Debian on the X10 - XPERIA X10 Android Development

[MESSAGE TO MODS, I could not include urls so have added spaces to pass spam filter.. please change?]
Well now we finally have root on our shiny devices I decided to crack open
the beers and get to work getting debian running on the X10..
the process is actually pretty straight-forward.
(as it turns out the x10's kernel already has support for most things needed
such as the ext2 filesystem)
-- step 1--
firstly we need to create a debian image for the phone, there are a few already out there but you can use the following to create your own
Code:
apt-get install debootstrap
dd if=/dev/zero of=debian.img seek=749999999 bs=1 count=1
mke2fs -F debian.img
mkdir debian
mount -o loop debian.img debian
debootstrap --verbose --arch armel --foreign lenny debian [ht]tp:[//]ftp. de. debian. org/debian
umount debian
how ever if you would prefer to use a ready built one (recomended for less techies ) you can get one from: rapidshare. com/files/161776007/debian-armel-750.img.bz2
(had to include spaces in the url to pass spam filter, could a mod please change this?)
now copy this too the root of your sdcard and make sure its called debian.img
-- step 2 --
I have created a script to do most of the other work for you:
Code:
alias b=busybox
export PATH=/data/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:$PATH
b mknod /dev/loop0 b 7 0
b mount -o loop,noatime /sdcard/debian.img /data/local/mnt
echo 'nameserver 4.2.2.2' >data/local/mnt/etc/resolv.conf
b chroot /data/local/mnt
mount -t devpts devpts /dev/pts
mount -t proc proc /proc
mount -t sysfs sysfs /sys
rm -f /etc/mtab
ln -s /proc/mounts /etc/mtab
put this in your sdcard to.
-- step 3 --
Finally in any terminal emulator cd to the location of the startdeb.sh file
and do the following:
Code:
chmod 777 ./startdeb.sh
./startdeb.sh
!! and your done !!
you should now be within the debian system.. i suggest running
Code:
apt-get update
and installing what ever apps you want
(my first choices were gcc, python and tightvncserver)
[ EXTRA ]
now your on debian you can use
Code:
apt-get install tightvncserver
to get the xwindow system and the vnc server
now set both your HOME and USER variables
Code:
export HOME=/root
export USER=root
(or what ever user you choose)
and run
Code:
tightvncserver
(your also gonna have to download lxde and do a few other bits of setup
have a look around for X11 "Ported" to android post on these forums)
you could also change the config so that the desktop is displayed
at the right size for the screen
just use a vnc client from the market to connect to your GUI

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Kool. I had ubuntu running on my htc touch pro once but wasnt really worth having apart from the cool factor. This looks promising.............. ill wait a while till I play around, the rooting factor is still new and I dont see the major gain to root yet.

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Way awesome, thanks for the guide.

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Nice work, will give this a try after I get the R2B rooted on my phone.
Next step for me would be to get the arm cross compilation toolchain and start porting goodies for the android....

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wow this looks sooooo awesome!! any screen shots? don't make me google

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when i try mounting debian.img using ur cmd i got following error
Code:
Usage: mount [-r] [-w] [-o options] [-t type] device directory
seems my mount requires -t parameters, so i try again, but still having error
Code:
mount -o loop,noatime -t ext2 /sdcard/debian.img /data/local/mnt
ioctl LOOP_SET_FD failed: Device or resource busy
please help thanks!

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aget1 said:
when i try mounting debian.img using ur cmd i got following error
Code:
Usage: mount [-r] [-w] [-o options] [-t type] device directory
seems my mount requires -t parameters, so i try again, but still having error
Code:
mount -o loop,noatime -t ext2 /sdcard/debian.img /data/local/mnt
ioctl LOOP_SET_FD failed: Device or resource busy
please help thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you running the script as root? If you not you might wanna try that.

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This may sound kind of noobish, but would this be a dual-boot (I.e. running both android and debian on different boots of the phone, or would this be debian, until you reset the phone to be android again.
Sent from my X10a using XDA App

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ddewbofh said:
Are you running the script as root? If you not you might wanna try that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Still the same
Code:
whoami
whoami: unknown uid 0
mount -o loop,noatime -t ext2 /sdcard/debian.img /data/local/mnt
ioctl LOOP_SET_FD failed: Device or resource busy

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aget1 said:
Still the same
Code:
whoami
whoami: unknown uid 0
mount -o loop,noatime -t ext2 /sdcard/debian.img /data/local/mnt
ioctl LOOP_SET_FD failed: Device or resource busy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And I assume you're either running the script or doing those commands manually? Including the mknod part?

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ddewbofh said:
And I assume you're either running the script or doing those commands manually? Including the mknod part?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i run the script and found no luck, so i type in both adb and console, of coz mknod is done, either mkdir /data/local/mnt is done or not gives the same result, tried also mounting without loop,noatime and gives
Code:
mount: Block device required
would it be rooting problem or mount problem?
also tried losetup -d /dev/loop0, no luck
Code:
losetup: /dev/loop0: Device or resource busy

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Keegan_P said:
This may sound kind of noobish, but would this be a dual-boot (I.e. running both android and debian on different boots of the phone, or would this be debian, until you reset the phone to be android again.
Sent from my X10a using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i see this to be a remounting of debian system on your phone, no modification on your phone so no, no dual boot

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anybody can post a video tutorial please?
and the debian and android works together or just debian?
thx

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A video tutorial would be amazing.
Sent from my X10a using XDA App

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I will upload a video tutorial asap but at the moment I am having to use a 3G dongle for my internet (just moved out, am poor.. all donations to [email protected] on paypal ;-)) also this runs along side (or on top of) android so you'll still be able to get your texts and calls.. finally there are already a lot of debian apps compiled for ARM systems so have a look to see if the app you want is on apt (make sure you've run apt-get update first) please pm me if you have any problems
Thanks,
Sam Aldis

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I tried to run it on the latest firmware and it seems loop device kernel module is not available in it.
Also the script is not fully functional :
you need to 'mkdir /data/local/mnt/'
also it's '/data/local' instead of 'data/local'
I haven't spend much time on this, so it's not working for now on my phone.
So help is welcome

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Quick question:
Has anyone at all gotten this to work?

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nope. I doubt it.

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mod edit:..

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sorry for stupid me, i don't know i can create loop device more than loop 0
i create loop0,loop1,loop2,loop7 and try mounting again, it success this time
so here is my script:
Code:
#!/system/bin/bash
export PATH=/data/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:$PATH
if [ ! -d /data/local/mnt ]
then
mkdir /data/local/mnt
fi
if [ ! -b /dev/loop2 ]
then
mknod /dev/loop0 b 7 0
mknod /dev/loop1 b 7 0
mknod /dev/loop2 b 7 0
mknod /dev/loop7 b 7 0
fi
if [ ! -d /data/local/mnt/bin ]
then
mount -o loop,noatime /sdcard/debian.img /data/local/mnt
fi
echo "nameserver 4.2.2.2" >data/local/mnt/etc/resolv.conf
chroot /data/local/mnt
mount -t devpts devpts /dev/pts
mount -t proc proc /proc
mount -t sysfs sysfs /sys
rm -f /etc/mtab
ln -s /proc/mounts /etc/mtab
Edited:
I just brick my device after some more work, every command even ls do no output, reboot machine freezes at sony ericsson logo, now i am re rooting the device......
Edited 2:
Should be not the problem of debian, seems working fine.