Linux on Q60/Q40
This site is dedicated to Linux on Q60/Q40 cards and is maintained by Thierry Godefroy.
All the software available from this page has been compiled on a ShoeString v1.0a (Redhat 7.2.1) Linux-Q60 distribution, and will most probably not work on the old Redhat5.2-based Linux-Q60 distribution. For a start, it is all dynamically linked against glibc v2.1.3.
At the time being, you will mostly find some pre-compiled RPMs and kernel patches, as well as some useful links to other Q60/Q40 sites.
Notes regarding packages numbering:
- Packages which version ends with a single number (e.g. package-1.0.0-1.m68k.rpm) were got from the author's site and compiled out of the box.
- Packages which version ends with a number followed with "mdk" (e.g. package-1.0.0-1mdk.m68k.rpm) are Linux Mandrake packages compiled out of the box.
- Packages which version ends with a number followed with "gdf" (e.g. package-1.0.0-1gdf.m68k.rpm) have been patched by me (the .spec file was changed so to allow a compilation on Q60 Linux and/or some personal patches have been applied to the original sources).
- IceWM 1.0.9.2, an excellent and fast window manager (forget about v1.2.x, for it won't compile with glibc v2.1.3, alas):
- IcePref 1.20, IceWM configuration utility. Upgraged by me for use with IceWM v1.0.9.2 :
- xterm v220, the latest xterm to replace the utterly buggy one in ShoeString (cures the CPU hogs when resizing, general slowness, bad key bindings, etc...). Update with: rpm -Uvh --force xterm-220-2gdf.m68k.rpm
- Dillo v0.8.6 (with frames support and tabbed browsing), a tiny and very fast Web browser:
- OpenSSH v3.6.1p2, the ssh/scp/sftp suite (sftp can be used with gftp as the front-end):
- gftp v2.0.14:
- nt v2.03 (AKA "Downloader for X"):
- GnuPG v1.2.3:
- libgpg-error v1.0:
- gpgme v1.0.3 (needs for gnupg v1.2.2+ and libgpg-error v1.0):
- Sylpheed v1.0.6 Probably the best mail user agent (MUA) around ! (needs for gpgme v1.0.3 and gnupg v1.2.2+):
- gaim v0.59.9, an all-in-one Instant Messaging client with support for pretty much all IM protocols (this version is alas deprecated in many ways (Yahoo and MSN protocols, for example), but newer versions require GTK2 :-( ...):
- Xdialog v2.3.1:
- Open Motif v2.1.30 (v2.1.30 is the latest actually stable version: never use v2.2.x for it's utterly buggy !):
- nedit v5.5: Motif text editor (needs for OpenMotif v2.1.30), now with tabbed editing of multiple files:
- qiv 1.8, quick GTK+ image viewer (uses gdk-pixbuf and Imlib):
- ROX-filer v1.2.2 (needs for libxml2): a fast and powerful file manager, adapted from yet another alternative OS (RISC-OS) !
- rox-1.2.2-5gdf.src.rpm (1216 Kb).
- rox-1.2.2-5gdf.m68k.rpm (1126 Kb). Note: rox-base is included in this package (the old rox-base package is deprecated and will get automatically removed if you update from an older rox version).
- freetype v1.3.1 & v2.2.1 Updating to these packages is highly recommended because of the many security flaws discovered in the old freetype versions. You will also need these newest packages for xpdf v3. Please note, that because Redhat wrongly packaged the freetype v1 and freetype v2 libraries together, you will need to proceed as follow: make sure that freetype-devel and freetype-utils are uninstalled (rpm -e ...), then update with 'rpm -Uvh --oldpackage freetype-1.3.1-1gdf.m68k.rpm libfreetype6-2.2.1.1gdf.m68k.rpm' (the two packages must be updated together. --oldpackage is there because the Redhat freetype package bears the freetype2 version, while the new package deals with freetype v1). Once this is done, you may install the tools and devel packages if you need them.
- t1lib v5.1.0 Type 1 Adobe fonts management libraries (the shared libraries are needed for xpdf v3):
- xpdf v3.01pl2 (needs for openmotif, freetype2 and t1lib. Update with --oldpackage, because 'rpm' thinks that 0.95 is newer than 3.01pl2...):
- mount/losetup updates (for use with the crypto-API empowered kernels):
- util-linux-2.11z-10gdf.src.rpm (1345 Kb). Note: if you intend to rebuild the packages yourself, do not install the util-linux-2.11z-10gdf.m68k.rpm binary package: these sources come from the Mandrake distribution and I didn't change the spec file and Makefile to build the same utilities as the ones present in the Redhat's util-linux package: upgrading the Redhat/ShoeString package with the newly built one could result in a broken system ! On the other hand you can, of course, update safely the mount and losetup packages.
- losetup-2.11z-10gdf.m68k.rpm (39 Kb): crypto-API aware loop setup utility.
- mount-2.11z-10gdf.m68k.rpm (108 Kb): crypto-API aware mount/umount utilities.
- linux_logo v4.07: to get an ANSI logo and some useful info as the login screen of each Linux console.
