it against the unstable branch and run it first only in the empty virtual machine.
https://code.launchpad.net/~xintx-ua...-n900/unstable


webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#maemo-alternatives

Unmount order: /mnt/dev/pts /mnt/dev /mnt/* /mnt
Try stopping all daemons that may have started in chroot before. Use # lsof | grep /mnt on the host machine to find out these daemons.

How to debug (thanks to caveman for the instruction):
1. in your terminal, run 'script' (see its man page for details)
2. run the install script with full debug: 'sudo bash -x install.sh'
3. when the script ends, type 'exit'
4. post the contents of the typescript file so we can take a look at the output


Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRUlJ2GXI04

TODO (with revision number = done, but untested):

• (rev 132) --reuse-options option
• (rev 84) Bootmenu item generation
• other SSD optimizations?
• add README file (another good PanzerSajt's suggestion)
• <_PanzerSajt> 3: make a main script with a basic menu (with dialog) from the user can select what he wants to do
• <szopeen> some cleanup (process killing) on errors would be a nice addition
• add an option to purge unneeded packages?
• find out what is writing new partition table on the first boot (jasper?) and rewrites /etc/default/keyboard
• concurrent partitioning and downloading

• review custom fstab (get rid of it?)
• recheck all workarouds and get rid of unneeded ones

Workarounds not included in the script:
* PanzerSajt's accesories branch: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-n900-accessories
* caveman's post with fixes: http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...&postcount=296
* fix wlan numbering: http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...&postcount=202
* all images are blank: * onboard shows black:https://answers.launchpad.net/onboard/+question/195106 * enable swap on the internel mmc:* right click: http://www.staff.amu.edu.pl/~kalmar/blog/?p=247 or http://forums.webosnation.com/3173082-post471.html
* install an armel package:* remove armel package:
* QEMU segfault? Upgrade.

DONE:

• (rev 44) get rid of /SWAP.swap
• (rev 45) move /tmp to tmpfs
• (rev 46) add other kernel boot parameters for selection
• (rev 47) add "setenv atagaddr ${init_atagaddr}" to boot.scr
• (rev 49) Fixed swap partition number
• (rev 50) try moving all options to the start of install.sh (it will also store all selected options on the PC for reports)
• (rev 53) rc.local fix and keyboard workaround
• (rev 57) Moved root to the third partition to fill microSD completely
• (rev 55+) Nemo kernel support
• (rev 72+) Kernel switching script
• (rev 80) The first revision to install the released 12.04 properly.
• (rev 100) Writing the root filesystem to a file or partition.
• (rev 102) Showing report template in the end.
• (rev 125) Old-stable.
• (rev 132) The latest stable. But contains two major bugs at least. Better help with the unstable.

Feel free to propose anything or make a patch/help with it.

Screenshots please... And a bit of details... ?

I've just edited first post and added link to hardware support section of wiki.
Do you know any CLI screenshot tool?

which uboot, pr13 or Pali's?

Attaching to the first post.
They both should work. I have pr13 and AFAIK PanzerSajt has Palis'. And we have basically same behaviour.

P.S. I will not have lot of spare time tomorrow (2012-03-06), sorry everyone. I hope you undestand that 12.04 is development branch with non-standard kernel in the middle of transition to a new architecture and 256 Mb of RAM isn't very much.

P.P.S. Don't select fso- package, it may break dpkg. YMMV.

So there is no problem with my (last) U-Boot with SD card and eMMC? If yes, then it sounds good

It says it can't find qemu-user-static. In which repo is it?

EDIT: my bad. Didn't get that I have to run the commands on the pc. Please make it a bit more clear, that point.

Actually there is a problem: we can't boot any other kernel from Ubuntu. It just stays blank after "Starting kernel ...". But i didn't try your version yet (I critically need my phone working until May).

?