ML403 Linux port questions

ML403 Linux port questions

[Phil Hochstetler]

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I'm setting up a new development environment to get a working port of
Linux on the Xilinx Virtex-4 chip  (I have a Xilinx ML403 board).  I'm
looking for the quickest way to get a working development environment
for the 2.6 kernel without paying thousands of $$ (what happened to
MontaVista?).  My first attempt was to use google and found lots of
resources.  The problem is that much of the info is dated or makes
assumptions about your environment.  I read Grants write-up at
http://wiki.secretlab.ca/index.php/Linux_on_Xilinx_Virtex.  Because I
want to use Windows XP SP2 as the host if possible, I went down the path
of installing the current Cygwin and was able to create cross tools (gcc
4.1) successfully.  The problem I am having is that the Linux build
process requires a newer gcc than 3.4.4-3 which is what Cygwin provides.
I have used the EDK to build a bsp package successfully so that is not a
problem.  I tried to compile the 2.6.24.2 mainline kernel but it fails
to compile using the Cygwin tools (it never gets as far as using them).

 

I guess what I am looking for is advise on the lowest risk, easiest to
set up environment to setup that will just work.  Also advise on which
kernel to use.   I don't need a detailed tutorial but a high level
direct that is known to work.  I am thinking of using either the secret
lab tree or the Xilinx tree as recommended in Grants wiki page.  Should
I just forget using XP and install a Linux (x86 processor so I must use
cross tools)?   If so, what is the recommend distro and what version?

 

Thanks for all your sharing of experience.  I hope to contribute back as
soon as I can.

 

--phil


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RE: ML403 Linux port questions

[Darcy Watkins]

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Hello,

 

I am using an AMCC PPC405EP based system and find that the following
works...

 

Development / build machine --> Fedora core 6 or 7 on x86 PC

Cross compile and target rootfs generation --> Buildroot

Linux kernel (at least to start with) --> 2.6.19.2 from DENX ELDK 4.1

 

Of course, you can use the cross compile environment from ELDK if you
like.  I used it at first (had a very good out-of-box experience on AMCC
Taihu with it) and then switched to Buildroot later.

 

http://www.denx.de <http://www.denx.de/>  for ELDK / kernel

http://buildroot.uclibc.org <http://buildroot.uclibc.org/>  for
Buildroot

 

I am presently using the Linux 2.6.19.2 kernel with I-Pipe real time
extension (2.3.0) from the Xenomai project - as bundled in ELDK 4.1 by
DENX.  I have also experimented with some newer stuff, but this involves
diving into the board support migration from arch/ppc to arch/powerpc
which is still pretty bleeding edge. 2.6.19.2 is pretty safe and not too
old - and is probably the newest available with RT option while still
being in the arch/ppc tree.

 

Don't attempt to have buildroot automatically build the kernel for you
as part of its config - that may cause you grief as their integration
for PowerPC kernels appears hit-and-miss for 40x series due to all the
arch/ppc versus arch/powerpc stuff.  Also, the buildroot automatic
kernel generation doesn't include RT support (in case you need it).

 

 

Regards,

 

Darcy

 

 

________________________________

From: linuxppc-embedded-bounces+dwatkins=tranzeo.com@ozlabs.org
[mailto:linuxppc-embedded-bounces+dwatkins=tranzeo.com@ozlabs.org] On
Behalf Of Phil Hochstetler
Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 9:25 AM
To: linuxppc-embedded@ozlabs.org
Subject: ML403 Linux port questions

 

I'm setting up a new development environment to get a working port of
Linux on the Xilinx Virtex-4 chip  (I have a Xilinx ML403 board).  I'm
looking for the quickest way to get a working development environment
for the 2.6 kernel without paying thousands of $$ 

--snip!--

I guess what I am looking for is advise on the lowest risk, easiest to
set up environment to setup that will just work.  Also advise on which
kernel to use. 

--snip!-

 


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Re: ML403 Linux port questions

[Grant Likely]

On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 10:24 AM, Phil Hochstetler
<Phil.Hochstetler@serveron.com> wrote:
> I guess what I am looking for is advise on the lowest risk, easiest to set
> up environment to setup that will just work.  Also advise on which kernel to
> use.   I don't need a detailed tutorial but a high level direct that is
> known to work.  I am thinking of using either the secret lab tree or the
> Xilinx tree as recommended in Grants wiki page.  Should I just forget using
> XP and install a Linux (x86 processor so I must use cross tools)?   If so,
> what is the recommend distro and what version?

