[U-Boot] AT91RM9200 U-Boot can not load initrd from flash

[U-Boot] AT91RM9200 U-Boot can not load initrd from flash

[Dmitry K]

Hello

I've a board quite similar to AT91RM9200DK. I've compiled U-Boot 1.1.2
and 1.3.4 for it and both work fine with images loaded via tftp. When I
try to boot same images from flash I got kernel running fine until this:
...
No filesystem could mount root, tried:  ext2 cramfs vfat romfs
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
unknown-block(1,0)

Seems like initrd is not copied to RAM by U-Boot.
The u-boot environment is:
setenv ipaddr 192.168.1.1
setenv serverip 192.168.1.10
setenv bootargs 'root=/dev/ram rw initrd=20a00000,500000
ramdisk_size=8192 console=ttyS0,115200 mem=32M
mtdparts=phys_mapped_flash:64K(boot),64K(uboot),2944K(kernel),4608K(initrd),256K(settings),-(unused)'
setenv bootcmd "bootm 10020000 10300000"

The images are:
U-Boot> imls
Legacy Image at 10020000:
  Image Name:   K_2009-01-12_13:47:42
  Image Type:   ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
  Data Size:    2443456 Bytes =  2.3 MB
  Load Address: 20008000
  Entry Point:  20008000
  Verifying Checksum ... OK
Legacy Image at 10300000:
  Image Name:   FS_2009-01-12_14:13:24
  Image Type:   ARM Linux RAMDisk Image (gzip compressed)
  Data Size:    3446369 Bytes =  3.3 MB
  Load Address: 20a00000
  Entry Point:  20a00000
  Verifying Checksum ... OK

What am I missing?

--
Dmitry K.

[U-Boot] AT91RM9200 U-Boot can not load initrd from flash

[Wolfgang Denk]

Dear Dmitry,

In message <846497610.1234947971.54288136.73867@mcgi74.rambler.ru> you wrote:
> 
> I've a board quite similar to AT91RM9200DK. I've compiled U-Boot 1.1.2
> and 1.3.4 for it and both work fine with images loaded via tftp. When I
> try to boot same images from flash I got kernel running fine until this:
> ...
> No filesystem could mount root, tried:  ext2 cramfs vfat romfs
> Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
> unknown-block(1,0)

Yes, that's a know limitation (or call it feature, or bug, as you
like) of the ARM kernel.

> Seems like initrd is not copied to RAM by U-Boot.

No, of course it is not copied. Why should we copy the compressed
image to ram? That's just a waste of CPU cycles. The kernel can read
it from flash as well.

Patches for this problem were submitted a few times since kenrel
version 2.4.17 or so, and posted and re-posted again and again here
on the ML. Search the archives for details.

> What am I missing?

You're running on ARM...

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd at denx.de
1st Old Man:  Gee, its windy today.
2nd Old Man:  No it's not... it's Thursday.
3rd Old Man:  Yeh, me too.  Let's go for a beer.

[U-Boot] AT91RM9200 U-Boot can not load initrd from flash

[Dmitry Koroban]

Wolfgang Denk wrote:
> Patches for this problem were submitted a few times since kenrel
> version 2.4.17 or so, and posted and re-posted again and again here
> on the ML. Search the archives for details.
>   
I've searched here: http://www.nabble.com/Uboot---Users-f553.html
and found same questions and no answers.

I have u-boot-1.1.1 which is able to load my images from flash, but is
available only in binary. This makes me think that problem is in u-boot,
but this message: 
http://www.nabble.com/Re%3A-Re%3A-Problem-with-bootm-command-p484325.html
says that kernel is unable to handle ramdisk in flash, while it should.

I don't understand if I should patch kernel or U-Boot.
Can anyone clarify this and advise me keywords to find appropriate patch?


-- 
Dmitry

[U-Boot] AT91RM9200 U-Boot can not load initrd from flash

[Dmitry K]

Wolfgang Denk wrote:
> Patches for this problem were submitted a few times since kenrel
> version 2.4.17 or so, and posted and re-posted again and again here
> on the ML. Search the archives for details.
>

I've searched here: http://www.nabble.com/Uboot---Users-f553.html
and found same questions and no answers.

I have u-boot-1.1.1 which is able to load my images from flash, but is
available only in binary. This makes me think that problem is in u-boot,
but this message: 
http://www.nabble.com/Re%3A-Re%3A-Problem-with-bootm-command-p484325.html
says that kernel is unable to handle ramdisk in flash, while it should.

I don't understand if I should patch kernel or U-Boot.
Can anyone clarify this and advise me keywords to find appropriate 
patch?

--
Dmitry K.

[U-Boot] AT91RM9200 U-Boot can not load initrd from flash

[Wolfgang Denk]

Dear Dmitry Koroban,

In message <499C1F47.307@radiofid.ru> you wrote:
>
> > Patches for this problem were submitted a few times since kenrel
> > version 2.4.17 or so, and posted and re-posted again and again here
> > on the ML. Search the archives for details.

To be more precise: Patches to the Linux kernel have been submitted...

> I've searched here: http://www.nabble.com/Uboot---Users-f553.html
> and found same questions and no answers.

Maybe gmane has a better search interface...

> I don't understand if I should patch kernel or U-Boot.
> Can anyone clarify this and advise me keywords to find appropriate patch?

It's a Linux kernel problem, not an U-Boot issue.

As a work around, you can load the image to RAM in U-Boot...

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd at denx.de
God made machine language; all the rest is the work of man.

[U-Boot] AT91RM9200 U-Boot can not load initrd from flash

[Dmitry Koroban]

> To be more precise: Patches to the Linux kernel have been submitted...
>   
I've searched archive using gmane but found only links to cvs whis is no 
longer used. This question seems to be asked frequently, so why don't 
you add it to FAQ along with link to patches to prevent further questions?

Thank you

-- 
Dmitry

[U-Boot] AT91RM9200 U-Boot can not load initrd from flash

[Dmitry K]

> To be more precise: Patches to the Linux kernel have been submitted...
>

I've searched archive using gmane but found only links to cvs whis is no 
longer used. This question seems to be asked frequently, so why don't 
you add it to FAQ along with link to patches to prevent further 
questions?

Thank you

--
Dmitry K.