Official Software Image

From Qi
Jump to: navigation, search

On the Ben NanoNotes currently sold you will find an image based on the OpenWrt embedded linux distribution.

We opted for OpenWrt as we needed a highly adaptable and configurable build environment which is reliable and doesn't make us spend too much time on fixing the system itself.

To build your very own custom image, please refer to Building Software Image

Contents

[edit] How to flash the most recent version to my device

Before Starting, please ensure:

  • The xburst-tools are installed and working properly
  • You have a working internet connection (for downloading the latest version of the image)
  • You're running the script as user "root" (e.g. < sudo ./reflash_script.sh >)
  • Your device is connected with a decent USB-cable (this sometimes resulted in problems in the past)
  • Your booted your device in usbboot-mode
  • If you have questions, please consult Updating Ben NanoNote software.


To flash the most recent official image, just download and run the following script without any arguments: http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/software/images/Ben_NanoNote_2GB_NAND/reflash_ben.sh

The script requires an usual linux/unix system environment and having the xburst-tools installed.

It will download and flash the latest images to your device.

The actual images and its configurations are located here http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/software/images/Ben_NanoNote_2GB_NAND

[edit] Software

We try to keep all of the included software up-to-date - that way there'll be always be the most recent versions of software within the image.

[edit] Bootloader

The bootloader is based on U-Boot

[edit] Kernel

As kernel we basically use the linux-2.6 kernel with a few patches to make it running smooth on the our hardware.

There's always the latest stable kernel version in use (currently 2.6.32).

[edit] Userland / RootFS

[edit] Core utils

The core applications are based on busybox, a minimal Unix userland.

[edit] Graphics system

To not waste system resources the default image does not come with an usual XServer like Xorg, but uses the DirectFB engine.

All of the major toolkits provide support for DirectFB, that way the software within the default image supports graphical applications based on the following toolkits out-of-the-box:

Currently supported and installed in the image by default are:

[edit] Applications

We do not list all applications included in the image here. Only the ones who have community patrons and/or have proven very popular.

[edit] Change Log

[edit] Image 2010-08-15 (testing) 

- use new uClibc version with NPTL support
- upgraded qt to 4.7beta2
- updated gmu
- updated gmenu2x
- added bsd-games packages
- added calcurse
- added NanoMap (not yet reachable from within gmenu2x)
- remove ntpclient and ntpd due to bugs which heavily decreases bootime / system load
- added mandoc
- kernel support 32bit console font.
- add [setfont2] package. and two pnm fonts.
- added u-boot-envtools packages
- enable setfont, loadfont and shell history in BusyBox

[edit] Image 2010-06-15 

- enable kernel FPU support as fallback => debian-userspace compatible
- lot's of kernel fixes
- new packages ported and added:
  - image viewer "imgv"
  - console calendar "gcal"
  - screenshot "fbgrab"
  - math suite "mathomatic"
  - "sdcv" - console frontend for stardict
  - unit converter "units"
  - GNU Chess 
- u-boot: when boot from flash memory card, u-boot will load ext2-first-partition:/boot/uImage. update to version 2010.03

[edit] Image 2010-05-07 

- added access to binary feed (qipackages, packages)
- rebased to new release "backfire" of OpenWrt
- gmenu2x improvements, removed unused sections and starters for currently broken applications
- various cleanups and bugfixes
- package htop added
- inotify support added and enabled

[edit] Image 2010-04-09 

- music player GMU added
- gmenu2x default application launched
- use fb-support instead of directfb-support for sdl-applications, as the latter once behaves unexpected
- faster boottime due to rootfs split
- adding linuxfb-support to Qt an addition to DirectFB
- using block-hotplug and block-mount for automatically mounting block devices such as sd cards (untested)
- officially being part and project of the OpenWrt distribution now
- sound module loading sequence changed to avoid unresolved symbols
- package diffutils added
- package disktype added
- package dosfsck added
- package dosfslabel added
- package gnupg added
- package graphicsmagick added
- package guile added
- package jow added
- package make added
- package mkdosfs added
- package mtd-utils added
- package nanobadblocks added
- package openvpn added
- package patch added
- package php5 added
- package python added
- package resize2fs added
- package rsync added
- package sox added
- package strace added
- package sysfsutils added
- package tcpdump added
- package ubi-utils added

[edit] Image 2010-03-22 

- screen now _really_ gets blanked when device is in idle
- sound issues got fixed
- fixed unreliable I/O in mmc driver
- qt4 is now built in including some examples and demos

When launching qt4-applications "-qws -display directfb" need to be passed for now, e.g. for the coverflow like fluidlauncher:

( cd /usr/share/Qt/demos/embedded/fluidlauncher/ ; ./fluidlauncher -qws -display directfb )


[edit] Known Issues

[edit] Tutorials

Retrieved from "http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Official_Software_Image"
Personal tools
Namespaces
Variants
Actions
Navigation
interactive
Toolbox
Print/export