08 Mar 09 How to create a simple disk image formatted to ext3

We want a 48MB image, formatted to ext3

ns3:/tmp# dd if=/dev/zero of=./disk.img bs=1MiB count=48
48+0 records in
48+0 records out
50331648 bytes (50 MB) copied, 0.301372 s, 167 MB/s
ns3:/tmp# mkfs.ext3 ./disk.img
mke2fs 1.41.3 (12-Oct-2008)
./disk.img is not a block special device.
Proceed anyway? (y,n) y

ns3:/tmp# mkdir disk

ns3:/tmp# mount -oloop ./disk.img ./disk
ns3:/tmp# df -h ./disk
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/tmp/disk.img          47M  4.8M   40M  11% /tmp/disk

That’s it – now we can copy our content to ./disk before unmounting it, then use dd to write it to our target medium (such as a CF card or similar)

ns3:/tmp# umount ./disk

Tags: CF, df, disk image, ext3, loop, mkfs.ext3, mount, umount

13 Oct 08 Robot: Initial Hardware Order [rev 2]

Follow on from: http://www.adamsinfo.com/the-robot-hardware-list-wheel-plan-more-ideas/

Discuss in the forums

I’ve given up on trying to source separate motors, motor controllers, encoders and brackets. I’m concerned that my knowledge of mechanics and motors is limited, and that I’m going to spend too much time and money trying to build a movement package myself.

I’ve decided to go for a good motor/controller/encoder package here:

http://www.active-robots.com/products/motorsandwheels/rd01-drive.shtml

I’ll need two of these, and will have to replace the wheels with the omni directional wheel things I found and linked to in my last post.

I’ll drill the brackets into a thin metal plate, and start building perspex on top. I don’t seem to have paid enough attention to battery/device weight/motor/power and am concerned that the motor and battery combination will not move the device. I don’t yet have an idea of how much it will weigh, but I’ve realized that the perspex is going to have to be as thin and light as possible, and I’m going to have to bear weight in mind with any unnecessary or redundant extra parts.
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Tags: alix, APNIC, atheros, CF, embedded, i2c, Linux robot, motor, picolcd, Robot

05 Oct 08 APNIC Box – Linux on a Mikrotik 532a, Part 3 – Installing Debian, Prebuilt Disk Image

Follow on from 01 Oct 08 APNIC Box – Linux on a Mikrotik 532a, Part 2

The device runs a 2.4.30 kernel on a debian woody (mipsel) environment. If anyone can contribute anything for 2.6.x and debian etch, that would be great.

In this part, I’m going to provide a download link to a prebuilt image which you can write directly onto your own CF card with dd or similar tool. I’m also going to provide a step by step to installing debian yourself without my prebuilt disk image.

Prebuilt image is here:

The prebuilt image also contains a number of scripts and tools that I’ll comment on and come to in later parts.

Now installation instructions:
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Tags: 532a, apnicbox, apt-get, atftpd, CF, compile, cross compile, Custom Kernel, dd, debian, dhcpd, dhcpd.conf installer, forward, initrd, initrd.gz, iptables, ip_forward, kernel, Linux, linuxrc, masquerade, mikrotik, mipsel, mkfs, mknod, mount, partition, prebuild image, routerboard, routerboard 532a, scripts, sed, tftpd, vmlinux, wget