[U-Boot-Users] Download of kernel Image through Serial Line.

[U-Boot-Users] Download of kernel Image through Serial Line.

[Christophe.LINDHEIMER at fr.thalesgroup.com]

Hi.

Just a beginner with U-Boot.

In my new project we are trying to use Linux and U-Boot.

The main problem I have is that I don't have any ethernet link on this card.

- Is it possible to configure U-Boot to make a download of the image using
the serial line ? ( tftp over serial line or something like that )

- If it is not possible would it be a big work ?

- If I eventually manage to launch Linux, is it possible to have NFS over
serial line ?

- What are the minima requests in terms of memory to run Linux ?
- Minimum Ram Size
- Minimum Flash Size if I don't use NFS ( full embeded application )

Thanks.

Chris

[U-Boot-Users] Download of kernel Image through Serial Line.

[Marius Groeger]

On Wed, 29 Jan 2003 Christophe.LINDHEIMER at fr.thalesgroup.com wrote:

> - Is it possible to configure U-Boot to make a download of the image using
> the serial line ? ( tftp over serial line or something like that )

Yes, you can download the images using kermit, for instance.

> - If I eventually manage to launch Linux, is it possible to have NFS over
> serial line ?

Well, not as a root file system. You can boot into a small RAM disk
and set up a ppp link, though.

> - What are the minima requests in terms of memory to run Linux ?
> - Minimum Ram Size
> - Minimum Flash Size if I don't use NFS ( full embeded application )

That depends on your hardware and software. Define "full embedded
application". With 4MB RAM you can get started. Depending on what you
need in the kernel (networking, for instance) this can become a little
bit tight quickly.

Regards
Marius

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marius Groeger           SYSGO Real-Time Solutions AG       mgroeger at sysgo.de
Software Engineering     Embedded and Real-Time Software    www.sysgo.de
Voice: +49-6136-9948-0   Am Pfaffenstein 14                 www.osek.de
FAX:   +49-6136-9948-10  55270 Klein-Winternheim, Germany   www.elinos.com

[U-Boot-Users] Download of kernel Image through Serial Line.

[John W. Linville]

Marius Groeger wrote:
 > On Wed, 29 Jan 2003 Christophe.LINDHEIMER at fr.thalesgroup.com wrote:

 >>- If I eventually manage to launch Linux, is it possible to have NFS
 >>over serial line ?
 >
 > Well, not as a root file system. You can boot into a small RAM disk
 > and set up a ppp link, though.

Actually, it is possible to mount the root FS via NFS over PPP.  We have 
done so for development purposes on some of our systems with no ethernet 
service ports.  The performance is limited, but once a binary (and it's 
associated libraries) are cached into memory, the system is reasonably 
responsive.

The trick is to use an initrd with a linuxrc file that sets-up the PPP 
link.  The "root=" command line argument should be "/dev/nfs" and either 
an "ip=" or "nfsroot=" line should be used.  I can be more specific if 
someone wants more information.

John

-- 
John W. Linville
LVL7 Systems, Inc.

[U-Boot-Users] Download of kernel Image through Serial Line.

[Marius Groeger]

On Wed, 29 Jan 2003, John W. Linville wrote:

> Actually, it is possible to mount the root FS via NFS over PPP.  We have
> done so for development purposes on some of our systems with no ethernet
> service ports.  The performance is limited, but once a binary (and it's
> associated libraries) are cached into memory, the system is reasonably
> responsive.
>
> The trick is to use an initrd with a linuxrc file that sets-up the PPP
> link.  The "root=" command line argument should be "/dev/nfs" and either
> an "ip=" or "nfsroot=" line should be used.  I can be more specific if
> someone wants more information.

Ah, right, that could be done. I forgot about this possibility. Cool.

Thanks,
Marius

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marius Groeger           SYSGO Real-Time Solutions AG       mgroeger at sysgo.de
Software Engineering     Embedded and Real-Time Software    www.sysgo.de
Voice: +49-6136-9948-0   Am Pfaffenstein 14                 www.osek.de
FAX:   +49-6136-9948-10  55270 Klein-Winternheim, Germany   www.elinos.com

[U-Boot-Users] Download of kernel Image through Serial Line.

[wolfgang.grandegger at bluewin.ch]

>-- Original Message --
From: Christophe.LINDHEIMER@fr.thalesgroup.com
>To: u-boot-users at lists.sourceforge.net
>Subject: [U-Boot-Users] Download of kernel Image through Serial Line.
>Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 10:38:13 +0100
>
>
>Hi.
>
>Just a beginner with U-Boot.
>
>In my new project we are trying to use Linux and U-Boot.
>
>The main problem I have is that I don't have any ethernet link on this card.
>
>- Is it possible to configure U-Boot to make a download of the image using
>the serial line ? ( tftp over serial line or something like that )
>
>- If it is not possible would it be a big work ?

You could use kermit binary download. Check for example chapter 
4.10.5.3 of our DENX PPCBoot and Linux Guide at 
http://www.denx.de/doc/TQM8xxL.

