(Werner, this is FYI, and if you have suggestions or comments, I'm
extremely interested)
I'm interested.
Actually, more than interested. I was going to post something in a
couple weeks when I got started, but Eric sent out the email.
I've got a project where I will be:
1. Making a BIOS Flash a bootable filesystem (eg /dev mountable, perhaps
looks/acts like a floppy with several flash specific restrictions).
There's a romfs, but it's aimed at a slightly different application than
this. I've traded some email with it's author, who confirmed this
impression. There are several different sources for the flash specific
stuff.
2. Hack the LILO boot block so that I can place it in flash, to where
the BIOS hops to after it does it's thing. From the scan I did a couple
of weeks ago, LILO relies on BIOS calls to get sectors from disk
devices.... changing that into getting physical memory should be a
snap. :)
3. Have LILO (the user space app...) do appropriate things with the
flash file system just like any other file system. If 1. is done
correctly, then this should be automatic, and LILO has all the options
needed to make it work.
I want to use LILO because the embedded system I've got needs to be
upgradable, and needs rollback capability. LILO's the right answer for
the job in so many ways.
I've been sniffing around, and most of the necessary chunks are lying
here and there. The LILO hack is the 'interesting' part. I've started
reading Werner's LILO doc, and it's pretty, well extremely thorough.
The hack should be careful work, but not painful work.
Perhaps somebody has already done this. If so, let me know please! I'm
surprised that I haven't found something like this, but I haven't, and
to me it's the right answer: I get an boot environment that works just
like my desktop, tested by millions. Wang actually has an 8MB Flash
thin client that runs Linux, no disk, no BOOTP / network load. Maybe I
should go bug them....
I've got 7.5 MB of Flash, Intel PC architecture. I don't own the BIOS,
but I can cause it to jump to an address in Flash.
This isn't exactly what Eric was suggesting, but this is a area that I
will be very active in rsn. I've got another project to complete before
this one gets time.
This list seems like the right place for this, unless Werner has a
better suggestion.
Comments?
- Richard
Eric Seppanen wrote:
>
> I was recently noticing that the "Linux Embedded Platform Project" at
> http://www.waste.org/~zanshin/project.html seems to be defunct. However,
> the idea seems worthwhile to me. I'd love to see a canned toolkit of:
>
> - code, kernel patches, documents for specialized embedded CPUs and
> chipsets
>
> - tiny footprint equivalents to common userspace programs for use in
> limited memory and boot disk|flash space systems
>
> - bootloaders: BIOS extensions, no-bios quick-and dirty loaders, etc.
>
> - console hacks: funky keypad, LCD, serial console, etc.
>
> - licensing assists: a separate list of copyrights and license summaries
> so I can confidently distribute the stuff without fear of breaking the GPL
>
> - flash: programming libraries, userspace tools, drivers.
>
> - hardware tricks: HOWTOs regarding "how can I construct my board so that
> it'll be convinient to boot linux?"
>
> I'd be interested in hearing:
> - who else would be interested in this as a user
> - who else would be interested in helping as a developer
> - if there's any hardware manufacturers that would help by donating
> hardware
> - who thinks I've been sniffing too much solder fumes
>
> Eric
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
