The short story: The flash worked and I’ve got everything working that worked before. The long story?
Here’s what I did. This is the new sweetlilmre method
1. Headed over to http://sourceforge.net/projects/openzipit and downloaded the autoflasher, and the zipit z2 kernel.bin
2. renamed the z2-2.6.blahblah kernel to kernel.bin and copied to fat32 formatted SD
3. copied the z2flasher.zip to the same fat32 formatted SD and extracted it there
4. Booted the z2, waited till it rebooted itself
5. RE-formatted the SD card as EXT2
6. Svn co the package from here http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/openzipit/index.php?title=Getting_Started_with_Open_Embedded_and_the_Z2
7. as root, copied the ~/oe/zipit2-tmp/deploy/glibc/images/zipit2/Angstrom-wireless-image-glibc-ipk-2009.X-test-20090606-zipit2.rootfs.tar to the EXT2 SD card
8. on command line in the SD card root, I ‘sudo tar -xf Angstrom*.rootfs.tar .” to extract the wireless image (with x extensions)
That’s that! A really good starting point towards an emulation platform. Next up, getting snes9x working (it bitbaked fine, now to work on prerequisites)
I did the same thing yesterday, and it ran flawlessly. The Autoflasher really makes the reflash simple and easy enough to do that even somewhat inexperienced users can use it successfully (as long as they read the directions, which might not be as clear as some people would like.) I was actually talking to a friend earlier who said he successfully set up the Autoflasher and then wrote the 2.6.29 files to his SD card using a linux live CD, which opens up options for many people who don’t have a computer they can dedicate to a linux install. I’m personally doing my work on a laptop with a dead hard drive controller, with Ubuntu installed on a USB HD. It works, just slowly and I run out of space often. 40 gigs is workable, but clearly not ideal.
One note for anyone else doing this, using the 2.6.29 wireless-image on the openzipit sourceforge page left me with nonfunctional wifi, however using the image I built myself, it worked fine. So if you use the prebuilt one and wireless doesn’t work, it’s the wireless-image, not a problem relating to an improper reflash (my friend had the same problem, and thought he broke something using the Autoflasher.)
I check your page now every day or so now to see what you’re working on. Snes9x will be a great step in the way of getting more fun and useful software on these little things. Nothing gives people motivation quite like nostalgic games, Dosbox alone was motivation enough for me. You’re doing quite the job with this.
Hi Karl,
Glad to hear others are working on this too
I also got the wireless image working, but ran into a bit of an issue. xserver-kdrive failed during the configure phase. I successfully got xorg to install and start up correctly rotated using the fbdev driver and rotate option in xorg.conf. That’s about as far as I’m at. I’ve got a new ipkg web server up so installing packages is fast. Snes9x is compiled and appears to stop, but crashes without error. Also no way to change window focus to xterm without mouse.
Did you manage to get xserver-kdrive working? Between that and getting audio drivers set up there’s quite a ways to go before things are running well. Perhaps nes emulation is a better starting target..
I had that issue with xserver-kdrive as well, still playing with it but no success thus far. That’s what I plan on working on tomorrow when I have more time, though I’m still largely learning all this as I go. I haven’t done any real programming in years, and the OE learning curve makes this quite interesting. I need to check if the files for the Zipit 1 softmouse (keyboard controlled one) are in the yahoogroup files section, if we can get that going on the Zipit 2 then that might at least give us the necessary control.
Yeah, I completely forgot that audio wasn’t up and running in the 2.6.29 kernel, went and built and installed madplay before it kindly reminded me of that. IMHO audio would be an added bonus, once we have the software running we can always get it working later.
I really should dig up the files for the joystick mouse I had been working on for the Zipit 1. I had written a quick and dirty serial mouse program for a PIC16 that read a standard 10-ohm joystick module, the kind that’s used in just about every modern game console controller. Mouse input is the one major thing that’s missing from the Zipits, if I finally get that finished it would mean a $10 or so mouse input solution that could easily be attached to the side of the Zipit. The issue I had at the time was losing sync with the computer I was using, because I had originally designed it without an external crystal (and using the internal oscillator is just too sensitive to temperature changes to keep consistent timing.) I believe I read in the specs a while back that there was a USB port in the rear connector, and if I remember correctly the PXA270 does have USB host capability. I may go about trying to modify my design to make it USB capable, so that people wouldn’t need to crack the Zipit open to connect one. I suppose working on that would be taking the easy way out though, PicBasic is terribly simple, OE is the real challenge
@karl the problem with the prebuilt image is that the two gspi files that you need to grab from your zipit before you do a reflash are not included. to get wifi working with the prebuilt image copy gspi8686.bin and gspi8686_hlp.bin to /lib/firmware/libertas on the sdcard after copying the image to your sdcard.
