[maemo-developers] Making a custom root FS

[From: D. Scott Brown]

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