- TLS v1.4, SSL wrapper for Tcl:
Other package updates which are not absolutely necessary, but are better getting updated as they improve performances, fix minor bugs, or cure various compilation problems:
- GTK+ v1.2.10 (the GTK+ v1.2.10 libraries are already included in ShoeString, but I'm not sure that they were re-compiled by Richard. Beside, I used more aggressive optimization options for the libraries below, allowing to squeeze out every bit of the 680x0 speed):
- tar v1.13.25 This version, beside being more recent than the one in ShoeString, was patched by me so that it will not bitch at you if you use the "I" or "y" options to deal with bzipped archives (<rant>it's amazing how some software authors can be so intolerant about the old users and their habits...</rant>):
- libxml v1.8.17 (update with --oldpackage because 'rpm' thinks that 1.8.14-ximian is newer than 1.8.17-1gdf... Go figure !):
- libxml2 v2.4.12 This is not the latest version of libxml2 but it is more recent than the one in ShoeString, and doesn't need for Python2 like newer versions do:
- pkgconfig v0.15.0 (update with --oldpackage because 'rpm' thinks that 0.5.0 is newer than 0.15.0... Grmph !):
- autoconf v2.13 and v2.59 (needed to recompile recent software... Beware: installing and making this work can be unnerving... IIRC, I had to patch manually the wrapper scripts for the proper selection of v2.13 or v2.59, depending on which software must be compiled...):
- automake v1.4, v1.7.9 and v1.8.5 (the three (!) companions to the two autoconf versions above... Same remark as for autoconf regarding the adjustements):
- readline v4.3:
- Tcl/Tk v8.4.2 (compiled with a tailored .spec file so that optimizations are actually applied on each component of the software):
Linux kernel patches 
. IOT apply these patches go into the linux source directory (e.g. cd /usr/src/linux-2.4.36) and, for each patch, type: bzcat <patch filename> | patch -p1 -s (there should be no rejects).
- patch-m68k-2.4.36.bz2 (52 Kb): to patch a standard (vanilla) Linux kernel v2.4.36 into a m68k branch (Q40/Q60 compatible) kernel.
- patch-gcc3bug_workaround-2.4.36.bz2 (2 Kb): a work around for the gcc3 bug which prevents to compile the ide-cd.c, ide-tape.c, ide-floppy.c and ide-scsi.c files in the Linux v2.4.33 kernel.
- patch-cryptoloop-jari-2.4.36.bz2 (12 Kb): Jari's cryptoloop patch enabling the crypto-API for encrypted volumes mounting (you will need for the losetup-2.11z-10gdf.m68k.rpm and mount-2.11z-10gdf.m68k.rpm packages, available on this page, to make use of the crypto-API).
- patch-supermount-2.4.36.bz2 (33 Kb): ever dreamt of using removable media (floppy, cdrom, zips, etc) under Linux like under DOS/Windoze ? This patch is for you. Any supermounted device will automatically recognize the situations when the medium is absent or changed (no more need to mount/umount each time, and no CPU hogs/demons like with automount). Please read the warning below the kernel packages !
- patch-stealth-2.4.36.bz2 (3 Kb): the stealth kernel patch makes it harder for pirates to try and hack your Linux box from the network. It drops bogus packets and queries, logging each attack.
Precompiled Linux kernel (with the above patches included). Don't forget to copy /boot/vmlinux-2.4.36.6 into a SMSQ/E partition so you can boot your new kernel from SMSQ/E...
WARNING regarding supermount (critical bug in ShoeString):
There seems to be a quirk in the rc.sysinit script of ShoeString and inserting the usual lines in /etc/fstab for mounting supermount devices makes the startup script to hang the computer. Even with a kernel without supermount support, it will hang (which means you'll have to change back the /etc/fstab file after booting on another partition or on a rescue disk... You have been warned !!!). To mount the removable media devices with supermount, you can instead add lines to /etc/rc.d/rc.local, like this:
# Source functions
. /etc/init.d/functions
# Mount the removable medium devices with Super-Mount:
action $"Super-Mounting the CD-ROM: " mount /mnt/cdrom /mnt/cdrom -t supermount -o fs=iso9660,dev=/dev/cdrom,ro
action $"Super-Mounting the floppy: " mount /mnt/floppy /mnt/floppy -t supermount -o fs=vfat,dev=/dev/fd0
NEW modutils: REQUIRED for Linux v2.4.33.3 !
- modutils-2.4.26-3gdf.src.rpm (241 Kb)
- modutils-2.4.26-3gdf.m68k.rpm (272 Kb): you will have to force-remove mkinitrd (rpm -e --nodeps mkinitrd) before installing this one, because the lack of a file (crtbeginT.o) in the gcc 3.0 rpm package of Shoestring prevented me to compile the static version of insmod, needed by mkinitrd... But as no one would use mkinitrd on a Q40/Q60 (do you ?), it should not be a big issue... :-P
Some links to related (Q40/Q60 and Linux-68k) Web sites:
Number of visitors since 10/06/01: 
(c) 2001-2008, Thierry Godefroy. No warranty whatsoever is given regarding the accuracy of the information contained in these Web pages.