Linuxium "spun" 64-bits version for CherryTrail with 32-bits booting...

Here you can post about your various experiences with PC hardware. You can also post about hardware that is not compatible with the linux kernel or not recommended for use with Porteus.
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Bicephale
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Linuxium "spun" 64-bits version for CherryTrail with 32-bits booting...

Post#1 by Bicephale » 17 Nov 2018, 11:08

Hi there!

It's been a long while so i'm totally disconnected now, but i've been experimenting with Linux again recently and realized maybe Porteus/Slax would have something to offer in the situation described as follows...

The PC to revalorize is a cheap 2-parts LapTop/Tablet that's more like a nano-PC: the Insignia Flex 11.6 NS-P11W7100-C. At 1st i expected it would be easy and convenient to use it in combination with my network TV server so i can carry it around, euh... but then i discovered part of its peripherals only enjoy marginal Linux support and that's "flaky" at best: starting with the MMC/NCard stuff, but not only.

:sos:

Initially Windows 10 kept disturbing me so many times i eventually wanted to taste and enjoy the satisfaction of deleting its partition - and i did just that finally! - but not before having accumulated quite some redundant backup in case nothing works. Since the begining i had given my best futile efforts over quite a few ideas until i read about the 32/64 bits boot problem, and ultimately "Linuxium" which could fix it for me by "re-spinning" an ISO, at least in principle.

But the complicated reading alone made my courage plumet fast so i resorted to these ready-made downloads intead:

  • linuxium-v4.17-rc6-lubuntu-18.04-desktop-amd64 (1.2G)
  • linuxium-linuxmint-18.3-xfce-64bit (1.8G)
  • linuxium-v4.17-rc6-elementaryos-0.4.1-stable.20180214 (1.8G)
  • linuxium-atom-ubuntu-18.04.1-desktop-amd64 (2.1G)

Though in practice only Ubuntu completed installation so i could get a better perspective now of what i don't like about such hardware: it's still the i2C bus on which too many of this machine's peripherals depend (as i recall) i'm afraid; although i do seem to have gained access to its internal MMC drive and micro-SD flash card reader (with a 128 GB ammovible limit) i regret to admit trouble with the later occurs after a few minutes: the only semi-reliable use i got for it under Linux is for brief file accesses. Music plays but when i try videos it's like the more i use it the faster it fails. That's why i suspect this bottleneck may never be resolved and hence i'm back to days with Slax/Porteus run from RAM memory... But that's forgetting the 32/64 bits problem created by its peculiar boot loader, whatever.

Euh...

It's so tiresome i'm starting to regret posting about it too, because the more i write the less clear it feels! :juggler:

All i know with confidence is that the MMC and micro-SD storage spaces may work fine and long enough to load an "image" of Linux in RAM, with VLC Media Player, LiRC support for an MCE remote control and BlueTooth/WiFi for wireless earphones and internet access. This is a proper challenge for Slax/Porteus the larger Linux flavour may be unfit for, considering the limited RAM memory of 2GB only... In any case having Ubuntu installed on its internal 32GB MMC/NCard i could compare with its "Live" version and that's why i'm here now: "Live" mode, with a tist, suggesting the Linuxium trend is a perfect niche where Slax/Porteus can effectively shine, because those have a long history with severely limited material that looses value fast at the hands of Microsoft Windows and even regular Linux releases. Instead of a flash USB thumb drive the image can reside on MMC space i figure.

Years ago inclusion of PlOP was a nice gesture in favour of compatibility, perhaps a Linuxium spin would make a great update to that today.

My 2 cents. :lightbulb:

I feel like expressing admiration for keeping up the good work despite adversity in a consumer's world anyway!

:thumbsup:

nanZor
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Linuxium "spun" 64-bits version for CherryTrail with 32-bits booting...

Post#2 by nanZor » 01 May 2019, 04:43

Instead of a "linixium spin" of Porteus, you can have your cake and eat it too by running Porteus directly with a caveat. I'm satisfied with a similar project I've detailed here:

hackin' on an Atom z8350 mini pc

Basically, I took the slacker's way out, and whatever didn't work, I just hung on a little passive 4-way usb hub. Wifi, bluetooth, even the crappy sd-card slot that doesn't work, gets put onto the hub with a dongle that does. MUCH less hassle than a custom spin. :)

And, I dual-boot windows 10 (as much as I don't like it) this way - if your bios can boot from the usb, then use that for Porteus if you like. You have to tap F7, DEL or some other key usually to get to the bios boot order option. It all depends of course.

