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!

--- Quote Start --- originally posted by jdhar@Nov 8 2005, 09:29 AM 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! <div align='right'><{post_snapback}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=10853) --- quote end --- --- Quote End --- no one knows how to do this?

I&#39;m gonna bump this too.. haven&#39;t run into this problem yet, but it would be good to know if there&#39;s a solution

--- Quote Start --- originally posted by rhaikh@Nov 18 2005, 05:26 PM i&#39;m gonna bump this too.. haven&#39;t run into this problem yet, but it would be good to know if there&#39;s a solution <div align='right'><{post_snapback}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=11053) --- quote end --- --- Quote End --- Well, it&#39;s documented how to run the kernel from RAM (check out one of the uClinux docs), but I don&#39;t know how to make a filesystem from RAM yet...

On a related note, is it possible to boot using NFS? As in if I can get the kernel into RAM, and I have no Flash/non-volatile storage, can I mount NFS as root and then boot that way?

UPDATE : This post is out of date. Please follow the new one, http://forum.niosforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=3174 (http://forum.niosforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=3174) 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. --- Quote Start --- 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! <div align='right'><{post_snapback}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=10853) --- quote end --- --- Quote End ---

uClinux without Flash (again) | Altera Community

58 Replies

Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
20 years ago
"all of the thread is talking about how to build the kernel under linux"
Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
20 years ago
> I'd like to build out vmlinux.bin in order to let u-boot to boot or flash-programmer.
> How to do it ?

For u-boot:

1. Optionally compress the linux binary.
2. Create the u-boot image file from the linux binary (or compressed binary).
3. Load the image file into ram.
4. Execute the u-boot "bootm" command.

Regards,
--Scott
Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
20 years ago
1.
-----------------------------------------------------
In redhat, when I

make ARCH=....

it just built out vmlinux, which is used for "nios2-download -g vmlinux" to debug in SDRAM. I'd like to get vmlinux.bin, which is used for nios2-flash-program.

is it also nios2-elf-objcopy??

2.
-----------------------------------------------------
there is a exe file in <plugs>/<microtronix>/application/bin/elf2flt.exe

but how to get elf2flt in redhat?
I cannot surf marc's page to build toolchain.
Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
20 years ago
Regarding Q1, I'm not sure, I tried doing the same at one point, but I don't think I ever got it...

Regarding elf2flt, check the linux distribution CD where you got all the linux binaries from. If it's not there, I'm afraid you will have to build the toolchain somehow... or at least get those binaries. You can probably email Marc himself and ask for binaries.
Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
20 years ago
1. There is no elf2flt in the linux distribution CD. The source is in the examples/software/linux/utils/elf2flt. But you need libbfd to build it. It should be better to do the buildroot following the marc's page.

2. "nios2-elf-objcopy -O binary vmlinux vmlinux.bin" will create the raw binary file.
Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
20 years ago
--- Quote Start ---
originally posted by hippo@Dec 14 2005, 08:06 PM
1. there is no elf2flt in the linux distribution cd. the source is in the examples/software/linux/utils/elf2flt. but you need libbfd to build it. it should be better to do the buildroot following the marc's page.

2. "nios2-elf-objcopy -o binary vmlinux vmlinux.bin" will create the raw binary file.
<div align='right'><{post_snapback}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=11562)
--- quote end ---

--- Quote End ---

I agree with hippo - the toolchain is ultimately the best way to go... I tried working with the windows one, and it's just so much slower and you can't automate it like with linux - so I would definitely advise trying to build it.
Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
20 years ago
but I cannot surf marc's website here, China.
Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
20 years ago
--- Quote Start ---
originally posted by mountain8848@Dec 15 2005, 03:13 AM
but i cannot surf marc's website here, china.
<div align='right'><{post_snapback}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=11578)
--- quote end ---

--- Quote End ---

I'm looking for a Proxy Server outside China,so we can visit the site

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uClinux without Flash (again)

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