[PADMAN]

Hi all,
this thread is based on a thread by hertog666 in the "Other WM8650" section of this forum. Since I did this on a MID V7, I decide to post in this section.

Link to hertog666's thread is here.

Putting together material from several sources, I have made an experimental debian image for 4GB (and bigger) sdcards, which can be transferred to the sdcard and used to boot into debian "live" without affecting the Android OS installed.

I must emphasize here,that I merely put together the parts, with the help of more experienced linux users like seba1978 and others.

EDIT: I found out that the Android OS that you have installed seems to be important too: When I tried debian on my new 10" Android netbook, it didn't work as long as the original Firmware was installed. After I installed Uberoid, the netbook was able to boot debian ! So, both of my wm8650 devices which can run debian have Uberoid installed, please report which firmware you try it on. Thanks !

The image is available at THIS URL.

On my device, it supports the following features:

Hardware:
- Working touchscreen
- WiFi support
- Ethernet support (USB adapter)
- hardware keyboard and soft keypad support (USB adapter)
- Mouse support (buggy)

Software:
- Leafpad
- IceWM desktop
- Midori webbrowser
- Chromium webbrowser
- Claws mail
- Pidgin messenger
- OpenOffice (experimental)
- Thunar (File browser)

...and many more linux tool which are included in the IceWM packages.
What I like most is that you can basically port all your favorite linux software to this device. apt-get is the installer included.

Other:
- TxPower set to 20 instead of 100 in order to make the battery last longer (in /etc/Wireless/RT2870/RT2870.dat)

I cooked up some small scripts, in ordert to adress the missing power management. T use them, boot up the device, start a terminal (xterm, i.e.) and enter:
python ./showCapacity02.py (Assuming you are in the /root folder)

This will bring up a small python window with a lable, showing the remaining capacity of the battery.

You can also dim the scree a bit by typing:
./dim_screen80.sh

or even further by typing:
./dim_screen50.sh

I made some screenshots, but my cam sucks, and I will retake them later.

Known bugs so far:
- Wifi support seems to need device specific drivers on different devices. Maybe you need to copy the driver rt3070_sta.ko from a working Android firmware for your device to /lib/modules/2.6.32.9-default/
In my case, the rt3070_sta.ko module from zombah posted in this thread worked for my device.

- Power management not working for me, yet. The device simply switches off when running out of power.

- USB mouse supported, but when plugged in the (hardware)-keyboard doesn't work

CREDITS GO TO (in no particular order):
- jacob019 [Maker of original wm8505 debian image, As far as I know]
- seba1978 for putting much effort into debugging the hardware keyboard and other stuff
- zombah for providing the new modules for the wm8650 CPU
- hertog666 for bringing up the topic and helpful discussions
- everyone else who contributed and tested (including me, lol)

DOWNLOAD:
Open the URL, scroll down, click on "slow download" tachyometer like picture, wait your 30sec and download (bout 680Megs).

How to use:
Transfer of .img file using linux:

When you have the file, unpack it and transfer to a 4GB sdcard using the following command:
dd if=/path/to/image/debian_wm8650_0.5.img.7z of=/dev/sdx

Replace the path with your actual path to the .img-file, and sdx with the device name of your sdcard reader.
CAUTION: If you mess up the device name with, e.g. your harddisk, the image will be written to your harddisk, destroying all data !!!
If you are unsure which device is your sdcard reader, connect the reader, start a terminal and enter "gparted". From the size of each drive you should be able to distinguish your sdcard reader from your harddisk(s).

Windows: For Windows users, the procedure is explained here:
[http://www.slatedroid.com/topic/2985-debian-on-eken-install-quidlines-for-windows-users/page__p__24232__hl__debian+background__fromsearch__1#entry24232]

The image actually contains a fat16 partition, which contains the wmt_scriptcmd file and the kernel used for booting, and a ext2 partiton used as / of the OS.
After putting the image on the sdcard, simply insert it into you device and power on. The device should show the Android robot moving, stopping when facing right, then restart once and then boot up to the debian desktop.

greetz, PADMAN

 

[seriouslycgi]

Awesome e17 live desktop would be killer. This i was expecting.

Btw thanks for posting this here.

 

[Meric]

I try with DebianInstall.exe but it say " "debian-m001" file not found ". I change debian_wm8650_0.5.img files name to debian-m001 or debian-m001.img. But not solved. Whas is true file name?

Damn Windoze. I use with administrator rights and operation complate. I put sdcard in slot but android boot up. Nothing happens. Whats wrong for me?

 

[PADMAN]

I try with DebianInstall.exe but it say " "debian-m001" file not found ". I change debian_wm8650_0.5.img files name to debian-m001 or debian-m001.img. But not solved. Whas is true file name?

Damn Windoze. I use with administrator rights and operation complate. I put sdcard in slot but android boot up. Nothing happens. Whats wrong for me?

Hi Meric,
I dont't know what debianInstall.exe does....I always used the flashnul method described in the thread I linked to.

