[ECOS] Installing Redboot on a pendrive

[ECOS] Installing Redboot on a pendrive

[Alessio Bianchi]

Hi, I've been trying to create a pendrive (to boot off a regular PC)
with Redboot, but unfortunately without much success.
I tried to build Redboot with the PC template and the redboot packages
(via graphical configtool), the bin/ directory lists:
-rw-r--r-- 1 venator users  64K 2009-07-11 09:46 redboot.bin
-rwxr-xr-x 1 venator users 325K 2009-07-11 09:46 redboot.elf
-rwxr-xr-x 1 venator users  60K 2009-07-11 09:46 redboot.img
-rwxr-xr-x 1 venator users 5.2K 2009-07-11 09:46 romboot.elf
-rwxr-xr-x 1 venator users  256 2009-07-11 09:46 romboot.img
I tried putting each of these files on the pendrive with dd (dd if=X
of=/dev/sdb) but the pendrive does not boot.
Can you please provide some directions?
Thanks a lot
Bye
Alessio

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Re: [ECOS] Installing Redboot on a pendrive

[Stanislav Meduna]

Alessio Bianchi wrote:
> Hi, I've been trying to create a pendrive (to boot off a regular PC)
> with Redboot, but unfortunately without much success.

AFAIK on a PC the eCos only supports booting RedBoot from a floppy.
If the pendrive can't masquerade itself as floppy to the
machine (I happen to have one that can, but most can't),
I think you are out of luck.

The recommended way to boot eCos applications is via GRUB.

-- 
                                 Stano

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Re: [ECOS] Installing Redboot on a pendrive

[Andrew Lunn]

On Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 10:41:17AM +0200, Stanislav Meduna wrote:
> Alessio Bianchi wrote:
> > Hi, I've been trying to create a pendrive (to boot off a regular PC)
> > with Redboot, but unfortunately without much success.
> 
> AFAIK on a PC the eCos only supports booting RedBoot from a floppy.
> If the pendrive can't masquerade itself as floppy to the
> machine (I happen to have one that can, but most can't),
> I think you are out of luck.
> 
> The recommended way to boot eCos applications is via GRUB.

Take a look at the sites which explain how to get linux booting from a
pen driver. Any sites which use grub to get linux booted are
applicable for getting eCos booted.

And it you need redboot for gdb support, use grub to boot redboot, to
boot your application.

     Andrew

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Re: [ECOS] Installing Redboot on a pendrive

[Alessio Bianchi]

On 07/11/2009 10:41 AM, Stanislav Meduna wrote:
> Alessio Bianchi wrote:
>> Hi, I've been trying to create a pendrive (to boot off a regular PC)
>> with Redboot, but unfortunately without much success.
>
> AFAIK on a PC the eCos only supports booting RedBoot from a floppy.
> If the pendrive can't masquerade itself as floppy to the
> machine (I happen to have one that can, but most can't),
> I think you are out of luck.
>
> The recommended way to boot eCos applications is via GRUB.

Thanks for your fast reply.
I tried putting GRUB on a pendrive and building eCos with the 'GRUB' 
flag in the HAL section. I started from a 'net' template, and I built an 
hello world application (prints hello world via printf), linking it to 
the generated ecos library.
When I boot the pendrive, GRUB accepts the generated file, but when I
give GRUB the 'boot' command, just a black screen appears (I waited 
several minutes).
What I'm doing wrong?
Thanks ;)

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Re: [ECOS] Installing Redboot on a pendrive

[Andrew Lunn]

On Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 01:44:14PM +0200, Alessio Bianchi wrote:
> On 07/11/2009 10:41 AM, Stanislav Meduna wrote:
> >Alessio Bianchi wrote:
> >>Hi, I've been trying to create a pendrive (to boot off a regular PC)
> >>with Redboot, but unfortunately without much success.
> >
> >AFAIK on a PC the eCos only supports booting RedBoot from a floppy.
> >If the pendrive can't masquerade itself as floppy to the
> >machine (I happen to have one that can, but most can't),
> >I think you are out of luck.
> >
> >The recommended way to boot eCos applications is via GRUB.
> 
> Thanks for your fast reply.
> I tried putting GRUB on a pendrive and building eCos with the 'GRUB'
> flag in the HAL section. I started from a 'net' template, and I
> built an hello world application (prints hello world via printf),
> linking it to the generated ecos library.
> When I boot the pendrive, GRUB accepts the generated file, but when I
> give GRUB the 'boot' command, just a black screen appears (I waited
> several minutes).
> What I'm doing wrong?

Probably you should be listening to the serial port for the hello
world.

       Andrew

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Re: [ECOS] Installing Redboot on a pendrive

[Alessio Bianchi]

On 07/11/2009 02:47 PM, Andrew Lunn wrote:
> Probably you should be listening to the serial port for the hello
> world.

Hmm, that sounds strange... I noticed that there is an 'output to pc 
screen' option but it is already true. Is that related? If not, how can 
redirect printf's to screen?

Another question, what driver support is offered by ecos? I need to put 
an http server on it, and I noticed that there is an available package, 
but I was wondering if my network card would be supported. I have a 
Broadcom BCM5906M, perfectly supported by the linux kernel, but I can 
use several others (the linux kernel supports each of them): is there a 
way to add drivers?

Thanks for your patience with my n00b questions ;)

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Re: [ECOS] Installing Redboot on a pendrive

[Andrew Lunn]

> Another question, what driver support is offered by ecos? I need to
> put an http server on it, and I noticed that there is an available
> package, but I was wondering if my network card would be supported.
> I have a Broadcom BCM5906M, perfectly supported by the linux kernel,
> but I can use several others (the linux kernel supports each of
> them): is there a way to add drivers?

There are no Broadcom ethernet drivers. Broadcom tend to be bad about
documentation, especially there wireless devices. So you might have
trouble getting the documentation you need to write a driver. If you
can, throw your broadcom device out and get an chipset that is
supported. Take a look in packages/devs/eth. 

Maybe a dumb question, but why are you using eCos? What do you need
that eCos offers?

           Andrew

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Re: [ECOS] Installing Redboot on a pendrive

[Alessio Bianchi]

On 07/11/2009 03:22 PM, Andrew Lunn wrote:
 > There are no Broadcom ethernet drivers. Broadcom tend to be bad about
 > documentation, especially there wireless devices. So you might have
 > trouble getting the documentation you need to write a driver. If you
 > can, throw your broadcom device out and get an chipset that is
 > supported. Take a look in packages/devs/eth.

Yes I already have a realtek rtl8139 handy, I was just curious.
What about the printf redirection to screen?

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Re: [ECOS] Installing Redboot on a pendrive

[Daniel Saltmann]

Alessio Bianchi schrieb:
> Hmm, that sounds strange... I noticed that there is an 'output to pc 
> screen' option but it is already true. Is that related? If not, how
> can redirect printf's to screen?

I had the same problem and just found out the reason for the blank
screen ;-) Read the description for "Number of communication channels on
the board" and "Output to PC Screen", written in configtool's yellow
window on the right side, when you select the particular options.

I think this will solve your problem:
1. Set "Diagnostic serial port" to
	"Number of communication channels on the board" - 1
2. Check "Output to PC Screen"


   Daniel.

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