Re: [Ipodlinux-devel] linux on new (curvy, all-touch) ipod hardware

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Hmmm, a few additional notes:

The new ipod doesn't reboot into Disk Mode each time it's connected to a
computer, it handles disk mode directly from the standard runtime code
(although forcing Disk Mode still works). I used this mode to update the code
on the first partition. As soon as I rmmod sbp2, it reboots and Linux starts
running. Linux then fails to mount a root filesystem on /dev/hda2 (device
03:02) and panics. I have the "linux" directory in the root of the second
partition. I unzipped it on the filesystem in msdos mode, examining the
"linux" directory in umsdos mode gives what looks like a sensible root   
filesytem.

However, rebooting the ipod from this panicked linux just gets stuck at the
Apple logo. It appears that the new firmware does some hardware initialisation
that the Linux kernel doesn't know to do -- a soft-reset works, but a
hard-reset doesn't. The kernel messages zip past too fast for me to read them,
but it's possible that it's not finding the ATA controller (or disk itself?)
and thus the failure to mount the root filesystem.

However, it looks like the system should be bootable with only minor
modifications.

Will

On Sun, May 18, 2003 at 02:13:14PM +0100, William R Sowerbutts wrote:
>He he he ;-)
>
>Yep, it boots the Linux binary I downloaded from the web site! The display
>driver works fine. I got a panic when it failed to find a root image. I'll
>have a go at getting the FireWire connection up and running in a bit.
>
>I recovered back to the original firmware without any problems, the iPod
>doesn't seem to have suffered from its brief brush with Linux.
>
>I suspect Apple have exposed a bi-directional serial port somewhere on that
>mother dock connector (or maybe that's what the extra pin on the remote
>connector is for?). Now that we can telnet in using IP over firewire, though,
>this doesn't seem to be so necessary.
>
>Out of interest, how is the second processor exposed to userspace? Is it the
>same as traditional SMP linux? What MMU features are missing that are required
>for running "normal" Linux on this hardware?
>
>Thanks all,
>
>Will
>
>
>On Sun, May 18, 2003 at 02:26:34PM +0200, Bernard Leach wrote:
>>
>>Hi William,
>>
>>Sofar I've not heard of anyone trying to start Linux on the iPod v3
>>hardware however I have taken a look at the firmware and think it should
>>boot at least.  I'm not sure about all the device drivers as the
>>introduction of the recording etc facilities have probably moved some of
>>the GPIO connections around.
>>
>>The patch_fw should be able to work with a 2.0 firmware image without
>>problems (infact it looks like the bootloader has hardly changed between
>>1.21 and 1.30).
>>
>>>From the recovery perspective it is important that the forced diskmode
>>still works and it appears that that is the case so you are pretty safe.
>>
>>One problem with Vorbis at the moment is that the decoding still has
>>terrible performance.  I haven't done any work on making it better
>>though so I'm sure there are plenty of possibilites.
>>
>>Anyhow let us know how it goes!
>>
>>cheers,
>>bern.
>>
>>On Sun, 2003-05-18 at 12:58, William R Sowerbutts wrote:
>>> hi all
>>> 
>>> i have a new 15G ipod. it's running the 2.0 firmware. there are no decent AAC
>>> encoders for linux so i've converted a chunk of my music collection from FLAC
>>> to MP3 format, but i'd really rather be using Vorbis to take advantage of the
>>> superior compression ratio.
>>> 
>>> has anyone tried forcing patch_fw to patch the firmware and then booting it
>>> up?
>>> 
>>> you can boot this ipod into "disk-mode", so i suspect it's possible to restore
>>> the original firmware if it all takes on the aspect of a pear...
>>> 
>>> i can provide a copy of the 2.0 firmware if anyone wants to take a look.
>>> 
>>> thanks!
>>> 
>>> will
>>> 
>>> _________________________________________________________________________
>>> William R Sowerbutts                                  wi...@so...
>>> Coder / Guru / Nrrrd                                http://sowerbutts.com
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>_________________________________________________________________________
>William R Sowerbutts                                  wi...@so...
>Coder / Guru / Nrrrd                                http://sowerbutts.com
>         main(){char*s=">#=0> ^#X@#@^7=",c=0,m;for(;c<15;c++)for
>         (m=-1;m<7;putchar(m++/6&c%3/2?10:s[c]-31&1<<m?42:32));}  
>
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_________________________________________________________________________
William R Sowerbutts                                  wi...@so...
Coder / Guru / Nrrrd                                http://sowerbutts.com
         main(){char*s=">#=0> ^#X@#@^7=",c=0,m;for(;c<15;c++)for
         (m=-1;m<7;putchar(m++/6&c%3/2?10:s[c]-31&1<<m?42:32));}  