If you want a GUI tool, try one of those described here . They should do the job.

If your device boots Android normally, it obviously cannot see the FAT16 partiton and the wmt_scriptcmd file on it.

Good Luck !

PADMAN

 

[Minarch]

"After putting the image on the sdcard, simply insert it into you device and power on. The device should show the Android robot moving, stopping when facing right, then restart once and then boot up to the debian desktop."

When it looks right it hangs, and if I turn it off and turn it on again, it looks right again and hangs..
What could be the problem?

Can it be because I have the stock Android on the device?
I've also read something about diffrent versions of the WM8650. Mine is a green LED, where some others have blue LED.
Could it have something to do with that?

 

[PADMAN]

I've also read something about diffrent versions of the WM8650. Mine is a green LED, where some others have blue LED.
Could it have something to do with that?

I don`t know that. Different versions of the M009S need different environment variables set, which seems to be important for Android FW. So this will probably also be important for debian....

best regards, PADMAN

 

[Billaboard]

Hi Meric,
I dont't know what debianInstall.exe does....I always used the flashnul method described in the thread I linked to.

If you want a GUI tool, try one of those described here . They should do the job.

If your device boots Android normally, it obviously cannot see the FAT16 partiton and the wmt_scriptcmd file on it.

Good Luck !

PADMAN

I'm trying this, but I'm getting a similar error message to that referred to above. Flashnul can't see the debian img file.

I'm on a Windows 7 64-bit machine as I haven't got any other machine that takes an sd card. I'm using the flashnul method, and I've tried making the flashnul directory straight off the C:\ drive and also as a subdirectory ie C:\flashnul\flashnul.

The command prompt is set to open as administrator anyway, and I have to do the shift +right click to open the command prompt from the flashnul window. This lets me see the files with a DIR command without a Win7 error message.

I've tried renaming the file to debian.img in case Win7 is wanting an 8+3 filename and I've tried entering the name in the command line with and without the .img. With the .img, I get "Access is denied".

Any clues?

 

[wicknix]

I'd suggest downloading and burning a copy of a linux live cd like puppy linux or knoppix. Boot from the cd and use that to dd the img to sd.

Sent from my LG Thrive using Tapatalk

 

[Minarch]

Now I've upgraded my WM8650 (Green LED and no vibration) to the newest version af Uberiod, and still no success with loading Debian from SD-card..
The newest boot-screen have a loading-bar and it stops at a certain point. I'd guess it's about the same place where the droid looks right..

Any ideas how I can do so that I can load Debian?

 

[Billaboard]

I'd suggest downloading and burning a copy of a linux live cd like puppy linux or knoppix. Boot from the cd and use that to dd the img to sd.

I've just been out to a "Pound Shop" (I'm in the UK) and bought an SD card reader, then repeated the Flashnul method in a 32-bit Win 7 machine.I had to alter the image name in the string you send to flashnul to include the .img, but apart from that the instructions worked fine. I remembered that the 64-bit Win 7 Explorer cannot be bypassed easily, if at all, and breaks some other software here.

My WM8650 tablet was saying Vestinious on boot. I can now boot into the live Debian and it looks to be working, but.....

The mouse cursor follows my finger round the screen about an inch away from where I touch, plus tapping on the screen seems not to work, so I can't actually do anything. Hovering over the various text at the bottom of the screen brings up the "Hints", so that indicates that internally Debian is working.

I only have a Wireless keyboard and mouse with usb functions. They don't seem to work at all. Somewhere I have a usb mouse, so I'll try that when I can find it.

EDIT EDIT Update. Well, I ran it twice, checking in between that it would run the original Android, but now it won't start Debian at all. With the Devian 4GB in, it displays the first Android screen, then the display flashes as if it was setting a different screen driver (think it did this when it worked), then the green Android re appeard and starts to "wake" until it looks right, then it seems to hang.

I suppose the next step is to wipe the 4GB and reflash it with the image.

 

[madanadam]

Does it matters SDHC or SD?
Because I have SDHC and Debian doesn't boot.

 

[Billaboard]

I think mine were SDHC, but I don't know what the difference is. I know that I wrote asking Vivitar about a camera and whether it could use either, but got no reply. That's them on my walk on by list (so is HP - I've wasted all morning on a printer from hell).

I've just re-flashed the SD card, put it in the tablet and once again it boots into Debian with finger following mouse but no click function. An optical mouse plugged into the usb port lights up, but won't mouse or click.

I then pressed the on/off button, Debian switched off far quicker than a full shutdown should take. Then I removed the SD card, and the machine rebooted into Android after a long press of the button. Close that down via the menu, and re-insert the Debian SD card, and it is back in limbo stopping when the green Android faces towards my right.

Now to get Android to load again, I seem to have to wait for many minutes, then boot up with a long press on the ON button. My usb mouse and the wireless keyboard and mouse both work perfectly in Android.

