is this will be uploaded to repository ?

yes, after testing. I need to know that it does not break anything else and working fine.

I've been trying to boot Nitdroid via u-boot, but am experiencing the same "Starting kernel..." issue, followed by a reboot, that some people here have had earlier on and can't figure out what might be going on - there aren't any messages giving a clue as to what the error might be...

I was wondering if anyone might have any thoughts?

What I've done so far:

• Installed u-boot and it's working great, booting power-kernel 51 for me.
• Downloaded Nitdroid and the 2.3.7 update and unpacked it to /home (which is /dev/mmcblk0p2, ext3)
• Downloaded the Nitdroid kernel nitdroid-kernel-2.6.28-07_7-rc7_armel, unpacked and converted to uImage using:
  
  Code:

  mkimage -A arm -O linux -T kernel -C none -a 80008000 -e 80008000 -n vmlinuz-2.6.28.NIT.07 -d vmlinuz-2.6.28.NIT.07 uImage

• Copied the resulting uImage file to /home
• Copied the modules directory from the kernel package to the nitdroid directories; made sure that the new modules directory was symlinked to "current"
• Created this boot item file:
  
  Code:

  ITEM_NAME="NITDroid UMay12 2.3.7"
  ITEM_KERNEL="uImage"
  ITEM_DEVICE="${INT_CARD}p2"
  ITEM_FSTYPE="ext3"
  ITEM_CMDLINE="snd-soc-rx51.hp_lim=42 snd-soc-tlv320aic3x.hp_dac_lim=6 console=tty1 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rw rootwait init=/init panic=20 debug"
  ITEM_OMAPATAG="1"

• Ran u-boot-update-bootmenu
• Reboot and select the new Nitdroid entry from the list
• Shows "Starting kernel..."
• Phone reboots or shutdowns

I've also tried copying a modified init.nokia.rc and init_subsys that were posted in the Nitdroid forum, but these don't seem to have any effect for me.

I've checked over my steps multiple times, but it seems that I'm still missing something?

Did I do the uImage creation incorrectly?

Any thoughts appreciated, thanks!

Awesome work by the way, pali!

OMG OMG OMFG!

For those who remember my "bricked" N900. I just tried again the same procedure as before, but this time doing setenv setup_omap_atag 1, and this time the kernel loaded, and it loaded my /bin/sh (which I set as init).

Now that the hardest part has been solved, I still need to "unbrick" it. For that I somehow need to do "chmod +x /sbin/getbootstate" before the watchdog kicks in (which is plenty of time anyway).

NOW. How the f*ck can I type numbers and special characters such as +/ etc.

I know there's a keyboard map somewhere (recovery console uses it, U-boot has it built-in), but given the time constraint (watchdog) it would be nice if I could do that just after landing on /bin/sh.

Hmm.. I'll try using init="/bin/chmod +x /sbin/getbootstate" and hope for the best..

Add.: apparently linux doesn't like double quotes in the bootargs? anyway, there *must* be a way to type a number, a plus and a slash on this (only today: crappy) hardware keyboard!

you need to load correct keyboard lyaout. without that it is impossible to type Fn blue keys.

any hints on how I might achieve that?

I just tried again, and attempted to run /usr/sbin/watchdogs (cd usr, cd sbin, watchdogs) -- thank god busybox seems to either have a default PATH or implicitly uses ".").

However watchdogs program died with a segmentation fault (as if the whole situation wasn't complicated enough..)

For obvious reasons, I'm not able to run something like:
/usr/sbin/loadkmap < /etc/nokia-n900.kmap

Wait, I could do:
Nope, no go. I cannot even type the damn "-"

This cannot be true! There has to be a way of f*cking changing the executable flag of a program!

@pali, when you say "impossible" do you really mean it?

Do you happen to know if there's a built-in way of getting the ESCape key?

I was thinking that *vi* could save the day here.
I'll read up on vi and see if there's a way to edit something useful (a single character would be fine, when rd_mode is checked before rebooting on malfunction).

Needless to say: any suggestions from anyone are welcome!

if you have access to fs, just create an executable file in /bin (for example) with necessary commands

or on uSD, it should not matter


EDIT:

try ctrl-f for ESC

you can use TAB for autocompletion :-) If I remmber correctly TAB is CTRL+I

Thanks pali and freemangordon,

Now I have a few ways of (attempting) this. I *think* I made a copy of original getbootstate (i.e. with the correct file permissions), so in the end I might just pull this off with

cd sbin
cp getbootstate.nokia getbootstate

Tomorrow I'll let you guys know.