Making a custom root FS

I'm trying to create a custom flashable root fs, and the three
documented approaches have not worked. I'm running out of ideas, and
have emailed the list as a last resort.

Here's what I've tried:
1. modify the developer rootfs. The last developer rootfs released was
back at 3.1, and does not contain working wifi drivers for use on the
N800 or N810.

2. create my own developer rootfs from scratchbox. The scripts for
doing this were last updated back in maemo 2.x, and it's difficult to
tell what the right way to go about this would be with the current sdk.

3. extract the rootfs from the retail image, mount it, and tar it. If
I mount the JFFS2 using kernel memory emulating a MTD, I get "error
inserting mtdram - cannot allocate memory". If I mount the JFFS2 using
block device emulating MTD, the tar fails with tons of read errors at
byte 0.

I've tried the above on multiple versions of Ubuntu and computers, and
errors are the same every time. Can you offer any guidance?

Hopeful thanks,
Scott

References:
http://maemo.org/development/documentation/how-tos/2-x/howto_use_flasher_rootfs.html
http://maemo.org/community/wiki/modifyingrootimage/
https://wiki.maemo.org/Modifying_the_root_image

D. Scott Brown wrote:
> 3. extract the rootfs from the retail image, mount it, and tar it. If
> I mount the JFFS2 using kernel memory emulating a MTD, I get "error
> inserting mtdram - cannot allocate memory". If I mount the JFFS2 using
> block device emulating MTD, the tar fails with tons of read errors at
> byte 0.

Check script and folowup posts here
http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?p=192475#post192475

On Jun 23, 2008, at 3:36 AM, Frantisek Dufka wrote:

> D. Scott Brown wrote:
>> 3. extract the rootfs from the retail image, mount it, and tar it.
>> If I mount the JFFS2 using kernel memory emulating a MTD, I get
>> "error inserting mtdram - cannot allocate memory". If I mount the
>> JFFS2 using block device emulating MTD, the tar fails with tons of
>> read errors at byte 0.
>
> Check script and folowup posts here
> http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?p=192475#post192475

Thanks! I actually just needed to upgrade my linux kernel so that
JFFS2 LZO compression was enabled. Once I switched to Edgy, it worked
perfectly.

Scott