I wish I understood the full meaning of long and short button presses, and also what is going on with instructions that I see that say things like Power Down and wait 2 hours, then do something.

Do these things have a semi-permanent bios or is that part of the Vestinious "rom" that has been loaded? My unit has 2 small holes at the top long side. One is presumably a mic, the other a reset? Is this different from the software "Restore Factory Settings" and would either of these recover from Vestinious to something that would work?

My reason for messing with this is to attempt to backup the firmware on the device before loading anything new. I had hoped that Debian would be interesting and perhaps allow me to take an image.

PS. I decided to bite the bullet and see what a paperclip in the hole in the top edge of the tablet would do. It found a switch. After pressing this, the tablet still looks and seems to work the same, but the wifi has died. It now just says "Error" in all the settings windows.

 

[madanadam]

I ran Debian with SD card, but I need root's password. Can you give?

 

[ljones]

Hello

!

I've been trying the debian image (in the first post) on an Eken M008S via a micro SD card. However after looking over the forums and this one in particular (here) it is only for the Eken M009S. I'm not sure what but there seems to be a few differences 'tween the M009S and M008S. The problems I'm having are;

* The mouse cursor on the touchscreen isn't in the right place according to where you touch the screen, it is a little bit out. Clicking with the touchscreen dosen't seem to work.

* USB isn't 100%; plugging in a USB mouse and keyboard only the keyboard worked, but the USB mouse didn't. Trying a different USB keyboard had the opposite effect -- the keyboard didn't work but the mouse did.

* Wifi (ra0) is detected but won't associate with everything, even after trying to set it up with /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf and dhcpcd.

* Sometimes on bootup when the android looks right the M008S will just stop dead, though this appears to be down to a corrupt micro SD card. Only way to fix it is to run e2fsck on the SD card on a linux computer.

I'm guessing the image above in the first post uses a slightly different kernel that the M008S isn't liking exactly?

ljones

 

[janskyj]

- Power management not working for me, yet. The device simply switches off when running out of power.
- USB mouse supported, but when plugged in the (hardware)-keyboard doesn't work

Hi, that USB keybord problem in your image is based on that udev is not running. To fix remove
insmod fbcon line from /etc/ini.d/udev

Actualy, your image is able to suspend to ram, what is pretty interesting for me (especially, that i destroied this function with debian upgrade), but there are some strange things with networks (fix to wifi is remove module before suspend and reload after suppend, but ethernet isn as module)

 

[madanadam]

I recommend for wifi configuration: "wicd-curses"
Because it is based on curses and works on console. It is easy than "wificonfig"
It can be installed: apt-get install wicd-curses

 

[madanadam]

I personally thank you for this image, PADMAN. I made a full working 2gb Debian 6.0.3 wheezy system based your work. I am working now on video acceleration because video is very slow. I hope solving this problem soon. I will post it's photos when they are ready. If anyone request I can upload sd image to a server but I personalized it to Turkish.

 

[INJ]

Hi, I have a problem with the image. I cannot put it on a 4GB card. It gives an error and from what I see, windows identifies my card as 3.63GB and the image is 3.69GB. How can I fix this? Thanks in advance..

 

[razor11]

Hi,

I have a 8" tablet.

I am using the Uberoid WM8650 1.5.5 HoneyCombMOD v10.1 with the 42=8inch_vt1609_ts 8" option.

I did all the steps exactly as suggest and I am stuck at the boot screen with the bar not moving forward. I tried replacing the uzImage.bin from the Uberoid mod in the FAT partition but still no luck.

 

[igicom]

View attachment Log for Debian.txt Great job.
But i have some problems:
1) i transfer image to SD (dd if=/path/to/image/debian_wm8650_0.5.img of=/dev/sdb). On first partition i found /script, FSK0000.REC, uzImage.bin and wmt_sript.cmd. On second - file system /bin, /boot ...

2) I put SD in pad and Power On - it starts android logo and then freeze

When connect to terminal on PAD by UART have this log:

FATAL: Module fbcon not found.<br />
[Boot Animation] animation_main thread finished <br />
Setting parameters of disc: (none).<br />
Checking root file system...fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2<br />
/lib/init/rw/rootdev: The filesystem size (according to the superblock) is 961116 blocks<br />
The physical size of the device is 959524 blocks<br />
Either the superblock or the partition table is likely to be corrupt!<br />
<br />
<br />
/lib/init/rw/rootdev: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY.<br />
        (i.e., without -a or -p options)<br />
fsck died with exit status 4<br />
failed (code 4).<br />
An automatic file system check (fsck) of the root filesystem failed. A manual fsck must be performed, then the system restarted. The fsck should be performe!<br />
The root filesystem is currently mounted in read-only mode. A maintenance shell will now be started. After performing system maintenance, press CONTROL-D to.<br />
Give root password for maintenance<br />
(or type Control-D to continue): <br />
Login incorrect.<br />
Give root password for maintenance<br />
(or type Control-D to continue):

full log in attached file.
View attachment Log for Debian.txt