ref: cd747191012d0420ac631340d962da1f80cef0a5
dir: /sys/src/9/bitsy/Booting101/
The bitsy comes with Wince. To get to Plan 9, you will need a serial cable, a Windows machine with a serial interface, the CDROM that comes with the bitsy, and a Plan 9 machine with a serial interface. The Windows machine is used to get the Linux boot loader onto the bitsy (and to save away wince, if you so desire). The Plan 9 machine is used to get the plan 9 kernel and a read only file system onto the bitsy. 0. charge up the bitsy. 1. go to ftp://ftp.handhelds.org/pub/linux/compaq/ipaq/stable/install.html Get the latest version of the Linux "osloader" and "bootldr" programs (we have tried versions 1.3.0 and 0000-2.14.8, respectively; newest versions seem not to allow you to suspend your bitsy due to a bug which is probably ours). You can find them all at www.collyer.net/who/geoff/9/bitsy/. 2. Use ActiveSync to copy osloader and bootldr to the bitsy. Copy or rename the bootldr binary to "bootldr" on Windows, then copy it to the bitsy; trying to rename it on WinCE won't produce the right result. Steps 3 - 7 may work on a Pocket PC bitsy, but see Steps 3a - 7a if they don't or if you have a Pocket PC 2002 bitsy. 3. Run osloader by clicking on it under the WinCE File Explorer 4. Use osloader to save your WinCE flash away. This takes a while, as it's 16MB over a 115,200 baud line. 5. Select "Run" from the osloader menu. Ignore "Run from RAM"; it's not needed. 6. At this point, the bitsy's screen turns blank, but you can still talk to the bitsy over its serial port. The serial port is connected to the OS loader's terminal program. On Windows, you have to exit ActiveSync before the serial port is available for a terminal program. I moved the bitsy and its cable over to a Plan 9 machine and connected using "con -b 115200 /dev/eia[01]" to talk to the console. The command "help" lists the OS loader's commands. 7. Now you need to download the BOOT loader program into flash (right now, you're only running the OS loader program out of RAM; rebooting will get you back to WinCE). In the con window, "load bootldr" to the bitsy. It will indicate that it's starting an xmodem download. Under con, type "Ctrl-\" to get a ">>>" prompt. At this prompt, you want to run Plan 9's xms program to pipe the bootldr program to the bitsy. For example, to download /tmp/bootldr, type "!xms /tmp/bootldr". If this step works successfully, the OS loader will print out some sort of OK checksum message. If you have a Pocket PC 2002 or steps 3 - 7 above didn't work for you, try 3a - 7a. 3a. Copy BootBlaster (also) to the bitsy via ActiveSync. 4a. Save your flash by running osloader and selecting "Flash->Save to File". As it produces 4MB files, use ActiveSync to copy them off the bitsy. 5a. Move the bitsy and its cable over to a Plan 9 machine and connect using "con -b 115200 /dev/eia[01]" to talk to the console. 6a. Run BootBlaster by clicking on it under the WinCE File Explorer. 7a. Select "Program"; it should copy "bootldr" into your flash in about 15 seconds. 8. Reboot your bitsy (either cycle the power or use the reset switch). The new boot loader runs out of Flash. You'll get the linux penguin splash screen and a bunch of options triggered by buttons. Pick the one that gets you to the boot loader. 9. Make the partitions you need in the bitsy's flash, type, using the con program: partition reset partition define bootldr 0x000000 0x040000 2 partition define params 0x040000 0x040000 0 partition define kernel 0x080000 0x0c0000 0 partition define user 0x140000 0x0c0000 0 partition define ramdisk 0x200000 0x600000 0 partition define fs 0x800000 0x800000 0 params save These are the partitions as shown by partition show: boot> partition show argv[1]=partition npartitions=00000006 bootldr base: 00000000 size: 00040000 flags: 00000002 params base: 00040000 size: 00040000 flags: 00000000 kernel base: 00080000 size: 000C0000 flags: 00000000 user base: 00140000 size: 000C0000 flags: 00000000 ramdisk base: 00200000 size: 00600000 flags: 00000000 fs base: 00800000 size: 00800000 flags: 00000000 After each line you'll get a message like `defining partition: params'. Different versions of the bootloader predefine different partitions. The bootldr partition is usually predefined, so you don't have to remake that. You may have to delete one or two partitions. The command is partition delete <name> Make sure the partition layout is as given above; some of this knowledge is built into the kernel. 