From: Alexander Larsson <alex@signum.se>
To: linuxppc-dev@lists.linuxppc.org
Subject: Re: Booting Linux from Flash
Date: 15 Apr 1999 18:06:32 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <w1g16198c7.fsf@tammy.signum.se> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 37156C34.C1DEE82F@dgs.monash.edu.au
brendan@dgs.monash.edu.au (Brendan Simon) writes:
> 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.
The way I'm doing it is i just place the bootcode and a zImage at place in the
flash-mem where the machine boots. Then i just set up the machine and copy the
zImage down to ram and jump to it.
You could probably get it to read a compressed fs image from flash and mount it
as a ram-disk by either using some initrd hacking or doing some kernel startup
modifications.
> 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 ??
No, you don't need a Flash device driver unless you want to write to the flash.
/ Alex
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next prev parent reply other threads:[~1999-04-15 16:06 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 3+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
[not found] <01BE8665.A0E7B070.john.vanloon@oregonchain.com>
1999-04-15 4:33 ` Booting Linux from Flash Brendan Simon
1999-04-15 16:06 ` Alexander Larsson [this message]
1999-04-13 3:57 Brendan Simon
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