• It is not as well tested or as stable as the regular Debian arm system.
• It is based on Debian unstable, not on Debian testing, which may make it harder to maintain than our arm releases.
• The Debian armel port is not yet complete and does not yet contain all all software available for Debian arm.

Download the cramfs.img and flashfs2 images from the link above and copy them to an ATA flash card. If your board uses 128k flash, download the flashfs2-128k image and copy it to the card named "flashfs2". Also copy onto the card the kernel zImage file for the kernel you want to use. Note that you must use an EABI version of the kernel, such as the one provided here.

For systems such as the BitsyXb, BitsyG5, TurboXb, Sphere, VGX, VIX, and Portal, which use the u-boot bootloader, a set of u-boot configuration files is needed. See this topic for all the available files, download the appropriate files and copy them to the card. Note that you will need at a minimum start.txt, cramfs root_config.txt, and a tty_config.txt file for your system. A hw_config.txt file for your system's frame buffer is recommended for best performace of the video demonstration programs included in this distribution.

For PXA systems such as the BitsyX, AGX, and GCX, which do not use the u-boot bootloader, a kernel command line is required to direct the kernel to mount this file system during start up. Download a cmdline.txt file as shown below and copy it to the card, then create a file named ProgramFlash.ads! on the card. A register.txt file is recommended for best performace of the video demonstration programs included in this distribution. Download the register.txt file for your system's frame buffer as shown below and copy it to the card.

On your ADS System, set the first dip switch to ON (Flash Update Mode), insert the card, and boot your system. The bootloader will erase everything in on-board flash (except the bootloader itself) and program (copy) the images on the ATA card to on-board flash. The kernel will be loaded from on-board flash and the CRAMFS root file system will be mounted when Linux starts.

Remove the ATA flash card to prevent an unnecessary erase/reprogramming of on-board flash the next time you reboot. See the bootloader manual for more information on the dip switch settings and boot options.

These command lines will eliminate the ramdisk partition and direct the kernel to mount the CRAMFS root file system in the third partition. See the bootloader manual for more examples.

On the BitsyX, use this cmdline.txt

On AGX, GCX, and VGX, use this cmdline.txt:

These register.txt files will change the default 8bpp color depth to 16bpp. The bootloader reads the register.txt file and changes the registers before the kernel starts. Download the one for the frame buffer that is used by your board.

register.txt for PXA frame buffer and LQ64343 LCD (BitsyX, GCX, or AGX without an Epson chip)

register.txt for Epson frame buffer and LQ64343 LCD (AGX with an Epson chip)

register.txt for SM501 frame buffer and LCD or CRT (VGX)

Here is a tar archive of this file system.

The CRAMFS distribution included a shell script called 'altshadow', which can be used to quickly "shadow" a file in /etc or /var with a file in the JFFS2 persistent storage. This JFFS2 partition is mounted as /alt on the system. To "shadow" a file in /etc, run

 altshadow /alt /etc/ 

This will copy the current /etc/ to the JFFS2 partition and replace /etc/ with a symlink to the "shadowed" version. This file will now retain changes across reboots. For example, to change the nameserver information in /etc/resolv.conf, run

 altshadow /alt /etc/resolv.conf 

You may now edit /etc/resolv.conf and the changes will remain when the system is rebooted.

SECURITY NOTE: Since the default root password is stored in the read-only CRAMFS filesystem, shadowing the file /etc/shadow in order to change the root password across reboots is not safe. If an attacker can cause your system to boot without mounting the JFFS2 partition (by modifying the kernel command line or corrupting the JFFS2 filesystem), THE DEFAULT ROOT PASSWORD WILL BE RESTORED! To truly change the root password, you must generate a new CRAMFS image with the new password encrypted into /etc/shadow.

MD5SUMS provides MD5 checksums for all files in this release.

This release of our CRAMFS root filesystem is derived from the Debian armel port and superscedes our previous 2007-03-30 release.