installing with d-i

It's now possible to install armel directly with d-i, using one of the images from here: http://people.debian.org/~joeyh/d-i/armel/images/daily/

nslu2 users should instead get an image from http://slug-firmware.net/ , if you need to use the onboard ethernet. See http://www.cyrius.com/debian/nslu2/ for instructions on using d-i with a slug.

The options below are for installing without d-i.

debian repositories

A repository tracking debian/ sid is available at gnuab.org:

deb http://ftp.gnuab.org/debian/ unreleased main
deb http://ftp.gnuab.org/debian/ sid main

gnuab does not carry arch-all packages, so you will need to grab them from official debian repository near you:

deb http://ftp.fi.debian.org/debian dists/unstable/main/binary-arm/

The original armel port repository, which is frozen few months before etch is at :

deb http://armel-debs.applieddata.net/debian/ sid main

Building EABI ready Kernel

You need to enable the following options to enable both EABI and OLDABI

CONFIG_ARM_THUMB=y
CONFIG_AEABI=y
CONFIG_OABI_COMPAT=y

To simplify things, make sure you have all essential kernel modules built-in, since oldabi modprobe can't load EABI modules nor the other way around.

Creating a EABI chroot

Creating a chroot is the easiest way, if you just want to test building and running EABI applications.

The easiest way is to download http://armel.applieddata.net/developers/linux/eabi/armel-root-fs.tar.bz2 prebuilt rootfs]. And extract it somewhere. Then just chroot there.

creating chroot using debootstrap

See ?CrossDebootstrap for instructions on this. For the above repo you would use this command:

# debootstrap --verbose --arch armel --foreign sid /armel-chroot http://armel-debs.applieddata.net/debian

to put an armel chroot into the directory /armel-chroot.

Migrating arm installation to arm eabi installation

There is no proper way yet. The following instructions worked for me, but no guarantees at all.

  1. Create a chroot like above.
  2. store your current package selections with "dpkg --get-selections > file"

  3. enter your chroot and set the selections to match: "dpkg --set-selections < file"

  4. test install all the same applications to your chroot: "apt-get --no-act dselect-upgrade"
  5. backup
  6. boot into single user mode and make sure there is no processess running
  7. bind-mount / somewhere under the armel chroot, and move the directories (this is the scary part)

# mount -o bind / /chroot/armel/mnt/
# chroot /chroot/armel/
# cd /mnt
# mkdir old
# mv bin lib usr var old # relocate the old binary directores
# cp -a /bin /lib /usr /var . # copy the armel binaryes and library directories to root
# mv start-stop-daemon.REAL start-stop-daemon

At this point, make *sure* you have everything you need to boot and access your system under /mnt.

Exit the armel chroot and *REBOOT*. If it breaks, you get to keep the pieces.

If you are lucky, you have now a armel system. Finish the installation by pulling in the rest of packages you had installed:

apt-get -dselect-upgrade

TODO: recover old /var selectively.

* http://lists.debian.org/debian-arm/2007/01/msg00034.html