[ECOS] some basic questions about porting uclinux

[ECOS] some basic questions about porting uclinux

[zsz]

Hell all,
	For porting ucLinux, I am a beiginer, so I have some basic questions to ask you. My questions are shown as following:
1. What format is the kernel image downloaded into RAM or FLASH by you. Is .hex, .bin or .img? What difference is in them? Whether any one format can run in RAM? 
2. In our system, There are a JTAG port and a parallel port wiggler, but I don't know how to write a GDB stub to support them, and I don't know how does the GDB stub cooperate with the kernel image? Can you tell me some detail or provide me with web pages which describe solutions.
3. I know that ucLinux is without MMU, so can you tell me whether your system is without MMU too? How do you solve the problems about multitasking and dynamic loading applications.
Any Hints is welcome, thank you very much in advance!

Zhao Shengzhe
zsz@chinadigipro.com

Re: [ECOS] some basic questions about porting uclinux

[Bart Veer]

>>>>> "Zhao" == zsz  <zsz@chinadigipro.com> writes:

    Zhao> Hell all,

    Zhao> 	For porting ucLinux, I am a beiginer, so I have some
    Zhao> 	basic questions to ask you. My questions are shown as
    Zhao> 	following:

    Zhao> 1. What format is the kernel image downloaded into RAM or
    Zhao> FLASH by you. Is .hex, .bin or .img? What difference is in
    Zhao> them? Whether any one format can run in RAM?

Please do not post or cross-post questions about ucLinux to
ecos-discuss. eCos is a separate operating system, unrelated for now
to Linux or ucLinux. There is a group within Red Hat with ucLinux
development experience, but it is largely separate from the eCos team.

    Zhao> 2. In our system, There are a JTAG port and a parallel port
    Zhao> wiggler, but I don't know how to write a GDB stub to support
    Zhao> them, and I don't know how does the GDB stub cooperate with
    Zhao> the kernel image? Can you tell me some detail or provide me
    Zhao> with web pages which describe solutions.

The best place to ask this question would be on one of the gdb mailing
lists, see http://sources.redhat.com/gdb/

    Zhao> 3. I know that ucLinux is without MMU, so can you tell me
    Zhao> whether your system is without MMU too? How do you solve the
    Zhao> problems about multitasking and dynamic loading
    Zhao> applications.

eCos does not require an MMU. However it does not support
multi-tasking, only multi-threading within a single application. It
also does not support dynamic loading. eCos is intended for small
deeply embedded applications which often do not require such
functionality. There are other operating systems such as Linux which
do provide more functionality for those applications which require it,
but there will be corresponding costs such as extra memory
consumption, lack of real-time responsiveness, etc.

Bart Veer // eCos net maintainer