uClinux without Flash (again)

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originally posted by hippo@Nov 24 2005, 04:23 AM

i have build custom board. http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#emo_dir#>/laugh.gif

you can use initramfs.

it is similar to initrd.

it built the root file system into the kernel image.

you can use onchip memory as a boot loader, to read and load vmlinux from sd.

you can mount your sd later, eg, inittab.

so you do not need mtd,romfs,nfs root, etc to mount your root.

just add a dummy cfi interface to your sysptf, it is only for hwselect.

delete the dummy cfi in your final hardware design.

the cfi class name in hwselect.pl in arch/nios2nommu/scripts is not consistant with nios2 v5.0,v5.1.

change it to altera_avalon_cf.

to use initramfs, enable it in menuconfig,

device drivers -> block devices -> () initramfs source files

for newer kernel, it is moved

general setups ->

enter the root dir of your root fs, ie old initrd.

then setup the user id and group id map, with your user id.

the old ram disk support is not reqired.

the kernel command line is not required, too.

be sure to add a sym link /init --> /sbin/init .

the module file format generated by the kernel makefile is not flt format, so it can&#39;t load.

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originally posted by jdhar@nov 8 2005, 10:29 pm

I decided to give uClinux a try on my custom board, but I only have an SD card slot, no CFI. When reading the install guide for uClinux, and when trying it, it won&#39;t let me build a kernel project without a CFI device present? Is there any way to get around this? It seems odd that I can&#39;t build the kernel and run from DRAM, and then write to the SD Card if I wish to boot...

Thx!

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Wow, thank you, it&#39;s good to know someone out there knows how to do this. Unfortunately, I didn&#39;t understand everything you said. First, i&#39;m not worried about getting the kernel image into RAM; it&#39;s easy enough to write a bootloader that copies from MMC into RAM, so for now, I&#39;m just downloading the kernel image directly to RAM for development. Second, I have a dummy CFI component in there and it works ok; well, as in I can get the kernel booting, but I can&#39;t mount yet (that&#39;s my problem!).

Now, what you said about initrd - you said to use the initramfs() option.. but I don&#39;t understand how I&#39;m supposed to enter "source files". Lets say I make another Nios filesystem project with just the essentials... for the initramfs() option, do I just point to the directory? (ie: "../uclinux_fs/" - for example).

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The module file format generated by the kernel Makefile is not FLT format, so it can&#39;t load.[/b]

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I don&#39;t quite understand this, could you explain?