Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2012 18:00:03 -0700 From: Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com> To: Juli Mallett <jmallett@FreeBSD.org> Cc: "freebsd-mips@FreeBSD.org" <freebsd-mips@FreeBSD.org> Subject: Re: RouterBOOT on RB450G has a 4MB NAND kernel size limit Message-ID: <43E920D8-72A6-43F0-8941-32C40783C523@bsdimp.com> In-Reply-To: <CACVs6=8o%2B%2BQnDiiFn_nLinNa83sjYSxDNyzEt%2B=Ke14exGnM5Q@mail.gmail.com> References: <CACVs6=8o%2B%2BQnDiiFn_nLinNa83sjYSxDNyzEt%2B=Ke14exGnM5Q@mail.gmail.com>
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On Mar 8, 2012, at 5:24 PM, Juli Mallett wrote: > Hey folks, >=20 > I thought it might be useful to share this with others, so they don't > waste 6 hours diffing ELF files trying to figure out what the problem > is. >=20 > It turns out that although it can load ELF files of variable size over > TFTP, and although the system is configured with a larger kernel NAND > partition, RouterBOOT seems to choke (without any clear error, mind > you, because that would be gratuitously-sensible) on loading kernels > larger than 4MB. Of course, it's hard to figure this out because > nothing useful turns up on a quick search for '"setting up elf > image..." hang' or '"setting up elf image..." -"setting up elf > image... ok"', although once you figure it out, it's easy to confirm > with a quick Google along the lines of 'rb450g 4mb kernel'. >=20 > So, be warned if you're thinking that you'll use an OpenWRT kernel > with initramfs over netboot to provision devices to use FreeBSD by > copying the kernel to NAND. Or if you've got yaffs patches to your > kernel and can just copy over kernels with impunity. >=20 > Has anyone looked at using U-Boot as a second stage loader on this > hardware? In order to make loader useful, we'd have to add an awful > lot of infrastructure, including another yaffs implementation, when we > don't even have one in-tree yet. What would be most useful, too, > would be to have MMC + SPI support in loader (here again, U-Boot is > helpful), so that we could load kernels from SD. That's a lot of work > on loader, and U-Boot already does it all, right? Any thoughts? While not specifically for that hardware, I've scoped out the work it = would take to port raj@'s work from ARM to MIPS. It doesn't look huge, = once you settle on the right 'syscall' model. figured it would take a = dedicated person in the weeks to months range of effort, depending on = the person :). Maybe semihalf has already done a port? > (There is an MMC-over-SPI driver coming to the tree Real Soon Now, so > booting FreeBSD from these things in production is actually quite > trivial, if you can solve the kernel loading dilemma.) Cool! Warner > Yours in frustration with Mikrotik, > Juli. > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-mips@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-mips > To unsubscribe, send any mail to = "freebsd-mips-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >=20 >=20
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