FatdogArm Alpha4 - 1 November 2013 [CLOSED]

[Mercedes350se]

Thank you. I lurk there quite regularly now!

[jamesbond]

It would seem, given that I really like "puppy" that the odroid U3 will be the way to go. Then Android dual boot would be the cream on the cake.

Sorry, I misread your earlier post. You want to dual-boot Android and FatdogArm (instead of Ubuntu/FatdogArm, which is easy). Read on.

Incidentally the article is actually in the January issue of the emagazine and states, "It is the user's choice where the client root filesystems are physically located on a partition on the same drive as the host file system, on a different drive, or even on an image file that acts as another drive". I assume from this that the Ubuntu install they refer to is actually on the SD card.

The technique outlined in the magazine is called "chroot"-ing; it has been used to run Debian on rooted Android phones since before the dawn of time (ok, may be not that long, but you know what I mean ). I've even written one article about it myself on my wiki here (for running Slacko within Fatdog64 - but in terms of concept they are the same thing).

It presumes that you already have an image of the client filesystem (last paragraph on page 16). You could get FatdogArm's image by extracting FatdogArm SFS into an image file.

I also assume that Fatdog is the same as other puppies, in that it will run from inside a directory, then all that needs to be done is modify the boot file in Android to allow a choice?

Yes, FatdogArm runs similar to other puppies. Yes, it will run from inside a directory. But no, the technique in the magazine *does not* involve "modifying the boot file" in Android - it explains what to do to run Linux stuff *within* Android; after Android is fully booted. You can do a lot of stuff that way but you *can't run graphical programs* (except if you do certain tricks; and all these tricks are slow).

If you really want to boot FatdogArm on its own (instead of running *within* Android); then you will need to use a different kernel (FatdogArm's kernel). You can't use Android's kernel as FatdogArm requires a few things that isn't there on the Android kernel (aufs, for example).

And while in theory you *can* "modify the boot file (you mean the bootloader configuration - it isn't a file to begin with) to allow a choice" - it is not easy nor practical. Firstly, the configuration isn't a file - it is stored in a certain sectors inside the SD card. Secondly, the bootloader's output isn't visible unless you use the uart serial cable. There is a workaround, I have written a tool to workaround both problems, but the thing is it *does not always work* (it works on Mele/Cubie2, doesn't work on XOs, haven't tested on Odroid). Even if the tool does work, it requires you to boot into FatdogArm kernel first - so you will need to know the boot parameters to boot Android kernel so that the system can chainload from FatdogArm to Android.

It is possible, but it is quite a tall order. You would save a lot of time by using two SD cards (or one eMMC and SD Card, I'm under the impression that the U2/U3 will always boot from eMMC first if both are present; and so keep you default OS in eMMC and your alternative OS in the SD card --- take out the eMMC when you want to boot from SD Card).

[Mercedes350se]

If you really want to boot FatdogArm on its own (instead of running *within* Android); then you will need to use a different kernel (FatdogArm's kernel). You can't use Android's kernel as FatdogArm requires a few things that isn't there on the Android kernel (aufs, for example).

There would be no point in running a "not complete" FatdogArm.

You would save a lot of time by using two SD cards (or one eMMC and SD Card, I'm under the impression that the U2/U3 will always boot from eMMC first if both are present; and so keep you default OS in eMMC and your alternative OS in the SD card --- take out the eMMC when you want to boot from SD Card).

Thank you.

[Mercedes350se]

You could get FatdogArm's image by extracting FatdogArm SFS into an image file.

How?

EDIT: Even If I knew how I still would not be able to do what I want .

[Mercedes350se]

I got out the Samsung Class 10 16GB Micro SD I bought just for this purpose

I saw this: (Ignore the reference to 8GB)

"Not all devices support microSDHC 8GB cards. Please contact your device manufacturer for details. To ensure compatibility, look for the microSDHC logo on the product or packaging of your new phone or PDA."

Anyone able to define exactly which card(s) work on the odroid u3?

[jamesbond]

You could get FatdogArm's image by extracting FatdogArm SFS into an image file.

How?

Code: Select all

head -c 2G /dev/zero > file.img
mkfs.ext2 file.img
mount -o loop file.img /mnt/data
unsquashfs -f -d /mnt/data fd-arm.sfs
umount /mnt/data

That's the general idea, not the exact instructions. YMMV.

EDIT: FatdogArm Beta1 is released here.