10. Before you can fill the new partitions with a kernel and a read-only file system, you'll have to make them. In the directory /sys/src/9/bitsy, type mk and mk paqdisk. Before mk-ing paqdisk, make sure you have all the necessary arm binaries installed in /arm and examine the file paqfiles/mfs to see what you need to change for connecting to your local file servers. 11. Now you can type "load kernel". The boot loader will prompt for another xmodem download. Again escape using "Ctrl-\", then use "!xms /sys/src/9/bitsy/9bitsy" (or "!xms /arm/9bitsy" if you've already installed it). 12. Download the ramdisk, using "load ramdisk" and "!xms /sys/src/9/bitsy/paqdisk" (or "!xms /arm/paqdisk" if you've already installed it), similarly to 10, above. 13. Type `boot' or `boot flash' depending on your version of the boot loader. If you need the latter, you may want to set boot_type flash params save to make boot flash the default. You'll get a Dutch flag (or a French one, if you hold the iPaq the wrong way), then the boot screen will say, on the serial port, thus in your con window: root is from [paq]: Just wait a while or hit enter in the con window and it'll continue. 14. The bitsy will now want to calibrate the screen. It'll put up a series of crosses that you should press the center of. Hold the pen down over each cross for a second or so; aim carefully. Hold the machine in your hand the way you'ld normally use it or the calibration could be off since there is depth to the glass in the screen. 15. You'll get a new screen with a single line at the top and a keyboard/scribble area at the bottom. This is a simple one file editor. This file is similar to plan9.ini on PC's. There may be garbage on the top line. If there is, delete the garbage letters. (Be careful here: the backspace and delete keys are adjacent on the wee keyboard and it's much too easy to hit delete instead of backspace, especially if you haven't calibrated the screen dead-on.) You should be left with a single line containing (with different numbers): calibrate='-16374 22919 251 -24' You need to enter a few more things, including, but not limited to: user=<user-name> wvkey1=<key string> wvkey2=<key string> wvkey3=<key string> wvtxkey=<key string> wvessid=<wavelan name> auth=<ip address> cpu=<ip address> proxy=<ip address> fs=<ip address> Your best bet is to copy these off a working bitsy. wv*key* only matter if your wireless network is encrypted. When roaming the world, omit wv*. When you're done, hit the "ESC" key on the simulated keyboard, or the side button near the word iPAQ on the bitsy. The system will now come up as you. However, you'll get a message about the flash file system being corrupted, because we haven't yet initialized it. 16. To set up the file systems, sweep a window and give the following sequence of commands. # aux/mkflashfs /dev/flash/fs # aux/flashfs aux/flashfs created a Plan 9 server in /srv/brzr, which we can use to set up default directories. # mount -c /srv/brzr /n/brzr # cd /n/brzr # mkdir n usr # mkdir n/fs n/emelie n/choline n/nslocum # mkdir usr/yourname usr/yourfriend 17. For safety, reboot the system: # reboot 18. Now reboot, go through the Linux splash screen, the Plan 9 boot editor, and sweep yourself a new rio window. Before you can connect to other machines, you need a way to enter passwords and keys into factotum. The easiest way to do this is to run # auth/fgui & in the window you just made. The window will disappear (fgui spends most of its time hidden), so sweep a new window and run the command # mfs to connect to file servers. You will probably need to modify mfs to work in your environment (see point 10), though you can supply many of the variables it needs in step 15, and doing # import $cpu /net before running mfs can go a long ways. 19. When you're all set with a working wavelan, you can download new kernels more quickly using # bitsyload k and new paqdisks using # bitsyload r (r stands for ramdisk, the name of the partition into which paqdisk goes). Note that overwriting the ramdisk partition will cause the read-only file system which forms the root of you namespace to fail. You'll need to reboot immediately after bytsyload r.