Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

de_prince · 2013-08-01 02:20:50

Hi,

I have problem during installing Arch Linux with 2013.07 .iso on my machine, it would blank, at first I thought it was Intel Graphic controller problem, however, I just realized that my computer does not have enough memory to boot up the kernel and initramfs after bootloader options.

Since I am a real beginner in rolling version, how could I find installation set that would fit to my machine? I think system requirements must be announced for every release.

Thanks!

WonderWoofy · 2013-08-01 02:37:45

That is not actually a system requirement for the system itself, it is a requriement for the archiso to be loaded into the RAM.

If there is any linux you can get running on your computer, you can also use the archlinux-bootstrap image to get things installed as well. It is simply an compressed tar file that you can expand into an empty directory and then chroot. It will give you the most basic of tools from the installer. So you may have to partition the disks and mount them before chrooting. Go to the mirror of your choice and navigate to iso/2013.07.01/ (so for me it would be http://mirrors.kernel.org/archlinux/iso/2013.07.01 ) and you will find the archlinux-bootstrap-2013.07.01-{i686,x86_64}.tar.gz files.

Note that this may not work for you considering that most other distributions probably need a considerable amount of RAM to boot their installation discs as well. So in the event that you actually find one, it may be an old version of something, in which case the versions of bash might be too old.

Good luck though...

Oh yeah, and welcome to the Arch Linux forums.

de_prince · 2013-08-01 03:02:17

Hi WonderWoofy,

Thanks a lot for speedy reply.

The machine is custom-made (embedded), and there is no Linux installed yet, however, I forgot to mention I need to have Linux Kernel 3.8.13. Could you tell me how to find which set that should look into and later test it whether Arch Linux should be my distro?

I have to make an USB CD to install it in another partition or USB since the machine has no HDD.

My other candidates are ForesightLinux, Ubuntu 12.04. (I am still looking for my intended kernel)
from http://www.knetfeder.de/linux/index.php?id=134

Last edited by de_prince (2013-08-01 03:26:55)

WonderWoofy · 2013-08-01 03:22:02

I don't know that we ever made it to 3.8.13. As 3.9.* was released before it ever got that far. But you can check the Arch Rollback Machine to see if you can find it there. See here for more info.

This custom embedded machine, is it x86 based? Or are you using some kind of ARM architecture for your system?

de_prince · 2013-08-01 03:29:12

Hi,

Yes, Intel Atom E660. I have checked Arch Linux for ARM, very tempting considering the memory requirements; unfortunately, this would not be suitable for my case.

I am not sure what I should look in your link about Lightweight Volume Notification. Here is what I found about my intended kernel in Arch Rollback Machine: http://arm.konnichi.com/search/index.ph … ommunity=1

But, I think what I need is just compile my custom kernel https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=161790

Last edited by de_prince (2013-08-01 03:44:33)

WonderWoofy · 2013-08-01 04:49:54

Yeah, if you have x86, there would be no way to get it on your machine.

So obviously, you have a working machine that you are sending stuff from. Why not make a super light isntallation on that machine (even in a chroot would work), then either dd or rsync the contents to your embedded machine. Of course, you would still then need to get something to boot.

karol · 2013-08-01 12:02:57

WonderWoofy wrote:

I don't know that we ever made it to 3.8.13. As 3.9.* was released before it ever got that far.

https://www.archlinux.org/releng/releases/

de_prince · 2013-08-01 12:18:51

Hi karol,

It is mentioned not available anymore, so I have to forget using Arch Linux in this case?

2013-05-01 2013.05.01 3.8.10 No 509.0 MB

karol · 2013-08-01 12:22:23

The closest precompiled kernel you can get from A.R.M. is linux 3.8.11-1, so you either have to compile 3.8.13 yourself or pick a different distro.

de_prince · 2013-08-06 14:04:53

Hi,

I installed successfully on my USB stick last night on my own laptop (with 2013.07 .iso), unfortunately, what worked on my laptop ASUS AMD64 + 2GB RAM + Nvidia Graphic card did not work at all in Intel Atom configuration.

The problem is I don't even see my GRUB menu, is this because of the graphic card? I think it's a bit to early to say memory is not sufficient too. Well, how big is memory requirement to boot up?

Can someone lead me how to troubleshoot this? or even the correct installation.