Thanks Russel, I didn’t think to look to see if the firmware files were missing on that image.
Hunter, I was just looking for something on OpenZipit.org, and noticed that Tom mentions using xkbd to translate the D-pad on the Zipit 2 into mouse movement. Have you given that a try? You might be able to use that to switch over to xterm to see what’s going on with Snes9x.
Hi Karl,
Yeah I’ve looked into it quite a while back. I was having a dependency issue when building xkbd previously, I’ll have to try bitbaking it with the new tree. Still haven’t heard of anyone getting around the kdrive issue for now, so that sounds like a good target for getting regular x11 running.
Hi All,
Update to the newest git repo, move your zipit2-tmp directory, then attempt to bitbake xserver-kdrive. It’ll fail on intltool. Bitbake intltool, then bitbake xserver-kdrive again. Viola! Xserver is back. I’ll do a full post when I get something more interesting than nmap working (so useful!)
Is there a workaround if the zipit already auto updated past 1.00 firmware? Like DNS redirect to a custom server with a custom firmware? I read somewhere that it was possible with the original zipit was wondering if anybody knew about the Z2. Thanks.
Haven’t done it myself. Does the autoflasher on sourceforge not work? I had heard of another method using a direct soldered cable but I don’t recall seeing any firm info
Thanks for the quick reply. I noticed the warning concerning bricking the device, so I thought it would be wise to ask first. I’ll give it a try and let you know how it goes.
The auto flashing worked great on the original 1.13 firmware. I guess the waring was for non standard firmware. After running the auto flash, I seem to be stuck on step 6. The directory “zipit2-tmp” doesn’t exist anymore in the SVN. Where should I go from there to get it up and running with a prompt? Thanks
Hey M@,
Glad to hear the autoflash worked for ya. The Zipit2-tmp directory can be created anytime by the bitbake process. Just source the setup_env.sh (or whatever it’s called sorry) and ‘bitbake wireless-image’. You’ll need to copy over the wireless blob files as descibed on the sourceforge wiki sweetlilmre set up. Good luck!
/H
One more question, just to make sure the autoflash worked fully. After the Flashing in step 4, What am I supposed to see when I reboot? Right now I just see the logo in the top left corner. I wasn’t sure if I should already see the command-line described in step 8. Thanks.
Yep it worked. You’re just supposed to see the logo. The full system that gets booted up is what you unzip to the SD card. The easiest way to test is just boot the z2 without an SD card, if it comes up to the logo it’s all good.
Thanks. Got it all up and running.
Accidentally messed up my bitbake though. Is there a way to completely rebuild? Ive tried ” -c clean ” an ” -c rebuild ” with no luck,. i deleted the glibc dir in zipit2-tmp/deploy trying to fix and error, thinking it would be rebuilt again and later realized that was a very bad idea and only made things worse.
It seems the compiled packages were stored there and now they cant be found. There has to be some start over rebuild all function that I don’t know about.
Sure, you could either just re-check out everything from git, or just delete the zipit2-tmp directory and bitbake wireless-image again
Yess, that did it. Thanks. Sorry for all the questions, my first time using git and compiling for an embedded platform.
It can be pretty frustrating at times, but very fun when the results are positive
Hi Hunter,
I would be interested in the angstrom rootfs, but I don’t like to setup the huge bitbake environment. Would it be possible to distribute the rootfs pre-build (Angstrom-wireless-image-glibc-ipk-2009.X-test-20090606-zipit2.rootfs.tar), ready to copy to the SD card? That would be great to play around. Other packages can than be installed using ipkg.
It looks great and defenitely increases the usability of the Z2.
Sure, of course. I believe you can download that file from the sourceforge repository. If not, I’d be happy to post up the last one I built.
