Re: [IPCop-devel] [2.0] net install on RaQ4i

On Sunday 22 February 2009 06:41:16 am you wrote:
> David W Studeman wrote:
> > The rom kernel has ide drivers embedded, ext2, and ext3, as well as the
> > network modules you are using to connect to nfs. There is another boot
> > option bfx where you can specify that it boot another kernel over the
> > net. I've seen people use bfx n n and when I do that, it looks for a
> > tftpboot folder too. I need more info on the other bfx parameters.
>
> I don't know if there are more parameters, if I use bfx n n, I can see
> that a kernel is loaded from a NFS /tftpboot folder.
>
> If said kernel is missing, this happens and boot is again tried from
> /nfsroot-x86:
> BOOTLOADER: Mapping in physical locations
> BOOTLOADER: load_addr=0xc2004000 ret_data=0xc2205cc4
> BOOTLOADER: opening "/boot/vmlinux.bz2"
> BOOTLOADER: opening "/vmlinux.bz2"
> BOOTLOADER: opening "/boot/vmlinux.gz"
> BOOTLOADER: opening "/vmlinux.gz"
> BOOTLOADER: calling reboot notifiers
> md: stopping all md devices.
> flushing ide devices:
> BOOTLOADER: mapping 22M-32M for ride home
> BOOTLOADER: disabling interrupts
> BOOTLOADER: flushing cache
> BOOTLOADER: Leap of faith!
> Back in ramcode: done
> Second stage load failed.  Booting ROM kernel...
>
>
> When a kernel is found (bzipped from current SVN), I get:
> BOOTLOADER: Mapping in physical locations
> BOOTLOADER: load_addr=0xc2004000 ret_data=0xc2205cc4
> BOOTLOADER: opening "/boot/vmlinux.bz2"
> BOOTLOADER: opening "/vmlinux.bz2"
> BOOTLOADER: reading "/vmlinux.bz2"
> BOOTLOADER: read 1306109bytes
> BOOTLOADER: unmounting /
> BOOTLOADER: calling reboot notifiers
> md: stopping all md devices.
> flushing ide devices:
> BOOTLOADER: mapping 22M-32M for ride home
> BOOTLOADER: disabling interrupts
> BOOTLOADER: flushing cache
> BOOTLOADER: Leap of faith!
> Back in ramcode: done
> Second stage kernel: Decompressing - done
>
> And then silence ...  Must be because we do not have NFS.
> Anyways, this just might look like a way to get 2.0 on a RaQ4.
>
>
> Olaf

The only problem with using BFX  n n is that it relies on dhcp to tell 
it where to go so everyone would have to add parameters to a dhcp server 
to point to a public ip in order to install. I also made a 2.4.37 kernel 
recently using the same config file as the rom kernel used to compile 
it, all that stuff is available and put the monolithic kernel in 
tftpboot, it also started to boot after the leap of faith message but 
crashed. Was yours a patched kernel? You need the patch to see serial 
console output after 2.6.24. Jeff worked long hours to track that one 
down and modify the cobalt patch accordingly.

If you set the btoip in the cmos, one could easily install over the 
internet but only using bfn. Basically if the installer uses the rom 
kernel which is 2.4.25 and has every driver you need for the hardware on 
the unit except usb, you're golden. It's also not difficult to make a 
rom with a different kernel if the kernel is all you are changing but it 
seems like you would be upgrading roms a lot to match the installer.
Likely you know this  stuff from your own findings or mine previously. 
Using bfn, the rom simply looks for /sbin/init, it does not look for a 
kernel. After uncompressing and loop mounting installroot and in turn 
copying those contents to /nfsroot-x86, /sbin/init of course links to 
busybox which starts, runs and I can get as far as network or cd rom and 
trying anything at this point fails because the installer does not know 
that it really already has network and ide drivers loaded via the 
monolithic rom kernel, and gives you a press to reboot button that does 
in fact reboot the machine.


Dave