wiki:WikiStart
Last modified 4 weeks ago Last modified on 04/19/12 18:23:34

Welcome to the Gentoo on VT8500 project

This project is about a fully configured distro which should be able to run out-of-the-box on an VT8500 ARM-based netbook.

Some things to consider first:

  • The kernel is not the Gentoo kernel but the experimental kernel from ​http://gitorious.org/linux-on-via-vt8500
  • The kernel is very experimental and several things like ethernet, SD-cards, battery-status etc. isn't working, yet
  • Make sure you really have a VT8500. WIN CE on mine says it's a wm8505, but that's not true.
  • The kernel image is on a FAT/FAT32 partition on an SD-card, the root filesystem is on an USB-stick
  • The USB stick might be formatted with either ext2 or ext3 and with/without swap partition. Change /etc/fstab accordingly
  • Make sure that you're being root when extracting the files to the USB-stick

http://www.savage-elve.net/pub/easypc-vt8500-klein-04.jpg

About this 'distro'

To know which hardware we're talking about: have a look at the PicturePage. Then have a look at the Readme. The install process is described in InstallingThisLinux. To compile the kernel yourself you might follow ​these instructions. Have a look at SpeedingUpCompiling for suggestions to make compiling and emerging faster. Since the entire download is quite big (+500MB) and thus moving to another link sometimes, you can find recent downloads on the DownloadList.

This distro uses Gentoo as Linux base, LXDE as desktop-environment, Surf as webbrowser, Pidgin for messenger, Claws for mail. Included languages are en, de, it, fr, es, nl

I used ext2 for the root filesystem. Please, adjust according to your own preferences.

Relevant links can be found on the LinkList

About me

My name is Wendy, I'm working as a PHP-programmer, but in my free time I play around with Linux om my server or on my laptop. I bought this cheap netbook for €75,- on ​Marktplaats (kind of ​eBay) to learn about cross-compiling, Linux on embedded system and Linux on ​ARM-architecture ARM processor and ​SoC architecture. I started this Trac project to put some howto's here and to get some feedback on my 'distro'. And to get some experience using a project management system. Have a look at the ProjectBlog.

About using Trac

For this moment this Trac project is open for everyone to edit. I will leavethis for a few days; feel free to add your tips and tricks to the wiki. Later I will make it readonly for visitors and making accounts for everyone who request for it.

For a complete list of local wiki pages, see TitleIndex.