--- In "Jesse Off" <> wrote:
>
> Currently, our MBR code (Only 446 bytes available after partition
> table) loads in a kernel and an initrd from dedicated partitions on
> the SD card and starts Linux. The initrd contains the FPGA bitstream
> and the Linux driver modules for SD. These are loaded (along with
> modules for the ethernet and serial ports) and then the initrd does a
> pivot_root to the SD EXT2 filesystem and then frees the initrd. There
> is no onboard flash on the TS-7300-- only SD.
Jesse and Co.:
I've been going through the archives regarding the TS7300 and this
caught my eye.
In my work with webcams, I came across the kernel maintainers'
decision to eliminate binary blobs from kernel drivers. See for
example
<http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0408.3/1458.html> and
follwoing, and <http://www.smcc.demon.nl/webcam/>.
So... what follows is purely conceptual; I have no idea if it is
possible and if possible if practical.
Would it be possible to write the proprietary portion of the SD code
into the FPGA, and then use a GPL kernel module to access the SD card
via the FPGA using a published API?
The kernel could boot using GPL MMC code off the SD card. Once the
kernel is booted, it would use the FPGA SD interface. The boot
process may be slower but it would be unencumbered by binary blobs.
If this is possible, it would create a kernel-version independent way
of accessing the SD card.
Dumb? Possible? I have no idea. But I would like to run a 2.6
kernel on the 7300....
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