[OM 2008.12] FR: Problems, problems: please help

[Rask Ingemann Lambertsen]

On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 11:24:49PM +0100, Toni Mueller wrote:
> 
> I didn't flash the u-boot, since it was said that that wasn't needed,
> except in very rare cases. The wiki is a bit unclear about that,
> however.

   It depends on how old the u-boot your Freerunner shipped with is. In any
case, it will have trouble reading above 4 GB on SDHC-cards since the patch
to make it do that was posted just yesterday:
https://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/openmoko-kernel/2009-March/009573.html

> root at om-gta02:/etc/opkg# cat /proc/version 
> Linux version 2.6.24 (build at barbie) (gcc version 4.1.2) #1 PREEMPT Wed Dec 17 02:13:29 CST 2008

   That kernel is outdated. For starters, the power management has bugs and
the hardware clock runs a month behind, which is a problem because the
months don't have the same number of days. For the OM 200x distributions to
have any sort of future, the kernel bug fixes need to be backported to the
old 2.6.24 series or OM 2009.x adapted to work with a 2.6.28 (or later)
kernel.

> root at om-gta02:/etc/opkg# cat /etc/om-version
> Tag Name:
> VERSION: cd512fd1e1aee5f4ba368d8acc1f2fb7a32773d3
> Branch: org.openmoko.stable
> Build Host: barbie
> Time Stamp: Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:15:27 +0800

OM 2008.12.

> (The device was "advertised" as being a GTA02v6, whatever that may mean.)

https://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Neo_FreeRunner_Hardware#History

Significant improvements of v6 compared to v5:
It can be turned on without a battery (or with a depleted battery).
GPS reception isn't disturbed by the SD-card slot.
Turning on the AUX button light draws much less current.

> In any case, I thought I'd try with 'opkg', eg. 'opkg update', and
> 'opkg upgrade'. I found no way to download upgrades for the system,
> and no way to upgrade to Om2008.12 this way.

   There's a file under /etc/opkg or so that you can modify to select where
to get updates from.

>  * GPS does not work. So far, I _never_ got a GPS position, even not
>    with an external GPS antenna. The one time I was able to fire up
>    "Settings", and on every attempt to use "Locations", I said "yes"
>    to enabling GPS, to no avail.

   Did you try outdoors? Usually GPS signals can't be received inside a
building, but it may work with the receiver pressed up against a window.
Outdoors, with most of the sky visible, you should get a fix in 35 - 45
seconds.

> FWIW, I expect to be able to use the device as a phone, a navigation
> system, a music player and voice recorder.
> 
> After investing some 20 hours or so, I'm now at a loss and don't know
> what else to try.

https://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Distributions

Try a few and see what you like.

-- 
Rask Ingemann Lambertsen
Danish law requires addresses in e-mail to be logged and stored for a year