Current status: The image was released Jan 28th, 2000. The various pre-release images have been removed in an effort to encourage everyone to get the real version. (If you have specific need of the pre-releases, you can write us a note).
This disk image is a complete rebuild (no more a.out relics hiding on the disk), and everything has been built and installed in RPM format. The source SRPMs are from RedHat 6.1 distribution. For users of previous builds, you should no longer need to use --nodeps when installing or upgrading packages (if you do, then it indicates a problem).
The compiler, binutils, and glibc are "ahead" of those released by RedHat. For know issues with the toolchain, please see Scott's pages.
The full disk image (dm-3.1-15) can be found at ftp://netwinder.org/pub/netwinder/images. It is nearly 350 Megs in size, and uncompresses to a just under 1.2 Gigs.
A "minimal" version of the disk image has also been prepared, containing only the core functionality. It is about 39 Megs compressed and expands to about 110 Megs. Get base-3.1-15 from the images directory. This image will give you basic shell, web and ftp clients (lynx), and certain daemons. To use it for development, you must install binutils, gcc, glibc-devel, and possibly more.
All the RPMS and SRPMS that were used to make the two 3.1-15 images can be found on ftp.netwinder.org in the /pub/netwinder/RPMS and /pub/netwinder/SRPMS folders, respectively.
The vast majority of RPM packages build without any modification on the NetWinder. Such packages when compiled produce binary RPMS with names like package-version-release.armv4l.rpm. We preserve the original name, version and release numbers of the packages.
When modifications are required to build a package, then the release string will have the suffix _nw1 added to it. Sometimes you might also see _nw2, _nw3, etc.. as a suffix. Look at the changelog in the spec file for details of what was changed.
| Official 'stable' RPMS | |
|---|---|
| all binary packages | pub/netwinder/RPMS |
| all source packages | pub/netwinder/SRPMS |
| Unofficial 'latest' RPMS | |
| binutils, gcc, egcs, glibc | users/s/scottb/redhat/ |
| kernels, misc | users/r/ralphs/redhat/ |
| firmware (nettrom) | users/w/woody/ |
| everything else | users/a/andrewm/redhat/ |
The netwinder.bugtraq newsgroup is the primary forum for reporting bugs and their solutions. If you've found an inconsistency, but are not sure that it is a bug, then please post to the netwinder.devel or netwinder.general newgroups instead.
Known problems with the 3.1-15 developer image at this time include:
The mke2fs program on the disk image has some problems, or rather, it introduces new features not currently supported by the firmware. As a work-around, when you format the root filesystem, you must use `mke2fs -O sparse_super /dev/hda1' otherwise it will not boot.
There is no Xconfigurator or XF86_Setup program. Afaik there is no support in the official versions of these programs for the video chip used in the NetWinder, so they would be of dubious value. If you have trouble getting a picture under X, then check the Horiz/VertRefresh parameters in /etc/X11/XF86Config.
Video capture: you must insmod vidcap before starting up the X server, and run X at a medium resolution (640x480x16 is recommended) so there is enought video memory left over for the capture chip to use.
ImageMagik: the convert program seems to get stuck in an endless loop rather than exiting. Reason unknown.
Please mail me any additional entries for this page. I'll add stuff that's posted to the newsgroups automatically, though if I should forget, you can remind me...