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jayakumar · 02-13-2009, 09:13 PM

Hi folks, Adam,

I've been a bit slow getting on board. Adam was kind enough to send me an iLiad a while back and I'm fairly eager to get started. To introduce myself, I'm Jaya Kumar, a hobbyist. I'm also the author of the defio framewrok in the Linux kernel, and the drivers for the current E-Ink controllers in the Linux kernel such as hecubafb, metronomefb, and broadsheetfb. I've been posting demos and videos of some of my E-Ink related exploits and travails on youtube here, http://www.youtube.com/user/jayakumarlkml .

Okay, now, I'm looking for where we are with making iLiad kernel development and improvement possible. I wanted to collect the info and put it in one nice place, here. It would also be nice to document a step-by-step guide so that any new developer coming here will be able to follow a common sequence of steps to quickly get up to where everyone else is.

So here are my notes and we can reorganize them on a wiki if possible.

1. irex has published 2.4 kernel sources
http://developer.irexnet.com/pub/iLiad/Linux%20kernel/

but we would want to be on 2.6 so that's only useful as a reference. there are some binary only drivers but i think these were also recently open sourced. are there any standing items that are still binary only?

Matthijs' has posted some details of what would be needed to go to 2.6 here:
http://forum.irexnet.com/viewtopic.php?t=1569

Nalim says:
"
I have backported 2.6.7 kexec patch to stock irex-er0100 2.4 kernel + crosscompile arm patched kexec-tools 1.101 for irex. So now you can can boot another kernel (maybe 2.6) from the stock kernel without the need to reflash the kernel. Let me know if you like to have the new kernel + kexec bin.
I managed to boot patched 2.6.21 handheld.org kernel fom the ramdisk using kexec from the stock 2.4 kernel. The next step is to pivot the root fs back to the mounted cf card..
"

He has then posted what looks like a successful result here including all the binaries and sources he used:
http://www.kwik.cz/irex/

2. toolchain
http://developer.irexnet.com/pub/iLiad/Toolchain/
OE based so might as well just use straight OE.

3. serial console
i consider this the most important part. Matthijs has said:
"
The serial port is not exported to the outside of the device, it needs a small flatcable on the PCB.
If anyone is really committed (and able) to attempt a 2.6 port, we can send that person a serial-enabled device and debug-board (for loan).
If anyone should want to start, we should talk about what we have done internally first, in order to avoid duplicate work."

I have not asked them for this debug board yet. Maybe I should. Has anyone else done so?

Someone called jtag has reverse engineered the jtag connector pinout and console uart. a diagram of it here:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15142

That is pretty useful. Having jtag means we could reflash even if we bricked the unit. That would be very very handy.

----

Step-by-step guide
a) I think first one has to get the dev package from irex:
https://myirex.irexnet.com/user.php/developer
so that one can then reflash with the ability to make modifications. but apparently, this is not available if you are connecting from China.

I haven't done this yet. Okay, I think I'll stop here and make sure there's no newer info that I've missed.

02-13-2009, 09:13 PM	#1
jayakumar Member Posts: 13 Karma: 299 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: E-Ink	iLiad kernel development Hi folks, Adam, I've been a bit slow getting on board. Adam was kind enough to send me an iLiad a while back and I'm fairly eager to get started. To introduce myself, I'm Jaya Kumar, a hobbyist. I'm also the author of the defio framewrok in the Linux kernel, and the drivers for the current E-Ink controllers in the Linux kernel such as hecubafb, metronomefb, and broadsheetfb. I've been posting demos and videos of some of my E-Ink related exploits and travails on youtube here, http://www.youtube.com/user/jayakumarlkml . Okay, now, I'm looking for where we are with making iLiad kernel development and improvement possible. I wanted to collect the info and put it in one nice place, here. It would also be nice to document a step-by-step guide so that any new developer coming here will be able to follow a common sequence of steps to quickly get up to where everyone else is. So here are my notes and we can reorganize them on a wiki if possible. 1. irex has published 2.4 kernel sources http://developer.irexnet.com/pub/iLiad/Linux%20kernel/ but we would want to be on 2.6 so that's only useful as a reference. there are some binary only drivers but i think these were also recently open sourced. are there any standing items that are still binary only? Matthijs' has posted some details of what would be needed to go to 2.6 here: http://forum.irexnet.com/viewtopic.php?t=1569 Nalim says: " I have backported 2.6.7 kexec patch to stock irex-er0100 2.4 kernel + crosscompile arm patched kexec-tools 1.101 for irex. So now you can can boot another kernel (maybe 2.6) from the stock kernel without the need to reflash the kernel. Let me know if you like to have the new kernel + kexec bin. I managed to boot patched 2.6.21 handheld.org kernel fom the ramdisk using kexec from the stock 2.4 kernel. The next step is to pivot the root fs back to the mounted cf card.. " He has then posted what looks like a successful result here including all the binaries and sources he used: http://www.kwik.cz/irex/ 2. toolchain http://developer.irexnet.com/pub/iLiad/Toolchain/ OE based so might as well just use straight OE. 3. serial console i consider this the most important part. Matthijs has said: " The serial port is not exported to the outside of the device, it needs a small flatcable on the PCB. If anyone is really committed (and able) to attempt a 2.6 port, we can send that person a serial-enabled device and debug-board (for loan). If anyone should want to start, we should talk about what we have done internally first, in order to avoid duplicate work." I have not asked them for this debug board yet. Maybe I should. Has anyone else done so? Someone called jtag has reverse engineered the jtag connector pinout and console uart. a diagram of it here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15142 That is pretty useful. Having jtag means we could reflash even if we bricked the unit. That would be very very handy. ---- Step-by-step guide a) I think first one has to get the dev package from irex: https://myirex.irexnet.com/user.php/developer so that one can then reflash with the ability to make modifications. but apparently, this is not available if you are connecting from China. I haven't done this yet. Okay, I think I'll stop here and make sure there's no newer info that I've missed.