Updating NetWinder

[Ralph Siemsen]

Hi Paul!

Paul Thompson wrote:

> Would like to be able to send attachments of 
> 20 Mb and over

That is configurable, but keep in mind that many email servers out there 
will reject such large messages.  You are much better off to put the 
files on a web/ftp server, and just send out links in the email.

> My NetWinder is running :-
>  
> Netmon version 2.1.16 c
> Kernel 2.2.14 20000612 on Armv4
> Officeserver Version 2.0 Build 8.

Truly ancient, yes :)

> I think 2 HDAs are created /dev/hda1 and dev/hda3 space used on these is 
> very low 2% and 8% disk size total 12 Gb
>  
> DF command shows
> /dev/hda1 9463240 138212     2%    mounted as /
> /dev/hda3 2064144 159432 1799832  8% mounted as /usr

Yep that is pretty full.  You might want to see what's taking up all the 
space; as shipped the / should be almost empty (well under 1 GB used)

> Have managed to load dm-3.1-15.tar.gz onto the server but unsure what 
> commands to use to make sure I am on the correct HDA. In windows I would 
> just type C: or D: etc

Not sure what you are asking here.  Linux has only one "root", which it 
calls "/".  Additional drives like D: will appear as subdirectories from 
the root.

> Found a page here  oregonstate.edu/pub/netwinder/pub/netwinder/images/ 
> <ftp://oregonstate.edu/pub/netwinder/pub/netwinder/images/>  which 
> amonst others contains  dm-3.1-15.tar.gz which is around 338 Mb and 
> base-nw9.tar.bz2 which is around 58 Mb. Does the dm 3 1 15 contain the 
> nw9 file or do I have to load them one after the other ? Already have 
> instructions on how to load an image on to the Netwinder but which image 
> to use is beyond me

They are entirely different images.  If you want the full history see:
http://netwinder.osuosl.org/devteam/ralphs/public_html/diskimage.html

That page goes "up" to DM-3.9-28.  Since then, there has been one new 
disk image, namely the "NW" series.  For details please see:
http://netwinder.osuosl.org/devteam/ralphs/public_html/nw-9.html
(yes, sorry, a bunch of the links on that page are broken).

The full NW disk image was way too big to be practical, so what you are 
seeing is a "basic" image, with enough functionality to connect to the 
internet, so you can then download more things as you require.  The 
intended way of doing this is described at http://netwinder.org/yum.html

I would recommend NW disk image, as its the most recent by far.  Other 
alternatives exist too, in terms of differnent Linux flavours, such as 
Debian or Gentoo.  I have very little experience with these though.

> Have not managed to find any updates for the Netmon or the Kernel and 
> not even sure if these are necessary (or what a Kernel is but assume it 
> is the operating system)

Nettrom is the equivalent to BIOS, version 2.3.3 is the current one. 
The kernel is as you say, the operating system, and its part of the disk 
image, so that will "upgrade itself" so to speak.  Note however that 
really ancient firmware must be upgraded before it will boot a newer 
kernel.  This part of netwinder history is recorded at:
http://netwinder.osuosl.org/devteam/ralphs/public_html/compat.html

Best to check what version of firmware you have... it will tell you 
right when you power up the machine.

> Have had the NetWinder running on my system and seems to work 'as is' 
> but after updating the Netwinder would like to run a better Mail server 
> that actually collects the email and distributes as necessary this is 
> the reason for updating the disk.

Sure, that's the whole point, you can play with it and change it to suit 
your needs.

> Tried a few umount commands to get a feel for the command structure and 
> managed to umount hda1 but every time tried the same command on hda3 it 
> just reported 'disk is busy'.

You cannot umount your "root" filesystem, because that is where all of 
the commands you are typing (such as "umount", "cd" and so on) are 
stored.  In contrast, when you umount /dev/hda1, only the contents of 
/usr directory will vanish.

Before you can re-image the hard drive, it is necessary to boot the 
system in a way that does not "mount" the hard drive.  Think of it like 
booting a PC from a floppy disk.  There are several ways of doing this 
(none involving a floppy of course, since the netwinder doesn't have one).

As a first step, let's determine if you have the "Rescue" software on 
hda4 partition, as it makes life much easier.  The easiest way to check 
this is, as the unit is booting up, at the firmware 5..4..3.. 
countdown,. interrupt the bootup, then type these commands:

	setenv rootdev /dev/hda4
	setenv kerndev /dev/hda4
	boot

(that's from memory, I hope i got it right).  With recent firmware you 
can also just type "boot rescue" to achieve the same thing.  If you are 
lucky, this will take you into the "rescue" boot area.  If so, then read 
the Rescue-HOWTO document from this page http://netwinder.org/howto/

If you have no rescue partition (eg. blank screen or error) then its a 
bit more tricky... you want to look at the Disk-Upgrade-HOWTO instead, 
consider the different methods it presents, pick one that suits you 
best, and we'll take it from there.

-Ralph