MIPS Installation/Precursor OS - ParabolaWiki

# MIPS Installation/Precursor OS

Currently you need to install Parabola for mipsel from another operating system already installed on your system.

The easiest way to do this is probably to install Debian GNU/Linux as modified by BJLX, the Beijing Loongson & Debian Users Club. This debian Debian variant, available from http://www.anheng.com.cn/loongson/install/ uses the Yeeloong's built-in tab recovery mode to install - so you just put a USB key in your Yeeloong with the latest vmlinux and .lzma files and press tab at bootup when prompted, and then answer some questions.

Note that after the install you'll need to take a few minutes to change the default language from Chinese to your native language.

Here is an example of the full install process; you'll want to visit the web site to make sure that the 2011-10-10 image is still the most recent install image before you do your install. We recommend the LXDE image as it uses substantially fewer computing resources than Gnome.

    wget http://www.anheng.com.cn/loongson/install/loongson2_debian6_lxde_20111010.tar.lzma
    wget http://www.anheng.com.cn/loongson/install/vmlinux

(become root)

Format a USB stick with the ext2 file system and copy the vmlinux and .lzma file(s) over to it, and then safely remove it from the computer.

Insert the USB stick into the Yeeloong and turn on the Yeeloong. In reply to prompts do:

    “Press Tab to recover” -> press Tab
    “Press U to USB recover” -> press U
    “Press C to continue” -> press C
    “Press Y to recover” -> press Y

And then answer the questions you are asked.

After the install is done press “Enter”, machine should power off. After that, power the machine back on.

After a short wait you'll be on the LXDE main screen, but most things will be in Chinese.

To change to English,

1. Open the LXDE main menu by clicking on the icon on the lower left-hand side of the screen
2. Select the 4th item from the bottom with the right angle and scissors icon
3. Select the option second from the top named “LX” with the icon of a computer monitor next to it.

A terminal window should open.

Type “sudo -i” to become root; now would be a good time to do “passwd” to change your root password, so you can recover more easily should anything go wrong.

Do “dpkg-reconfigure locales” and deselect all of the options starting with “zh_” and choose “Ok”. When prompted to choose a default locale on the next screen, choose “en_US.UTF-8”.

Use fdisk or cfdisk to make a /dev/sda7 partition for parabola (it will be around 120GB).

Now do “shutdown -r now” - after your system reboots, everything should be in English, and your new partition should be recognized.

Do mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda7 to create an ext3 filesystem for the parabola install.

You can re-use the sda3 partition for swap space under Parabola.

Note you may need to press Fn-F5 in order to turn on wifi and then wait a few seconds before wifi / the network-manager tray icon will work.

Now continue with the MIPS Installation.

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