[cobalt-developers] Re. Putting Debian on a Qube2

[Paul <pschulz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

M.C.,

I have successfully installed Debian on a Raq4. (I'm assuming that the
Cube2 is of the same family, so hopefully these comments are useful.)

There is a very helpful webpage at
http://traumatized.org/linux/cobalt/kernel.php

It talks about 'slackware' but the method is the same.

You need to upgrade the ROM (see thockin's README at
ftp://ftp.cobaltnet.com/pub/users/thockin/2.4/

This page also has the source for 2.4.13, with the code to get the
panel, buttons etc. working on the box.  The catch is that the source
is in an rpm package (version 4) which needs the most recent 'rpm' and
'librpm4' debian packages, as well as an upgrade of libc6 (to 2.2.4).

I'm currently in the process of doing all of this.. (have to wait till
Monday to reboot the sucker) but the kernel and modules compile.

Paul 

ps. You did remember to put the compressed kernel in /boot/vmlinux.gz

> I recently acquired a Qube2. I am trying to install Debian on this
> thingy. I can upload a 2.4.5 kernel through the serial port, using the
> ROM loader. I can netboot, thru nfs, but this has strange, unsuccesful
> ending.
>
> I have a 2.4.5 kernel on it now (on disk), but booting is still not
> a success. My problem seems to be that the kernel parameters I enter
> on the ROM loaders 'bfd' command are not delivered to the kernel
> intact (or not at all). Some kind of default parameters seem to be
> used.
>
> In several messages on the discussion board (archives), I find the
> 'boot;set_params single;bfd' solution for more recent Qubes. That is
> exactly what I would like to be able to do... set boot parameters
> for the kernel.
>
> Is there any way to do this and override the default parameters?
> (For example thru manipulating memory settings)
>
> Does anyone have a working Debian setup yet?
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> M.C. Deurloo