[abtekk]

Project: Linux Reborn

Don't ask for an ETA on releases, there will never be one

NoMadMan's Tips&Tricks: http://pastebin.com/6H4R8eSk

Credits:
1. Yuray (For porting the original debian image and creating the first custom initramfs)
2. Slatedroid (For the great community and information available on this forum)
3. Zenithink (For the fantastic tablet)
4. Favux (From Ubuntuforums for the help he has provided)
5. Mozzwald for the general linux help
6. NoMadMan for the tips and tricks he provided us

Description:
This is a new project I have started for the ZT-180 (I will still continue my custom ROM). The aim of this project is to have a completely working Linux distro running on the ZT-180. I hope I am able to have the distro installed on the internal NAND so it will be extremely fast and have a fast way of booting between Android/Debian. But in my opinion, Android would no longer be required if we had a distro such as Debian or Damn Small Linux.

This is an open project so if you wish to help on the development on the distro(s) please contact me, regardless of your experience.

Updates:
29th August 2011: Debian booted fine, had to use external keyboard, working on getting the virtual keyboard upon boot.

29th August 2011: I managed to dual boot Debian and Android by flashing the Debian kernel as zImage_adb. However this breaks the ADB support for the ZT-180. Eventually I want to have Linux on the internal NAND.

30th August 2011: With dual booting, "Android Mass Storage" boots into Android and "Android ADB" boots into Debian. You select which one by pressing the right function key straight after turning the device on.

30th August 2011: Project may be switching from Debian to Lubuntu 11.10. (Ubuntu with LXDE as it's default environment)

31st August 2011: Compiled Ubuntu 9.10 with the LXDE desktop environment, no touch screen yet.

3rd September 2011: After 3 days, with some help from Ubuntu Forums, I finally have the touch screen working... Oh the joys!

6th September 2011: Wifi works great :D. Profiles don't need to be manually edited either, the card works with Wicd.

7th September 2011: Sound works, low distortion at max volume.

9th September 2011: Fixed bug that made users have to enter a password to shut down, added battery monitor + more.

19th Septeember 2011: Well beta-3 has been released and contains plenty of bug fixes along with the web browser bug fix. Also, as it turns out, the headphone jack works properly.

Screenshots:
Click to enlarge
 Screen1.jpg (723.34K)
Number of downloads: 519
 Screen2.jpg (876.61K)
Number of downloads: 514
 scr1_nomadman.png (210.75K)
Number of downloads: 430 (credits to NoMadMan for the screenshot)
 scr2_noomadman.png (453.69K)
Number of downloads: 373 (credits to NoMadMan for the screenshot)

Videos:
30th August 2011:
http://youtu.be/oev-yM3bICM

Other Information:
What works:
Dual booting (with Ubuntu/Debian...etc) - 100% - Unable to use ADB if you have dual booting enabled. (BETA-1+)
Shutdown - 100% - Pressing shutdown from the menu turns off the system (BETA-1+)
Restart - 100% - Pressing restart from the menu restarts the system properly (BETA-1+)
USB Port - 100% - Works with external peripherals and thumb drives (BETA-1+)
Touchscreen - 99% - Works, slightly out of calibration (BETA-1+)
WiFi - 100% - Wifi works, profiles can be modified with wicd. (BETA-1+)
On-screen keyboard - 100% - Keyboard opens at boot and works perfect with applications. (BETA-1+)
Sound - 100% - Sounds works 100%, low distortion at max volume. (BETA-1+)
Battery Monitor - 80% - Only gives a rough estimate, may not get better (BETA-2+)
Sudo command - 100% - Users can use the sudo command in terminal (BETA-2+)
Headphones - 100% - Headphones work properly and cut out the main speakers. (BETA-3+)
Hardware buttons - 100% - Thanks to mozzwald we can get the hardware buttons mapped. See page 9 for the how-to. (Official Release 1+)
Ethernet - 100% - Debian sees the ethernet port and allows you to connect through it

Not tested:
Microphone
OTG port
Lock screen

Not working:
G-Sensor - I'll never officially make it work, it would be pointless
Log out - Due to the ZT-180 being a tablet, I don't think there is much use for a log out function
Suspend - Probably pointless
Hibernate - Probably pointless

Downloads:
ZT-180 V1 Dual boot kernels (from SDcard):
1024x600 screen
1024x576 screen
You can use these regardless of removing the reset-IC or not)

ZT-180 V2 Dual boot kernel (from SDcard): (credits to rezmus)
zImage_adb
(USE THIS STRICTLY AT YOUR OWN RISK, IT'S UNTESTED AND I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR DAMAGE)

Debian:
BETA-1: http://www.multiupload.com/T8L0GF6I6G (All info and instructions are in the archive. Extract with 7zip or p7zip)
BETA-2: http://www.multiupload.com/MDZA6F9Q8I (Remember to back up your home folder to keep files) (Contains bug fix for password request to shut down. All info + changelog and passwords are in the archive)
BETA-3: http://www.multiupload.com/RLVIICBI2A (Remember to back up your home folder to keep files) (Contains bug fixes + more)(All info + changelog and passwords are in the archive)


Compare hash sums in case your file is corrupt:
BETA-3

Spoiler

Terminal command: md5 /path/to/Debian-beta-3.tar.bz2
Output: MD5 (/path/to/Debian-beta-3.tar.bz2) = 232a6aff015b8eaa388691188c4b6aea

Terminal command: openssl sha1 /path/to/Debian-beta-3.tar.bz2
Output: SHA1(/path/to/Debian-beta-3.tar.bz2)= 7730631b21c87667ea6c81630de2fbcbccdffb05

Please do not mirror without my permission

Screen Calibrations:
Calibrate 1024x600 screen:

