Documentation User Installing packages to CF memory cards 
Installing packages to memory cards is only slightly more complex that doing normal ipkg installs.
Note: recent builds include support for the ext2 file system. If you have an older build, or if you disabled ext2 support you can install it by typing "ipkg install task-base-gumstix-ext2"
The first step in this process is to format your memory card with the ext2 file sysytem. You can do this with the mkfs.ext2 command:
$ mkfs.ext2 /dev/hda1
mke2fs 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=1024 (log=0)
Fragment size=1024 (log=0)
31360 inodes, 125040 blocks
6252 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=1
16 block groups
8192 blocks per group, 8192 fragments per group
1960 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
8193, 24577, 40961, 57345, 73729
Writing inode tables: done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done
This filesystem will be automatically checked every 33 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first. Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.
Now that the card is properly formatted, we can mount it:
$ mount -a
CF memory cards are mounted at /media/cf. We can now check to verify the free space on our card:
$ df /media/cf Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/hda1 121075 13 114810 0% /media/cf
That's it for the memory card setup.
The next step is to define a destination label for our memory card. This is also a "one time" step -- it doesn't need to be repeated for each installation. Edit /etc/ipkg.conf and add the following line to the end of the file:
dest cf /media/cf
We'll be using this destination label a bit later when we install our package.
As always, we'll start this process by downloading the latest list of available packages from the repository:
$ ipkg update Downloading http://www.gumstix.net/feeds/current/glibc/ipk/armv5te/Packages.gz Inflating http://www.gumstix.net/feeds/current/glibc/ipk/armv5te/Packages.gz Updated list of available packages in /var/lib/ipkg/base Downloading http://www.gumstix.net/feeds/current/glibc/ipk/gumstix-custom-verdex/Packages.gz Inflating http://www.gumstix.net/feeds/current/glibc/ipk/gumstix-custom-verdex/Packages.gz Updated list of available packages in /var/lib/ipkg/gumstix-custom-verdex Downloading http://www.gumstix.net/feeds/current/glibc/ipk/all/Packages.gz Inflating http://www.gumstix.net/feeds/current/glibc/ipk/all/Packages.gz Updated list of available packages in /var/lib/ipkg/no-arch
For this example let's install the perl package to our microSD card:
$ ipkg -d cf install perl Installing perl (5.8.8-r25) to sd... Downloading http://www.gumstix.net/feeds/current/glibc/ipk/armv5te/perl_5.8.8-r25_armv5te.ipk Installing libperl5 (5.8.8-r25) to sd... Downloading http://www.gumstix.net/feeds/current/glibc/ipk/armv5te/libperl5_5.8.8-r25_armv5te.ipk Configuring libperl5 Configuring perl
This command differs from the normal ipkg install in that we have specified the destination cf via the -d option.
(You may see an error about a failure to rename status.tmp. You can safely ignore this)
We have one final step to complete our installation, linking the newly installed packages to the root file system using the ipkg-link command:
$ ipkg-link mount /media/cf *** Command: mount *** Command: add *** Locating package *** Found package on /media/cf *** Adding libperl5 Linking /usr/lib/perl/5.8 to /media/card/usr/lib/perl/5.8 Linking /usr/lib/perl/5.8 to /media/card/usr/share/perl/5.8 *** Done. *** Command: add *** Locating package *** Found package on /media/cf *** Adding perl *** Done. *** Done.
Packages often force the installation of dependency packages (in this case libperl5). To keep from having to link each package individually, we used the form of the command that links all installed packages on the memory card. We could have linked the packages individually by using "ipkg-link add perl" and "ipkg-link add libperl5".
You may see a warning or two during the installation process depending upon the package you are installing. These are normally not a cause for concern.
That's all there is to it! We can give our installation a quick test by invoking perl with the --help option:
$ perl --help
Usage: perl [switches] [--] [programfile] [arguments]
-0[octal] specify record separator (\0, if no argument)
-a autosplit mode with -n or -p (splits $_ into @F)
-C[number/list] enables the listed Unicode features
-c check syntax only (runs BEGIN and CHECK blocks)
-d[:debugger] run program under debugger
-D[number/list] set debugging flags (argument is a bit mask or alphabets)
-e program one line of program (several -e's allowed, omit programfile)
-f don't do $sitelib/sitecustomize.pl at startup
-F/pattern/ split() pattern for -a switch (//'s are optional)
-i[extension] edit <> files in place (makes backup if extension supplied)
-Idirectory specify @INC/#include directory (several -I's allowed)
-l[octal] enable line ending processing, specifies line terminator
-[mM][-]module execute "use/no module..." before executing program
-n assume "while (<>) { ... }" loop around program
-p assume loop like -n but print line also, like sed
-P run program through C preprocessor before compilation
-s enable rudimentary parsing for switches after programfile
-S look for programfile using PATH environment variable
-t enable tainting warnings
-T enable tainting checks
-u dump core after parsing program
-U allow unsafe operations
-v print version, subversion (includes VERY IMPORTANT perl info)
-V[:variable] print configuration summary (or a single Config.pm variable)
-w enable many useful warnings (RECOMMENDED)
-W enable all warnings
-x[directory] strip off text before #!perl line and perhaps cd to directory
-X disable all warnings
If you decide to uninstall a package, the process is quite simple. First we'll unlink the package from the root file system:
$ ipkg-link remove perl *** Command: remove *** Locating package *** Found package on /media/cf *** Removing perl *** Done. $ ipkg-link remove libperl5 *** Command: remove *** Locating package *** Found package on /media/cf *** Removing libperl5 *** Done.
In this case we didn't use a shorcut to unlink all packages installed on the memory card since there may be some previously installed packages that we would like to keep.
The final step is to remove the packages themselves:
root@gumstix-custom-verdex:~$ ipkg remove perl libperl5 Removing package perl from cf... Removing package libperl5 from cf...
For your convenience, here's a brief overview of the options for each ipkg command.
usage: ipkg [options...] sub-command [arguments...]
where sub-command is one of:
Package Manipulation:
update Update list of available packages
upgrade Upgrade all installed packages to latest version
install Download and install (and dependencies)
install Install package
configure [] Configure unpacked packages
remove
ipkg-link add packagename (links "packagename" to root filesystem)
ipkg-link remove packagename (unlinks "packagename" from root filesystem)
ipkg-link list mountpoint (lists packages on "mountpoint", e.g. '/mnt/card')
ipkg-link mount mountpoint (links all packages on "mountpoint", e.g. '/mnt/card')
bin/ipkg-link umount mountpoint (unlinks all packages on "mountpoint", e.g. '/mnt/card')
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