In order to get started compiling your own kernels or developing your own applications, you'll probably need to set up an ARM Linux toolchain. It is certainly possible to set up a development environment directly on your Empeg, much in the same way it's possible to dig out of prison with a soup spoon. However, the preferred method of most developers who value their time is to set up a cross-compiler on a Linux PC.

Those who have an i386 Linux box can save themselves the trouble of building a toolchain from scratch by downloading this precompiled toolchain built by Mark Lord. Simply extract the toolchain to a path such as /usr/local/arm and put the bin subdirectory into your path.

For those who are running on another platform, or want to customize their toolchain in any way, Mark has also provided a starter kit for building your own toolchain from the freely available GNU packages.

Now that you've got a cross-compiler set up, you're ready to write the next killer app for the Empeg!

Utilizing CygWin and the contents of this archive one can theoretically get applications and kernels to compile on the Win32 platform.

I did get it working once, but there was 
some faffing about with CRLF's (use TextPad to get
rid of them). 

See attached Makefile. 

Peter 

For the hordes of you that are clamoring to cross-compile empeg binaries on your Sun machines, a Sparc Solaris 8 package has been made available.

By default, the only way to flash a kernel onto your Empeg is via the serial cable using the download.c program. However, recent updates and some creative hacking have brought about the ability to flash kernels over Ethernet, which will save us all a lot of time.

You need an ftp daemon installed, but by default the Hijack kernels have an ftpd in the kernel. How convenient!

Follow these instructions to get Ethernet flashing enabled on your player.

(1) Prepare the player: this needs to be done just once:
-- install the developer software image
-- install a Hijack kernel (v119+ recommended) the "hard way", and reboot.
-- login over the serial port (hit 'q').
-- type this command:rw && mknod /dev/flash_kernel b 60 8 && ro && sync && exit

(2) Once you have done the prep work (once ever per Empeg unit.. dunno if upgrades will wipe it out or not), you can flash new (Hijack!) kernels at will using FTP:

-- ftp empeg
-- put zImage /dev/kernel_flash
-- quit

(3) wait 10 seconds (the flash write may happen asynchronously).

(4) reboot the empeg from the Hijack menu, or by cycling the power.

For those who would like to automate the process, this shell script will upload the kernel to your Empeg, then download it and compare them to make sure the kernel was written properly. If something goes wrong, just try again. You'll probably have to edit at least the $IPADDRESS variable in the script.

Now just think of all the coding you can get done in the time saved by flashing over Ethernet instead of serial!

FYI, here's a (reasonably detailed, IMHO) note on how to get a full-blown Debian distribution working on the Empeg, without (greatly) messing with the player itself.

As many might agree, it's easiest (and clean) to host the entire file-system on an NFS server, which the Empeg can mount and chroot into. I use a Red Hat Linux 7.2 "box" (a Sony VAIO) as the NFS server. The entire procedure is fairly simple, as described below, and can be extrapolated to a local disk install as well.

Please note that the word "download" wherever used is tantamount to "get your hands on by hook or by crook". Moreover, the character '#' has been used to mean the root shell prompt, as well as a comment character in this description.

DISCLAIMER: PLEASE USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. NO LIABILITIES WHATSOEVER ARE ASSUMED ON MY PART AND I SHALL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE OR LOSS(ES) CAUSED TO YOU IF YOU CHOOSE TO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS DESCRIBED HERE.

Let us assume that you would be downloading the Debian ARM distribution from ftp.debian.org . Here are the steps:

0. The NFS Server

Designate a directory, say, "/export/debian", on the NFS server. This directory will be exported read-write, with no root squashing, to the Empeg. Security issues are NOT addressed here! For example, on a typical Linux box, the /etc/exports will look like:

        /export/debian    empeg.somedomain(rw,no_root_squash) 

        /debian/dists/potato/main/disks-arm/2.2.25-2001-06-10/base2_2.tgz 

        # tar -C /export/empeg -xpzvf /base2_2.tgz 

        /debian/dists/potato/main/binary-arm/ 

        /debian/dists/potato/main/binary-arm/Packages.gz 

• Through a serial connection to the Empeg, drop to the shell (type 'q').
  
• Mount the root file-system read-write.
  
  

          # rw 

• Create a directory /mnt/debian, where we shall be NFS mounting the above mentioned file-system.
  
  

          # mkdir -p /mnt/debian 

• Mount the NFS file-system. Assuming your NFS server is called linux.somedomain, you need to do the following:
  
  

          # mount -t nfs -o rw,nolock linux.somedomain:/export/debian /mnt/debian 

• Type `ls /mnt/debian' to make sure that the NFS mount worked.
  
• Mount the proc file-system on /mnt/debian/proc
  
  

          # mount -t proc proc /mnt/debian/proc 

• Type `ls /mnt/debian/proc' to make sure that the mount worked.
  
• Since the base file-system we created above does NOT have Empeg specific devices in /dev, we do the following:
  
  

          # cd /dev 

  
  

          # tar -cpvf /mnt/debian/tmp/devices.tar . 

• The Empeg does not have the chroot command to begin with, but it should be present at this point in /mnt/debian/usr/sbin. We can create a simple script called "/sbin/debian" this way:
  
  

  
          cat > /sbin/debian
  
          #! /bin/sh
  
          # -- begin --
  
          HOME=/root
  
          export HOME
  
          echo "empeg" > /proc/sys/kernel/hostname
  
  
  
          # You might or might not want to put this here.
  
          # mount -t proc proc /mnt/debian/proc
  
  
  
          /mnt/debian/usr/sbin/chroot /mnt/debian /bin/sh -l
  
          # -- end --
  
          ^D
  
  

• We run the above script, which will (hopefully) put us into a nice ARM Linux environment. If the script does not work for some reason, try a simple chroot:
  
  

          # /mnt/debian/usr/sbin/chroot /mnt/debian /bin/sh -l 

• Unpack /tmp/devices.tar, preserving permissions:
  
  
  

          # tar -C /dev -xpvf /tmp/debian.tar 

• It's a good idea to add a user at this point, and also set the root password (note that this will be done in the chroot'ed environment).
  
  
• At this point the system should appear to be fully functional. More packages can be installed by using "dpkg". (Remember that we have debian packages downloaded in what now appears as /packages). If you choose to install telnetd and ftpd, you would need to run /usr/sbin/inetd (unless you install versions of these daemons which are not "controlled" by inetd).
  
  
• Also, please note that an out of the box Apache will NOT run with an out of the box Empeg kernel (including the development version) because Apache wants System V IPC, which is not compiled in (and loadable module support is not enabled). However, this can be remedied.
  
  
• Finally, the system is "ready" (whatever that means). You can tweak it, for example, make /sbin/debian do more stuff, like running `inetd' or `login', and so on. You can "arrange" for rc scripts to be run in the chroot'ed environment if needed.