[Resolved] Network driver for EeePC 901 ?

[^thehatsrule^]

Thanks for the suggestions. I was able to create the rt2860sta.ko.gz driver in TinyCore VM in VMware Server and install it in the "traditional" TC HDD install I have on the EeePC 901.
I copied the driver to /lib/modules/2.6.26-tinycore/drivers/net/wireless (the last three directories I had to create) [...]

You could've used the generated .tcem extension instead, as described in the .info

Are there more details for your grub error?  What version is it?  Maybe it has to do with device.map?  It looks like you copied the right files though.  Maybe try copying them over again, or in another partition.

In X, run wbar.sh and see if wbar shows up.  If not, check that it's there: ls -l `which wbar`

ath1 is marked experimental in the upstream 2.6.26 kernel.  You can compile it if you want, but it's probably not recommended.  There may be an updated version in a newer kernel tree though.  EDIT: looks like it was unmarked in .28

[roberts]

A frugal install onto an existing Grub/Linux partition is quite easy.
1. Optional but suggested, mkdir a level one directory named tinycore
2. Copy two files, bzImage and tinycore.gz into said tinycore directory
3. Since this is an existing working Grub/linux system then edit menu.lst by copying an existing entry for this partition. And adjust for tiny core...

Example from eeePC 900A

#
# Configured by Xandros Configuration system.
#
# hiddenmenu
# default boot entry
default=0

# Boot automatically after 1 second.
timeout=10

# Fallback to Configure.
fallback=2

title TinyCore
   root (0x80,0)
   kernel /tinycore/bzImage quiet irqpoll tz=PST+8PDT,M4.2.0/2,M11.1.0/2
   initrd /tinycore/tinycore.gz

title Xandros Boot
   root (0x80,0)
   kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.21.4-eeepc quiet rw vga=785 irqpoll root=/dev/sda1
   initrd /boot/initramfs-eeepc.img

title Perform Disk Scan
   root (0x80,0)
   kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.21.4-eeepc quiet rw vga=785 irqpoll root=/dev/sda1 XANDROSSCAN=y
   initrd /boot/initramfs-eeepc.img

title Restore Factory Settings
   root (0x80,0)
   kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.21.4-eeepc quiet rw vga=normal nosplash=y irqpoll root=/dev/sda1 XANDROSRESTORE=y
   initrd /boot/initramfs-eeepc.img
 
The above example shows that I copied the defaullt Xandros Boot menu item, and changed it to look at the tinycore directory.

[paulfxh]

Thank you for the replies

Are there more details for your grub error?  What version is it?  Maybe it has to do with device.map?  It looks like you copied the right files though.  Maybe try copying them over again, or in another partition.

Looks like I was a bit hasty in concluding that Grub "sees" the /bzImage in the frugal install partition that refuses to boot. Certainly, if I use the Grub "find" command from Ubuntu, it picks up both partitions where I have "installed" TC (traditional and frugal). However, in Xandros, only the /bzImage on the traditional install partition is seen. Now, as the Xandros grub is in the MBR of this machine and boots everything, it seems that the /bzImage in the frugal install is not being seen by the bootloader.
I would have liked to confirm this by checking the version of Grub in Ubuntu and Xandros but have been unable to ascertain how to do this.

In X, run wbar.sh and see if wbar shows up.  If not, check that it's there: ls -l `which wbar`

Yes, /usr/bin/wbar is present in my traditional install but still I can't see either the dock or the top panel. In the TC VM that I can run in VMware Server on this same machine, I can see both panel and dock, but the latter only by scrolling down quite a bit.
Additionally, in the traditional install screen, if I "mouse around" below the bottom of the screen I can, by clicking now and again, get maybe a terminal to appear or a "getting started" window. So, it seems as if the dock is there but off the bottom of the screen.
It's less easy to explain why the top panel doesn't show up.
My EeePC 901 has a screen size of 1024x600 and I have the impression that a screen resolution of 1024x768 is being used so that part of the screen is not visible. However, I have used the XVesa setup tool to try to change the screen resolution (to for example 640x480) but in no case did any change take place even after rebooting.

A frugal install onto an existing Grub/Linux partition is quite easy.
1. Optional but suggested, mkdir a level one directory named tinycore
2. Copy two files, bzImage and tinycore.gz into said tinycore directory
3. Since this is an existing working Grub/linux system then edit menu.lst by copying an existing entry for this partition. And adjust for tiny core...

