Ubuntu on the Zipit Z2
Tue, 05/18/2010 - 05:52 | 
mozzwald
UPDATE: Marshall at retroactive.be was kind enough to lend me some bandwidth for the z2buntu image. There some pretty cool stuff on his site. My personal fave is the Multari handheld Atari system.
Ubuntu is now available for the Zipit Z2! For the most part, the Ubuntu rootfs is the same as Debian, but Ubuntu repos contain the necessary programs for compiling. This means you can compile directly on your Zipit! I successfully compiled a hello-world.c program. If you want to make your own rootfs, follow the instructions at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ARM/RootfsFromScratch, or you can download mine. It has to run Ubuntu Jaunty which supports ArmV5. Karmic and Lucid support newer Arm processors. If you create your own rootfs using rootstock, before you boot it, rename /etc/init.d/ondemand to something else. This script will cause the zipit to freeze shortly after bootup.
On a linux system as root, use dd to copy the 1Gb ext3 image to your SD card (change sdx to your SD card).
dd if=zubuntu-jaunty-basic-rc1_05172010.img of=/dev/sdx
You can increase the size of the partition with gparted. There's no need for a swap partition as I have created a 128Mb swap file. Also, you will need to copy your wifi firmware to /lib/firmware/libertas. If you can't find your wifi firmware, these are available for download. They must be named gspi8686.bin and gspi8686_hlp.bin
Login with the following:
Username: user
Password: ubuntu
Use sudo (or sudo su) for root access.
Startup programs:
Lid Power Management - /etc/z2pwr.sh
Wifi reset/reload - /etc/wificfg.sh
Rkdavis keymap - loadkeys /etc/keymap.map
Alsa
sshd
Other Programs:
Set backlight brightness with "keys" and "lcd" commands. Options are max, high, med, low, or a number. (run as root)
example: sudo lcd med
Rkdavis' Easy Wifi Configurator script (run as root)
/home/user/setup-wifi.sh
Tags: 
z2pwr.sh
Can you share the code for this (or point to the original source)? I've been in-place customizing my Z2 for so long, and have some of my own power scripts, etc... in place, but would love to integrate some more refined features. Thanks!
z2pwr.sh
you can get the script here. This is a modified version of the script that came with rootnexus.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Problems with alsa
Hello!
Firstly, let me thank you for this:
your image is the cleanest I've come across, and I can see the appeal of the lack of an x server, on a device this constrained X almost seems like overkill.
I've tried the rootnexus image and the side-track image, but I think I like yours best.
However, on every image i've tried, I cannot get alsa to work at all.
I keep getting "Device does not exist" errors. I was going to check to see if it was a conf file that was misconfigured, but the output of 'cat /proc/asound/cards'
tells me I have no sound card, though I can plainly see the sound devices in the /dev/ directory.
I was wondering if you knew how I could fix this? Is there some audio firmware I need to load?
I keep hearing people mention audio/video playback on the zipit and I've no idea how they did it.
It's not so much that I need audio or video, but I was going to use your image as something of a jumping off point for my own experiments and I'm afraid without a working alsa device I may run into dependancy issues.
Anyway, I'd appreciate any help you can offer, even if it's just a google link I've overlooked.
Thank you!
Alsa
I'm glad you like Ubuntu on the Zipit.
Make sure that the modules are loading by typing "lsmod". You should have a list that contains these:
i2c-core
i2c-algo-bit
i2c-pxa
soundcore
snd
snd-page-alloc
snd-timer
snd-mixer-oss
snd-pcm
snd-pcm-oss
snd-soc-core
snd-soc-pxa2xx
snd-soc-pxa2xx-i2s
snd-soc-wm8750
snd-soc-z2
If any are missing, the sound will probably work. Make sure they are listed in /etc/modules. If not, add them, reboot, and check to see if they've loaded again. If they have not loaded still, you may need to manually load each one with "sudo insmod /path/to/snd-module-name". If loading them manually works, you can add the insmod lines to rc.local and they will be loaded at startup.
Unfortunately, I cannot test this myself as I have upgraded to U-Boot and a newer kernel, but I would like to know if you get it working so I can post some info. If you continue to have trouble, pop into the #zipit channel on irc.freenode.net and maybe we can figure something out.
