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Appeal for Linux Help from Pedal-Powered Internet?

Posted by Cliff on from the giving-them-a-hand...or-a-leg-up dept.

lma asks: "As has been reported previously on Slashdot, Lee Felsenstein is involved in a project to bring wireless internet connectivity (including VOIP) to isolated villages in Laos. Lee is in Laos this week, trying to install and configure the initial systems. He's having a problem getting Linux installed and booting off a M-Systems DiskOnChip(DOC) as described here. Perhaps Slashdot readers could help with this problem, and make themselves available for future technical support issues as well."

4 of 13 comments (clear)

  1. Feel bad, but need to ask... by Otter · · Score: 2, Interesting
    upgraded to kernel 2.4.21-pre2 for testing used both the doc2000 merged driver and the doc2001 millenium driver, changing the docprobe source as appropriate

    used the February 7 2003 cvs snapshot to upgrade the 2.4.21-pre2 mtd drivers. Ran the patchin.sh, which worked nicely

    Tried this "latest source" amalgamation with both the doc2000 and doc2001 driver, same results:

    doc2000 driver detects no flash chips doc2001 driver detects 3 flash chips.

    Not to be the Grinch, and I applaud the intentions and effort of the people working on this, but -- isn't the real answer that installing some crazy-ass combination of patched Linux kernels and "Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!" hardware should be left to bored CS majors, instead of being left in the hands of users with no relevant technological knowledge whatsoever?

    OK, let's say that given enough Ask Slashdots from Vientiane you can get this thing to work. Then what? And how will this help anyone else in the world?

    For that matter, how are detecting no chips and detecting 3 chips the same result?

    --
    What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
  2. Not to be a bastartd, but... by GoRK · · Score: 3, Insightful

    OK, not to be a bastard, but isn't this the kind of shit you learn how to do *before* you go "on-site," as it were, to install it? I have set up for m-systems disk-on-chip stuff and it's not that easy. I can see how he might be having problems with it, as it's an unnecessarily complicated interface. He should be contacting M-Systems and Tri-M to get this resolved, though, and not slashdot.

  3. Then don't. by Ashurbanipal · · Score: 3, Informative

    #1) Your 20/20 hindsight is not useful. Live in the now.

    #2) He didn't contact slashdot, as far as I can see; rather, somebody at /. picked up on his cry for help and presented it to the community, because wider exposure may lead to resolution - or to put it another way, "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow".

    Incidentally, I too have failed to get Linux running on a disk-on-chip. I was trying it in my basement on salvaged equipment, and eventually I shelved the project after a few weeks of frustration.

    I suspect the ltsp guys might be the most accessible experts on this. I'm going to forward the link to them...

  4. Hope this helps... by CRaMM · · Score: 3, Informative
    ... and if somebody knows a better way to let these people know about this info please do it. I see no e-mail address in the linked mtdproblems.txt log file where I can send it.

    Please see http://leaf.sourceforge.net/devel/jnilo/budiskonch ip.html It's the "Installing and booting Bering from a M-Systems DiskOnChip" chapter (written by Brad Fritz) of the LEAF Bering User's Guide.

    Bering is one of the branches (the currently most active one) of the LEAF project that is building on the strong LEAF heritage and adding some advanced stuff to get: kernel 2.4.19 (and 2.4.20), PPP[OE], firewalling (using Shorewall), bridging, wireless utils, linux-wlan, Host AP, DHCP (client and server), DJB's dnscache, pcmcia, Freee Swan, .... Bering main developers are Jacques Nilo and Eric Wolzak

    LEAF is the Linux Embedded Appliance Firewall (http://leaf.sourceforge.net/).