NetBSD
2015-04-29
Installing NetBSD 6.0 on Compaq Armada 4100 series laptop
Using the slap-on CD drive docking unit with CD-ROM drive, it was a simple matter to install the system with a GENERIC kernel The system came right up, detecting the MegaHertz XJ3336 Ethernet Modem PCMCIA card, and I was on the network in no time.
Kernel rebuilding
The 13MB+ GENERIC kernel is a monolithic kernel with many, many drivers built in, and on a 32MB system it didn't leave much room for applications.
The challenge came with identifying just which driver modules that I needed for the specific hardware that I had. Actually, this was not too hard. By using the dmesg output which shows which hardware was found and which drivers were loaded, it served as a guide.
Following the guidance in Chapter 32 of the NetBSD Guide, I downloaded and unpacked the five source files. Then, moving to the configuration directory (/usr/src/sys/arch/i386/conf) I made a copy of the GENERIC configuration file as my starting point. I commented out all the things that are not exactly needed. Then the kernel was built. It comes in at about 2.7MB. Not a bad reduction in size!
A couple of things to be aware of:
- I have only enabled the PCMCIA network driver for my specific card. I might want to add back in the whole list of PCMCIA drivers that I might eventually try.
- I have enabled filesystems that I think might be useful in the future, including SMBFS.
- This configuration includes support for the Armada's slap-on CD-ROM unit + game port.
- I tried to rebuild with 'options I586_CPU' and it produced code that was slower and 10% larger! Needless to say, I have removed that option from my final configuration file.
Here is the ARMADA configuration file stripped of all comment lines and empty lines:
include "arch/i386/conf/std.i386" maxusers 16 # estimated number of users options INSECURE # disable kernel security levels - X needs this options RTC_OFFSET=0 # hardware clock is this many mins. west of GMT options COMPAT_15 # NetBSD 1.5 options COMPAT_16 # NetBSD 1.6 options COMPAT_20 # NetBSD 2.0 options COMPAT_30 # NetBSD 3.0 options COMPAT_40 # NetBSD 4.0 options COMPAT_50 # NetBSD 5.0 options COMPAT_BSDPTY # /dev/[pt]ty?? ptys. file-system FFS # UFS file-system NFS # Network File System client file-system CD9660 # ISO 9660 + Rock Ridge file system file-system MSDOSFS # MS-DOS file system file-system PROCFS # /proc file-system SMBFS # experimental - CIFS; also needs nsmb (below) file-system PTYFS # /dev/ptm support options INET # IP + ICMP + TCP + UDP options IPFILTER_COMPAT # Compat for IP-Filter options WSEMUL_VT100 # VT100 / VT220 emulation options WSDISPLAY_CUSTOM_OUTPUT # color customization from wsconsctl(8) options WS_KERNEL_FG=WSCOL_GREEN options WSDISPLAY_CUSTOM_BORDER # custom border colors via wsconsctl(8) options WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_PCVT # emulate some ioctls options WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_SYSCONS # emulate some ioctls options WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_USL # wsconscfg VT handling options WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_RAWKBD # can get raw scancodes options PCKBD_CNATTACH_MAY_FAIL options PCDISPLAY_SOFTCURSOR options WSDISPLAY_SCROLLSUPPORT config netbsd root on ? type ? pci* at mainbus? bus ? pchb* at pci? dev ? function ? # PCI-Host bridges pcib* at pci? dev ? function ? # PCI-ISA bridges isa0 at pcib? pcmcia* at pcic? controller ? socket ? pcic0 at isa? port 0x3e0 iomem 0xd0000 iosiz 0x10000 isapnp0 at isa? npx0 at isa? port 0xf0 irq 13 # x86 math coprocessor pckbc0 at isa? # PC keyboard controller pckbd* at pckbc? # PC keyboard pms* at pckbc? # PS/2 mouse for wsmouse options PMS_SYNAPTICS_TOUCHPAD # Enable support for Synaptics Touchpads vga* at pci? dev ? function ? pcdisplay0 at isa? # CGA, MDA, EGA, HGA