Re: Linux on Motorola Sandpoint/PPMC7400

[Bob Doyle <doyle@primenet.com>]

I have code that initializes (some of) the sandpoint hardware -
enough to get the sandpoint to copy and gunzip stuff (code etc)
from the floppy disk to memory.  I program it into the PPMC
flash memory and use it to load a proprietary OS.  The floppy
code polls the floppy controller so I don't need to have
interrupts and DMA in the bootloader.

I also have code that knows how to initialize a couple of
different VGA cards that I use.

If someone was interested in making a more useful bootloader
for linux/sandpoint I'd look into cleaning it up (removing
the proprietary stuff) and releasing the code.

Bob.

Alex Shnitman wrote:
>
> On Tue, Aug 29, 2000 at 12:16:09PM -0700, you wrote the following:
>
> > > I downloaded the kernel and tried it. It starts booting, but it hangs
> > > right after initializing the the OpenPIC. :-( I'll download the source
> > > code tonight and try to look at it, although I don't have much hopes
> > > gotta learn though.
> > >
> > > Is there any book that you recommend to get me started? Any other
> > > docs/tips?
> >
> > Oops, I should have included the sandpoint switch settings.  For
> > this version of the kernel, the sandpoint switches must be set as
> > follows:
> >
> > S4,S3: up, down
> > S5: down
> > S6: down (yours is probably up which is why it hung in openpic)
> >
> > Try this and see if it helps.
>
> It did! The kernel boots fine now all the way through.
>
> Thanks a lot!
>
> Another question: what would be the best way to go about booting Linux
> from the flash? Would flashing the kernel in instead of the dink32
> monitor do the trick, or does dink32 do some important initializations
> that are needed for the kernel to boot?

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