How can I install different distribution on MOI Pro?

[fordfrog]

I would like to install different distribution (Gentoo Linux) on MOI Pro. I'm quite experienced with linux (Gentoo mostly) but not that much with arm-based devices and not with the u-boot and the way MOI Pro is updated so I'm not sure how to exactly do that.

I suppose I would use the kernel (including firmware and modules) provided by TBS and use Gentoo stage-3 file for arm7a which contains precompiled base system. I looked at the update files and the structure seems clear to me. I'm just afraid that if I do the update wrong, I won't be able to fix it as I suppose I need TBS system to perform USB flash update (or is that what latest u-boot does? or does it need also the TBS system to work?), web update won't be available as I would rewrite the original system and I do not have OTG cable with mini connector at hand. I was looking at the board whether there is an SD card which would make fixing easier but found none. I also though about shrinking the original partition and create another one for my Gentoo system and just pass different root to the kernel but there is nothing like resize2fs...

So any idea how to put Gentoo on MOI Pro?

[nrm]

You can use buildroot to build a vanilla kernel along with a distribution. Or you can use YOCTO.

But you won't be able to use any TBS boards except if you look for opensource drivers I think: https://bitbucket.org/CrazyCat/linux-tbs-drivers . I'm not even sure they all work on ARMv7

[fordfrog]

Thanks for the answer. And how would I get the system to the MOI Pro? I simply replace the files in the uncompressed installation and then use one of the ways to put it on the MOI Pro? I suppose the OTG method is the only one that works in case something goes wrong, but is that true?

[nrm]

Hi,

Unfortunately I wouldn't count on all TBS drivers to work on ARM unless you use a TBS distribution. Only some TBS USB open source drivers are known to work in ARM distributions.

Check this thread: viewtopic.php?f=34&t=7563

[fordfrog]

I've decided in the end to build a microATX based pc with intel celeron inside which will be much easier for me to maintain and it's also cheaper. So with regard to the TBS drivers issue on ARM based computers this seems to be the right step