And if for some reason you can't get the 4.0 version of Porteus to install from it's own windows exe utility inside the iso properly, or don't have any other linux box around, I've burnt the Porteus image using Rufus and specifying the GPT method instead of mbr to create it so that it will boot with UEFI. That method hasn't failed me yet with Porteus on a variety of UEFI only machines.
That's a UNIX book - cool. -Garth

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Linuxium "spun" 64-bits version for CherryTrail with 32-bits booting...

Post#3 by Bicephale » 10 May 2021, 16:17

Hi again...

Well i revisited that distribution and it's the Porteus FireFox module which took me back here in minutes. Actually it seems i may be overdue for some report!

:wheelchair:

1st of all it didn't suffice just to download the Porteus .ISO and transfer it to Flash support, much less on a u-SD unit which simply doesn't exist until the OS is done loading i2c_designware related drivers as i found out. Which only leaves the detachable keyboard's 2 USB2 accesses while i planed to play games with a wireless gamepad and an external set of keyboard + mouse also connected... Still searching for BlueTooth support as i intended to have music, etc. Briefly put one bright spot with Porteus is its ability to fit in "RAM" and release the boot USB port for re-use by one of those peripherals. But the original .ISO wouldn't boot anyway.

Years ago i noticed work done on Linuxium and i've got lucky that its author continued his work because i managed to hack his most recent atom .ISO version based on GrUB and UEFi features, while Porteus appeared to get launched by syslinux... So i manually created a couple linux/initrd lines to adapt the old Linuxium grub.cfg configuration and luckily this went fine enough to report that here. Sorry for the delay, not to mention failure to acknowledge the reply and respond in good time!!

Next step shall be to investigate KExec-Loader, as i recall. Because now that i have access to /mnt/mmcblk2p1 with a duplicata of my USB boot drive ready it should become possible to run Porteus from there, hoping someday there's further improvement performed. M'well at least it's no 32 bits Linux and it got WiFi + sound ready, a good start until i get time to read the reply and reflect on it.

Thank you for trying nonetheless. :roll:

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Linuxium "spun" 64-bits version for CherryTrail with 32-bits booting...

Post#4 by neko » 28 May 2021, 04:39

APorteus-XFCE_ja-v21.05.30-x86_64.iso (656 M)
https://www.mediafire.com/file/4p3ds1od ... x86_64.iso
md5sum: 47804398bc4fb2757e40bbacab006cea APorteus-XFCE_ja-v21.05.30-x86_64.iso

---------------------------------------------
About a year ago, I bought a cheap PC & TABLET called RM-A107-SR.
CPU: Intel Cherry Trail T3-Z8350 / (Quad core 1.92GHz)
RAM: 4GB
ROM: 64GB
I was planning to install APorteus on it.

Now, I made APorteus with the kernel modified so that it sounds, and made it work.
(Wi-Fi OK, Sound OK)

[How to create a boot USB]
Run this ISO itself on another PC,
start "create live USB" from the GUI,
create a USB with EFI and set this ISO itself.

If I have more time (had more skill), I would fix some issues.


Thanks.

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Linuxium "spun" 64-bits version for CherryTrail with 32-bits booting...

Post#5 by Bicephale » 09 Jul 2021, 19:25

Got it!

nanZor
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Linuxium "spun" 64-bits version for CherryTrail with 32-bits booting...

Post#6 by nanZor » 04 Nov 2021, 21:24

Hi neko! Glad you got that up and running. I'm a big fan of Porteus on mini-pc's too. Really pulls out some good performance on some low-spec cpus and whatnot.

I have to admit though, on some boxes where things like sound or wifi don't work out of the box with Porteus, or have simple fixes, I go into warrior mode.

? If the hardware doesn't work out of the box, such as wifi or sound, I simply open my "Porteus Warrior Bag", and use things like wifi dongles, or usb <> audio dongles that do. :)

Examples are things like Panda Wireless usb dongles so I can get 5ghz 802.11 ac. Or audio dongles like Ugreen to plug my speakers or headphones into. A little research before purchase will turn up dongles from other manufacturers too that work out of the box with Porteus easily.

Ie, if I'm allowed to use a computer at school, work, friends or whatever, I don't have the time or inclination to look for one-off solutions. I'll just pull out dongles from the Porteus-warrior bag that do work and get down to business.

These little mini-pc's are so cool, but hardware support varies. Not a problem - sidestep funky proprietary hardware with little dongles that do work and rock on!
That's a UNIX book - cool. -Garth

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Linuxium "spun" 64-bits version for CherryTrail with 32-bits booting...

