Ingredients:

1 medium-sized SD/MMC card (1gb should be good, 512mb would fit a barebones install but it'd be a squeeze)
1 Treo 650 with USB cable
A freshly picked Cocoboot
A precooked Debian armel rootfs, use mine or make your own with debootstrap.
palmt650 kernel zImage (patches against vanilla linux-arm devel)
Brains

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Serves: 1

Begin by dividing your memory card into three partitions:

1. Small FAT16 partition (say 16mb, large if you want space for Palm OS stuff)
2. Large ext2 or ext3 partition
3. Small swap partition (say 64mb. This optional but improves the flavour)

Place your cocoboot inside /palm/launcher on the first partition, and your kernel in /. Create a cocoboot.conf containing:

cmdline=root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootdelay=1

Untar the Debian rootfs into the second partition.

cd /mnt/mmcblk0p2
tar -jxvpf ~/debian-lenny-armel-20081004.rootfs.tar.bz2

Place SD card into your Treo and run cocoboot. Let it cook until nicely browned or you see a login prompt.

Connect USB cable to your computer. Run on host computer:

sudo iptables -A POSTROUTING -t nat -j MASQUERADE -s 192.168.0.0/24
sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
sudo ip addr add 192.168.0.200/24 dev usb0

You should then be able to ssh into the Treo at root@192.168.0.202. Password is "root". Change /etc/apt/sources.lst to point to a local Debian mirror. You might also like to update /etc/hostname and /etc/resolv.conf to your liking. Set the date to something sane or you'll have lots of apps complaining:

date -s 'Sat Oct 4 23:18:40 2008'

Check to make sure you can reach the outside world, then update apt:

ping example.org
apt-get update

Finally you can install whatever you like. To install X11 use something like:

apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-fbdev xserver-xorg-input-tslib xterm xinit xfonts-base x11-xserver-utils

Then

echo 6118 0 -2315576 0 -6440 23486188 20800 > /etc/pointercal

EOF

You'll need to comment out the variance module in /etc/ts.conf to work around a xserver-xorg-input-tslib bug (alternatively you could update to Debian unstable).

For a lightweight window manager install matchbox-window-manager. For a simple on screen keyboard try matchbox-keyboard.

Somewhat inspired by this: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianOnFreeRunner

That's the latest version on our treo 650 .
I would try to run on my 650
thx .

I have been trying this for most of the day. I cannot get APT-GET Update to work...keep getting 404 not found. I have tried editing the sources.list file with several variations...no joy.
I am also not sure how to apply the Treo 650 patch file.

Post the contents of your sources.lst.

Also, which patch file are you talking about, the kernel? Another way to get our kernel source is:

git clone git://git.hackndev.com/linux-2.6

Couldn't get it to work :(

After running cocoboot, boot freezes and gives me a Kernel Panic:VFS:Unable to mount root fs on Unknown block(0,1) error. Any idea what this is about?

Thanks

I was trying to get apt working too, and at last I remembered my favourite repo. It is located on czech university server - CVUT. The working sources.list line is:

deb http://debian.sh.cvut.cz/ unstable main

Hope it will help :)

Got it to work with an updated version of cocoboot :)

Also realized that it's space delimited only, can't use returns to separate the commands in cocoboot...

BTW thanks for making this how to - just wish there was a cocoboot manual out there somewhere.

Hmm, i tried connect via USB to my palm treo 650 and dmesg on my computer gave me:

agpgart: Found an AGP 3.0 compliant device at 0000:00:00.0.
agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:00:00.0 into 8x mode
agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:01:00.0 into 8x mode
usb 2-2: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 3
usb 2-2: device descriptor read/64, error -62
usb 2-2: device descriptor read/64, error -62
usb 2-2: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 4
usb 2-2: device descriptor read/64, error -62
hub 2-0:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 2
usb 2-2: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 5
usb 2-2: device descriptor read/64, error -62
usb 2-2: device descriptor read/64, error -62
usb 2-2: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 6
usb 2-2: device descriptor read/64, error -62
usb 2-2: device descriptor read/64, error -62
usb 2-2: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 7
usb 2-2: device not accepting address 7, error -62
usb 2-2: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 8
usb 2-2: device not accepting address 8, error -62
hub 2-0:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 2
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (8192 buckets, 32768 max)

Before dmesg i tried :
# iptables -A POSTROUTING -t nat -j MASQUERADE -s 192.168.0.0/24
# sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
# ip addr add 192.168.0.200/24 dev usb0
But last command not found ( ip addr ... )

uname -a
Linux gentoo 2.6.26-gentoo-r3 #1 SMP Wed Dec 10 10:23:01 CET 2008 i686 AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 2600+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

How can i change it? I want to connect to my Palm. Thanks for replies

Hello, Daredevil. I see you have the same problem I had a few minutes ago. More preciously, two problems. The first one is that you haven't used the "USB Console" option in menu of Cocoboot. Without that option Treo won't be recognised.

