Author Topic: R9 - no X - want to install anyway  (Read 4353 times)

targa

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R9 - no X - want to install anyway
« on: June 25, 2016, 04:43:32 PM »
Hi,
I'd like to install R9-Microwatt64 to a Thinclient (Via Nano).

X doesn't start, which I currently don't mind, since I actually don't need it. So I would take care for it later. BUT it seems I need it in order to run the install script:
sudo ubiquity gtk_ui (from /home/guest/Desktop). Is there any other way I can install. Manual steps are ok as well, just want to have a complete intstallation.
Thanks a lot for assisting.

snippet form Xorg.log points to some memory allocation:

[333926.408] (II) CHROME(0): ViaDisplayDisableCRT
[333926.408] DRM memory allocation failed -6
[333926.408] (II) CHROME(0): Using default xfree86 memcpy for video.
[333926.408] (WW) CHROME(0): [XvMC] XvMC is not supported on this chipset.
[333926.408] (II) CHROME(0): - Done
[333926.408] (--) RandR disabled
« Last Edit: June 25, 2016, 05:08:54 PM by targa »

teejay

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Re: R9 - no X - want to install anyway
« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2016, 12:49:14 AM »
Welcome Targa.
Your question is beyond my competence.  I suspect you might need to wait till Biff gets his head up from R10 work, but perhaps someone else also has the necessary clues here.
As a suggestion, you could provide some more data.  I assume you have reason to believe the Via Nano is x86 compatible, and ideally Ubuntu compatible.
Some brief hardware specs could also help.

Out of interest : some time ago, someone overcame difficult machine specs (eg no CD-ROM) by installing wattOS onto a HDD then transplanting that HDD into the lower spec machine, with success. 

targa

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Re: R9 - no X - want to install anyway
« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2016, 12:10:06 PM »
Well... my main question is: how to install without X. I believe it's rather simple to get X working with some available disk space.

Booting WattOS into a machine that may be able to start the GUI and transplanting the flash disk may be an option, but I don't consider it good sportmanship ;) And no CDROM is nowadays not what I call difficult machine specs, rather it's very common to not have any optical drive (eg. any netbook)

in any case, here come the specs of the target HW:

IGEL M310C thin client
Processor VIA Nano U3500 1GHz
Chipsets VIA VX855 (embedded graphics)
Memory DDR2 533-800 SO-DIMM 1GB
Audio VIA VT1708S HD
Network 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet
5 x USB 2.0 Storage
1*44 pins IDE port / One 1*50 pins CF port

I measured a max of 16W power consumption during bootup. I got it for 5 Euros on ebay and plan to run a flightradar24 feed with it.


The CPU itself seems to be ok, the OS boots up perfectly.
I found out that the X.log above shows the wrong part. Earlier it says that /dev/dri/card0 is not found, which implies the drivers for the graphics aren't loaded.

The VX855 chipset with embedded graphics seems to require some drivers in order to run X, they're avaiable as OpenSource and from manufacturer (VIA). If you look at the acccording Ubuntu help pages you see that you need a development environment in order build either of them properly, but on the live ramdisk is not enough space. I remounted the USB disk of which I booted the system as read/write and moved/linked /var/lib and /var/cache onto the disk to free up some space on the ram disk. Next step is to try the proprietary drivers.



thanks!
« Last Edit: June 27, 2016, 12:11:43 PM by targa »

targa

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Re: R9 - no X - want to install anyway
« Reply #3 on: June 29, 2016, 04:20:11 PM »
shameonme!

when rebooting I noticed that grub offered me xforcevesa, which obviously at least let me do the graphical boot.

Next problem is that 3,7G disk space are required but I only have a 1G flash disk.....  maybe I need to reconsider my choice.

teejay

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Re: R9 - no X - want to install anyway
« Reply #4 on: June 30, 2016, 04:24:44 AM »
Core Project (Tiny Core / Core base) ?
Slitaz ?

leenie

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Re: R9 - no X - want to install anyway
« Reply #5 on: June 30, 2016, 05:09:33 PM »
Also, there is Puppylinux.

targa

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Re: R9 - no X - want to install anyway
« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2016, 09:24:57 AM »
I took a 4GB CF from my camera ;)

teejay

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Re: R9 - no X - want to install anyway
« Reply #7 on: July 19, 2016, 11:58:37 PM »
ROFL
Now, why didn't I think of that ?!     :)

targa

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Re: R9 - no X - want to install anyway
« Reply #8 on: July 20, 2016, 07:13:40 AM »
I interpreted your suggestion ".... by installing wattOS onto a HDD then transplanting that HDD into the lower spec machine, ... " like that..... just I was a bit hesitant to take the holy CF out of the holy camera :)
but in the end I can buy another CF for little money. Or I directly change to the CF-to-SDHC adapter that is around here ;)
Thanks anyway.

The original use case for it was a flightradar24-feed..... the next came into my mind... a CUPS Google Cloud Printer, so I can print documents at home when at work and don't need to take them home anymore.