Yes, absolutely.  Going down the cygwin path is doable, but it is a
path of pain.  I strongly recommend using a Linux host.  (I personally
use Ubuntu, but you should have good success with any disto.  Use what
you're most comfortable with).

The simplest approach to get running with a Linux box is to install
either VirtualBox or VMware and create yourself a Linux virtual
machine.  That will get you up and running without having to obtain
new hardware or risk breaking your XP setup.

Cheers,
g.

-- 
Grant Likely, B.Sc., P.Eng.
Secret Lab Technologies Ltd.

Re: ML403 Linux port questions

[David H. Lynch Jr.]

Grant Likely wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 10:24 AM, Phil Hochstetler
> <Phil.Hochstetler@serveron.com> wrote:
>   
>> I guess what I am looking for is advise on the lowest risk, easiest to set
>> up environment to setup that will just work.  Also advise on which kernel to
>> use.   I don't need a detailed tutorial but a high level direct that is
>> known to work.  I am thinking of using either the secret lab tree or the
>> Xilinx tree as recommended in Grants wiki page.  Should I just forget using
>> XP and install a Linux (x86 processor so I must use cross tools)?   If so,
>> what is the recommend distro and what version?
>>     
>
> Yes, absolutely.  Going down the cygwin path is doable, but it is a
> path of pain.  I strongly recommend using a Linux host.  (I personally
> use Ubuntu, but you should have good success with any disto.  Use what
> you're most comfortable with).
>
> The simplest approach to get running with a Linux box is to install
> either VirtualBox or VMware and create yourself a Linux virtual
> machine.  That will get you up and running without having to obtain
> new hardware or risk breaking your XP setup.
>   
    Mostly I would agree - however, I would suggest something like
colinux rather than
    virtualbox or vmware - If you must do development work on a windows
system.
    Colinux is fairly trivial to get up and running.
    It gives you real linux running as a process under windows.
    There is no "virtualization" going on at all.
    The only caveat is that all access to host hardware must go through
windows.
    This is much less of a big deal than it sounds - if you are talking
about a development environment.
    It is also useful because from colinux running under windows you can
have access to your windows filesystem.
    This means that you can use REAL linux tool fairly transparently on
windows while still running windows.
    I rarely run windows anymore. But when I do I run colinux, and I
write linux shell scripts that run under colinux
    to preform tasks I find difficult to do under windows.



-- 
Dave Lynch 					  	    DLA Systems
Software Development:  				         Embedded Linux
717.627.3770 	       dhlii@dlasys.net 	  http://www.dlasys.net
fax: 1.253.369.9244 			           Cell: 1.717.587.7774
Over 25 years' experience in platforms, languages, and technologies too numerous to list.

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction."
Albert Einstein

Re: ML403 Linux port questions

[Brian Silverman]

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I am currently building under cygwin for the Virtex-4.  Yes, it's likely 
more of a pain, but its doable.  But any way you slice it, its not 
instantaneous to get a build environment up and running.

Anyway, here's what I'm using right now:

crosstool 0.42 (gcc3.4.1, glibc2.3.3) (possibly patched)
Linux 2.6.24-rc8-xlnx (git.xilinx.com)
    - with patch for building under cygwin: 
http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/2/22/421
    - A missing elf.h file, not in my cygwin distribution.

Also a pain with cygwin is the NFS server - I had difficulty getting it 
to work with more recent cygwin install, and have been unable to 
downgrade it.  Finally, with no loopback device in cygwin, if you want 
to create initrd's, you have to do this on a Linux box.  But this is now 
less of an issue in 2.6 with initramfs.

-bri


Phil Hochstetler wrote:
>
> I'm setting up a new development environment to get a working port of 
> Linux on the Xilinx Virtex-4 chip  (I have a Xilinx ML403 board).  I'm 
> looking for the quickest way to get a working development environment 
> for the 2.6 kernel without paying thousands of $$ (what happened to 
> MontaVista?).  My first attempt was to use google and found lots of 
> resources.  The problem is that much of the info is dated or makes 
> assumptions about your environment.  I read Grants write-up at 
> http://wiki.secretlab.ca/index.php/Linux_on_Xilinx_Virtex.  Because I 
> want to use Windows XP SP2 as the host if possible, I went down the 
> path of installing the current Cygwin and was able to create cross 
> tools (gcc 4.1) successfully.  The problem I am having is that the 
> Linux build process requires a newer gcc than 3.4.4-3 which is what 
> Cygwin provides.  I have used the EDK to build a bsp package 
> successfully so that is not a problem.  I tried to compile the 
> 2.6.24.2 mainline kernel but it fails to compile using the Cygwin 
> tools (it never gets as far as using them).
>
>  
>
> I guess what I am looking for is advise on the lowest risk, easiest to 
> set up environment to setup that will just work.  Also advise on which 
> kernel to use.   I don't need a detailed tutorial but a high level 
> direct that is known to work.  I am thinking of using either the 
> secret lab tree or the Xilinx tree as recommended in Grants wiki 
> page.  Should I just forget using XP and install a Linux (x86 
> processor so I must use cross tools)?   If so, what is the recommend 
> distro and what version?
>
>  
>
> Thanks for all your sharing of experience.  I hope to contribute back 
> as soon as I can.
>
>  
>
> --phil
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Linuxppc-embedded mailing list
> Linuxppc-embedded@ozlabs.org
> https://ozlabs.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxppc-embedded


