Booting from StrataFlash on SBC-104

Booting from StrataFlash on SBC-104

[Michel STEMPIN]

I am trying to squeeze linux on an Arcom SBC-104 board (4Mb DRAM/4Mb
StrataFlash).

Right now, I am able to make it boot from a noisy HDD, a silent (somewhat
appendix-like) CompactFlash, and from an additional DOC, using the binary
driver from M-Systems as a ramdisk-loaded driver.

My goal is to be able to boot it from the built-in StrataFlash device, and
thus, I have a few questions:
	- would you recommend using JFFS or JFFS2?
	- I saw a "boot" directory under the CVS: what is its status?
	- under "boot" the Makefile is building 2 targets "flashloader.rom" and
"sbc_mediagx.rom": what are they for? Which one should I get, since the
sbc_mediagx and the sbc_104 are from the same manufacturer?

I guess the best way will be to follow the HOWTO, then build one of these
and transfer it onto the chip. How? Is it a "dd" using the mtdblock device?

Excuse me for these dummy questions, I am new to the list, and trying to
catch up with the train! I tried to read the archives first, finding no
answer.

--
Michel Stempin
MIS
COM One SA, 11 parc de Marticot, 33610 CESTAS, FRANCE
Tel: +33(0)5 57 97 72 72
Fax: +33(0)5 56 78 84 78
Email: mstempin@com1.fr



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Re: Booting from StrataFlash on SBC-104

[David Woodhouse]

mstempin@com1.fr said:
>  My goal is to be able to boot it from the built-in StrataFlash
> device, and thus, I have a few questions:
> 	- would you recommend using JFFS or JFFS2?

JFFS2.

> 	- I saw a "boot" directory under the CVS: what is its status?
> 	- under "boot" the Makefile is building 2 targets "flashloader.rom"
> and "sbc_mediagx.rom": what are they for? Which one should I get,
> since the sbc_mediagx and the sbc_104 are from the same manufacturer?

I'll let the people from Arcom answer those.

Have you tried the GPL'd driver for the DiskOnChip?


--
dwmw2




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RE: Booting from StrataFlash on SBC-104

[Alex Lennon]

Michel,

>> 	- I saw a "boot" directory under the CVS: what is its status?
>> 	- under "boot" the Makefile is building 2 targets "flashloader.rom"
>> and "sbc_mediagx.rom": what are they for? Which one should I get,
>> since the sbc_mediagx and the sbc_104 are from the same manufacturer?
>
>I'll let the people from Arcom answer those.

I hope my colleague Will Frazer passed on my reply to you ?

you can modify the code in sbc_mediagx_boot.c to boot your zImage
out of a linear boot partition as mentioned.

To do this you would change the flash window base and size, flash paging I/O
port etc. - Technical details are in the SBC-104 board manual.

Also you would need to change the partition sizes (possibly having
only the boot and and application partition) for the 4Mb onboard flash part.

You cannot flash update the BIOS on the SBC-104 so you would need access to
an EPROM programmer: you would have to update your BIOS to add in the
custom 'sbc_mediagx.rom' BIOS extension.

I think that should get you up and running... Please contact Will or myself
offline
if you have any further board specific queries.

Alternatively you might want to look at the ROM bootloader:
ftp://ftp.sysgo.de/pub/elinos/1.0/updates/rolo_1.1_src.tar.gz

(see the list archives for further details - this was mentioned a couple of
days ago
 and looks _very_ interesting. I can't comment further as I haven't had a
change to
 investigate yet)

Finally (and by far the easiest of options I think) you could plug a D-o-C
onto the board ...

Regards,

	Alex




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