Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

Ravenman · 2009-12-18 23:02:23

Hi to everyone:

I want buy one Nokia N900 mobile phone and I would like to change the Maemo system by one Arch Linux system. Is it possible ?

tlvb · 2009-12-18 23:28:52

The page does not state (where I have seen it) what processor architecture it has, but it is most likely something from the ARM family. Therefor the short answer is no and the slightly longer answer is that it might be possible if you rebuild the distro from the ground up and compile stuff for the ARM architecture.

Edit, not trying to be rude, but since you are asking the question I doubt that you have yet the knowledge needed to pull it off, however if you want to try, you might be interested in the cross linux from scratch project.

Last edited by tlvb (2009-12-19 01:40:03)

qubit · 2009-12-18 23:52:27

Well from what I know, Maemo is based on debian ARM port. N900 is capable of running debian in chroot and you can install .deb packages. It means that you can run in the same way any linux distro which has ARM port, even archlinux - Arch Linux Mobile

Last edited by qubit (2009-12-19 00:01:19)

thayer · 2009-12-19 01:14:05

Not unless you want to make it a paperweight.

Andrwe · 2009-12-19 08:07:50

thayer wrote:

Not unless you want to make it a paperweight.

There are 32 GB internal storage in this little nice device. So storage won't be a problem.

@Ravenman:
Why do you want to use arch on the n900 ????
The maemo itself is nice, well-documented, well-supported and it is supported.
If you flash arch on it you lose the support by Nokia.

Zucca · 2011-08-09 08:56:05

*bumb*

archmobile.org is nowdays archlinuxarm.org

There's also bootmenu app "for Maemo"... Afaik the boot menu will be displayed if keyboard is folded out when booting.
I'd like to know if anyone has succeeded in iinstalling Arch on N900 and how it went.

Rhubarb · 2011-09-05 16:50:13

I've got an n900 myself, it runs pretty well.
I have tried Meego on it, as it was more of a developer preview it was a bit useless for me.
I'm presently not confident enough to try arch on it yet though.

The n900 runs on an ARM Cortex A8, specs are here: http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n900-2917.php

It looks like archlinuxarm.org only goes up to arm 7 if I'm reading that correctly.

It'd be fun to get arch running on it though

bluepumpkin · 2011-09-06 23:56:43

ARM versioning is somewhat confusing. For example, the ARM9TDMI core (used in the Gameboy Advance, I think) uses the ARMv4t architecture.
The Cortex-A8 and -A9 cores use the ARMv7a architecture.

Skry · 2011-12-29 11:32:09

If someone is still interested, I've successfully installed alarm on my N900 and am currently figuring out how to get additional things working. Short howto is here http://dismantle-it.blogspot.com/2011/1 … -n900.html and I'm about to write guide to alarm forums too after testing.

Zucca · 2011-12-29 15:53:49

If you script a dialog based KISS installer that simplifies the installion, I will send you 20€.

Very good guide! I will, for sure, try that.

Skry · 2011-12-29 21:29:32

Zucca wrote:

If you script a dialog based KISS installer that simplifies the installion, I will send you 20€.

I might even do that, we'll see.. I'm currently busy configuring/compiling 3.2-rc7 kernel for it.. having some problems trimming the size down enough. Big boys say it wont work but I'll try it anyway.

Edit: Yeah, it didn't work out as planned

Last edited by Skry (2012-01-10 12:56:43)

ReiFFEXzyx · 2012-01-08 16:48:48

Skry wrote:

If someone is still interested, I've successfully installed alarm on my N900 and am currently figuring out how to get additional things working. Short howto is here http://dismantle-it.blogspot.com/2011/1 … -n900.html and I'm about to write guide to alarm forums too after testing.

Such a great step by step guide!
I've successfully installed archlinux on my N900.
Thx!

spark666 · 2012-01-08 17:39:56

Such a great step by step guide!
I've successfully installed archlinux on my N900.
Thx!

Give us details,how and what it`s working?:D

Skry · 2012-01-09 11:42:53

Works: Keyboard and GPIO keys, Touchscreen, Wifi, Sound, Xorg unaccelerated
Semi: Battery charging works using proprietary binaries sometimes, sometimes not.
Not: Graphics acceleration (proprietary drivers)
Not tested: Bluetooth, Cameras, IR (should work as modules are there)
I'm working with DSP currently, it should work with gstreamer, gst-openmax and omxil, will post pkgbuilds if I can get them to compile.

Skry · 2012-01-18 11:59:00

Updated howto: DSP now works, better Xorg-driver, charging now works and other minor things.

Zucca · 2012-01-19 05:36:21

What settings you keep on with swappiness and vfs_cache_pressure?
I have swappiness set to 10 and vfs_cache_pressure to 20. Works quite well with Maemo at least.

Last edited by Zucca (2012-01-19 05:37:12)

Skry · 2012-01-19 10:25:03

30/100 on Maemo, I don't use swap on Arch since I've found no need for it. Btw KDE runs on 256MB and without swap

Zucca · 2012-01-19 12:32:52

Yeah. I remember using KDE with around 400Megs of RAM just fine. Although it was KDE3...
Some kind of tiling window manager might be good...

Skry · 2012-01-19 12:43:06

I'm using both e17 and LXDE currently, both are fast and enlightenment has touchscreen ui as a bonus. I played with KDE and plasma mobile, it runs but is a bit too slow and had small but annoying issues with rendering.

Last edited by Skry (2012-01-19 12:52:36)

Zucca · 2012-05-05 19:53:39

No wonder. Enlightenment is highly sponsored by Samsung. The main developer works for Samsung.
Samsung will eventually merge Bada to Tizen which uses enlightenment libs.
It would be great to see fully working enlightenment/Tizen on N900.

Zucca · 2012-06-18 20:53:33

I'll be installing Arch ARM on my N900 as primary OS. Since the radio chip is now busted I don't mind to try something exotic on it.

Skry · 2012-10-06 19:37:29

I have setup a repo which has kernel 3.5.4 which has basic support for hardware and few binaries, so the installation should be a matter of installing a package group. Everything is highly experimental for now but should work. Kiss enough?

Zucca · 2012-10-13 18:25:55

I guss I could test it. Sounds awesome.

Skry · 2012-10-14 02:14:39

See here. http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=81892

Needless to say I guess, but ATM my repo breaks quite often, hardware support is quite not there yet, and the usual.

Last edited by Skry (2012-10-16 22:09:40)

Arch Linux

#1 2009-12-18 23:02:23

Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#2 2009-12-18 23:28:52

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#3 2009-12-18 23:52:27

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#4 2009-12-19 01:14:05

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#5 2009-12-19 08:07:50

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#6 2011-08-09 08:56:05

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#7 2011-09-05 16:50:13

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#8 2011-09-06 23:56:43

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#9 2011-12-29 11:32:09

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#10 2011-12-29 15:53:49

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#11 2011-12-29 21:29:32

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#12 2012-01-08 16:48:48

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#13 2012-01-08 17:39:56

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#14 2012-01-09 11:42:53

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#15 2012-01-18 11:59:00

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#16 2012-01-19 05:36:21

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#17 2012-01-19 10:25:03

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#18 2012-01-19 12:32:52

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#19 2012-01-19 12:43:06

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#20 2012-05-05 19:53:39

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#21 2012-06-18 20:53:33

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#22 2012-10-06 19:37:29

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#23 2012-10-13 18:25:55

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

#24 2012-10-14 02:14:39

Re: Arch Linux could run in one Nokia N900 mobile phone ?

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