Port-arm archive

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Old Index]

RPI: kernel variants, documentation



I updated an RPI3 from 8 to 9 June, and remember having to add
dtb files and not much else specific.

Now I want to update along 9.   I know that the RPI2 kernel is gone and
it uses GENERIC (that's what I used in June).  But I see 4 GENERIC
kernels:

-rw-r--r--  1 root   wheel  4106729 Oct  8 23:07 netbsd-GENERIC.bin.gz
-rw-r--r--  1 root   wheel  4886368 Oct  8 23:07 netbsd-GENERIC.gz
-rw-r--r--  1 root   wheel  4106768 Oct  8 23:07 netbsd-GENERIC.img.gz
-rw-r--r--  1 root   wheel  4106705 Oct  8 23:07 netbsd-GENERIC.ub.gz

If I ungzip them, file says:

netbsd-GENERIC:     ELF 32-bit LSB executable, ARM, EABI5 version 1 (SYSV), statically linked, for NetBSD 9.0, not stripped
netbsd-GENERIC.bin: data
netbsd-GENERIC.img: data
netbsd-GENERIC.ub:  u-boot legacy uImage, NetBSD/earmv7hf 9.0_STABLE, Linux/ARM, (Not compressed), 8884440 bytes, Fri Oct  9 02:11:47 2020, Load Address: 0x00000000, Entry Point: 0x00000000, Header CRC: 0x30A81853, Data CRC: 0xB366126D

The RPI HOWTO, perhaps edited by me, says:

  Besides the "netbsd" kernel in ELF format, there is also a "netbsd.img"
  (for current) or "netbsd.bin" (for 7 and 8) kernel that is in a format
  that the Raspberry can boot.

but in 9, I see both.  img has 55 bytes more:

0000000   \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0  \0 001  \0  \0  \0 004  \0  \0  \0   2
0000020    8   3   x 001  \0  \0  \0 004  \0  \0  \0   D   T   O   K 001
0000040   \0  \0  \0 004  \0  \0  \0   D   D   T   K   8  \0  \0  \0 004
0000060   \0  \0  \0   R   P   T   L                                    
0000067

I used the img version and it works to boot.

Reading INSTALL.txt, it tells me only that netbsd-GENERIC.gz is a
gzipped kernel and that RPI and RPI2 kernels also exist (now incorrect).


So can anyone tell me, or fix:

1) Could someone teach file(1) to identify these?

2) What are the img and bin formats, and why are they used?

3) Is the img (9 and current) and bin (7 and 8) comment correct?  If so,
why is there a bin in the 9 build?

4) How should INSTALL.txt be fixed?  I realize there is armv7.img, but I
think reading INSTALL.txt should enable someone to hand-build a disk
that will work.


I'll fix the HOWTO based on any confident statements.

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: PGP signature



Home | Main Index | Thread Index | Old Index