Running Linux on the HTC Apache phone
| Home | Hardware | Linux | TodoTo test drive a familiar gpe image on apache, follow these steps:
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Obtain a mini SD card with at least 128MBytes free
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Download http://www.handhelds.org/~koconnor/HTCApache/testimages/apache-linux-launcher-20071115.exe
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Place both of the above files into the root of the mini sd card. When under wince, the files should appear in: \Storage Card\
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Place the mini SD card into the HTC Apache phone and run the apache-linux-launcher-20071115.exe program.
The above will create a linux ext2 filesystem in a file linux-root.img on the fat partition of the SD card. The first time you run the program it will take a few minutes to setup everything. Subsequent executions of the apache-linux-launcher.exe program will be faster.
One can return to wince by running "reboot" from linux or by performing a hard reset on the phone. One can remove the linux install by deleting the files from the mini SD card. The test drive procedure should not adversely impact the phone, however, THERE IS NO WARRANTY so USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Creating new test drive images
Running Linux on the HTC Apache is still a work in progress. Please see the main htcapache page above for the latest progress information.
Currently, there are no pre-made images for the HTC Apache. In the interim, one can follow these steps to create an Apache rootfs from an existing rootfs:
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Obtain the "fakeroot" package.
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Download an existing rootfs (for example, the
![[WWW]](/moin/handhelds/img/moin-www.png)
familiar image for h2200 - http://familiar.handhelds.org/releases/v0.8.4/install/files/h2200/bootstrap-image-v0.8.4-h2200.rootfs.tar.bz2 )
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Checkout the kernel tree from handhelds.org cvs server:
cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs:anoncvs@anoncvs.handhelds.org:/cvs co linux/kernel26
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Build and compile the kernel using the config located in linux/kernel26/arch/arm/configs/htcapache_defconfig
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Create a temporary build directory, cd to that directory, and run fakeroot (to become a simulated root user).
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Expand the existing rootfs image into the build directory (for example: tar jxvpf /path/to/gpe-image-v0.8.4-h2200.rootfs.tar.bz2 )
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Copy latest kernel modules to build area:
cd /path/to/kernel/ make modules_install INSTALL_MOD_PATH=/path/to/build/area/
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Create a new rootfs image:
cd /path/to/build/area/ tar cfj /tmp/my-new-rootfs.tar.bz2 .
You may also need to recreate a new wince launcher. To do this, grab the files from http://www.handhelds.org/~koconnor/initramfs-installer/ and follow the directions in the README file.
The install program uses haret - pre-built images can be found in: http://www.handhelds.org/~koconnor/haret/