Example from eeePC 900A

title TinyCore
   root (0x80,0)
   kernel /tinycore/bzImage quiet irqpoll tz=PST+8PDT,M4.2.0/2,M11.1.0/2
   initrd /tinycore/tinycore.gz
 
The above example shows that I copied the defaullt Xandros Boot menu item, and changed it to look at the tinycore directory.

Well, the idea of getting the bootloader to pick up the bzImage and tinycore.gz in Xandros first did the trick for me. My frugal install of TC is now bootable.
However, whereas you seem to have TC installed frugally on the Xandros partition, mine is on its own independent logical partition. In my case, therefore, I copied both bzImage and tinycore.gz from the TC iso to a /boot/tinycore directory that I created on the Xandros partition.
I then added the following to the Xandros /boot/grub/menu.lst

Code: [Select]

title TinyCore 1.0 Frugal Install
root (0x80,0)
kernel /boot/tinycore/bzImage root=/dev/hdd7
initrd /boot/tinycore/tinycore.gzAnd, yes, this is fast. It boots in 16 seconds on my machine. However, amazingly, it's not the fastest I  have. Both Haiku and Senryu on this machine boot in 11 seconds. 

Many thanks for the help.

[curaga]

Robert, is irqpoll needed on your Eee?

It brings additional overhead to the scheduler, should only be enabled when things don't work otherwise..

[florian]

TC seems to work well on my Eee (701) without the irqpoll boot code.
So, I will remove this bootcode as curaga explained it brings overhead to the scheduler.

Yet, the default menu.lst uses irqpoll to boot the Xandros distro. I wonder why!

[roberts]

My Eee 900A is working fine without irqpoll as well. Being lazy, I had followed Xandros' lead as i thought it might be related to their unique hardware in the epc.

[^thehatsrule^]

Looks like I was a bit hasty in concluding that Grub "sees" the /bzImage in the frugal install partition that refuses to boot. Certainly, if I use the Grub "find" command from Ubuntu, it picks up both partitions where I have "installed" TC (traditional and frugal). However, in Xandros, only the /bzImage on the traditional install partition is seen. Now, as the Xandros grub is in the MBR of this machine and boots everything, it seems that the /bzImage in the frugal install is not being seen by the bootloader.
I would have liked to confirm this by checking the version of Grub in Ubuntu and Xandros but have been unable to ascertain how to do this.

You can see the version in the prompt if you have one during boot, or run `grub --version`.  It doesn't seem like the version is a problem though.  But you're chainloading grub installations?

Yes, /usr/bin/wbar is present in my traditional install but still I can't see either the dock or the top panel. In the TC VM that I can run in VMware Server on this same machine, I can see both panel and dock, but the latter only by scrolling down quite a bit.
Additionally, in the traditional install screen, if I "mouse around" below the bottom of the screen I can, by clicking now and again, get maybe a terminal to appear or a "getting started" window. So, it seems as if the dock is there but off the bottom of the screen.
It's less easy to explain why the top panel doesn't show up.
My EeePC 901 has a screen size of 1024x600 and I have the impression that a screen resolution of 1024x768 is being used so that part of the screen is not visible. However, I have used the XVesa setup tool to try to change the screen resolution (to for example 640x480) but in no case did any change take place even after rebooting.

You'd need to use the backup/restore feature if you're using a standard install.  You don't need to reboot though - just exit X and run `startx`.  If that doesn't help, then looking into the vga= bootcodes (and a fb xserver) might work, or xorg.

[paulfxh]

Thanks for the reply.

You can see the version in the prompt if you have one during boot, or run `grub --version`.  It doesn't seem like the version is a problem though.  But you're chainloading grub installations?

Yes, it looks like, not surprisingly, that both Ubuntu 8.04.1 and Xandros have Grub Ver. 0.97 so this doesn't help to explain why I couldn't get my "original" frugal install to boot. However, as it's booting now, I'm not really that worried about it.
I have seven OSes on this machine (all except for Ubuntu and Xandros being < 1GB in size). I chainload the native bootloader on three of them to get them to boot through the Xandros Grub (these are DSL 4.1.2, Haiku and Senryu) and the other four are booted by the usual kernel and initrd lines in menu.lst

You'd need to use the backup/restore feature if you're using a standard install.  You don't need to reboot though - just exit X and run `startx`.  If that doesn't help, then looking into the vga= bootcodes (and a fb xserver) might work, or xorg.

