Leapster Explorer Root File System

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Revision as of 03:01, 27 October 2011 by Peter Huewe (talk | contribs) (ac)
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This is a work in progress. Follow at your own risk!

On the didj if we wanted to build a working kernel and filesystem with all necessary apps/libs and devices we could use a simple script called make_rootfs.sh located in the /scripts folder of the kernel source. Unfortunately the LX kernel sources didn't ship with make_rootfs.sh so we have adapted the didj one to do the job for us.

I'd like to thank Nirvous, NullMoogleCable, PhillKll, Claude, JKent, Jburks, GrizzlyAdams and anyone I may have forgotten for their help :)


There are a few things to note.

1. When you run make_rootfs.sh it builds the kernel, sets up all the folders and device nodes, it also installs libs/apps from /packages, the script knows what apps/libs to install via 2 files complete-package-list and embedded-package-list, the LX only ships with the embedded-package-list, so we will have to make our own complete-package-list file. The embedded-package-list is sufficient for building a kernel with everything that is needed for a stock kernel/fs (without brio), you should leave the embedded-packge-list in its default state. the complete-package-list will do the same job but will keep any headers, I copied the contents of the embedded-package-list to a file called complete-package-list and worked from there.

2. There are a couple of ways of running make_rootfs.sh:

CLEAN=1 ./make_rootfs.sh

this will do a clean install of the whole lot, it will re-download libs/apps in the package library and when its all done you will have the full rootfs + kernel + headers, all packages are installed via the complete-package-list

CLEAN=1 ./make_rootfs.sh -e

Almost the same as the last one, except this one will remove the headers when its finished, this is building yourself a stock install, the -e is for embedded, so this one uses the embedded-package-list

./make_rootfs.sh

This one doesn't re-download the package files but still keeps the headers when done (complete-package-list)

./make_rootfs.sh -e

and this one doesn't re-download the package files and removes the headers when done (embedded-package-list)

3. if you want to automatically build and install extra packages take a look at the install.sh scripts in the /packages/sub-folders, they'll give you an idea of what is required, once you've created your own install.sh in its own folder in /packages you can add your extra package folder name to either the embedded or complete-package-list and they should install for you. bear in mind that if your package/app depends on another lib/app then it will need to be lower in the list than the libs/apps it depends on. If you want to remove any packages from either list just put a # at the beginning of the line, this will comment it out and stop make_rootfs.sh from building that app/lib, again you need to consider whether the app/lib you are commenting out is needed by anything else, for instance not installing busybox would be a big mistake.

File Prep

You will need the host)

Save the following to your /scripts folder. make_RootFS.sh

  • ( Link to complete-package-list )

run

chmod 777 Make_RootFS.sh
chmod 777 functions


  • Copy host_tools from the didj kernel sources and put it in the your project folder
  • Make the folders in your build environment /target/tftp


Fix the broken /packages files

to do a make_rootfs.sh you will need a working /packages set, these are all installed by make_rootfs.sh via an install.sh file in each folder in /packages.

Unfortunately it will fail to build unless you comment out or fix the broken packages in the complete/embedded-package-list files.

Here is a list of the broken packages and my quick attempts to fix them:

uclibc  : I pull whatever its looking for from the explorer lib files on the machine itself.
strace : needed a change to a more recent version of the sources
e2fsprogs : --disable-tls in the ./configure line in its install.sh
screens : can't rememeber where I pulled them from, give me a shout if you can't locate it
dftp : probably pulled from the explorer and made my own install.sh file for it much the same as uclibc
camera : edit the makefile and comment out the CC= line
oe-bin : if it gives you any hassle, remove/comment out following line from install.sh:
# ln -s $ROOTFS_PATH/usr/lib/libncurses.so $ROOTFS_PATH/usr/lib/libcurses.so
iperf : Make sure that the CC/CXX/LD binaries are for your toolchain, change the CXX line so that its g++ at the end and not gcc
kbtool : make the first line of the makefile read:
CC:=$(CROSS_COMPILE)gcc

Notes

complete-package-list - anything with a # next to it won't be installed

There is stuff missing in /bin that needs addressing

To attempt a build run

sudo ./Make_RootFS.sh

This will compile your kernel using the .config file you have set up.