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Update download link for newest gen8 kernel and zImage

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General Info

For now it is still experimental and not meant for end users. So if you don't know what you are doing skip this and wait for something more end user friendly. The multi root will let you choose between multiple rootfs images at the startup from your archos. For now it uses the same kernel for your rootfs namely a modified archos android kernel. The final goal is to be able to use for example kexec, so it would also be possible to boot different kernels. Sources for the kernel and initramfs are available on gitorious.

http://gitorious.org/archos-buildroots/gen8-kernel

http://gitorious.org/archos-buildroots/gen8

Installing Multi Root on Gen8

Notice for non-developers:

If you are running Windows!

You will run into problems.

This is for experimental software, not an 'upgrade' of any kind. If you are looking for one, ask Archos, not us!

When it says 'remove safely' you MUST ALWAYS disable the drive letter from the ext3 driver window, else it will NOT work. (missing zImage, initramfs and also missing 'Archos' entry in the boot menu are sure signs of this)

If something doesn't work then please kindly turn to one of the Archos forum sites. We are not able handle Windows problems on the chat.

First you have to install SDE from Archos After you installed SDE proceed.

Download the initramfs.cpio.gz and zImage from http://www.openaos.org/wp-upload/gen8/2011-11-06/
NOTE: Builds linked here can change and may have bugs

Connect your archos to your PC with the usb cable.

Go into recovery by holding down the "volume down" button and switch on your archos. Keep the button pressed until you see the white recovery menu. Goto "Recovery system" --> "Developer Edition Menu" --> "Flash Kernel and initramfs"

Copy the downloaded files to the archos and unmount safely.

When the boot-menu is started it will look for menu.lst on the internal storage of your archos. In menu.lst you will be able to define your boot menu. If it doesn't exists, it will create a default one for you with the following content.

Archos|ARCHOS|ARCHOS|/init|0
Angstrom||/rootfs.img|/sbin/init|1

For now it will expect your rootfs image files to be on the internal memory.

NOTE: If you for some reason use windows, which is not recommended much better is to use a linux distro. Then don't use notepad to edit the menu.lst, but use notepad++. In notepad++ goto Edit --> EOL conversion --> Unix. If it is grayed out you are ok, else click on it to set end of line to unix. Line endings should be in unix, because parsing the menu.lst on boot will screw up.

Rootfs filesystems to install on your gen8

Note: At the moment these images are far from being functional to an end user

Name:	Download:	Sources:	How to build your own:	How to install:
openAOS-Cyanogenmod (current: Anoa)	http://download.openaos.org/release/	https://gitorious.org/openaos-cyanogenmod	Setting up buildenvironment Cyanogenmod gen7/gen8	Guidelines to install Gingerbread
Debian LXDE	http://www.openaos.org/wp-upload/gen8/debian/		Debian gen8	Debian gen8

Currently known problems:

No TS support on A70S, A70H, A101 inside the boot-menu
TS support in boot-menu removed also from other models due to problems
Disabled removing archos init, because of startup issues with original archos firmware. So you will have to start the boot menu by going into recovery and choose developer edition.

Features

You can repartition internal storage and use ext4 for as filesystem. You then have to add "/dev/mmcblk1p2" on the second position in menu.lst. You can also use the sd-card "/dev/mmcblk2pX". X is the partition you want to use. If you only have one partition it will be "/dev/mmcblk2p1"
```
Angstrom|/dev/mmcblk1p2|/rootfs.img|/sbin/init|1
```

Dumping the squashfs file from archos. Create a dir on your internal storage with the name "/openaos/dump". On startup from the bootmenu it will copy the secure squashfs from /mnt/system dir to the dump dir for further extraction.

Update the squashfs file. Create a dir on your internal storage with the name "/openaos/update". In that folder you can put your new squashfs. Use ".secure" extension if it has the 256 bytes signature.

If there is a rootfs file with the name "openaos-gingerbread.img" or "openaos-gingerbread.img.gz" in the root of the internal storage and there is no entry for Gingerbread in menu.lst it will create one.

In the bootmenu where you can choose between the images there is also Advanced Menu at the bottom of the list. When you choose advanced menu it will bring up a menu with the following content.

Menu option:	Description:	Link
Debugging	This will get you to the debug menu	Debugging
Disable/Enable Rooted Device	Disable or enable unionfs	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UnionFS
Disable/Enable Compcache	Disable or enable Compcache	http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/Swap_and_Compcache
Recovery	Reboot to archos recovery menu
Reboot	Reboot the device
Back	Back to the main menu

If you copy a gzipped img file like the downloadable gingerbread.img.gz, you can just copy the *.gz file to your archos. It will then be unpacked with gunzip at first boot. Note: First boot will take more time to complete. Also if you make a manual entry in menu.lst, just use the filename without .gz extension.

If you want to boot straight into SDE, just remove android in the recovery menu.

Debugging

Just Download initramfs-debug.cpio.gz and rename it to initramfs.cpio.gz and flash it together with the zImage. Leave the USB cable connected to your archos, because that will be your serial connection.

Note: You can also use the normal initramfs.cpio.gz and choose Advanced menu --> Debugging to go to the serial menu. In the debug version it will boot straight to the serial menu.

If you now startup the bootmenu it will first ask you what kind of debugging connection.

None (no debugging will be used)
Serial (serial will be used)
Ether (ethernet will be used)
Both (serial and ethernet)

I you enable serial, you will see 3 connections available on your PC

On Ubuntu:

dmesg | grep cdc_acm

You will get an output like this

[3365540.510632] cdc_acm 1-4:2.0: This device cannot do calls on its own. It is not a modem.
[3365540.510749] cdc_acm 1-4:2.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
[3365540.512000] cdc_acm 1-4:2.2: This device cannot do calls on its own. It is not a modem.
[3365540.512277] cdc_acm 1-4:2.2: ttyACM1: USB ACM device
[3365540.517070] cdc_acm 1-4:2.4: This device cannot do calls on its own. It is not a modem.
[3365540.517222] cdc_acm 1-4:2.4: ttyACM2: USB ACM device

/dev/ttyACM0 Not used in initramfs, but used for android console
/dev/ttyACM1 Gives you a shell in initramfs
/dev/ttyACM2 Output of kernel messages (/proc/kmsg)

Some programs to connect to serial:

minicom
screen
putty

Connection info:

Speed: 115200 (This can be set higher or lower, it shouldn't matter much. I use 115200)
Data bits: 8
Stop bits: 1
Parity: none
Flow Control: none

How to use minicom:

Start your archos and choose serial in the first menu to enable it. It now boots to the main bootmenu.

Start your shell by entering the following on your pc:

$ minicom -D /dev/ttyACM1

Show kernel messages output by entering the following on your PC after the command choose on your archos the rootfs you want to start:

$ minicom -D /dev/ttyACM2