How can I "install" this kernel, if I even need to?

[kelvinhall05]

I'm trying to put Debian on my Kobo Mini, just for fun, but I'm having trouble with it not booting if I just flash the Debian image onto an SD card. The screen will flash, but stays blank. Supposedly it should be "plug and play" (so to speak), but I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong. The first thing I'll try is reinstalling (or maybe it's not even there atm) the kernel (https://github.com/marek-g/kobo-kernel-2.6.35.3-marek), but I'm not sure where/how to put it onto the SD card. The image I flashed is linked below:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/snsdg1c5cg21kws/AACCAhhLxg5G5OmSgngw3DxYa it's the three part.rar files.

Is it as simple as dragging and dropping the zipped kernel into a folder on the SD card, or is there something else I have to do? Thanks!

[RageTester]

Quote

Debian provides three ARM ports to give the best support for a very wide range of different machines:

• Debian/armel targets older 32-bit ARM processors without support for a hardware floating point unit (FPU),

• Debian/armhf works only on newer 32-bit ARM processors which implement at least the ARMv7 architecture with version 3 of the ARM vector floating point specification (VFPv3). It makes use of the extended features and performance enhancements available on these models.

• Debian/arm64 works on 64-bit ARM processors which implement at least the ARMv8 architecture.

I have not downloaded the archives...

"https://github.com/marek-g/kobo-kernel-2.6.35.3-marek/blob/linux/build_instructions"

Maybe just maybe, Kobo only boots from built-in memory and not the SD card...

[kelvinhall05]

6 minutes ago, RageTester said:

I have not downloaded the archives...

"https://github.com/marek-g/kobo-kernel-2.6.35.3-marek/blob/linux/build_instructions"

Maybe just maybe, Kobo only boots from built-in memory and not the SD card...

The SD card is the internal memory. Did you read the things I linked?

[RageTester]

7 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

The SD card is the internal memory. Did you read the things I linked?

I probably read too much and forgot, well you must edit on another linux machine...

[kelvinhall05]

9 minutes ago, RageTester said:

I probably read too much and forgot, well you must edit on another linux machine...

I have another Linux machine, I'm just wondering how to do it.

[RageTester]

 

1. List the disks that are accessible to the computer:  cat /proc/partitions
2. Mount the SD card partition that contains Linux kernel images and device tree:                                        sudo mount /dev/sdX  <mount_location>
3. Command for copying

   sudo cp <from location/ with folder name> <to mount_location/kernel>

4. sudo umount /dev/sdX                                                                                                                                          SOMETHING ALONG THOSE LINES, linux often asks for admin rights and doesn't let mess with certain files or folders... If there is a folder named kernel on SD card right now, I am not sure if you should delete or merge...

[kelvinhall05]

28 minutes ago, RageTester said:

 

1. List the disks that are accessible to the computer:  cat /proc/partitions
2. Mount the SD card partition that contains Linux kernel images and device tree:                                        sudo mount /dev/sdX  <mount_location>
3. Command for copying

   sudo cp <from location/ with folder name> <to mount_location/kernel>

4. sudo umount /dev/sdX                                                                                                                                          SOMETHING ALONG THOSE LINES, linux often asks for admin rights and doesn't let mess with certain files or folders... If there is a folder named kernel on SD card right now, I am not sure if you should delete or merge...

There is no obvious folder named kernel. I know it's probably as simple as copy-pasting, but I don't know where to and not certain that's all I need to do.

[RageTester]

Well kernel should be a combination of  .img file, .dtb file...I only have experience with Raspberry Pi...

It's confusing how many files replacement kernel has. On the other hand .img can have tons of files inside too.

[Dutch_Master]

First, install plain Debian by installing the installation .iso on the SD card. This link tells you how (except it uses an USB stick, but the procedure is the same)

https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/ch04s03.en.html#usb-copy-isohybrid

Next, boot this image on your device and it should automagically start the installer. Follow the steps and finish the install

 

In any case, I notice the kernel you want to install is a 7 yr old 2.6 version!   You really shouldn't use this any more, it's way too old and insecure.

 

In light of the info you posted later, you'd probably want to try installing Raspbian on the SD card and try booting from that, provided the SoC in your device is similar to the original RPi one.

[RageTester]

Kernel files should be on the boot partition would be cool if they were inside folder named boot...

[kelvinhall05]

9 minutes ago, Dutch_Master said:

First, install plain Debian by installing the installation .iso on the SD card. This link tells you how (except it uses an USB stick, but the procedure is the same)

https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/ch04s03.en.html#usb-copy-isohybrid

Next, boot this image on your device and it should automagically start the installer. Follow the steps and finish the install

 

In any case, I notice the kernel you want to install is a 7 yr old 2.6 version!   You really shouldn't use this any more, it's way too old and insecure.

 

In light of the info you posted later, you'd probably want to try installing Raspbian on the SD card and try booting from that, provided the SoC in your device is similar to the original RPi one.

Literally couldn't care less about security. This thing will probably be used for five minutes, and then thrown in a drawer.

 

On the kernel github page I linked in my OP, it has a list of the changes to the kernel. Can I apply those to a modern kernel?

[kelvinhall05]

3 minutes ago, RageTester said:

Kernel files should be on the boot partition would be cool if they were inside folder named boot...

/debian/boot is empty on the SD card, which led me to believe there is no kernel.

[RageTester]

21 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

/debian/boot is empty on the SD card, which led me to believe there is no kernel.

You probably need to compile(look at original instructions below), so download zip, unzip everything and put the image(uImage apparently in this kernel version) you get at the end into /debian/boot which I suppose is located on FAT32 partition

Quote

Install tools:
	--------------
	- arm cross compiler
	sudo apt-get install gcc-arm-linux-gnueabi
	- uboot tools
	sudo apt-get install u-boot-tools
	Kernel compilation:
	-------------------
	- configuration:
	a) if you want to use existing .config file:
	make CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabi- ARCH=arm oldconfig
	b) if you want to change .config settings:
	make CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabi- ARCH=arm menuconfig
	- compilation
	make CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabi- ARCH=arm uImage
	make CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabi- ARCH=arm modules
	make CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabi- ARCH=arm INSTALL_MOD_PATH=$HOME/kobo/modules modules_install
	Upgrading kobo:
	---------------
	- copy uImage file to the reader's FAT32 partition
	- telnet and execute:
	dd if=/mnt/onboard/uImage of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=512 seek=2048
	sync

Can't do telnet (remote connect) if it will not boot again...

[Nayr438]

nvm