Hi Hunter,
I can find an image of rootfs in the openzipit sourceforge repository (wireless-image-zipit2.tar.gz). I would rather like to have an image where X is included. Does the image you’ve built includes X? If so, I would be delighted if you could post your latest one you’ve built.
IS the kernel image zImage-zipit2.bin as found in the repository the same as you are using, or did you build your own kernel image?
Hey, actually right now that is the kernel I am using yes. I just bitbaked the various X libraries separately. I’ll try bitbaking the wireless+x image directly this weekend.
Hey I got it to build, it’s up on the front page
Hmm, with the wireless-image I still cant find out how to enable wireless. In the config file it defines lo and eth0. Is eth0 the wireless in this build? I followed the instructions, placed the 2 files and renamed them and am on the step “And you should be good to go. “, sadly not. I tried a ifconfig and all it displays is the loopback.
Thanks for the info on the wireless x build, I’ll have to check that out later.
Interesting… Few things to try, did you copy the files as root and give them root ownership? You may need to insmod them then modprobe for them as well.
Hi Hunter,
thanks for uploading the image. I will give it a try tomorow! Keep you informed on how things go….
hey M@, ya eth0 is the wireless
I copied them as root. I checked in /lib/firmware/libertas on the sdcard. root owns them. Should I modprobe for gspi8686? when I do i get, chdir: no such file or directory
Interesting… Does dmesg show the driver attempting to load on boot?
Not that I can see. Weird. This is what I get. http://zipitz2.pastebin.com/m7d03d7e2
I probably missed something simple. Which wireless firmware are you using? I downloaded mine instead of grabbing it from the zipit.
I’m using the one linked to from the wiki.. Did you delete the stubs and rename the wirless firmware to match the stub names?
Yes, I re did it again to make sure, still the same issue and no change in dmesg. Im gonna give your wireless image a go just to test. So all you did was drop them in and re-name them?
Yep..
Hi, I am semi noob at this. I used the autoflash got the zipit to boot to where you see the logo even without the sd card. And now I am totally stuck I dont know what to do from here.
My goal is to just use this as a just a handheld web browser that I can use at open wifi spots and maybe the nes emulator.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
-mark
Hey Mark,
You’re almost there. Download the userland image with X I posted up the other day and unzip it to SD. That’ll get you a working linux with X. From there you can get wifi working with the howto on the wiki http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/openzipit/index.php?title=Main_Page/ . You can compile your own packages with the bitbake env. you get from the source checkout (see the wiki), or check the new images we’ll be posting soon with sound net and some other apps already running
Thank you for your quick response.
I downloaded the image it seems to be rar and tar compressed winrar gets you to the tar file but it tries to open that file and comes up with a bunch of errors. I cannot seem to get your image to unzip.
also I am using ext2 for the sd card, is that right?
Again Thank you for your help
-Mark
Hi Mark,
You may need to re-download the file. I just tried it with winrar and it untars fine. Are you on windows or linux. On linux ‘tar -xf filename.tar’ should extract it. Yes ext2 is good for the sd card. Good Luck!
Im sad to say that after hours of work I still do not have this working. I unrar and untar-ed the files to the sd card. Im using ubuntu to do most of my work I also try to work on windows 7 with no luck (cannot untar the files on win dont know why).
o wow i just turned on the zipit before typing all this and i guess i just never waited long enough lol stupid me
ok messed around with wpa supplicant and iwconfig for a little before going to sleep didnt get it working going to try again tomorrow getting tired cant remember what i’v changed and havnt changed
Hope this is still active here. Looking for debianz2-diskimage-2g.img. Anyone now where I can obtain it?
Thanks
Hey Harry,
You should give RK’s article, “The State of the Zipit” a read (below). It’s got links to new userlands and some updated info for this specifically.
http://russelldavis.org/2010/12/31/the-state-of-the-zipit/
I cant figgure it out:
bitbake keeps telling me:
ERROR: Unable to parse conf/bitbake.conf: ParseError at conf/bitbake.conf:377: unparsed line: ‘IMAGE_EXTRA_SPACE = 10240′
what does this mean?
Your bitbake doesn’t like the ‘image_extra_space’ line. Try setting it to 1024 or removing it entirely. Best of luck!