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ReadMe: QSP-LNX-TCRK-R1.00

VersaLogic Debian Live Hybrid Image for the Intel Tunnel Creek (Atom E6x0T) Platform


Boards Supported	Falcon (VL-EPU-2610)

Kernel Version	2.6.39 (Debian Backport sources)

Debian Linux Version	6.0.0 (Squeeze/Stable)

Quick Login Instructions
Login	root

Password	password

Login	user

Password	password

1.0 LEGAL DISCLAIMER

VersaLogic is making no claims of usability, efficacy or warranty. Information in this document is provided in connection with VersaLogic products. No license, express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise, to any intellectual property rights is granted by this document. VersaLogic assumes no liability whatsoever, and VersaLogic disclaims any express or implied warranty relating to the sale and/or use of VersaLogic products, including liability or warranties relating to fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability or infringement of any patent, copyright or other intellectual property right. VersaLogic products are not intended for use in life-saving or life-sustaining applications.

VersaLogic disclaims all warranties and liabilities for the use of this document and the information contained herein, and assumes no responsibility for any errors which may appear in this document, nor does VersaLogic make a commitment to update the information contained herein. VersaLogic reserves the right to make changes to this document at any time without notice.

2.0 PURPOSE

Installing Debian Linux can be a difficult and time consuming effort, even when using the latest installer guide added with the release of Squeeze. The goal of VersaLogic Quick Start Packages (QSPs) is to make Debian OS installation as painless as possible, provide multiple installation images that balance footprint versus functionality, and to pre-configure any product specific support such as video, cardbus, etc. This also constitutes the difference between VersaLogic's QSP installation and the Debian Squeeze CD/DVD installation.

3.0 HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

(a) USB Mouse & Keyboard
(a) SATA or USB CD/DVD-ROM
(a) SATA Device (hard drive)
-- or --
(b) USB Hard Drive
-- or --
(c) USB Flash Drive
on which the system will be installed
Minimum 256 MB RAM
FPD or CRT Monitor LVDS LVDS Adapter (requires appropriate cables)

4.0 INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

The LiveCD will boot automatically into the LXDE graphical environment and a ReadMe file will launch automatically. Upon exiting the ReadMe file, VersaLogic's Debian Installer will launch and you can follow the installation instructions step-by-step.

Alternatively, the Debian Installer is placed on the Desktop (left side) and is labeled VersaLogic Debian Installer. Just double-click the icon and the installation wizard will start.

Furthermore, you can launch the installer by clicking on the LXDE menu button on the bottom right corner and then going to:
Accessories→VersaLogic Debian Installer
You will be given the choice of a PATA or USB device on which you would like to install.
All PATA devices will have ata- as a prefix to their names. For example:
/dev/sda ata-ST380815AS
All USB devices have usb- as a prefix to their names. For example:
/dev/sdb usb-Generic_USB_Flash_Disk
If you are planning to install on a USB device, make sure that the following settings are ENABLED in CMOS settings [11]:
1. LEGACY USB
2. USB BOOT
3. EHCI/USB 2.0
See the section Installing on USB Devices for more details regarding installation on USB devices.
The installer will take you step-by-step through the installation process. You can select one of three types of installation (Minimal, Medium, or Full):
1. Minimal (Min): This is essentially a console-based installation with minimum functionality. It does not have any graphical features.
2. Medium (Med): This includes everything in the Minimal install plus Xorg, which is a Graphical Server (called X Server). This will provide limited graphical features through the lightweight desktop environment LXDE. It will launch automatically once you log into the system.
3. Full: This includes everything in the Medium install (except the LXDE environment) plus GNOME, a graphical user environment. This is the expandable, full distribution environment.
See the section Features of the Install Types below for more details on these three images.
During the installation, if any unexpected error occurs, you will be notified. You can see the error in the /tmp/errorLog.txt file by running the following command:
root@debian# less /tmp/errorLog.txt
After installation, the above file should be empty (an empty file indicates a successful installation).
You will have to run the installer as root.

Installation script source code inquiries should be directed to Support@VersaLogic.com.

5.0 WHAT TO DO ONCE THE INSTALLATION IS FINISHED

Reboot your system once the installation process succeeds.
Press the Delete key to go to CMOS Settings, then go to the Boot section.
Under the BOOT DEVICE PRIORITIZATION section, assign the device on which you installed the image as the first device to boot from - 0.
EXAMPLE
Suppose during the installation process you selected sdb (Step 2 in the section Installation Instructions) as the PATA device to install the Debian system; the corresponding BOOT DEVICE PRIORITIZATION [http://www.versalogic.com/kb/KB.asp?KBID=1648#Boot] settings will be:
0 [IDE 1/Primary Slave, <model-name-of-device>]
Save the CMOS settings and reboot.
You will see the GRUB bootloader screen and it will automatically boot into your new system in a few seconds.
Once the system boots and presents the login screen, you will have to login to the system.
1. To login as the root user:
  Login root
  Password password
  The root user will be able to perform all administrative tasks.
2. To login as a regular user:
  Login user
  Password password
You can find the corresponding kernel header files for the installed kernel in the directory /root/AUP folder on the LiveCD. See the section Advanced User Package (AUP) for details.

