autoboot with initial RAM disk

autoboot with initial RAM disk

[Rudolf Ladyzhenskii]

Hi, all

I am using ppcboot to start my 8260 based card. At the moment, we load Linux
kernel via tftp and then start it. Linux kernel maps its root file system
over the network. This works fine qith ppcboot autoboot feature.

Now, we want to put initial RAM disk into RAM as well as compressed kernel.
Do do that, both images have to be copied into card's memory using tftp and
them bootm command will be used with two arguments to start kernel.

To continue to use ppcboot autoboot feature we have to pass two commands as
boot command (to tftp two kernels) and then issue bootm command with two
arguments. Is there any way of doing it without altering the ppcboot source
code?

Thanks,
/************************/
Rudolf Ladyzhenskii
DSP Engineer
Advanced Communication Technologies
ph.  +61 3 8080 8215
fax. +61 3 9672 8800
Level 9, 190 Queen Street,
Melbourne, 3000
Australia
/***********************/


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RE: autoboot with initial RAM disk

[Subodh Nijsure]

Hello,

Not sure if this what you want --

Create a multi-image using the ppcboot utility mkimage using command like

mkimage -n "Linux Kernel And Ramdisk" -A ppc -O linux  -T multi -C gzip \
-a 0x00000000  -e 0x00000000 -d
./arch/ppc/coffboot/vmlinux.gz:ramdisk.image.gz linux-image

This will create a file linux-image that has linux kernel and ramdisk that
ppcboot
can load.

Now in your ppcboot you set bootcommand as,

setenv bootcmd tftpboot 900000 /tftpboot/linux-image \; bootm 900000

Now the autoboot will load the linux-image from your tftpserver.

/Subodh

-----Original Message-----
From: Rudolf Ladyzhenskii [mailto:rudolf.ladyzhenskii@act-aus.net]
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 8:45 PM
To: Linuxppc-Embedded (E-mail)
Subject: autoboot with initial RAM disk



Hi, all

I am using ppcboot to start my 8260 based card. At the moment, we load Linux
kernel via tftp and then start it. Linux kernel maps its root file system
over the network. This works fine qith ppcboot autoboot feature.

Now, we want to put initial RAM disk into RAM as well as compressed kernel.
Do do that, both images have to be copied into card's memory using tftp and
them bootm command will be used with two arguments to start kernel.

To continue to use ppcboot autoboot feature we have to pass two commands as
boot command (to tftp two kernels) and then issue bootm command with two
arguments. Is there any way of doing it without altering the ppcboot source
code?

Thanks,
/************************/
Rudolf Ladyzhenskii
DSP Engineer
Advanced Communication Technologies
ph.  +61 3 8080 8215
fax. +61 3 9672 8800
Level 9, 190 Queen Street,
Melbourne, 3000
Australia
/***********************/


** Sent via the linuxppc-embedded mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/

Re: autoboot with initial RAM disk

[Wolfgang Denk]

In message <B164B53F5BD6D511888D009027732E1A0249CB@ntserver.act.domain> you wrote:
>
> I am using ppcboot to start my 8260 based card. At the moment, we load Linux
> kernel via tftp and then start it. Linux kernel maps its root file system
> over the network. This works fine qith ppcboot autoboot feature.
>
> Now, we want to put initial RAM disk into RAM as well as compressed kernel.
> Do do that, both images have to be copied into card's memory using tftp and
> them bootm command will be used with two arguments to start kernel.
>
> To continue to use ppcboot autoboot feature we have to pass two commands as
> boot command (to tftp two kernels) and then issue bootm command with two
> arguments. Is there any way of doing it without altering the ppcboot source
> code?

There are many ways.

First, you can define a complex boot sequence  in  one  command,  for
instance like this:

=> setenv bootcmd tftp 100000 /tftpboot/pImage\;tftp 200000 /tftpboot/pRamdisk\;bootm 100000 200000

You can also get the IP configuration in the first step for instance using DHCP and then re-use this:

=> setenv bootcmd dhcpboot 100000\;tftp 200000 /tftpboot/pRamdisk\;bootm 100000 200000

etc.

But the most simple way is to combine the kernel and  ramdisk  images
into one PPCBoot image (using the "multi-file image" format) and just
use this:

=> setenv bootcmd tftp 100000 /tftpboot/pMulti\;bootm 100000

See the SELF Makefile for example how to build multifile images.  You
can find our Simple Embedded Linux Framework at
ftp://ftp.denx.de/pub/LinuxPPC/usr/src/SELF/SELF-2001-12-13-2335.tar.bz2

Wolfgang Denk

--
Software Engineering:  Embedded and Realtime Systems,  Embedded Linux
Phone: (+49)-8142-4596-87  Fax: (+49)-8142-4596-88  Email: wd@denx.de
Far back in the mists of ancient time, in the great and glorious days
of the former Galactic Empire, life was wild, rich  and  largely  tax
free.         - Douglas Adams, _The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_

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Re: autoboot with initial RAM disk

[Peter Desnoyers]

(this really belongs on the ppcboot list...)

You can do arbitrarily complicated things in the ppcboot 'bootcmd'
argument.  In your case:

  setenv bootcmd tftp 100000 pImage\; tftp 300000 initrd\; bootm 100000
300000

If your bootcmd variable gets too long, ppcboot will complain - then you
just have to do something like:

  setenv bootcmd run first_half\; run second_half
  setenv first_half command\; command\; ...
  setenv second_half ...

Rudolf Ladyzhenskii wrote:
>
> Hi, all
>
> I am using ppcboot to start my 8260 based card. At the moment, we load Linux
> kernel via tftp and then start it. Linux kernel maps its root file system
> over the network. This works fine qith ppcboot autoboot feature.
>
> Now, we want to put initial RAM disk into RAM as well as compressed kernel.
> Do do that, both images have to be copied into card's memory using tftp and
> them bootm command will be used with two arguments to start kernel.
>
> To continue to use ppcboot autoboot feature we have to pass two commands as
> boot command (to tftp two kernels) and then issue bootm command with two
> arguments. Is there any way of doing it without altering the ppcboot source
> code?
>
> Thanks,
> /************************/
> Rudolf Ladyzhenskii
> DSP Engineer
> Advanced Communication Technologies
> ph.  +61 3 8080 8215
> fax. +61 3 9672 8800
> Level 9, 190 Queen Street,
> Melbourne, 3000
> Australia
> /***********************/
>

--
.....................................................................
 Peter Desnoyers            (781) 457-1165   pdesnoyers@chinook.com
 Chinook Communications     (617) 661-1979   pjd@fred.cambridge.ma.us
 100 Hayden Ave, Lexington MA 02421

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