Yes, adding bootcode "vga=789" did the trick. Everything visible now. However, even though this vga code refers to a screen resolution of 800x600 (24 bit), it looks like the resolution is actually 1024x600 as no blank space appears at the sides of the screen.
Now, TinyCore is starting to look extremely well on my EeePC 901. This is an impressive OS.
Here is the entry I use in /boot/grub/menu.lst (Xandros) for TC frugal if anybody else is interested to see it.

Code: [Select]

title TinyCore 1.0 Frugal Install
root (0x80,0)
kernel /boot/tinycore/bzImage root=/dev/hdd7 tce=hdd7 restore=hdd7 vga=789
initrd /boot/tinycore/tinycore.gz

[roberts]

Thanks for sharing and good to hear TC is running on 901.

As a side note,  I find it interesting that the eeePC line is so wide and the hardware therein so divergent.
But now, it seems that we have the 701, 900A, and now 901 models covered.

[paulfxh]

# CONFIG_ATL1 is not set

Guess not.  You could either compile it, or wait for the next kernel update in TC (which may not be soon).

I compiled this driver today and it works perfectly.
Essentially, I just followed this guide, created a .tcem using this command

Code: [Select]

tar -C / -czvf atl1e.tcem  lib/modules/2.6.26-tinycore/kernel/drivers/net/atl1e/atl1e.ko
,
moved the atl1e.tcem to /mnt/hdd7/tce and wrote a startup script for eth0 as follows:

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/sh
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.26-tinycore/kernel/drivers/net/atl1e/atl1e.ko
depmod
ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.15 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255 up
echo nameserver 208.67.222.222 > /etc/resolv.conf
echo nameserver 208.67.220.220 >> /etc/resolv.conf
route add default gw 192.168.1.254which I then added to bootlocal.sh.

[kinsa]

This is how I managed to get my wifi working without using another PC or vmware setup to compile the driver:

1 - Download the following files and save it in a location that can be accessed later (I used an SD card):

• compiletc.tce
• linux-headers-2.6.26.tce
• rt2860sta-source.tce
• openssl-0.9.8h.tcel
• wpa-supplicant.tce
• RT2860 source

2 - After booting into TC, install all the TCE's (use tce-load ??????.tce? ) and copy the RT2860 source to /tmp directory.

3 - Modify /usr/local/bin/compile-rt2860sta.sh using the following patch:

Code: [Select]

--- /usr/local/bin/compile-rt2860sta.sh  Fri Dec  5 00:03:01 2008
+++ /usr/local/bin/compile-rt2860sta.sh        Wed Apr  1 15:59:39 2009
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@
 SCRIPTVERSION="0.1"
 
 clean() {
-       rm -rf /tmp/$SOURCE /tmp/$SOURCE.md5sum /tmp/$SOURCEDIR
+       rm -rf  /tmp/$SOURCE.md5sum /tmp/$SOURCEDIR
 }
 
 echo "Welcome to $(basename $0), version "$SCRIPTVERSION"."
@@ -60,11 +60,11 @@
 echo "have to use wpa-supplicant to use this wireless card, even with WEP."
 echo
 
-echo -n "Fetching upstream source of rt2860sta..."
+#echo -n "Fetching upstream source of rt2860sta..."
 clean
 cd /tmp
-wget -c -q "$UPSTREAM"/"$SOURCE"
-echo "done"
+#wget -c -q "$UPSTREAM"/"$SOURCE"
+#echo "done"


 echo ""$MD5SUM"  "$SOURCE"" > $SOURCE.md5sum

4 - Run compile-rt2860sta.sh. The resulting compiled driver, rt2860sta.tcem, can be found under the /tmp directory. Install this file and copy it to a safe location.

5 - Create /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf and then run the following commands:

Code: [Select]

sudo modprobe rt2860sta
sudo wpa_supplicant -B -Dwext -ira0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
sudo udhcpc -T 10 -A 30 -b -i ra0

6 - Hopefully you now have a working network access and can continue customizing your system.