ebox 2300sx the Gentoo way

Taki · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 10:57 am Post subject: ebox 2300sx the Gentoo way

Hi,

I just purchased an ebox 2300sx and to my surprise, it has no coprocessor. all the other small foot print OS (DSL, Puupy) throw a kernel panic. I have the kernel patch and would like to install gentoo on it.

The default live cd doesn't work (also kernel panics).

Any ideas?
_________________
I live a life of needles and wax.
When the needle touches the wax,
I begin to breathe.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 12:12 pm Post subject:

Taki,

The LiveCD needs an i686 CPU. Your CPU is a SiS Vortex86 CPU, which is not i686 compatible.
The minimal x86 CD (not the i686 one) should boot.

The best way to install Gentoo on this device is to do the build in a chroot on a more capable system, then move the binaries over.
There are lots of ways of moving the binaries.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Taki · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 12:52 pm Post subject:

Gonna give it a shot right now.

thanks for the speedy response
_________________
I live a life of needles and wax.
When the needle touches the wax,
I begin to breathe.

Taki · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 1:51 pm Post subject:

I tried both x86 2008.0 and 2007.0 installation CD. no luck :cry:

_________________
I live a life of needles and wax.
When the needle touches the wax,
I begin to breathe.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 4:13 pm Post subject:

Taki,

What were the symptoms ?
Error messages ...

Illegal Instruction Exception ?
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Taki · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 6:57 pm Post subject:

Just a blank screen after selecting my boot options. is there a way to make it verbose?
_________________
I live a life of needles and wax.
When the needle touches the wax,
I begin to breathe.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 10:18 pm Post subject:

Taki,

What do you mean by "installation CD" ?

Your CPU is a 486SX with mmx instructions. None of the installers will work on that, they all need an i686 CPU.
However, the x86 minimal CD is made to be 486 compatible. It does not have math emulation in its kernel but that will be ok, unless the boot sequence tries to use floating point. It should not do that.

Try booting with

Taki · Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 7:06 am Post subject:

I am using the x86 minimal installation CD.

using:

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 10:40 pm Post subject:

Taki,

The kernel does not need the coprocessor.

I have an old red hat CD set ... RH 6.1 (kernel 2.2.12) and some later ones that should boot.
To install Gentoo you need a 2.6 kernel but if you do the build elsewhere, package it as a stage 4, you only need a few tools.

Send me a PM to remind me and I will dig around to see whats the latest I have for i386, as that has no FPU either.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

swirling_vortex · n00b Joined: 12 Jun 2007 Posts: 24

It could be an issue with the 2.6 kernel just not liking the CPU. Just out of curiosity, try booting this small businesscard Debian iso and see if it boots. You don't have to install it, just see if it loads. (it uses 2.6.18) http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/4.0_r3/i386/iso-cd/debian-40r3-i386-businesscard.iso

If that also fails, try booting Damn Small Linux, which still uses a 2.4 kernel. http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/damnsmall/current/dsl-4.4.3.iso

andrewstonie · n00b Joined: 18 Dec 2006 Posts: 13

Any luck guys? i'm thinking of buying one of these units?

http://www.compactpc.com.tw/ebox-2300SX.htm

Cheers,
Stonie.

andrewstonie · n00b Joined: 18 Dec 2006 Posts: 13

OK, so I have my 2300sx box.

The docs for kernel config are here: http://www.compactpc.com.tw/drivers/ebox-2300SX/Vortex86SX_Linux_HowTo.pdf

The main issue is that there is not a suitable network driver, you have to patch the kernel for that too: http://www.compactpc.com.tw/drivers/ebox-2300SX/r6040.tar.gz
Therefore it appears an install in place in not practical? Is it as simple as building the patched kernel on another x86 box with the correct CFLAGS, and copying it over? (I have always built on the host so i’m clueless to the pitfalls?)

Any pointers much appreciated.

Cheers,
Stonie.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 6:02 pm Post subject:

andrewstonie,

Using another Gentoo box, make the gentoo install you need in a chroot in a file.
The symbol ~ means the current users home directory

andrewstonie · n00b Joined: 18 Dec 2006 Posts: 13

Thanks Neddy!! I will start on my quest.

Cheers,
Stonie.

Taki · Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:14 am Post subject:

I blew mine up

_________________
I live a life of needles and wax.
When the needle touches the wax,
I begin to breathe.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 12:29 pm Post subject:

Taki,

Blew it up or 'bricked' it?

The first means you let the magic smoke out that makes it work.
The latter means something horrible happened to the BIOS, so the electronics are perfectly serviceable but it has bo code to boot.
This can be fixed using JTAG to reprogram the BIOS.

As well as a JTAG interface for your main PC, you need to know where to connect it on the 2300sx and you need a copy of the BIOS.
The PC end is a parallel port and some resistors.

'Bricking' embedded devices is a routine hazard of playing with them.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Taki · Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:26 pm Post subject:

First I bricked :arrow:

then when I was trying to unbrick, i blew :arrow:

then magical smoke came out.

_________________
I live a life of needles and wax.
When the needle touches the wax,
I begin to breathe.