Debian on Gumstix

This page briefly describes installing debian/sarge on gumstix. It was tested on gumstix connex 200xm with netmmc card and 1GB mmc memory card. Basically, this recipe will describe how to make your gumstix root image mostly untouched, while capable to run debian linux from mmc card. It can be easily modified to use cf card, harddisk drive or nfs filesystem over network instead of mmc.

Get gumstix buildroot
get gumstix buildroot environment, Buildroot

Build gumstix root fs

 * make defconfig
 * make

(detailed in Buildroot)

Enable ext2 filesystem
find kernel config file in buid_arm_nofpu/linux*, then edit .config to contain:


 * CONFIG_EXT2_FS=m
 * (or CONFIG_EXT2_FS=y)

Enable NWFPE float point emulator
edit .config to contain:


 * CONFIG_FPE_NWFPE=y
 * CONFIG_FPE_NWFPE_XP=y

Rebuild gumstix root fs

 * rm -r build_arm_nofpu/root
 * make

Install root fs on gumstix
see Buildroot

Install basic debian system from PC
connect mmc to PC, then:
 * debootstrap --foreign --arch arm sarge /media/mmc/ http://your.mirror.somewhere

Mount to gumstix

 * modprobe ext2
 * mount /dev/mmcblk1p1 /mnt/mmc

Finish basic installation

 * chroot /mnt/mmc /debootstrap/debootstrap --second-stage

When it finishes, you can switch into debian by typing:
 * chroot /mnt/mmc /bin/bash

Possible next steps

 * copy gumstix utilities to mmc card
 * bootloader should load kernel from mmc card
 * linux kernel should use mmc card as root filesystem
 * creating startup scripts to configure gumstix with debian