wsdisplay* at vga? console ? wskbd* at pckbd? console ? wsmouse* at pms? mux 0 attimer0 at isa? pcppi0 at isa? sysbeep0 at pcppi? com* at pcmcia? function ? # Modems and serial cards com0 at isa? port 0x3f8 irq 4 # Standard PC serial ports com1 at isa? port 0x2f8 irq 3 com2 at isa? port 0x3e8 irq 5 lpt0 at isa? port 0x378 irq 7 # standard PC parallel ports optiide* at pci? dev ? function ? # Opti IDE controllers atabus* at ata? options ATADEBUG wd* at atabus? drive ? flags 0x0000 atapibus* at atapi? cd* at atapibus? drive ? flags 0x0000 # ATAPI CD-ROM drives fdc0 at isa? port 0x3f0 irq 6 drq 2 # standard PC floppy controllers fd* at fdc? drive ? # the drives themselves mhzc* at pcmcia? function ? # Megahertz Ethernet/Modem combo cards com* at mhzc? sm* at mhzc? sm0 at isa? port 0x300 irq 10 # SMC91C9x Ethernet sb0 at isa? port 0x220 irq 5 drq 1 drq2 5 # SoundBlaster opl* at sb? audio* at audiobus? midi* at midibus? midi* at pcppi? # MIDI interface to the PC speaker spkr0 at pcppi? # PC speaker joy0 at isa? port 0x201 pseudo-device bpfilter # Berkeley packet filter pseudo-device ipfilter # IP filter (firewall) and NAT pseudo-device loop # network loopback pseudo-device pty # pseudo-terminals pseudo-device sequencer 1 # MIDI sequencer pseudo-device clockctl # user control of clock subsystem pseudo-device ksyms # /dev/ksyms pseudo-device nsmb # experimental - SMB requester pseudo-device wsmux # mouse & keyboard multiplexor pseudo-device wsfont pseudo-device cmos pseudo-device drvctl options FILEASSOC # fileassoc(9) - required for Veriexec pseudo-device veriexec options VERIFIED_EXEC_FP_RMD160 options VERIFIED_EXEC_FP_SHA256 options VERIFIED_EXEC_FP_SHA384 options VERIFIED_EXEC_FP_SHA512 options VERIFIED_EXEC_FP_SHA1 options VERIFIED_EXEC_FP_MD5 options PAX_MPROTECT=0 # PaX mprotect(2) restrictions options PAX_ASLR=0 # PaX Address Space Layout Randomization
X Windows configuration
Out of the box, X Windows WILL NOT work. I had to do some research and cobble together a configuration file on my own. Here is the /etc/X11/xorg.conf that works on the Armada 4100 series:
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "X.org Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection
Section "Files"
ModulePath "/usr/X11R7/lib/modules"
FontPath "/usr/X11R7/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R7/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R7/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R7/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R7/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
EndSection
Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "dri"
Load "dri2"
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
Load "record"
Load "shadow"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "wsmouse"
Option "Device" "/dev/wsmouse"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Compaq Armada 4120 TFT LCD"
VendorName "Compaq"
ModelName "Armada 4120"
HorizSync 31-69
VertRefresh 55-120
ModeLine "800x600" 45 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628
ModeLine "640x480" 25.175 640 664 760 800 480 491 493 525
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Cirrus CL-GD7548"
VendorName "Cirrus"
BoardName "CL-GD7548"
VideoRam 1024
Driver "cirrus"
Option "linear"
Option "no_accel"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Cirrus CL-GD7548"
Monitor "Compaq Armada 4120 TFT LCD"
DefaultColorDepth 16
Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection
EndSection
Enabling root login via ssh
Edit /etc/ssh/sshd.conf and change to read:
#PermitRootLogin no PermitRootLogin yes
Then restart the sshd server with:
/etc/rc.d/sshd restart
Enable telnet logins
Edit /etc/inetd.conf and change to include
telnet stream tcp nowait root /usr/libexec/telnetd telnetd -a none
NOTE: the use of 'none' at the end of the line!