Debian GNU/Linux on the ouya games console

[Peter Bauer]

Hello,

The OUYA is a $99 device with a Tegra 3 (quadcore cortex A9)
ARM processor which comes with Android.
Their project homepage is:
http://www.ouya.tv/

In a review it was not that good as a games console.
http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/03/ouya-review-founding-backer-edition/

Maybe that thing would be of much better use as a general purpose
computer running Debian GNU/Linux instead of Android.

Interfaces: LAN,WIFI,HDMI,USB 2.0,MICRO USB,Bluetooth
Storage: 8 GB internal Flash

From what I read the current bootloader of the device is not locked.

What are the steps to be taken to get Debian running on this device ?
Mayby someone already tried to run Debian on this device ?


Regards,
Peter Bauer

[Oliver Grawert]

hi,

Post by Peter Bauer
Hello,
The OUYA is a $99 device with a Tegra 3 (quadcore cortex A9)
ARM processor which comes with Android.
http://www.ouya.tv/
In a review it was not that good as a games console.
http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/03/ouya-review-founding-backer-edition/
Maybe that thing would be of much better use as a general purpose
computer running Debian GNU/Linux instead of Android.
Interfaces: LAN,WIFI,HDMI,USB 2.0,MICRO USB,Bluetooth
Storage: 8 GB internal Flash

From what I read the current bootloader of the device is not locked.

What are the steps to be taken to get Debian running on this device ?
Mayby someone already tried to run Debian on this device ?

the internals are pretty much identical to a nexus7 tablet. take a look
at the nexus7 desktop image creation in ubuntu (live-build configs and
build changes are in ubuntus livecd-rootfs package source, rootfs
tarball installation happens via the ac100-tarball-installer package in
ubuntu) it should be pretty trivial to get going if you use that design
as a base for something debianish ...

ciao
oli

[Paul Wise]

Post by Peter Bauer
What are the steps to be taken to get Debian running on this device ?

Same as for any device:

Get support for the device into Linux mainline.

Wait for Debian to contain that version of the linux source package.

Ask the Debian Linux kernel team to add a linux-image-* package for
the device (or just use the arm device-tree based multiplatform kernel
once it exists).

Get the device-tree stuff for the device into Debian. No idea how this
is going to work, I guess they will be shipped with the linux source
package?

Get a bootloader for the device into Debian. If this is u-boot, a
prerequisite for this is to get support into upstream.

Get any needed firmware blobs into firmware-nonfree (and upstream for it).

Get any userland drivers merged upstream and or included in Debian.

Get support for it into the Debian installer.

Package whatever things you want to run on it. For games, join the
Debian games team:

http://wiki.debian.org/Games/Team
--
bye,
pabs

http://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise

[Arnaud Patard (Rtp)]

Paul Wise <***@debian.org> writes:

Hi,

Post by Paul Wise

Post by Peter Bauer
What are the steps to be taken to get Debian running on this device ?

Get support for the device into Linux mainline.
Wait for Debian to contain that version of the linux source package.
Ask the Debian Linux kernel team to add a linux-image-* package for
the device (or just use the arm device-tree based multiplatform kernel
once it exists).
Get the device-tree stuff for the device into Debian. No idea how this
is going to work, I guess they will be shipped with the linux source
package?

atm, the kernel package is already shipping some dtbs (look at
linux-image-3.2.0-4-kirkwood), so it'll be the same for the
multiplatform case. As concerns the dts files, there has been some
discussions upstream to use a different place than the kernel source but
currently, device-tree is a too fast moving target to allow this.

Post by Paul Wise
Get a bootloader for the device into Debian. If this is u-boot, a
prerequisite for this is to get support into upstream.

Add support in flash-kernel for your device

Arnaud

[Paul Wise]

Post by Arnaud Patard (Rtp)
atm, the kernel package is already shipping some dtbs (look at
linux-image-3.2.0-4-kirkwood), so it'll be the same for the
multiplatform case. As concerns the dts files, there has been some
discussions upstream to use a different place than the kernel source but
currently, device-tree is a too fast moving target to allow this.

Interesting, thanks for the info.

Post by Arnaud Patard (Rtp)
Add support in flash-kernel for your device

Another related and useful thing to do is add the tool that can be
used to boot alternative software or flash your device via
USB/jtag/etc. Some that are in Debian or will be soon:

android-tools-fastboot (Android)
heimdall-flash (Android)
dfu-util (OpenMoko)
0xffff (Maemo, in NEW)
--
bye,
pabs

http://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise