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07:06.33Russcbsnews in teh smart http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/20/tech/main1734030.shtml
08:11.52YazzYhi guys. I have an XScale board I am working on. I compiled new kernel, created ramdisk image and it boots fine. The root file system is mounted as /dev/root
08:12.08YazzYI have a couple of questions though.
08:12.32YazzYis /dev/root mounted in RAM ?
08:13.30YazzYsince both kernel and file system images are loaded by redboot, I'd assume the kernel mounes the rootfs which it previously extracted in RAM
08:13.36YazzYam I right ?
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13:25.47chouimatmorning
13:30.46YazzYwhy isnt my kernel able to mount file system on /dev/root when I enable ROM disk memory block device (blkmem) in the kernel ?
13:31.31YazzYthis is what it says:
13:31.33YazzYRAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
13:31.34YazzYFreeing initrd memory: 8192K
13:31.34YazzYVFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
13:31.34YazzYMounted devfs on /dev
13:31.36YazzYVFS: Cannot open root device "ram0" or 1f:00
13:31.38YazzYPlease append a correct "root=" boot option
13:31.41YazzYKernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 1f:00
13:42.33T0mWYazzY: I used to have problems with rom disk images when I was working with uClinux + M68EZ328.
13:43.10T0mWYazzY: mostly, my problem was getting the whole image into RAM, or improperly pointing to where the image was located.
13:43.34YazzYT0mW: i am working on an XScale system
13:43.43YazzYusing snapgear  
13:43.44T0mWshould be similar issues
13:44.18T0mWeventaully, I had to dump the image across a serial port to see what exactly the kernel was looking at.
13:44.32YazzYT0mW: there are some bits i still do not understand. Is ROM the Flash memory on my system ?
13:44.40T0mWYazzY: you got JTAG on that system?
13:44.55YazzYT0mW: i am using a serial cable to "talk" to it
13:45.01T0mWok
13:45.08YazzYi compiled openssl and ssh so i can login remotely too
13:45.32T0mWWell, the ROM == "Read Only Memory", it could be in RAM or Flash, but it is mounted as readonly
13:45.41YazzYit's just i am not quite sure what's going on under the hood, how is the file system mounted etc.
13:46.04T0mWyou could use either RAM or Flash for it, but it is not writable
13:46.43YazzYT0mW: right, so how is the /dev/root mounted now ? It is loaded by redboot now, the kernel image and the file system
13:47.11YazzYi noticed it needs ext2 to mount the file system
13:47.40YazzYi created my own startup scripts etc and my fstab says now:
13:47.41YazzY/dev/root       /               ext2            remount,rw      1       1
13:47.43T0mWThat I don't, how the /dev/root is implemented.  Most of what I do today is using SD memory for the filesystem
13:48.38YazzYT0mW: any idea how I could create a rw partition on the flash device to store my configuration files permanently ?
13:48.55T0mWYazzY: what I found especially usefull on a system without JTAG (or other) debugging was the kprintf().
13:49.29T0mWI would sprinkle kprintf's around the code I thought was failing and print values out the serial port.
13:49.47YazzYyeah, simple debugging
13:49.53T0mWJFFS comes to mind
13:50.35YazzYyes but how the heck can i see what part of the flash disk can be formatted ?
13:50.42T0mWJFFS allows you to take an area of Flash and make it writeable from the kernel and a /dev/
13:52.11T0mWsorry, I am now out of my depth here.  It has been too long since I played with NOR Flash as storage media.  I use NOR to boot from (load the kernel) then switch to mounting a NAND Flash device.
13:52.15YazzYT0mW: oki, so this will create a permanent file system on my flash , right ? I would like to load my rootfs and kernel from redboot and the rest , most preferably /etc could be mounted on the FLash
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13:53.59T0mWIIRC, there was no specific mount needed for the ROM filesystem. You had to enter the hard address values into the kernel source as to where the file system was located.  Again, it has been 6years since I've done that sort of thing.
13:54.13T0mWsorry
13:54.20chouimathi T0mW
13:54.29YazzYno problem, what you just said is a lot of help to me
13:54.31YazzYthanks
13:54.33T0mWchouimat: good morning
13:54.42T0mWkprintf
13:56.46T0mWYazzY: it becomes a chicken-n-egg problem.  The kernel would need a specific driver which is hardcoded to the address of the Flash disk area.  But, in order to tell the kernel to mount the device to a specific /dev/ device, you need a filesystem.
13:57.12T0mWYazzY: that is why it the ROM root filesystem is hard coded into the kernel source.