Post#7 by Rava » 05 Nov 2021, 09:33

nanZor wrote:
04 Nov 2021, 21:24
Examples are things like Panda Wireless usb dongles so I can get 5ghz 802.11 ac. Or audio dongles like Ugreen to plug my speakers or headphones into. A little research before purchase will turn up dongles from other manufacturers too that work out of the box with Porteus easily.
A better solution would be hardware working out of the box with Linux.
__________________________

In case you wonder: me is not affiliated with heise.de in any way, I just think they are the least corrupt and most competent of German PC publications. They also publish ix like here:
https://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literatur ... Raven.html B)

Here a English speaking start URL https://mediadaten.heise.de/en/

The new c't (German speaking computer magazine) by heise.de (they also offer some English spoken magazine media, see URL above) have in their newest c't magazine 2 kinds of PCs build suggestions:
a mini PC and a more high-end one.
Both of them they also tested under Linux. (That part is the reason I mention all that in here: to show that at least some PC magazines care about Linux supported hardware) The full articles you can only read when you pay, or you make a 2 issues free trial *cough*(you have to cancel that prior it getting into paid mode if you want to keep it free)*cough*

Der optimale PC 2022 "the optimal PC 2022" - https://www.heise.de/select/ct/2021/24/ ... 4382183612

Allrounder mit Potenzial für mehr - Bauvorschlag für einen leisen Allround-PC mit Ryzen-5000-Prozessor
All-rounder with potential for more - build suggestion for a quiet all-rounder PC with Ryzen-5000-CPU - https://www.heise.de/select/ct/2021/24/ ... 4135754020

Mini maximal - Superleiser Mini-PC für 333 Euro
Unser PC-Bauvorschlag iDeskMini erledigt Office-Aufgaben wie ein Großer, braucht nur wenig Platz auf dem Schreibtisch und kommt mit 8 Watt aus.
Mini maximal - super quiet mini-PC for 333 €
Our build suggestion iDeskMini manages Office tasks like a large PC, needs only few space on the desktop and uses only 8 watts - https://www.heise.de/select/ct/2021/24/ ... 5167775454

the last URL only has a very little text. I presume they fading out the text as soon as the interesting details would come up.

c't, ix and heise was always supportive of Linux and seemingly still is. :celebrate3: That is how every PC magazine should operate: always also test PC hardware configurations / suggestions if all works with Linux out of the box. Image
Cheers!
Yours Rava

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Linuxium "spun" 64-bits version for CherryTrail with 32-bits booting...

Post#8 by nanZor » 05 Nov 2021, 22:15

Ironically, I love to liberate early Asus / Google chromeboxes since they were designed for linux right from the start. Including things like Coreboot and SeaBios in the box!

Good build quality, and good hardware. Unfortunately, too many articles make it seem more complicated than it has to be to liberate them from ChromeOS. Too many "like and subscribe" videos. :)

An example is the end-of-lifed Asus CN60 (M004U) chromebox which I'm on right now. Everything works with Porteus just fine. Zippy of course! Cheap as chips like a raspberry pi if you can find one used and clean.

Example:

For the Asus CN60 (m004U) chromebox, there is NO NEED to mess with write-protect screws. There is also NO NEED for "mr chromebox" shell scripts. In fact, there is NO NEED to open the case to liberate it.

3 simple steps: 1) Put it into developer mode. 2) Tell it to boot from usb. 3) Tell it to use legacy bios (Seabios)

It looks scary, but read it slow. Have fun liberating it.
https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/de ... -chromebox

The only price to pay is having to hit CTRL-L every time you reboot.

It's too bad that liberating later models have more confusing instructions than the early ones. Which is a shame since most of Google hardware, which works great on Linux, just ends in the waste stream after a few short years. Makes it hard for young Porteus warriors to repurpose it.

But the early ones like the CN60, cheap as chips, make fine examples of coreboot / Seabios, good hardware, and so forth.
That's a UNIX book - cool. -Garth

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Linuxium "spun" 64-bits version for CherryTrail with 32-bits booting...

Post#9 by Rava » 06 Nov 2021, 04:46

nanZor wrote:
05 Nov 2021, 22:15
I love to liberate early Asus / Google chromeboxes since they were designed for linux right from the start.
does that mean, in reverse, newer Asus and/or Google chromeboxes are not designed for linux right from the start?
nanZor wrote:
05 Nov 2021, 22:15
It's too bad that liberating later models have more confusing instructions than the early ones. Which is a shame since most of Google hardware, which works great on Linux, just ends in the waste stream after a few short years. Makes it hard for young Porteus warriors to repurpose it.
So, all chromeboxes can be liberated - with some it be more complicated than others is all the issue?
Young Porteus warriors should have the guts spirit and endurance to pull through. And we have a friendly forum. Image And by trying you also receive a steep learning curve as well… unlike when using only windoze. :D
Cheers!
Yours Rava

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