Troubles getting started...

[Chris Ball]

Hello Hal,

   > Can somebody tell me some combination that is known to work with
   > Open Firmware?  What partition type number and what mkfs or mkdosfs
   > commands?  I've got a 1GB flash drive if the size makes any
   > difference.

I use mkfs.vfat and partition type "b".  If you're still stuck, I
suggest joining our IRC channel (irc.freenode.net/#olpc) so that
we can help you debug this in real-time.

   > Are wired Ethernet USB gadgets expected to work?  I don't have any
   > wireless gear to talk to.  I now have a Linksys USB200M.  That
   > seemed simpler than setting up a wireless base station.

This should work, as we just use the standard Linux asix driver.  I
suggest upgrading to build303 and trying again, since a problem with
some asix devices (since fixed) was introduced into the mainline 
Linux kernel a month or two ago.

   > Is there a wiki section that covers getting started and low level
   > hints?  If so, how should I have found it?

The front page of the wiki links to:
   http://wiki.laptop.org/go/BTest-2_Release_Notes 

.. which in turn links to:
   http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Software_Release_Notes
   http://wiki.laptop.org/go/B1-demo-notes

Hope that helps,

- Chris.
-- 
Chris Ball   <cjb at laptop.org>