Preparing the SDK

The SDK is installed with a minimal configuration to save space, and to keep the initial download small. You will want to install several additional packages to prepare the SDK for actual development work.

$ schroot -c olmec-armel-h
(olmec-armel-h)$ apt-get install build-essential fakeroot sudo devscripts

build-essential

this package is a pseudo package that contains dependencies for the compiler and other things you will need for building packages.

fakeroot

this package provides a command that allows you to run commands in an environment that fakes root privileges for file manipulation.

sudo

this package provides a command to allow to you execute a command as another user, possibly even root (the privileged user).

devscripts

this package contains a collection of useful scripts which are used in examples elsewhere on this site.

Configuring sudo

Enter your chroot as the root user

$ schroot -c olmec-armel-h -u root

Once inside, edit the /etc/sudoers file and uncomment the last line so it looks like this

# Uncomment to allow members of group sudo to not need a password
# (Note that later entries override this, so you might need to move
# it further down)
%sudo ALL=NOPASSWD: ALL

Lastly, add yourself to the sudo group.

(olmec-armel-h)$ adduser youruser sudo

Now, when you enter the SDK as your normal user, you have a convenient way to become root to do things like install additional packages. It is a bad idea work as the root user all of the time. Instead, work as your normal, unprivileged user, and increates your privileges only when needed.

Configuring your VMware guest

If you are running the host OS inside VMware, you may want to install and configure the VMware tools. Like above, you will need to install a few packages, but this time, install them in the host (not inside the SDK chroot)

$ apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-2.6-686

linux-headers-2.6-686

This package install the headers that match your kernel. These will be needed to build the VMware kernel modules that are part of the VMware Tools.

Next, from the VMware UI, choose VM->InstallVMware Tools.... This causes a virtual CDROM containing the VMware Tools to be inserted. Now, run the following commands to mount, unpack and configure the VMware Tools.

$ mount /media/cdrom0
$ cp /media/cdrom0/VMwareTools-*.tar.gz /tmp
$ cd /tmp
$ tar zxf VMwareTools*tar.gz
$ cd vmware-tools-distrib
$ ./vmware-install.pl

Choose the default values for the questions, and the script should be able to build and installed everything for you.