etherboot

[Serafino Sorrenti]

Hello,
now i download etherboot 5.1.8, i need more information to use this!

tnx

Serafino

[Stefan Reinauer]

* Serafino Sorrenti  [030513 11:33]:
> Hello,
> now i download etherboot 5.1.8, i need more information to use this!

You should unpack it, and build an etherboot image for the boot method
you want.

For LinuxBIOS you have to change the Config file to disable -DPCBIOS
and instead use the LinuxBIOS settings. Now you can build a new image
with i.e.
make bin/ide_disk--tg3.zelf

this will build a compressed image that can boot from an ide disk and
from a tg3 broadcom ethernet card.

Best regards,
  Stefan Reinauer

[Richard Smith]

Serafino Sorrenti wrote:
> Hello,
> now i download etherboot 5.1.8, i need more information to use this!

This is perhaps a little late but from my FAQ/HOWTO.

How do I make LB use etherboot IDE?

First you need to go get etherboot and compile it.  You either get
    the developement branch with IDE support or the stable branch which
    need a patch to work.

Now modify the etherboot config file so that its compatible with
    LB. Specifically the ./src/Config file and the
    arch/<your arch>/Config file

For Ver 5.1.8

The options you need to make sure are set are:

-DELF_IMAGE -DLINUXBIOS -DCONFIG_TSC_CURRTICKS -DCONFIG_PCI_DIRECT

there are other options that are helpful like -DCONSOLE_SERIAL -
    DCOMCONSOLE=xxx

The option(s) you need to make sure it NOT set are:

-DPCBIOS

Then compile etherboot.  You want to compile with a specific make
    command so that it generates the elfimage for LB to load.  This is
    done by taggin the .zelf on to your normal makefile command.

For example to make the polling IDE loader elf image you need:

make bin/ide_disk.zelf
    
    For Ver 5.0.x:
    
    <Someone needs to fill in the info for the earlier version>
    
    Now modify your linuxbios config file to include:

option USE_ELF_BOOT=1
    option PAYLOAD_SIZE=<size of you etherboot payload>
    payload /path/to/your/etherboot/driver

A quick note about PAYLOAD_SIZE.  This parameter does not specifiy
    the exact size of the image but rather its fed to the bs=<size>
    option of 'dd'.  This along with the 'sync' option causes dd to
    only output files that are a mutiple of the bs= size.  So if you
    specify bs=32768 but your input filesize is 40000 you will end up
    with a output file thats 65536.  So far I have just kept
    PAYLOAD_SIZE at 32768 and then go back and adjust ROM_SIZE such
    that the final image size is the size of my ROM part.

You also need an input stream for the elfboot code to read from so
    you must set one (or more?) of the following options.

USE_GENERIC_ROM=1

<What are all the other stream options?>

Now you need to create an elf kernel for the ether boot code to
    find. Go fetch the mkelfimage command at

ftp://ftp.lnxi.com/pub/src/mkelfImage/

Generally the latest one is better.  Note that there are several
    older versions of binutils that are broken and mkelfimage will
    expose those bugs. Insure that you are running a recient copy of
    binutils.  The following shows the version output from a known
    working bintuils.

# as --version
     GNU assembler 2.13.90.0.10 20021010 Debian GNU/Linux
    
     Now compile mkelfimage.  Which should be as easy as ./configure,
     make, make install
    
     You can now create a elf kernel.
    
     Change to the directory where the image file for you kernel is.
     Normally this is somewhere in the kernel tree.  In my case this
     is arch/i386/boot and the kernel image is bzImage.
    
     By defaut mkelfimage is installed in /usr/local/sbin so
     you would do
    
     /usr/local/sbin/mkelfimage bzImage elfimage
    
     Now you have your kernel elfized in the file 'elfimage'
    
     mkelfimage support several options for adding commandlines and
     initrd's to the kernel image type 'mkelfimage' without any
     arguments for the details.
    
    Ok final setp. Locate the kernel on the IDE device.  Etherboot
    currently searchs the first 8k of disk space for the elf header.
    So you have to locate the start of that kernel within that space.

If you don't care about having a proper partition table on your
    disk then you can just splat the kernel at the front of the disk.

For the rest of the examples lets assume your disk is mounted in
    your *developement* machine as /dev/hde

The following will write the kernel at the beginning of the IDE
    device.

# cat elfimage > /dev/hde

This works well if you don't need the IDE device for anything other
    than booting.

If you want a filesystem on the device as well then you are going
    to have to protect the partition table as well.

Currently the hack for accomplishing this is

dd if=elfimage of=/dev/hde bs=4096 seek=1

This will skip over the partition table and write the data in the
    area where the first partition would normally be.  So you have to
    create a disk with at least 2 partitions.  /dev/hde1 should be
    large enough to hold your kernel plus any initrd you may want.  You
    can then put your filesystem on /dev/hde2

Note. It appears that in some setups dd may whine about /dev/hde
    being an "Invalid argument" but it appears to write the data to the
    disk anyway. Somebody mentioned that it was a "buffer size"
    mismatch with dd and ext3 but nothing definitive was ever posted.
    If you receive this and solve the issue please report it.

