Maverick Installer, Linux kernel (2.6.31.14.12, December 2010)

The updated Maverick installer and "rescue image" is now online on PowerDeveloper. This includes a kernel update including a cleaned up HDMI driver, several bugfixes for Smartbook and Smarttop, and a cleaned up and updated Maverick root filesystem, along with a unified firmware updater for all systems.

Firmware Update

U-Boot 2.0.6 includes support for booting both systems under the same autoscripting system that other ARM boards (Marvell Dove, Beagleboard) utilize - on boot, the firmware will scan SD card and PATA for the first partition of format VFAT (MSDOS) or ext2/3 (Linux) and try and load a file called "boot.scr". This is all U-Boot does in the latest version. This is a departure from the system used on shipping TO2 and TO3 Efika MX Smarttop systems which would simply scan SD then PATA for "uImage" and blindly load it with built-in kernel boot arguments. The net benefit is that you gain support for

• Setting boot arguments for the kernel in an editable file on disk (SD or PATA)
• Using Initrd ramdisks (essential for current Ubuntu installations, enabling more modular kernel images)
  
• Doing any pre-boot scripting you need to perform before the kernel loads

However, blindly updating U-Boot on a TO2 or TO3 Efika MX Smarttop will instantly produce a non-booting system unless boot.scr is placed on the system to continue the boot process. It is therefore shipped as part of the Maverick installer. We recommend everyone simply update to Maverick. We will entertain individual support and extra-special requirements as needed, where trashing your existing Smarttop or Smartbook is not an option, but we really do recommend starting from scratch as there are a lot of things to fix and change and if you miss one.. the result will not be pretty.

Kernel Update (2.6.31.14.12 - efikasb-10.08.00 branch)

• Operates on ALL Efika MX models (TO2, TO3, Smartbook)

Includes updates to GPU kernel module, many fixes to platform support for TO2 boards, Smartbook improvements such as USB suspend issue being fixed, and also the "vertical offset" display bug fixed. The packages include a modular kernel without MMC, PATA or USB support compiled in - these are modules and it is expected by the behavior of Ubuntu that these are loaded from the initial ramdisk generated upon installation.

NOTE: If you install this kernel on an older Maverick system PLEASE add the modules "pata_fsl", "ehci_hcd", "mx_sdhci", "mmc_block" to the /etc/initramfs-tools/modules file in order for them to be forcibly added to the initial ramdisk on installation.


Maverick System Update

• Operates on ALL Efika MX models (TO2, TO3, Smartbook)

The desktop image has been updated to GNOME rather than Xfce since it is more stable and user friendly. The installed system image is not substantially bigger on disk, and includes OpenOffice. All updates to the end of November have been applied so there should be very little in terms of packages that are out of date. All systems (Smarttop TO2, TO3 and Smartbook) will boot into the installer, copy in the image to the PATA disk, reboot and ask for Language, Timezone, Keyboard settings, Username, Password, Machine Name and suchlike. This will replace the old "oem" user with one of your choice.

You may need to add yourself to the "Audio" and "Video" groups to enable sound and webcam access. You can do this as you log in to the system for the first time through the Users and Groups control panel item.

NOTE: please do not select "Encrypt my Home folder" - something is not operating correctly in the setup of ecryptfs, and the result is that it will give you a basically broken system. We realise the importance of a secure environment especially for workplaces where access to VPNs or corporate networks is only authorized with encryption enabled, and we are working on a solution.


Okay, I got the maverick-installer.img.xz file, how do I install it to my system?

Simply extract the archive (WinZip, 7-Zip, or command line at your option) and use your favorite utility here to copy it to a 2GB SD card. The utilities recommended are "dd" (or dcfldd), "flashnul" on Windows, or on an existing Ubuntu installation the Ubuntu USB Image Writer (you can find a list of imaging utilities here).

As an example with "dd", you can do the following:

xz -dc maverick-installer.img.xz | dd of=/dev/mmcblk0

Once you have this image on an SD card simply power off your system and insert the SD card. Power it back on and the system will install automatically and when complete, shut down automatically. You may then remove the SD card and boot into the installed system. It really is that simple.