Spoiler

This small update is nothing to download but will calibrate the screen correctly (another thanks to mozzwald).
Open terminal and log in to root.
Then type:

nano /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

Then when the text editor opens in terminal, use your keyboard to enter this line above the one already there.

xinput set-int-prop "TSC2007 Touchscreen" "Evdev Axis Calibration" 32 31 3903 -6 3636 &

Calibrate 1024x576 screen:

Spoiler

This small update is nothing to download but will calibrate the screen correctly (another thanks to mozzwald).
Open terminal and log in to root.
Then type:

nano /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

Then when the text editor opens in terminal, use your keyboard to enter this line above the one already there.

xinput set-int-prop "TSC2007 Touchscreen" "Evdev Axis Calibration" 32 21 3837 -28 3601 &

This post has been edited by abtekk: 26 September 2011 - 12:02 PM

[lmemperador]

you are the Master Abtekk. thanks, great project

[josvl_52]

I'm very interested in having Linux on my zt180-v1.
Never succeeded in running one of the versions from the previous Debian project due to download problems.
Looking forward to the results of this project. Abtekk in what way can I help? I have little experience.

greetings

[abtekk]

josvl_52, on 29 August 2011 - 10:50 AM, said:

I'm very interested in having Linux on my zt180-v1.
Never succeeded in running one of the versions from the previous Debian project due to download problems.
Looking forward to the results of this project. Abtekk in what way can I help? I have little experience.

greetings

There are many ways you could help, have you used linux before?

EDIT: Uploaded 2 screenshots, development has properly started for Debian.

[josvl_52]

Abtekk

About 20 years ago I worked with Unix as a developer in C. Haven't used any of that in the past years, so my knowledge is perhaps outdated and of course I forgot many of it. At least I can do testing etc.

[abtekk]

josvl_52, on 30 August 2011 - 02:49 AM, said:

Abtekk

About 20 years ago I worked with Unix as a developer in C. Haven't used any of that in the past years, so my knowledge is perhaps outdated and of course I forgot many of it. At least I can do testing etc.

Yeah that sounds like a plan, plus you probably can work your way around the file structure better than I can.

[josvl_52]

Abtekk

At this moment I am recovering from an surgical operation at my back. That is the reason why I am not allowed to sit straight at this moment. I expect that in a few weeks I can spent sufficient time at the linux desktop. In the meantime I can test at my zt180 v1. Eventually you can tell me your plans and how to establish an easier way of having contact.

Regards

[abtekk]

josvl_52, on 30 August 2011 - 04:42 AM, said:

Abtekk

At this moment I am recovering from an surgical operation at my back. That is the reason why I am not allowed to sit straight at this moment. I expect that in a few weeks I can spent sufficient time at the linux desktop. In the meantime I can test at my zt180 v1. Eventually you can tell me your plans and how to establish an easier way of having contact.

Regards

Sure that's perfectly fine. Let me know when you are ok again. I hope everything went ok.

[darksside]

keep the good work im looking foward to this

[josvl_52]

abtekk, on 30 August 2011 - 05:04 AM, said:

Sure that's perfectly fine. Let me know when you are ok again. I hope everything went ok.

Recovery goes well, thank you.
Perhaps we can make some kind of contact, i.e. mail or msn, to discuss how I can participate in the project.
Please let me know.

[abtekk]

josvl_52, on 30 August 2011 - 03:20 PM, said:

Recovery goes well, thank you.
Perhaps we can make some kind of contact, i.e. mail or msn, to discuss how I can participate in the project.
Please let me know.

I can do both mail and MSN, I'll private message you my information. What time zone are you in?

[NoMadMan]

hell i'm in. but we are so going to need the source for drivers and support from atp if this is going to happen. whats the plan boss man?

[abtekk]

NoMadMan, on 31 August 2011 - 04:53 AM, said:

hell i'm in. but we are so going to need the source for drivers and support from atp if this is going to happen. whats the plan boss man?

We don't need the drivers sources, remember Android is Linux. When Yuray originally ported Debian onto the ePad all he did was took the modules from the Android image and put them into the Debian image, Linux did the rest.

[josvl_52]

abtekk, on 30 August 2011 - 03:33 PM, said:

I can do both mail and MSN, I'll private message you my information. What time zone are you in?

Abtekk

I received your mail and aded you to my contact list. I am in the Amsterdam timezone (GMT+1)
Hope to have contact soon so I can be of any help (if possible)

Regards

[abtekk]

josvl_52, on 31 August 2011 - 05:20 AM, said:

Abtekk

I received your mail and aded you to my contact list. I am in the Amsterdam timezone (GMT+1)
Hope to have contact soon so I can be of any help (if possible)

Regards

I shall come online now.

[NoMadMan]

from what I remember with compiling kernels in ubuntu, we still would need to know what to yank from the kernel. i would also like to get USB dongles running at some point.

[abtekk]

NoMadMan, on 31 August 2011 - 07:04 AM, said:

from what I remember with compiling kernels in ubuntu, we still would need to know what to yank from the kernel. i would also like to get USB dongles running at some point.

Open root explorer in Android and go to "/lib/modules". See them .ko files? They are the hardware kernel modules, we just place them in the Linux image.

[NoMadMan]

will work on it in a few. have you decided what distro you want to work on?

[abtekk]

I have just managed to get Ubuntu installed. W00P!!! However, no touch screen. Any ideas how to get it working?

[NoMadMan]

nice work on ubuntu. let me set up a dual boot ubuntu and osx on my MBP. its going to take a few hours to get an android environment running mostly on the fact that my internet speed sucks ass. in the mean time, i'll look at some slates coming out of china that has linux running on it. i've taken interest on ubuntu on a xoom over at xda. maybe we can learn something from it.