[Fwd: Re: DiskOnChip Questions]
Michael Robinson
mrobinson at fuzzymuzzle.com
Fri Jun 25 12:09:01 CEST 2004
Sounds great, thanks for the help. I have one other question though,
LinuxBIOS will fit on a 4Mbit flash chip if my root filesystem in on a
hard drive, correct? Also, the specs for the VIA EPIA MII say the BIOS
is 2/4Mbit, does this mean I can use either size or does it mean that it
only works with one of these sizes?
Thanks,
Michael Robinson
mrobinson at fuzzymuzzle.com
www.fuzzymuzzle.com
Hendricks David W. wrote:
>LinuxBIOS does not have its own kernel. The way it usually works is either
>LinuxBIOS boots a kernel from flash or LinuxBIOS boots a payload (eg FILO
>or Etherboot) which then boots a kernel. LinuxBIOS is its own entity in
>either case.
>
>If you have an IDE hard disk, you can use LinuxBIOS and FILO to boot your
>kernel off that hard disk and its existing filesystem as you would with
>LILO or GRUB. FILO can be downloaded here:
>http://te.to/~ts1/filo/ .
>
>Basically this is what I would do with your hardware:
>1. Download FILO, edit the Config file.
> Change the AUTOBOOT_FILE line to let FILO know where your kernel
>is located and also pass any extra kernel parameters. Example:
>hda2:/boot/x86_64 root=/dev/hda2 console=ttyS0,115200 console=tty0 vga=792
>video=atyfb:mode:1024x768
> Look under "# Filesystems" and enable whichever filesystem(s) you
>require to read your kernel.
> Run "make" to generate filo.elf
>
>2. Open your freebios2/targets/via/epia-m/Config.lb file and edit the
>"payload" lines. There should be two of them, one under romimage "normal"
>and one under romimage "fallback". Change them to point to filo.elf. For
>example:
> payload /usr/src/filo-0.4.2/filo.elf
>
>3. cd to freebios2/targets and run "./buildtarget via/epia-m/"
>4. cd to via/epia-m/epia-m and run "make"
>5. If all goes well, you should now have linuxbios.rom. Burn it on a spare
>flash part (You can try the flash_rom utility in
>freebios2/util/flash_and_burn), hook up a serial connection to another
>computer, power cycle and see what happens.
>
>On Fri, 25 Jun 2004, Michael Robinson wrote:
>
>
>
>>David,
>>
>>LinuxBIOS has its own kernel correct? Or is LinuxBIOS not really a
>>Linux kernel, but boots a Linux kernel that can be stored on the
>>DiskOnChip or HDD? I just want to verify how it works because I've
>>heard so many references to multiple kernels that I'm not sure exactly
>>how the whole process works. In response to your last question I'd like
>>to boot my distro off of hard disk if I'm thinking correctly.
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Michael Robinson
>>mrobinson at fuzzymuzzle.com
>>www.fuzzymuzzle.com
>>
>>Hendricks David W. wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>You can do it that way, too. The method suggested earlier was to use the
>>>distribution kernel on the compact flash device. If you want a stripped
>>>kernel to fit alongside LinuxBIOS on your BIOS ROM, you can do that as
>>>well (Look at targets/arima/hdama/Config.kernelimage.lb for an example).
>>>You could then use Kexec or Two Kernel Monte (kmonte) to boot
>>>another kernel.
>>>
>>>So I guess what we need to figure out is how you want to boot your kernel.
>>>Do you want it to be booted off an IDE device or the same flash part
>>>alongside your BIOS?
>>>
>>>On Fri, 25 Jun 2004, Michael Robinson wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>So in my case FILO is booting the actual Linux kernel that you will be
>>>>using when you perform tasks on the computer? So if you were using a
>>>>DiskOnChip your Linux distribution kernel would be on the actual
>>>>DiskOnChip? I was under the impression that the LinuxBIOS kernel was on
>>>>the DiskOnChip and the distribution kernel was on a hard drive. Could
>>>>you please clarify.
>>>>
>>>>Thanks,
>>>>Michael Robinson
>>>>mrobinson at fuzzymuzzle.com
>>>>www.fuzzymuzzle.com
>>>>
>>>>Hendricks David W. wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>Sounds about right. Put your kernel on an IDE device with a filesystem
>>>>>(FILO supports EXT2/3, Reiser, XFS, etc) and use FILO as your LinuxBIOS
>>>>>payload (payload /where/filo/is/located/filo.elf in your
>>>>>targets/via/epia-m/Config.lb file). You also need to tell FILO where
>>>>>yoru kernel is located and give it any options you want passed to the
>>>>>kernel in the "AUTOBOOT_FILE" line, which should look something like
>>>>>a LILO prompt: hda1:/kernel root/dev/hda3 console=ttyS0,115200
>>>>>
>>>>>Boot image generally implies kernel.
>>>>>
>>>>>On Fri, 25 Jun 2004, Michael Robinson wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>---The trend seems to be NOT to use DiskOnChip but rather a CF <> IDE
>>>>>>adapter. Using FILO you can boot from the CF.---
>>>>>>
>>>>>>So I'd flash FILO to the BIOS, then it would load the LinuxBIOS kernel
>>>>>>image, and then the kernel image would do whatever you want LinuxBIOS to
>>>>>>do, right? Or am I wrong... It says FILO loads a "boot image", whats the
>>>>>>definition of a "boot image", is it just the kernel?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Thanks,
>>>>>>Michael Robinson
>>>>>>mrobinson at fuzzymuzzle.com
>>>>>>www.fuzzymuzzle.com
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Larry Matter wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>what
>>>>>>>>does the DiskOnChip provide to the LinuxBIOs project that the standard
>>>>>>>>flash chip can't?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>More than 2 megabits of storage.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>My second is that I'm going to be using the VIA EPIA
>>>>>>>>MII motherboard which has a PLCC BIOS, as far as I can tell PLCC
>>>>>>>>DiskOnChips aren't very readily available. Should I use a DIP to PLCC
>>>>>>>>adapter; how did the other people who used this board do it?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>The trend seems to be NOT to use DiskOnChip but rather a CF <> IDE
>>>>>>>adapter. Using FILO you can boot from the CF.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>My final
>>>>>>>>question is how do I pick the size of the DiskOnChip.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>So if you're going to go for the CF <> IDE, then it just needs to be as
>>>>>>>big as your root partition (or even just an initrd). There are many
>>>>>>>other alternatives depending on network, disk, etc.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>And if you've been following this list for a bit you'll know that you
>>>>>>>can't (yet) boot off of the CF adapter on the EPIA MII.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>One last word of advice, get a bios savior.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Larry
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>_______________________________________________
>>>>>>Linuxbios mailing list
>>>>>>Linuxbios at clustermatic.org
>>>>>>http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
>>>>>>
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