[Serafino Sorrenti]

Hello Richard
i've tried to put the kernel on the compact flash but there are problems here:
> Currently the hack for accomplishing this is
>
> dd if=elfimage of=/dev/hde bs=4096 seek=1

it seems to erase the partition table, do i have to skip some bytes at the 
beginning of the disk ?

i've tried also with:

dd if=elfimage of=/dev/hde1 bs=4096 seek=1

but linuxbios does not find hd0,0 /kernel when it starts.

i have a question: if i use dd do raw copy from a file to the disk, how can 
linuxbios use /kernel ? i don't think there is any reference to a file :|

Tnx
Serafino

[Adam Agnew]

eep. Hrmm.. It looks like you're following the directions for one
etherboot, but using a different etherboot. If you're using etherboot
5.0.6 with my polled io / file system patch, then you want to:

1) Make sure that compact flash adapter is the primary master (hda not hde
as long as you're going to use (hd0,0) ).

2) Just make a regular partition table, make sure the first primary
partition is ext2 or ext3, and then save that kernel image as /kernel .

3) Only follow the directions for writted a kernel to the compact flash
raw if you're going to use the development branch of etherboot (5.1.8
presently)

- Adam Agnew

On Thu, 15 May 2003, Serafino Sorrenti wrote:
> Hello Richard
> i've tried to put the kernel on the compact flash but there are problems here:
> > Currently the hack for accomplishing this is
> >
> > dd if=elfimage of=/dev/hde bs=4096 seek=1
>
> it seems to erase the partition table, do i have to skip some bytes at the
> beginning of the disk ?
>
> i've tried also with:
>
> dd if=elfimage of=/dev/hde1 bs=4096 seek=1
>
> but linuxbios does not find hd0,0 /kernel when it starts.
>
> i have a question: if i use dd do raw copy from a file to the disk, how can
> linuxbios use /kernel ? i don't think there is any reference to a file :|
>
> Tnx
> Serafino
> _______________________________________________
> Linuxbios mailing list
> [e-mail]
> http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[Richard Smith]

Adam Agnew wrote:
> eep. Hrmm.. It looks like you're following the directions for one
> etherboot, but using a different etherboot. If you're using etherboot
> 5.0.6 with my polled io / file system patch, then you want to:
> Make sure that compact flash adapter is the primary master (hda not hde
>
> as long as you're going to use (hd0,0) ).
> Just make a regular partition table, make sure the first primary
>
> partition is ext2 or ext3, and then save that kernel image as /kernel .
> Only follow the directions for writted a kernel to the compact flash
>
> raw if you're going to use the development branch of etherboot (5.1.8
> presently)

Ah my bad.  Looks like my howto is in error then.  I only have the 
building of etherboot seperated out.  I didn't realise the boot method 
was different as well.

Adam can you do a short writeup on building etherboot 5.0.x apply your 
patches and then the process above?  I'll make 2 different sections in 
my FAQ/HOWTO) one for each etherboot version.

[Adam Agnew]

> Adam can you do a short writeup on building etherboot 5.0.x apply your
> patches and then the process above?  I'll make 2 different sections in
> my FAQ/HOWTO) one for each etherboot version.

Certainly. See the attached diff, feel free to edit.

Also, did you decide on a permanent format? I don't mind getting better at
latex if that could be of assistance to you.

- Adam A.

-----------------
Adam Agnew
Independent Contractor
www.adamagnew.com

[Richard Smith]

Adam Agnew wrote:
> Also, did you decide on a permanent format? I don't mind getting better at
> latex if that could be of assistance to you.

No not yet.  I was kinda thinking DocBook since thats the defacto FAQ 
and HOWTO format.  But I don't have any of the tools to mess with it 
setup and it does look a little complex.  I was hoping Open office would 
make that a whole lot eaiser. (plus run on my doze machine which makes 
it eaiser for me to work with)

Also David Barr has offered to Proofread/Technical Edit it as well so I 
want to use whatever he feels is best.
> > For Ver 5.0.6

Don't you have to apply some patches to get to this point?  Where are 
they available at and what are the steps to apply them?
> >  The Config file is already correct for most instances. 
> >  Note that -DPCBIOS is NOT set and -DLINUXBIOS -DCONFIG_TSC_CURRTICKS  -DCONSOLE_SERIAL -DCOMCONSOLE=0x3f8
> >  -DCOMPRESERVE -DCONFIG_PCI_DIRECT -DELF_IMAGE and -DPOLLED_IDE are.

[Adam Agnew]

> > > For Ver 5.0.6
>
> Don't you have to apply some patches to get to this point?  Where are
> they available at and what are the steps to apply them?

Line 228 of your FAQ already answers that, kinda..
so..

download etherboot-5.0.6.tar.gz from etherboot.org
download etherboot-5.0.6.polled1.diff from http://www.missl.cs.umd.edu/~agnew/
(save them to the same directory)
tar -vzxf etherboot-5.0.6.tar.gz
cd etherboot-5.0.6
patch -p1 < ../etherboot-5.0.6.polled1.diff

- Adam A.

------------------
Adam Agnew
Independent Contractor
www.adamagnew.com

[Richard Smith]

Serafino Sorrenti wrote:
> i've tried to put the kernel on the compact flash but there are problems here:
> > Currently the hack for accomplishing this is
> >
> > dd if=elfimage of=/dev/hde bs=4096 seek=1
>
> it seems to erase the partition table, do i have to skip some bytes at the 
> beginning of the disk ?

Hmmm... I't shouldn't.  Thats what the seek=1 does.  Its skips over 4Kib 
  of space before it begins writing.  That should more than clear your 
partition table.  Are you sure it nuked your partition table?