6.0 ADDING NEW PROGRAMS TO YOUR DEBIAN INSTALL

Even though VersaLogic QSPs provide a good base of installed programs, it would not be practical to provide everything that is available to everyone. This section provides a basic tutorial on how to add new software to an installed Debian Linux base system.

Adding Additional Software

Once you have your basic installation completed, the next thing you will probably want to do is add additional software. The APT suite of programs is, by far, the easiest way to accomplish this task. APT is an acronym for Advanced Package Tool and is essentially an automated dependency resolver and front-end for the dpkg program. It will figure out what the dependencies are for a given software package and then manage the calls to dpkg, which actually does the work of installing them. Together, APT and dpkg make installing new packages very straightforward.

EXAMPLE - Adding GNU C Development Libraries and Header Files

One of the most common packages that application developers want is libc6-dev [http://packages.debian.org/stable/libc6-dev], which contains development libraries and files that are required to make C/C++ programs work. Let's see an example on how to install it:

Make sure you are connected to the Internet – all three Debian installations contained on the VersaLogic Debian install CD are configured to use DHCP, by default. In most cases, you just need to connect an Ethernet cable to your network to use it.
At the console prompt, type apt-get update and Enter. This will refresh the local package database. It's a good practice to do this step fairly often (before you are about to install new software) to make sure that the latest package information is available to APT.
Once that process is finished, type:
debian:~# apt-get install libc6-dev
and hit Enter. In this example, libc6-dev is in the name of the package to install, so APT will go find any packages that have that name, and often automatically decides which one is best for your system. It also determines what other packages need to be installed to make libc6-dev work, and it will go ahead and install those as well.

There might be some software that could be in Debian's Contrib and Non-free sections. To install software from these sections, modify the following line in the /etc/apt/sources.list file:

deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian Squeeze main
-- to --
deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian Squeeze main contrib non-free

Installing Packages from Testing Repositories (i.e. Other Than Stable)

By default, APT will look in /etc/apt/sources.list to determine where to download the packages from. We have set up the system to look in a Stable online repository by default, but if it doesn't exist there, APT can also look in a Testing repository (Testing means that the package is being tested and has been stable for at least 14 days, but has not yet been added to the formal Debian stable release). This scheme strikes the best balance between system stability and package availability since, unlike other Linux distributions, Debian's developers can take years to move testing packages to stable (which happens only for major releases). To enable APT to download packages from the Testing repository, you will have to uncomment (by removing the leading # symbol) the following lines of the /etc/apt/sources.list file:

#deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian testing main contrib #deb-src http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian testing main contrib

Additional Information/Links for APT Package Management System

Debian essentially maintains three types of distributions:

Stable
Testing
Unstable

For more information, refer to the following website:

http://www.nl.debian.org/doc/manuals/reference/ch-system.en.html

All three VersaLogic images stand as follows with respect to the above three distributions:

Minimal - Stable
Medium - Stable
Full - Stable

For more information, refer to the following websites:

APT Configuration Files

Refer to the following files to customize the apt-get system:

/etc/apt/apt.conf
/etc/apt/sources.list
/etc/apt/preferences

Also, run the command:

#apt-get update

every time you decide to install any package. This is very important, as it will keep the local repository synchronized with the Debian repository.

7.0 INTEL E6XX XORG DRIVER

At the time of this writing, the Intel E6XX driver for Linux (Xorg and DRM) no longer supports Debian. We have chosen to use the generic VESA framebuffer driver for our graphical environment, and this limits the resolution to 800x600.

8.0 Advanced User Package (AUP)

If you don't want to install the VersaLogic Debian image and would like to have your own custom install (Debian or a non-Debian), then this section is for you. No matter which Linux distro you choose, you will need a kernel with all of the updated hardware support. The files in the downloaded zip file are used for the following:

The kernel source version for Falcon is 2.6.39
Kernel image - Installable .deb file (for Debian-based distros)
Kernel config file (.config)
Kernel header files
Patch to apply to the 2.6.39 source to get the VersaLogic level of kernel source

You need to unzip the file first to access the above contents.

9.0 IMPORTANT NOTES

The hybrid ISO is based on a VersaLogic customized Debian kernel using the Debian Backported kernel source 2.6.39.
If you connect a USB device, such as floppy/hard-drive/CD-ROM, you should be able to access it under the '/media/' directory.

10.0 KNOWN ISSUES

ACPI S3 Issue: The board fails to recover from the S3 sleep state. This is likely related to the Xorg VESA framebuffer driver.

11.0 REFERENCES

Following is a list of books and web sites that we recommend to anyone who wants to learn more about Debian or GNU/Linux in general:

Debian System, Concepts and Techniques, by Martin F. Krafft, Open Source Press, 2005.
GNU/Linux Application Programming, by M. Tim Jones, Charles River Media, 2005.
Debian's official home on the Internet:
http://www.debian.org
The X.Org Foundation provides an open source implementation of the X Window System:
http://www.x.org
Newsgroup: comp.os.linux contains plenty of free advice.