Re: TS7200_INSTALL kernel problem solved - kernel too big!

["Patrick Collins" <normalbloke%gmail.com@localhost>]

I think it would be great if we could have a very simple boot loader
that could load a NetBSD kernel from CF. Do you think you could magic
one of these please Jesse :)

Patrick Collins
+61 419 712 581



2008/12/12 Jesse Off <joff%embeddedarm.com@localhost>:
> Ken Hornstein wrote:
>>>
>>> u-boot has those features now, but not redboot.
>>>
>>
>> Yeah, I think that unless Embedded ARM wants to switch to u-boot, that
>> doesn't
>> help us.  Ah, well.
>>
>> --Ken
>>
>>
>
> We're not a big fan of either u-Boot or RedBoot out here.  Seems like
> overkill to write one OS to for the sole purpose of starting up another.  I
> personally prefer to minimize how many drivers I write or debug for the same
> hardware.  :-)
>
> In our new products, we have written a 442 byte bootloader that loads
> kernels from x86 MBR style partitions of either NAND flash or SD card and
> can boot a small Linux kernel + ramdisk in about the same amount of time it
> takes the RedBoot or u-boot bloatware to start up.  Once up, we have written
> a Linux program + kernel module that can start up other OS's, RTOS's, and
> OS-less applications.  In effect, we use Linux as our bootloader so that you
> could load kernels via NFS over USB wifi dongle and configure pre-bootup
> behavior in shell script, etc...
>
> Here's some info on it:
> http://www.embeddedarm.com/software/arm-linux-bootloader.php
>
> I ported the bootload utility to NetBSD too-- it doesn't even need a kernel
> module. I do what I need to do there via /dev/mem and /dev/kmem.
>
> This application + kernel module should also work on the default TS-7200
> Linux installation.  You can place the NetBSD kernel on the Linux JFFS2
> filesystem and then run our "bootload" command to soft-boot into another OS.
>  On the platforms we've standardized on this scheme we can go from power-on
> to Linux to another OS in about 3 seconds or so.  The TS-7200 Linux boots up
> a little slower, but its still not too bad.
>
> //Jesse Off
>
>