-- 
Brian Silverman
Concept X, LLC


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Re: ML403 Linux port questions

[David H. Lynch Jr.]

    I have a two part series that should be appearing in Circuit Cellar
either this month or next,
that is targeted very close to what you are looking for.
    You have to be a masochist to try to build linux kernels under cygwin.
    It is purportedly doable - I have never succeeded, but very painful.

    If you must work under windows - I know alot of engineers do, then I
would highly recommend colinux.
    www.colinux.org. It will give you linux and windows running
concurrently on the same machine with
    very little pain, no additional cost, there is a small amount of
grief getting windows-colinux networking functioning,
    that is not critical but it is nice. Getting X windows running is
substantially more effort and is very nice - but completely
    unnecescary. Colinux is a much easier and lighter weight solution
than virtualization.

    That said I would highly recommend you seriously consider doing
linux development without windows.
    The targets you are going to be developing for are going to run linux.
    The initial learning curve might be steeper, but the payoff is
greater. Everything you learn on the development
    side will apply to the target.
    There are bazillions of Live CD's you can try. I would highly
recommend Ubuntu.
    Its alot like windows - except mostly friendlier and it works.

    Personally, I went the roll your own method for creating a
development environment.
    I have no experience with ELDK.
    Buildroot and many other "environments" dictate a very specific way
of working.
    They guide you to a working solution faster but I find myself
fighting against their
    limitations all too soon.
    Unfortunately crosstools has not been updated in a while, and does
not officially support
     uClibc (it does support glibc). uClibc is very appealing for
limited resource systems.
    There is a crosstools-ng project, but it does not have ppc support.

    It would be really really nice (hint) if Xilinx would get their
microblaze compiler code
    into the gcc distribution.



Phil Hochstetler wrote:
> I'm setting up a new development environment to get a working port of
> Linux on the Xilinx Virtex-4 chip  (I have a Xilinx ML403 board).  I'm
> looking for the quickest way to get a working development environment
> for the 2.6 kernel without paying thousands of $$ (what happened to
> MontaVista?).  My first attempt was to use google and found lots of
> resources.  The problem is that much of the info is dated or makes
> assumptions about your environment.  I read Grants write-up at
> http://wiki.secretlab.ca/index.php/Linux_on_Xilinx_Virtex.  Because I
> want to use Windows XP SP2 as the host if possible, I went down the path
> of installing the current Cygwin and was able to create cross tools (gcc
> 4.1) successfully.  The problem I am having is that the Linux build
> process requires a newer gcc than 3.4.4-3 which is what Cygwin provides.
> I have used the EDK to build a bsp package successfully so that is not a
> problem.  I tried to compile the 2.6.24.2 mainline kernel but it fails
> to compile using the Cygwin tools (it never gets as far as using them).
>
>  
>
> I guess what I am looking for is advise on the lowest risk, easiest to
> set up environment to setup that will just work.  Also advise on which
> kernel to use.   I don't need a detailed tutorial but a high level
> direct that is known to work.  I am thinking of using either the secret
> lab tree or the Xilinx tree as recommended in Grants wiki page.  Should
> I just forget using XP and install a Linux (x86 processor so I must use
> cross tools)?   If so, what is the recommend distro and what version?
>
>  
>
> Thanks for all your sharing of experience.  I hope to contribute back as
> soon as I can.
>
>  
>
> --phil
>
>
>   
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Linuxppc-embedded mailing list
> Linuxppc-embedded@ozlabs.org
> https://ozlabs.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxppc-embedded


-- 
Dave Lynch 					  	    DLA Systems
Software Development:  				         Embedded Linux
717.627.3770 	       dhlii@dlasys.net 	  http://www.dlasys.net
fax: 1.253.369.9244 			           Cell: 1.717.587.7774
Over 25 years' experience in platforms, languages, and technologies too numerous to list.

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction."
Albert Einstein