If you have problems seeing the Progress of the installation (HDMI or DVI monitor not working correctly), we would much appreciate the details of your monitor. We have tested on several (upwards of 10) HDMI and DVI monitors and HDTV units with successful results, however there are reports of other monitors not working ideally. This is under investigation. If you had any problems with your monitor in the past, you may want to check on IRC or on the forums before installing a Smarttop and potentially getting no display..

Kernel Release 2.6.31.12.3-ER1

Changelog:

• 2.6.31.12.3
• Patched in devtmpfs - however it is disabled in the config because it conflicts with Ubuntu Karmic's boot procedure
• Enabled DVI sink mode in the display driver when defaulting with no cable connected (will go to 1024x768@60Hz)
• Added back the SPI chipselect bugfix - should make the MTD driver happier
• Miscellaneous tweaks to MTD partitioning data
• Config updates
  • Enabled OSS PCM driver (ALSA emulation) to provide /dev/dsp
  • Enabled Magic SysRq keys
  • Enabled MAC80211 LED Triggers
  • Disabled module versioning to prep for 3D
  • Enabled forced module loading

This version will have GPU modules available and a prebuilt rt3070sta driver (since that works much better still than the mainline rt2800usb driver). The release was meant to be Monday (and if you look - it's online already) but it will have to be re-rolled as I made a mistake building some modules.

There is also a U-Boot release (1.1.8) on the Firmware page which adds a small ARM errata fix plus some very minor changes to behavior which most people won't ever notice, but it needed to be published.

Both these kernel and u-boot revisions will ship on any Efika MX going out of the door from Wednesday

Releases for 22nd December 2009 - U-Boot, Kernel .31, Installer

Announcing doing final prep on the releases of the following updates for the Efika MX:

• Linux 2.6.31 release which should fix some instability problems. If you downloaded the source already please modify arch/arm/mach-mx51/mx51_efikamx.c and edit line 1132 and 1133 so that cpu_wp_auto[1] and cpu_wp_auto[2] are set. The net effect of this change is the CPU will be running at the correct voltage which solves some audio glitching and some performance problems. The source will be updated in place (no patch) so new users will get the new code. You can find this on Power Developer under Efika MX Kernel

• U-Boot 2009.01 release 1.1.7 which should improve RAM performance and a few other things. Auto-boot timeout has been increased to 10 seconds (to work around the "reboot hangs and shutdown just reboots" kernel bug, to give people time to remove the power cord) and the power LED is blue during U-Boot operation.

• Auto-flash tool which will create an SD card with rootfs, kernel and U-Boot flasher (as above). This tool and the above source code (the flasher includes binaries) are at Efika MX Firmware.

• Installer SD card image which is the result of the auto-flash tool plus the archives and installation script used to prep each machine. This has been put under Efika MX Linux along with the Karmic Root Filesystem released last week. You will need a 2GB SD card or larger (the one we shipped to everyone who ordered before 1st December will do perfectly) to use this image. Alternatively you can use a much smaller card (512MB) as the extracted rootfs is barely 300MB and the tools on top JUST about fit in 512MB, using the Auto-flash tool.

They should be up in the next few hours, instructions will be on this blog.

To install the new U-Boot you will need to do some quirky switch setting. You will need:

• Adequate Lighting (I really mean this)
• A small screwdriver (unless you already connected your serial board, in which case, you are already in there)
• A sewing needle, sturdy paperclip, or professional DIP-switch-flicking tool

If you open up your Efika MX (small panel on the bottom) you will see next to the serial cable port, 4 small DIP switches. Simply switch these to 0001 (off off off on) and the system will boot from the SD card slot. You can flash the installer image directly to an SD card, or use the Flasher tool to create this SD card yourself. You really need to grab nearly all the files seperately and put them in the right places (this is obvious if you read the "flasher" script). Please note, once it's flashed, switch them back! Or it will continue to flash the NOR Flash on every boot, and this is some wear and tear on the chip.

To switch the system back to boot from SPI, the switch settings are 1110 (on on on off) which is the exact opposite. If you have an Efika MX you've opened all the way you may notice that there is a MicroSD card slot - don't rely on this as it will be gone in a future revision, but you can boot from this (as if it were SPI flash) using switch setting 0000 (off off off off). I'll grab some photos and schematics to make this easier later :)