The second problem is caused by missing package in your gentoo, and that is: sys-apps/iproute2

And don't forget one more thing the author forget to write in original post - that you should set usb0 device up (at least on my machine I had to). I do it using ifconfig usb0 up (however somebody told me ifconfig is "old and unmodern" :-D)

emerge the missing ebuild and try again... May the source be with you :)

Two questions:

1) Does anyone know where the keymap/keymap loader is stored for the console in this distro? I can't seem to find it, and the installed keymap isn't configed for the palm keyboard

2) Does anyone know if the bluetooth drivers work in Debian on the Treo, (ie: could I use the palm bluetooth keyboard?)

Thanks!

Found the directories on my own:

/etc/console/boottime.kmap.gz

/usr/share/keymaps/

(didn't realize they were hidden)

Do you think could I be able to boot linux on my Tungsten E2, following your HowTo???

I've been collecting info and bouth use the same processor (Treo a fester one).

Thanks!

Manugarrote: Dunno, try it. If the hardware is the same it will prolly work. If it does, it'll likely be painfully slow.

Does anyone how the power management is set on this rootfs? I noticed that neither apmd nor acpi are installed so I'm confused how the kernel suspends.

hello, I have nearly the same problem with that. my 'ip' is there and executed correctly, but usb0 cannot be found, from dmsg i found the device was recognized, but no usb0 found, and 'ifconfig -a' didn't find it either. my usbserial and visor module are all loaded. Do I missed anything, cound you give me some more advice?

Absolutely crazy!!! Don't forget though, there was one issue during the installation...

cat > /etc/xorg.conf <<EOF

Should actually be

cat > /etc/X11/xorg.conf <<EOF

instead, the configuration file gets read from there I believe. Now I need to figure out how to get some kinda cdma working!

Keymaps in case someone needs some help with that

apt-get install console-data console-tools debconf

This will install the tools you may need...

showkey (this will show you what keys are being pressed for 10 seconds)

dumpkeys > treomap (dump your current keymap to a file called 'treomap')

pico treomap (edit keys how you would like them)

loadkeys treomap (use this on the phone to load those suckers back up and use them)

I can confirm that this guide works with the T|X, but I can't quite get the xserver to start or the touchscreen to work. /c: I thought that these two devices have near to the same hardware.

Any ideas?

I have a 650, and it took some configuration to get both the touchscreen and xserver to work (BTW the touchscreen only works in xserver).

First of all, you have to create xorg.conf in /etc/X11 , not in /etc .

Secondly, the touchscreen config that he gives works for his machine, but will not necessarily work for your machine, since the TX has a different display size from the 650. I'm not sure if the driver will work for your machine (you can try it if you like) to manually set the calibration (in your /etc/pointercal file) use this rule:

#s*Xs = a*Xd + b*Yd + c
#s*Ys = d*Xd + e*Yd + f
#
if you look at your pointercal file it should be something like this:
6300 0 -2315576 0 -6350 23486188 20800
#a----b--c-----------d--e-------f-------------s
^^ the above letters show you the correct labels for setting the x/y offset vars given in the formula.

Good luck!

I have download alex's rootfs
but I cannot install any packages

dpkg log:
Use of uninitialized value in pattern match (m//) at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd/ScreenSize.pm line 33, <> line 89.
Use of uninitialized value in pattern match (m//) at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd/ScreenSize.pm line 48, <> line 89.

I think maybe it is a bug

can you give another rootfs with sid? or can you write a article to introduce how to make a rootfs?

thanks

I think you can safely try emfox's debian image for Treo680.

I have this installed and working, but the keymaps aren't working quite right. I am having trouble with getting the alternate characters working. Following Xedecimal's instructions, I am able to get key presses to show up using showkey, but the alternate keys are not displaying (just shows alt key was pressed, then the letter key is pressed, even if I press them together). The shift keys are working fine, as is the Ctrl key (the solid colored key to the left of the Z, ctrl+d and ctrl+c work).

Does anyone have a working keymap file or a suggestion on getting my alternate keys working? It is difficult working without the / or the - keys.

I just used the xmodmap from Raster's Illume image (you'll have to edit it a bit, there are a few mistakes in it). It will only work if you have an x-session running (of course).

try removing the treo from a hub and plug it directly into a pc usb port. that worked for me.

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Have a look here and here. It may differ a bit, but it gives you the way :)
If you update it, please send me a mail, I'll add it to the repo and please, tell me also where you got kernel (it can differ in versions).

I also recentl used the xmodmap from Raster's Illume image also used the showkey (this will show you what keys are being pressed for 10 seconds)dumpkeys > treomap (dump your current keymap to a file called 'treomap') for istallation but not get success,i want some ustallation for my nokia 5310 also.

Hi. I have a Verizon-branded Treo 650. How, if there is any way, do I turn on the CDMA radio and make/recieve calls? I am willing to test and debug to get it working if necessary.