Subject: YAMON.

From: Nicu Popovici <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2000 12:35:07 -0500

Hello ,

Does anyone know how can I do to start a Linux on a mips board ( ATLAS )
without using YAMON. I just want to turn on the mips and to boot in
Linux . Is that possible ?

Regards,
Nicu

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From: Brady Brown <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2000 10:07:21 -0700

> Linux . Is that possible ?

It is possible. Look in Atlas Users Manual Sec 5.2 . Dip switch S1-1
controls booting from either Monitor Flash or System Flash. If you boot
from System Flash then the monitor is effectively removed. You would of
course have to have your own boot-up code, PCI enumerator, hardware init,
kernel loader, kernel image, etc.  in the System Flash all hooked to the
reset vector for this to work.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brady Brown ([email-masked])       Work:(801)619-6103
Texas Instruments: Broadband Access Group
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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From: Nicu Popovici <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 10:11:16 -0500

Hello ,

Thanks . Now I have a much bigger problem. I have to try to start this ATLAS
board without a HDD and without ethernet. At reset it should give me a login
prompt which I have to see throught the console. Can anyone help me ?

Regards
Nicu

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From: Brady Brown <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 10:10:42 -0700

> prompt which I have to see throught the console. Can anyone help me ?

One possibility: you basically need to write a kernel loader that lives in
Flash and is called at the very end of the boot-up code that replaces YAMON.
Additionally in flash is then a compressed kernel image and a compressed
file-system image. Your kernel loader inflates the kernel into RAM, then jumps
to the start of the kernel. The kernel then takes over. It is built to support
a ram-disk (size depending upon the size of your uncompressed file-system). So
the kernel inflates the file-system into the ram-disk and then mounts it as
root and continues with normal boot up. You can borrow much of the inflater
code within the kernel to generate the stand alone kernel loader. You will also
need to modify the ram-disk code so that it knows how to find the file-system
image in your flash. A fair bit of work, but certainly possible.

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From: Harald Koerfgen <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2003 09:55:11 +0100 (CET)

> prompt which I have to see throught the console. Can anyone help me ?

The linux-vr tree has a nice feature called XIP (eXecute In Place). This allows
to prepare a kernel to run directly out of ROM.

http://linuxvr-org

if that's what you're looking for.

-- 
Regards,
Harald

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From: Nicu Popovici <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2000 11:51:32 -0500

Hi Harald,

Thanks. In principle I want to do such a thing and to run linux from ROM if this
is possible and I saw that it is possible. Now I read the documentation and I hope
to manage to setup this kind of kernel.

Thanks again.
Nicu