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13:58.29YazzYT0mW: what i thought i could do is to first boot a kernel with a small file system and partition the flash, then install filesystem to it
13:58.31T0mWCosmicPenguin: oh, so now you have a "voice"
13:58.57CosmicPenguinYeah
13:59.00CosmicPenguinyou got a problem with that?
13:59.17T0mWCosmicPenguin: definately, shaddup and get back to work
13:59.18YazzYthat's what i do on netbsd now, it has a file system inserted into kernel which gets extracted and mounted in memory during boot, then it partitions the HD and installs a tarball to it
13:59.25T0mWCosmicPenguin: ;)
14:00.13T0mWYazzY: ok, can you get that far?  extracting & mounting the image?
14:00.16YazzYi bet i can erase the redboot and install new kernel to it
14:00.24YazzYT0mW: on linux ?
14:00.29T0mWyeah
14:00.59YazzYT0mW: i can boot it fine from redboot but it is mounted (the root file system) as /dev/root now
14:01.20YazzYany changes to the file system are not preserved across boots
14:01.35T0mWright, becuase it is in RAM
14:01.44YazzYyepp
14:02.14YazzYstrange thing (which I have problem to grasp) is the file system is mounted as ext2 even though it is a ram mounted fs
14:02.17T0mWand you can pivotroot to it and make the RAM system the default (root) filesystem?
14:02.44T0mWext2 is simply the structure of the system
14:02.49YazzYok
14:02.50T0mWs/system/filesystem
14:03.16YazzYT0mW: seems like the ram is now a default root file system
14:03.18T0mWyou could make it a cramfs, ext2, or msdos or whatever the kernel supports
14:03.24T0mWgood
14:03.26YazzY~ # df -h
14:03.27YazzYFilesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
14:03.28YazzY/dev/root                 7.9M      7.3M    215.0k  97% /
14:03.53YazzYand dmesg says:
14:03.54YazzYFreeing initrd memory: 8192K
14:03.54YazzYVFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
14:04.36T0mWok, so I would expect that you need to get JFFS working now so that you have a block device interface to a portion of the flash memory.  Once the block device is there, then you can format it with a file system, then pivot root to that file system.
14:04.36YazzYso i suppose the freed memory is used for the 8059 blocks the root file system is mouned on
14:05.19YazzYT0mW: ok, what device type would i use for that (compile into my kernel) ?
14:05.41YazzYthe dir of /dev/mtd is empty
14:05.53YazzYi though it would mtd for the flash
14:07.43YazzYi've been reading and reading and reading and all i get is more confised
14:08.34YazzYi've been working a lot on embedded BSDs but Linux is a bit different and I need to grasp a few things first to get the whole picture
14:13.17T0mWhttp://developer.axis.com/software/jffs/
14:14.19YazzYthanks a lot T0mW
14:14.37T0mWI encountered JFFS on the tuxscreen, it was there but I did not use it.  My units all pivot'ed to CF / hard drive after the kernel booted
14:14.54T0mWhttp://tuxscreen.net/wiki/
14:14.59YazzYhm, interesting, i removed support for devfs from my kernel and now i can see a couple of mtd devices
14:15.20YazzYT0mW: what is pivot used for?
14:15.25T0mWah
14:15.28T0mWthat is key
14:15.36YazzYwhat is ?
14:16.45T0mWman pivot_root "pivot_root - change the root file system"
14:17.08T0mWpivot_root  moves  the  root  file system of the current process to the
14:17.08T0mW<PROTECTED>
14:17.49T0mWkind of drops the floor out from under linux and lets it land on a new root filesystem
14:18.13T0mWan nfs root will use pivot_root
14:18.24YazzYhm
14:18.37YazzYthis could be used to update your kernel on the fly
14:18.39YazzYright ?
14:18.43YazzYwithout reboot
14:20.31T0mWwell, pivot_root is used this way: you load the kernel plus a small root filesystem into RAM, boot that system.  The ROMFS has some utils + startup scripts in it, once you get the drive interfaces working (IDE, SCSI, or JFFS), then you can pivot_root to the larger storage device and make it the default filesystem (root).
14:21.22T0mWkind of like "umount /dev/root ; mount /dev/bigger_drive /"
14:21.27YazzYyepp
14:21.30YazzYcool
14:21.32T0mWkind of like "umount /dev/root ; mount / /dev/bigger_drive "
14:21.40YazzYi get the point
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14:21.57YazzYhandy
14:22.08T0mWbut you cannot unmount the root system, you use pivot_root to make that unmount + mount work.
14:22.54T0mWpivot_root will purge knowledge of the current root filesystem from the kernel and get it to accept a new root device.
