On 28 Jul 2002, Eric W Biederman wrote:
> Jake Page <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> > While I'm at it, I guess I should include another change I made to allow
> > cross compiling w/ mkElfImage...
> >
> > Summary: adds CROSS_COMPILE define to Makefile, and prepends it to build
> > tool names in mkElfImage.pl. Basically the same way the kernel Makefile
> > does it...
>
> Thanks, for the updates. I'm certain the first case used to work.
>
> With respect to the cross compiling, is this something you are
> actually using? I'm just trying to get a feel for how mkelfImage is
> being used.
Well, the answer is "sort of"... I set up a cross compiling build
environment, but currently host and target are both x86... the idea is
eventually to port to MIPS, StrongARM, whatever. I do have a
complete cross-compile toolchain, glibc, kernel, a bunch of the basic
useful libraries, utils, samba, etc. "cross compiling" in this
environment...
Speaking of cross-compiling, there are a couple small patches to the
LinuxBIOS build in general (just a few references to utils that don't use
the existing CROSS_COMPILE define...) that I will send along soon...
To give a bit more detail about how it's being used:
Basically I'm building an "embedded" diskless streaming media player.
For now I'm putting LinuxBIOS + etherboot in Flash on an MS7308E
MB. Etherboot has Adam's IDE patch, and I have hacked around a bit
more. I have a CF that I put 3 partitions on - 2 identical
"readonly" partitions, and a small "config" rw partition. Etherboot now
reads a file from the config partition to find out which root partition it
should boot from, then loads the ELF kernel from that one (and passes the
correct root=/dev/hda? param to it).
The point is robust upgrades - new filesys image gets downloaded and
written to the 'backup' partition, checked, and then the config gets set
to boot the new version. Any problems along the way, and the old one gets
booted instead...
Actually, ideally LinuxBIOS is an "optional" (though one of the cooler,
since the boot is SO much simpler and faster for a
"CE-like" device...) part of this, so if on some hw I'm unable to replace
the BIOS, etherboot can be run via floppy and the CF image can be
identical. (another possibility - etherboot on the Memory card of PS2
Linux booting HDD/CF w/ a port of the media player... :) Those reasons,
and the fact I'm starting to mess around w/ XFree86 4.1, Mesa, etc, and
I'm thinking LB is a ways off from working with them...
-Jake