Alsa, still.
Here are my commands, and their output:
lsmod | more
libertas_spi
libertas
snd_soc_pxa2xx_i2s
snd_soc_pxa2xx
snd_pxa2xx_lib
snd_soc_lib
snd_soc_core
snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer
snd_page_alloc
snd
soundcore
uinput
1ib80211
pxa27x_udc
evdev
As you can see, a few appear to be missing,
my /etc/modules file is as follows:
#libertas_spi
#libertas
uinput
#evdev
i2c-core
i2c-algo-bit
i2c-pxa
soundcore
snd
snd-page-alloc
snd-timer
snd-mixer-oss
snd-pcm
snd-pcm-oss
snd-soc-core
snd-soc-pxa2xx
snd-soc-pxa2xx-i2s
snd-soc-wm8750
snd-soc-z2
Right now, my zipit, or, more likely, it's cable, seems to have a short in it, so, once I can actually get it to charge, and stay charged, I'll work on attempting to load the missing modules on-device.
Right now, a look in /lib/modules/2.6.29/kernel/sound/ seems to verify the needed modules are all there, save for "i2c-core, i2c-algo-bit, i2c-pxa",
i2c-algo-bit seems to live in /lib/modules/2.6.29/kernel/drivers/i2c/algo/
(You already knew that, but I figure maybe someone else may have trouble finding them)
Though I haven't yet found the remaining two "i2c" modules.
Assuming my cable decides to behave I should have more information for you soon, one way or the other. If I still can't figure it out I'll swing by the irc room.
Strange to think there's a link to said room on nearly every zipit-related blog in the 'verse and I've never thought to swing by >.>
I think I remember reading a tutorial somewhere about upgrading the zipits kernel, I should probably look into that again.
Thanks for your help. Take care!
After Login
OK, I'm a noob and unlike D2D need someone to hold my hand.
I got the userland to load, but was unable to get to the desktop. I couldn't log in using user/ubuntu so I sudo passwd and no-go. Tried startx, but there's no x-window.
Any help would be appreciated.
V/r,
Lux Aeternus
Login
It should boot to a console/text based login prompt. Type in
userfor the username andubuntufor the password. This should get you to a command line. Unfortunately, X is not installed in this image so typingstartxwill do nothing. Hopefully I will release a working userland with X soon.help me..
well after I login with user and pass ubuntu it continues in the command line, how do i get to the desktop? whats the command to get to the desktop?prompt. Type in user for the username and ubuntu for the password. This should get you to a command line. Un
http://mozzwald.com/node/51
http://mozzwald.com/node/51
Torrent available
I created a torrent for people to download this Ubuntu distro here on my page: http://www.notanon.com/zipit/mozzwalds-ubuntu-for-zipit-rc1-torrent/2010... Please help me seed it and share it. This distro has has lot of potential. Can't wait to see RC2.
Ubuntu on the ZipIt
Can I load a gui?
Is this preconfigured for a given desktop?
Sorry, newbie, I tried to load lxde and got this
http://doortodoorgeek.posterous.com/18956894
sideways screen with no mouse/keyboard
GUI
I did mess with a gui, but not on the image I have for download. I wanted to get things working well before I released an image with gui. The mouse emulator is located at /bin/z2mouse-option, the X11 keymap is located at /etc/xkeymap.map which both need to be loaded before you start lxde. You'll need to install the package x11-xserver-utils which has xmodmap that allows you to load the keymap. Also, the screen needs to be setup to rotate. Copy the following into /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "fbdev"
Option "fbdev" "/dev/fb0"
VendorName "Unknown"
BoardName "Unknown"
Option "Rotate" "CCW"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
SubSection "Display"
Modes "240x320"
EndSubSection
EndSection
I hope that gets you running.
ahhh
Thanks for the info, at work, will try
btw, great site
closer
Hello Mozzwald
Thanks for the help, te screen trick did work, after login it did have a FAM error, I was able to tab through and hit enter (so the keyboard seems to be working) but I can not seem to get the mouse activated/working, I did use the file from http://aliosa27.net/projects/zipit2/z2mouse-history/
Obviously I am missing something/a step
Please do not feel the need to hold my hand any more, I will just patiently wait for a rev with a desktop, I was just curious