My pacman was base and base-devel. I thought this would be light as there is no X-Windows included.

Maybe I need to install driver for the chipset like what Ubuntu has? http://daily.siebler.eu/2012/06/ubuntu- … 000-serie/

Or, is this my problem? http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=15911

For your information, I could boot up with Ubuntu 10.4.04 LiveUSB with this hardware configuration OR see GRUB menu from Arch Linux .iso (Live USB) but could not boot up (no display even for the booting up processes).

Thanks!

Last edited by de_prince (2013-08-06 14:13:03)

Trilby · 2013-08-06 14:10:55

de_prince wrote:

Well, how big is memory requirement to boot up?

I don't have any official answer - but I know it is *much* less that your 512MB. You can see memory use threads in the "try this" section. Pre-X I think my memory usage is around 40MB.

Although I suppose this is what is still in use *after* the boot process has been completed - some may have been freed. But I suspect this would still stay in buffer/cache, and even that doesn't go anywhere near 512MB on a clean boot up.

In otherwords, I'm not really sure what the problem is - but I highly doubt it is a lack of memory - especially if you never even get a boot menu.

Last edited by Trilby (2013-08-06 14:11:43)

de_prince · 2013-08-06 14:15:30

Hi Trilby,

Thanks for the reply, but in Help menu during GRUB, you read that Arch Linux needs 768MB. What does it mean?

karol · 2013-08-06 14:18:31

I'm not using GRUB, so I can't say anything about its help menu.
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=166552 needs 768 MB, but this is not the official Arch Linux iso.

I'm confused.

Trilby · 2013-08-06 14:28:49

What help menu are you talking about. Earlier in this thread you were talking about iso's - and the live media *will* require more memory than an installed system as the iso needs to be decompressed into memory and basically use ram as a disk. But once installed to disk this is not the case. I don't know about any 'recommendations' but arch doesn't need over 700MB to run, and a bootloader most certainly doesn't need anywhere near that to run.

de_prince · 2013-08-06 14:29:50

Thanks Karol,

Me too. But this is what I read in the Help menu in GRUB, so it makes that Official, I think..?

In my LiveUSB of Arch Linux, I can see the GRUB MENU but even for Hardware Tool Checks, I will have blank screen, not only booting up with LIVE USB.

I could not see where the process stopped. At least with status display you could tell whether RAM or something else.

de_prince · 2013-08-06 14:42:43

Hi Trilby,

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Archboot

Sorry, if my terms confuse you, because I am new to Arch Linux and I was just referring to what I know.

Like any other distros (in my personal experience: Ubuntu), you could make LiveUSB from distro .iso file.

So I did that, and I understand there are many versions of .iso, but I used dual booting (i686 and x86_64).

And, I also tried perhaps Archboot, because there is "Help" listed there, which user will simply go to some information to scroll up and down. There, you would find information about 768MB RAM.

Thanks!

karol · 2013-08-06 14:46:32

As I said, this is not the official iso. I posted a link to the thread about of of the recent archboot releases.
Official isos are here: http://www.archlinux.org/download/

The official iso is a liveCD too, although it's meant only for installing / fixing purposes, it doesn't provide X server etc.

Trilby · 2013-08-06 14:50:31

Sorry, yes, I was confused. You said you had installed it - but I gather you mean you only made the live USB, not an installed system.

The live USB's may have memory requirements as they do run from ram, though as Karol has pointed out, you may have better luck with the official isos.

de_prince · 2013-08-06 14:52:53

Hi Trilby,

I made an installation on my laptop, it worked (I had an USB Key now) and another to my Intel Atom based machine, it didn't work, by using the same USB Key, which I thought would be minimal in terms of system requirements.

karol · 2013-08-06 14:54:39

Saying just 'it didn't work' doesn't give us much to work with, we don't know why didn't it work, what went wrong.

de_prince · 2013-08-06 15:05:10

Hi Karol,

Sorry for generality, I could explain again here as in above that I could not see even GRUB (bootloader) menu to choose which kernel I would like to start my computer with.

To summarize,
Archboot LiveUSB -> I could see GRUB menu, but I could not get pass to any of the items, not even Hardware Tools Check. By that I mean, blank screen.

Installed USB -> command line on my laptop, but blank screen (not even GRUB menu is shown) in my Intel Atom machine.