14:23.15YazzYthis way you can have a small kernel in redboot and update your software you normally mount as new rootfs  with pivot
14:23.38YazzYthat's neat
14:24.13T0mW/sbin/pivot_root /mnt /mnt/initrd && exec /linuxrc <dev/console >dev/console 2>&1
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14:25.02YazzYT0mW: but you'd need to first have an existing file system for pivot_root to mount
14:25.16YazzYon your HD/CF/Flash
14:26.52T0mWYazzY: correct, look here: http://rafb.net/paste/results/qoMW3N91.html
14:27.23T0mWthat is the linuxrc (startup scripting for the TuxScreen), either JFFS or an IDE is pivot'ed to
14:27.56CosmicPenguinheh
14:28.02CosmicPenguinahh - tuxscreen
14:28.44T0mWthere is a lot more happening before / during the pivot_root, you are correct.  You have to mount the new desired root somewhere, then pivot to it, and, you need a mounting point to put the old root during the pivot_root.
14:28.44T0mWCosmicPenguin: :D
14:29.30T0mWYazzY: http://tuxscreen.net/wiki/view/pivot_root_to_debian-ARM?PHPSESSID=3e76bec174186bc2b026bdb64d68749e
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14:31.27T0mWYazzY: for giggles, I build an IDE interface for the TuxScreen (SA1100 ARM) and then stuck a 10G drive on it.
14:31.27T0mWs/build/built
14:31.49T0mWYazzY: sorry that I cannot give you more specific help other than some resource references.  
14:31.59YazzYno sweat, i will read on myself
14:32.08YazzYi already got some stuff from you to read
14:32.10YazzYthanks T0mW
14:32.22CosmicPenguinDocumentation/initrd.txt will also teach you many things
14:32.32T0mWYazzY: I've got to go do my morning walk to get my fat BUT^H^H^Hself in motion.
14:32.37YazzYbtw, i like doing yes/no checks this way http://www.rafb.net/paste/results/tXvRKI78.html
14:32.40YazzY:)
14:32.54YazzYT0mW: allrighty, see ya
14:35.45chouimatγδ
14:36.40T0mWYazzY: BTW, the buildroot is not perfect, but, it encapsulates a lot of knowledge / mechanisms which can be used to cross develope a bootable linux system.  You may want to get a copy and study that a bit?
14:37.23YazzYT0mW: doesnt snapgear include much of buildroot ?
14:37.41Pixyeah, buildroot is an incredible tool
14:38.01CosmicPenguins/incredible/useful/?
14:42.37Pixboth :)
14:42.46Pixincredibly useful, i'd say
14:43.42CosmicPenguinWell, its great and all
14:43.52CosmicPenguinIt has its limitations, like all tools
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14:46.29Wingnutyeah, it makes terrible coffee
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15:46.59prpplaguechouimat: hey you around?
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16:06.39shaggyoafIs it possible to use buildroot without cross-compilation (like to build and ia64 root on an ia64 machine)?
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20:37.22kergothchouimat: job interview?
20:37.40chouimatkergoth: yup ... didn't went well
20:37.51kergothaw :(
20:38.46chouimatkergoth: I applied there last year ... some I completely forgot about them
20:38.54kergothah
20:39.19kergothlooks like i'm switching jobs again
20:39.27chouimatkergoth: nice or bad?
20:39.47kergothfull time telecommute for a company whose owner is an embedded linux developer
20:39.55kergothshort contract initially, hopefully longer after that
20:40.54chouimatcool
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21:14.37CosmicPenguinok - so I need a system that will build a kernel, uclibc, busybox, wireless-tools, kexec-tools, combine the previous 4 into an initramfs, combine all of them together with mkelfImage and stick it in as a Linux BIOS payload
21:14.55CosmicPenguinwhich seems too simple for buildroot, and way too simple for OE
21:15.06CosmicPenguinbut I hate to go to all that work re-inventing the wheel
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21:26.39chouimatCosmicPenguin: kergoth http://www.freehackers.org/~tnagy/knock.jpg
21:26.54CosmicPenguinseesh
21:27.20CosmicPenguinreminds me of a particular AC/DC song
21:30.34chouimatCosmicPenguin: I bet a lot of people doesn't use this to knock to this door
21:43.06mlehrerheh
21:43.25mlehreris that from scary movie 4 or something
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22:42.48CosmicPenguin~covert 29 pounds to dollars
22:42.56CosmicPenguin~convert 29 pounds to dollars
22:59.20mlehrer29 pounds is about 88 kilos
23:01.29CosmicPenguinahh - a wise guy, eh?
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