>- If I eventually manage to launch Linux, is it possible to have NFS over
>serial line ?

This does not sound very promising to me. A root filesystem 
on a JFFS2 or CRAMFS partition might be the better option.

>- What are the minima requests in terms of memory to run Linux ?
>- Minimum Ram Size

4MB or better 8MB.

>- Minimum Flash Size if I don't use NFS ( full embeded application )

4MB. For a resonable 'standard' Embedded Linux runtime 
environment for PowerPC including basic network support 
you need approx. the following space in Flash:

 U-Boot                   : 120 KB
 Linux kernel             : 600 KB
 RAMDisk image            : 1   MB
 Root file-system on JFFS2: 2.5 MB

And development and debugging without network will be 
quite cumbersome, I imagine. A hardware debugger would 
be of great help also for image download. Abatron's 
BDI2000 is a _great_ tool. 

Hope it helps,

Wolfgang.

[U-Boot-Users] Download of kernel Image through Serial Line.

[Christophe.LINDHEIMER at fr.thalesgroup.com]

Hi.

> > - What are the minima requests in terms of memory to run Linux ?
> > - Minimum Ram Size
> > - Minimum Flash Size if I don't use NFS ( full embeded application )
> 
> That depends on your hardware and software. Define "full embedded
> application". With 4MB RAM you can get started. Depending on what you
> need in the kernel (networking, for instance) this can become a little
> bit tight quickly.

Well my application shouldn't be very big and I don't really need a lot of
features of Linux so if it works with 4Mb for a "light" Linux it should be
ok.
When I speak of "full embedded application" I mean that won't have NFS to
store the filesystem.
So if I understood correctly I will have to flash my linux image and the
filesystem.
So I need to have an idea of the size necessary to store a filesystem and a
linux image in Flash...


Thanks

Chris

[U-Boot-Users] Download of kernel Image through Serial Line.

[Marius Groeger]

On Wed, 29 Jan 2003 Christophe.LINDHEIMER at fr.thalesgroup.com wrote:

> Well my application shouldn't be very big and I don't really need a
> lot of features of Linux so if it works with 4Mb for a "light" Linux
> it should be ok. When I speak of "full embedded application" I mean
> that won't have NFS to store the filesystem. So if I understood
> correctly I will have to flash my linux image and the filesystem. So
> I need to have an idea of the size necessary to store a filesystem
> and a linux image in Flash...

The smallest demo we have in our ElinOS Distribution has a ROM
footprint of less than 256KB. Of course that is a _very_ _simple_
system. You should calculate with 512KB-1MB.

Regards
Marius

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marius Groeger           SYSGO Real-Time Solutions AG       mgroeger at sysgo.de
Software Engineering     Embedded and Real-Time Software    www.sysgo.de
Voice: +49-6136-9948-0   Am Pfaffenstein 14                 www.osek.de
FAX:   +49-6136-9948-10  55270 Klein-Winternheim, Germany   www.elinos.com

[U-Boot-Users] Download of kernel Image through Serial Line.

[AUBERT Cedric]

Hi,

I may be want to try to put U-Boot with a Embedded Linux on
a custom MPC860 (33Mhz) board of course with Network (10 Mbps)
( 2MB ROM, 8 ou 16 MB of Flash, 4 MB of DRAM for the system, 16 MB of SRAM
for the application )

So for U-Boot and Linux, I want to allow only the DRAM
and a part of the flash ( example : 8 MB )

Is it possible to have U-Boot and the kernel linux in the prom
without decompress the kernel in RAM ? Flash will be ok for the
filesystem and my application. The SRAM should be use
for my application Data Base.

Is it enought with network support ?

Thanks

Cedric



-----Message d'origine-----
De : u-boot-users-admin at lists.sourceforge.net
[mailto:u-boot-users-admin at lists.sourceforge.net]De la part de Marius
Groeger
Envoye : mercredi 29 janvier 2003 11:25
A : Christophe.LINDHEIMER at fr.thalesgroup.com
Cc : u-boot-users at lists.sourceforge.net
Objet : RE: [U-Boot-Users] Download of kernel Image through Serial Line.


On Wed, 29 Jan 2003 Christophe.LINDHEIMER at fr.thalesgroup.com wrote:

> Well my application shouldn't be very big and I don't really need a
> lot of features of Linux so if it works with 4Mb for a "light" Linux
> it should be ok. When I speak of "full embedded application" I mean
> that won't have NFS to store the filesystem. So if I understood
> correctly I will have to flash my linux image and the filesystem. So
> I need to have an idea of the size necessary to store a filesystem
> and a linux image in Flash...

The smallest demo we have in our ElinOS Distribution has a ROM
footprint of less than 256KB. Of course that is a _very_ _simple_
system. You should calculate with 512KB-1MB.