Tested with Ubuntu 10.4.04 64-bit, I could use the LiveUSB normally (boot-up, Ubuntu login, etc).

WonderWoofy · 2013-08-06 19:53:54

@de_prince, this is the kind of information that we _want_. To simply say that it "didn't work" doesn't give us any idea if the problem you are facing is the same or different from before. In fact, you didn't even mention that it "didn't work" in the same way as before. W are simply asking for enough information for us not to have to guess what is going on with your machine. We are not there and we cannot see what is going on, so please try to think of it from the perspective of someone else (who is not you) and what they might gather from such generalized messages.

de_prince · 2013-08-16 11:50:19

Hi,

I made USB stick with kernel 3.8.13 (vanilla + RT patch) to be booted up and the kernel image is taken from x86/boot/bzImage (therefore it is 32-bit?) However, in my laptop, I could at least see GRUB and when I point it to my kernel image it would load although incorrectly (because I don't set root properly, it should be by device UUID). and, this in Atom machine would just give me blanks screen even without process status.

Does anyone know what's wrong or tips for Intel Atom? I believe this is something to do with my processor. Or is it the kernel version? Ubuntu 10.4.04 (Kernel 2.6.38) could be booted up from USB stick in this machine.

WonderWoofy · 2013-08-16 15:04:54

I think you answered your own question there. You got to the bootloader (good), and then had the bootloader point to the kernel (good), the kernel seemed to load (good), but you have it the wrong root= (bad ). When you boot up, and get that grub screen. Edit the menu entry from the grub menu. This can be done by highlighting the menu entry in question and then hitting the 'edit' key. I use gummiboot, and in gummiboot it is 'e'. In rEFInd it is 'F2' of 'insert'. But I am not a grub user, so I am not sure what key that is.

It sounds as though this is going to be the only installation on this embedded machine. Grub2, with all its featuer bloat, is very useful if you need said feature bloat. But if you just have a simple, basic setup, with one OS installation on the storage medium, then I think simpler is probably better. I use syslinux, as the config is simple and hand editable, meaning you know exactly what it is you are telling syslinux to do.

Othewise, I would recommend that you use filesystem labels. The UUID method is a great way to go, but requires that you use UUIDs which are not particularly optimized for human readibility. Label your filesystem, and then specify either root=LABEL=<yourlabel> or root=/dev/disk/by-label/<yourlabel>. The second option requires that you use udev (or systemd) in the initramfs. But I find this a much much easier way to go about fixing up both the kernel command line, and the fstab... and anything else that you might need to specify the special block device for.

de_prince · 2013-08-16 15:49:35

Hi WonderWoofy,

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, I made a lot of experiments with my own laptop. GRUB or Syslinux was installed by Unentbootin, I was just pointing which kernel image. Pretty handy tool.

However, it would not give me the same result in my Atom machine.

Some tips: http://askubuntu.com/questions/162075/m … 076#162076
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooti … ack_Screen

So, I would square my problem to Intel Graphic which is integrated with Intel Atom.

Interesting find is when I try to boot with Lubuntu 13.04, I saw a graphic box on left corner before it went blank.

Last edited by de_prince (2013-08-16 16:05:14)

Arch Linux

#1 2013-08-01 02:20:50

Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#2 2013-08-01 02:37:45

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#3 2013-08-01 03:02:17

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#4 2013-08-01 03:22:02

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#5 2013-08-01 03:29:12

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#6 2013-08-01 04:49:54

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#7 2013-08-01 12:02:57

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#8 2013-08-01 12:18:51

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#9 2013-08-01 12:22:23

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#10 2013-08-06 14:04:53

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#11 2013-08-06 14:10:55

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#12 2013-08-06 14:15:30

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#13 2013-08-06 14:18:31

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#14 2013-08-06 14:28:49

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#15 2013-08-06 14:29:50

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#16 2013-08-06 14:42:43

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#17 2013-08-06 14:46:32

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#18 2013-08-06 14:50:31

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#19 2013-08-06 14:52:53

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#20 2013-08-06 14:54:39

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#21 2013-08-06 15:05:10

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#22 2013-08-06 19:53:54

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#23 2013-08-16 11:50:19

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#24 2013-08-16 15:04:54

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

#25 2013-08-16 15:49:35

Re: Which .iso or any guidance for 512MB RAM and E660 Atom?

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