Re: New installer script

Hi

(I'm cc'ing this to the Intimate list so it gets into the archives)

* Todd Bomely (Todd_at_Bomely.com) wrote:
> site since I could never get it to boot and nobody seems willing to
> reply to my pleas for help.

Unfortunately time has been a major problem for the Intimate guys, so
I'm trying to help out with stuff like a new installer and so on.

> a typical blank grey background and an x cursor, nothing more. I tried

That's actually a very good sign, that means that the install has
basically completed. However, there is a problem with the X package at
the moment that means it won't start the right things automatically. I
am working on this, but building X packages is hard enough at the best
of times, doubly so when you only have a 200mhz ipaq to do the building!

> console but received nothing but errors trying to resolve
> http://non-US/debian.org/....etc a=which is interesting since when I
> tried to go there using my desktop web browser there's no packages at

That doesn't necessarily sound so good, although going there with a web
browser usually won't show much up because apt-get knows where to look
within the URL given in /etc/apt/sources.list

> I would say there is a GREAT need for people to help each other as I am
> not alone in the not getting a response for help department. I try to

Indeed, there do seem, to be plenty of people who would like to use it,
but can't get it installed. That's partly the role of the new installer.

> You cannot use older JFFS2 filesystems with newer kernels

During the boot sequence, Intimate tries to mount the flash memory, but
I'm wondering now if that is a bad idea.
What I think you're seeing with these jffs2 errors is either that you
have a really old version of Familiar installed in the flash, or you
have PocketPC installed and jffs2 is just getting supremely confused.

Could you confirm which of those is true please.

> scheduler: cron. Starting X...
> /etc/rc2.d/S99x: blackbox: command not found
> /etc/rc2.d/S99x: xset: command not found
> /etc/rc2.d/S99x: /etc/X11/Xdefaults: No such file or directory
> /etc/rc2.d/S99x: xrdb: command not found
> /etc/rc2.d/S99x: xstroke: command not found

This is the problem caused by the current X package. As a temporary fix,
on the serial console, edit /etc/init.d/x and change the line that reads
"blackbox &" to read "matchbox -theme /usr/share/matchbox/themes/classic
&"

You can make most of the other errors go away with:

apt-get install xbase-clients xstroke

(you'll need to be connected to the net to be able to do that obviously)

> /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/, removing from list! Could not init font
> path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/, removing from list! root

these aren't particularly important errors, X is just saying that it
can't find some fonts it was expecting. There are 75dpi and 100dpi font
packages available if you want to install them, otherwise feel free to
ignore the error.

> Something wicked happened resolving 'ftp.debian.org:ftp' (-3)

This and the subsequent errors all mean that the ipaq isn't properly
connected to the internet - e.g. you might need to put a nameserver
entry in /etc/resolv.conf.

Thanks for your feedback, hopefully you're not too far away from having
Intimate actually be useful!

Cheers,

-- 
Chris "Ng" Jones
  chris_at_black-sun.co.uk
  www.linuxdude.co.uk