Re: [microblaze-uclinux] Note to bootloader developers

[John Williams <jwilliams@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Jozsef,

jozsef imrek wrote:

> dear john,
> 
>>address, just have r5 contain the address of a null-terminated string
>>that is the kernel command line.  This string could live anywhere -
> 
> yes, i found that in the kernel source too. i guess the 'bootarg'
> partition is meant to hold the command line, and similar configuration
> stuff (for example the mac address for the emac, which is now hard-wired
> into the kernel source).

That's right.  an mbvanilla bootloader should just point r5 to the 
bootarg partition, and have the bootloader capable of modifying it. 
There's a partition just for the mac address too - I just copied it from 
a SnapGear config! :)

Changing the bootarg from inside the kernel itself is easy:

$ eraseall /dev/flash/bootarg
$ echo "this is a broken command line" > /dev/flash/bootarg

> john, can't you just set up a CVS somewhere, so we could keep our code at
> a central place? or should it go to the main uclinux repository?

I don't have any spare cycles to set up and maintain a CVS server - or 
at least not one that's publically open and secure.   I'm also not sure 
if the kernel / uClinux-dist tree is the right place for bootloaders either.

Perhaps we could apply for a sourceforge project, that could host the 
various bootloader offerings that are supported by microblaze uClinux? 
Your loader, Ivan's, and even my awful jboot could go in one place.

What do you think?

John

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