Userland

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A userland provides the folders the Kernel needs to find (such as /proc and /dev); configuration files (/etc/rc); standard commandline tools (a shell, busybox and other common commands); and sometimes a version of podzilla.

Windows cannot open .tar files, it is recommended that you download one such as 7zip Portable in order to extract userland.

Contents

The bootup process

When init starts, it passes control to /etc/rc. This script does several things by default, in the following order:

  • Mounts /proc
  • Creates several /dev nodes and symlinks
  • Mounts the music partition if necessary
  • Configures the loopback network interface
  • Sets the clock
  • Runs every script in /etc/rc.d, in no particular order (only for the 22 June 2006 userland and later)

It then tries to figure out what program to run next. Older userlands will just run podzilla indiscriminately. The 22 June one and later have a more complex search path:

  • If /bin/getLoader2Args exists and is executable, and its output is not the empty string, its output is treated as a command and run.
  • Otherwise, if /bin/gui exists, it is run. This is the mechanism used by "Triple Threat" and other such selectors... or at least it should be.
  • Otherwise, /bin/podzilla is run.

A note on "start files"

The iPodLinux partition has been historically difficult to access, especially for Windows users. To solve the need for file transfer, a rather kludgy system was created: if a shell script called start existed in the root of the Windows partition, it would be run on bootup. The script usually deleted itself.

Now, there are better ways to accomplish the same tasks (see Accessing ext2), but many tutorials and instructions still use start files. It bears mentioning that start files are deprecated, and have never been supported in an official userland. However, as a concession to users who don't know better, the June 22 userland contains a script, /etc/rc.d/startfile, that will be run at bootup and ultimately allow start files to work. Again: they're deprecated; please don't use them more than you have to.

Troubleshooting

If you boot iPodLinux and get the message 

 "Kernel panic: No init found."

then this means that you have not installed the userland files (although it may also mean that, when userland is installed, that /sbin/init is missing or does not have its executable flag set).

Downloads

ChangeLog:

See also

Retrieved from "http://ipodlinux.org/wiki/Userland"