Actually, the fconfig question and the TS-7800 are unrelated.
If I were to make the decision myself, after buying a TS-7800, I
probably would not want to use RedBoot.
Has anyone had any experience with Das U-Boot on the TS hardware as a
RedBoot replacement? Actually, I haven't used U-Boot myself, but I can
only hope that it's better.
Again, I'd like to ask about the userspace fconfig utility -
it would just be nice to replace the kernel on the boards at runtime.
k_boal wrote:
> Hi Chris,
>
> Were you able to get the RedBoot bootstrap operating the TS-7800? I
> had been considering trying to find a way to get RedBoot running on
> this system, but I don't yet have an absolute need for this. My
> understanding was the TS-7800s use the proprietary TS-BOOTROM loader
> which is burned into the flash device. Unless you have RedBoot working
> fconfig will not help you here I think.
>
> It has been a while since I've worked with the MTD driver on that low
> of a level, but if I recall correctly, it does in fact lock and unlock
> partitions. The system I was working on at the time had a goofy
> partitioning scheme and the last two partitions were not properly
> aligned, and there was code in the MTD driver which locked it at a low
> level. There wasn't too much effort needed to get around this.
> However, I don't imagine this being a problem here since a quick look
> at /proc/mtd shows all of the partitions on the [factory] TS-7800 are
> correctly aligned with 0x20000. I don't believe you should have any
> problems locking and unlocking the device from userspace code, but as
> I said, it has been a while.
>
> That said, I don't anticipate there being be too much of a problem in
> writing an update daemon or something similar if you are looking for a
> clean updating system. A simple socket server bound to all local
> interfaces or something of the sort would likely suffice.
>
> The cheap and dirty way is to simply write over the partition with
> zeros, cat the kernel/ramdisk images, and redirect their output to the
> respective MTD partition. The only place you might run into trouble
> with this is if these partitions happen to be formatted with a system
> that supports wear-leveling. It would not make sense to format the
> kernel or ramdisk partitions in that manner though...
>
> Without knowing more about the particular flash device and the state
> of your TS-7800, I can't really offer much else; sorry. Hopefully it
> was enough to point you in the right direction at least. Good luck!
>
> Thanks,
> Kunaal
>
>
>
> --- In Christopher Friedt <> wrote:
>> I was just wondering what the kernel status of the TS-7800 is -
>> particularly, are all of the necessary patches integrated into the
>> mailine kernel?
>>
>> What, if any, are the proprietary TS modules that are binary-only?
>>
>> Also, I was wondering if there is a suggested method to replace the
> kernel.
>> For a while, I was looking into the userspace fconfig utility available
>> here:
>>
>> http://andrzejekiert.ovh.org/software.html.en
>>
>> pointed out in this message:
>>
>> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ts-7000/message/10646
>>
>> But i wasn't having any luck with it.
>>
>> I remember that there might be a slight problem where the flash
>> partition needed to be locked/unlocked, but the mtd driver doesn't do
>> that, and it would be too ugly to do it in userspace.
>>
>> The original author solved this by keeping his redboot configuration on
>> an EEPROM. He was using a completely different board though.
>>
>> Has anyone had any success with the userspace fconfig utility?
>>
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Chris
>>
>
>
>
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ts-7000/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ts-7000/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
|