Regards
Marius

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Marius Groeger           SYSGO Real-Time Solutions AG
mgroeger at sysgo.de
Software Engineering     Embedded and Real-Time Software    www.sysgo.de
Voice: +49-6136-9948-0   Am Pfaffenstein 14                 www.osek.de
FAX:   +49-6136-9948-10  55270 Klein-Winternheim, Germany   www.elinos.com


-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.NET email is sponsored by:
SourceForge Enterprise Edition + IBM + LinuxWorld = Something 2 See!
http://www.vasoftware.com
_______________________________________________
U-Boot-Users mailing list
U-Boot-Users at lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/u-boot-users

[U-Boot-Users] Download of kernel Image through Serial Line.

[Wolfgang Denk]

In message <NEEAIENMOLHNBKKFKIDMAEBFCAAA.cedric_aubert@softhome.net> you wrote:
> 
> Is it possible to have U-Boot and the kernel linux in the prom
> without decompress the kernel in RAM ? Flash will be ok for the

You _can_ run the Linux kernel from  ROM;  we  have  implemented  and
tested XIP (execute in place) for a couple of systems, including PPC.
However, the advantages are not what you might expect.

> filesystem and my application. The SRAM should be use
> for my application Data Base.

Linux will always need system memory in RAM.


Viele Gr??e,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
Software Engineering:  Embedded and Realtime Systems,  Embedded Linux
Phone: (+49)-8142-4596-87  Fax: (+49)-8142-4596-88  Email: wd at denx.de
Your csh still thinks true is false. Write to your vendor  today  and
tell them that next year Configure ought to "rm /bin/csh" unless they
fix  their blasted shell. :-)
                 - Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution

[U-Boot-Users] Download of kernel Image through Serial Line.

[Marius Groeger]

On Wed, 29 Jan 2003, Callebaut, Benoit wrote:

> Are you sure that the 512 kB ROM footprint includes the filesystem ? Our
> kernel use already something like 512 kBytes (includes TCP/IP support).

Like I said - It all depends on what you are actually doing. For
instance, we still don't know about what HW architecture we are
talking here. Also, the the last post from Christophe indicated he
will _not_ be using networking. Lastly, just to mention it once, all
figures are compressed sizes.

Regards,
Marius

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marius Groeger           SYSGO Real-Time Solutions AG       mgroeger at sysgo.de
Software Engineering     Embedded and Real-Time Software    www.sysgo.de
Voice: +49-6136-9948-0   Am Pfaffenstein 14                 www.osek.de
FAX:   +49-6136-9948-10  55270 Klein-Winternheim, Germany   www.elinos.com

[U-Boot-Users] Download of kernel Image through Serial Line.

[leeyang]

> >- Minimum Flash Size if I don't use NFS ( full embeded application )
> 
> 4MB. For a resonable 'standard' Embedded Linux runtime 
> environment for PowerPC including basic network support 
> you need approx. the following space in Flash:
> 
>  U-Boot                   : 120 KB
>  Linux kernel             : 600 KB
>  RAMDisk image            : 1   MB
>  Root file-system on JFFS2: 2.5 MB

My embedded fs are 
ppcboot+kernel+ramdisk(rootfs),However
ramdisk will take 4.5M ram.

I am going to switch to jffs2,
but could you tell me the function of
your 1M ramdisk?
Would you please check
http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/linux-mtd/2003-January/006836.html
and I state my situation there.

Thank you!

leeyang

[U-Boot-Users] Download of kernel Image through Serial Line.

[Wolfgang Grandegger]

On 01/30/2003 03:44 AM leeyang wrote:
>> >- Minimum Flash Size if I don't use NFS ( full embeded application )
>> 
>> 4MB. For a resonable 'standard' Embedded Linux runtime 
>> environment for PowerPC including basic network support 
>> you need approx. the following space in Flash:
>> 
>>  U-Boot                   : 120 KB
>>  Linux kernel             : 600 KB
>>  RAMDisk image            : 1   MB
>>  Root file-system on JFFS2: 2.5 MB
> 
> My embedded fs are 
> ppcboot+kernel+ramdisk(rootfs),However
> ramdisk will take 4.5M ram.
> 
> I am going to switch to jffs2,
> but could you tell me the function of
> your 1M ramdisk?

The size is for a RAMdisk image built with SELF, our "Simple Embedded
Linux Framework" (see ftp://ftp.denx.de/pub/LinuxPPC/usr/src/SELF). The
size of the root filesystem is approx. 2.5MB resulting in a compressed
RAMdisk image of 1MB. You may want to put this root filesystem on a
JFFS2 or better CRAMFS partition but usually there is no real benefit.
Actually you waste flash memory space for saving little RAM space.

> Would you please check
> http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/linux-mtd/2003-January/006836.html
> and I state my situation there.

About flash partitioning: You can define a static partition table in the
Linux kernel e.g. drivers/mtd/maps/tqm8xxl.c for the TQM8xxL modules.
With the DENX kernel you can also define the partitioning via Linux
bootargs if the kernel option CONFIG_MTD_CMDLINE_PARTS is defined. See
http://www.denx.de/doc/TQM8xxL/dplg.html#FLASH-FILESYSTEMS for further
information.

Good luck,

Wolfgang.