Why don't you see a linux for Arm cpu's?

[Rubberman]

MasonTX, there are a lot of embedded ARM boards that fully support Linux, and can even run Xorg. I do ARM development work on an ARM PC-104 board that runs Debian Etch very nicely. I use them for manufacturing and warehouse/distribution control systems. I build kernels using the ARM tool chain on my x86_64 linux system, but I build application software directly on the board. I taught an embedded ARM development class to some IEEE colleagues last year with this board, and showed how we could reconfigure/rebuild/reinstall an entire kernel in 15 minutes.

[MASONTX]

I don't mean to diss the Android system, but my little netbook has 256 MB ram and an 800 Mhz cpu, and seems to be just begging for a more capable OS to show it's stuff. Unfortunately the info I have uncovered all talks about how difficult it is to install something like AntiX or Slitaz on arm boards. Supposedly, since there is no HAL or equivalent, you have to write your own interface in assembly language, something beyond the abilities of mere mortals.
How would you use the toolchain to get AntiX or Slitaz to work on an ARM11v6 system and still have screen, sound, USB, SD card, keyboard, wireless, and ethernet work?

[Rubberman]

Kernel modules that are written in pure C will port without problems. Those that utilize assembly code are another issue, as you suggest. I'm not familiar with these tools/applications (AntiX, Slitaz) so I cannot really help in this regard. Bear in mind, that Debian for ARM does support aptitude for package management, even for ARM systems, so if these applications are in the package repositories, the will work.

[MASONTX]

Is there a way to load debian for arm on a SD card and get the embeded arm to boot from it live cd fashion? I don't want to hose my Android installation and then find that for one reason or another debian wont run on this netbook. So far I haven't been able to figure out how to make an image of the embeded drive for backup purposes. There is a factory reset button on the back, but I don't know if flashing the ROM with debian would overwrite this.

[Rubberman]

Well, Android IS a linux variant. You should be able to get the source code for the tablet's OS (including drivers, etc) from their web site, somewhere... As for booting from the SD card, that depends upon how the hardware is set up. Finally, getting a copy of the ROM data may be as simple as downloading the latest update image. Downloading it from the ROM itself may be possible (I don't know personally how to do that), and if you can root the system, then you can access the ROM's file system via a shell.

[Beluga]

Sorry, I can't post links due to my newbie status, but search kickstarter.com for bodhi - Bodhi Linux for ARM is under development and looking for funding.

[MASONTX]

Thanks for the info Rubberman and Beluga.