Re: [microblaze-uclinux] can a windows OS be used to install uclinux?

[John Williams <jwilliams@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Todd,

Todd Harless wrote:
> I also bookmarked this website :
> 
> http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~wu/downloads/uClinux_ready_Microblaze_design.pdf
> 
> which I found to be very helpful for a person with a linux OS and was
> wondering if things like this could be done by someone to show how one
> can port uClinux using a windows OS. 

The EDK/Base System Builder steps in Jason's tutorial can be done under 
Windows, as can the final bitstream and kernel download.

The bit that's missing is the actual embedded Linux kernel build, which 
currently requires either a Linux PC or Linux virtual machine running 
under Windows.

If a dedicated Linux PC is not an option, the most promising approach is 
to use a virtual machine solution like CoLinux.  We are trialing this in 
our group and are pretty pleased with the results.  You should be able 
to download a default CoLinux install from the CoLinux website, import 
the uClinux sources and the modified mb-gcc toolchain, and get started 
with that as though it's a regular Linux PC.

A mild inconvenience arises since you need to copy the auto-config.in 
file into the virtual machine, and get the cross-compiled kernel image 
out of it.  CoLinux lets you do all the usual network drive mounts and 
shares, so this doesn't have to be too painful.  You can also do a 
regular Xilinx tool install inside CoLinux, for fully integrated goodness.

My personal opinion is that with the cost of a grey-box PC down in the 
noise these days, it's more efficient and effective to slap down a 
generic PC with a free Linux distro on it (I recommend CentOS 3 for full 
Xilinx tool compatability) and do your embedded Linux work on that. 
However, in Microsoft-centric corporate IT environments it's not an 
option for everyone.  At the moment, CoLinux looks good from where I'm 
sitting.

Regards,

John
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