From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-ID: <37156C34.C1DEE82F@dgs.monash.edu.au> Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 04:33:57 +0000 From: Brendan Simon Reply-To: brendan@dgs.monash.edu.au MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "john.vanloon@oregonchain.com" CC: "linux-embedded-digest@waste.org" , linuxppc-dev , linuxppc-user Subject: Re: Booting Linux from Flash References: <01BE8665.A0E7B070.john.vanloon@oregonchain.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: owner-linuxppc-dev@lists.linuxppc.org List-Id: I would certainly like to get a flash filesystem driver. I'm not sure if it is the same thing you are talking about. I want to boot linux on an powerpc embedded system which has no hard disk. I do not want to use lilo. I imagine that I would have write a simple bootloader to get the kernel booting. I want to store the kernel at a known location in Flash and store a boot image at a known location in Flash. I then want to execute the kernel somehow (jump to appropriate address) and pass to it any parameters required to let it place the boot image in a ram disk. I think the kernel lives in the file system so it's a bit of a chicken and egg problem as far as I can see. Is the kernel that is booting stored in the boot image. If so I guess the boot image has to be uncompressed. The root filesystem can be a compressed image though. Anyone know where I should start with regards to bootloaders or how to get the kernel booting if I have the kernel and bootimage in Flash somewhere. Note the Flash is just memory mapped on a SIMM. There is no IDE driver or filesystem on it. Do I need a Flash device driver ?? Thanks, Brendan Simon. John VanLoon wrote: > I have a driver for a card from advantech. I do not believe that much would > have to be done to have it usable on a FLASH BOOT BLOCK device. You would > just need to fill in the details and perhaps add support for multiple > partitions if you need it (an offset to the beginning is already supported > allowing booting from compressed image ...) and modify lilo. Let me know if > you would like such a thing. > John van Loon > john.vanloon@oregonchain.com [[ This message was sent via the linuxppc-dev mailing list. Replies are ]] [[ not forced back to the list, so be sure to Cc linuxppc-dev if your ]] [[ reply is of general interest. Please check http://lists.linuxppc.org/ ]] [[ and http://www.linuxppc.org/ for useful information before posting. ]]