[fedora-arm] Flashing Fedora-12 onto a SheevaPlug?

Derek Atkins warlord at MIT.EDU
Fri Nov 19 17:03:38 UTC 2010


Hi,

omalleys at msu.edu writes:

> Honesty, I have no idea, but i hope this points you in the right direction.
>
> It should be very similar to:
> http://chiana.homelinux.org/~marc/eib_sheeva.html

Site is inaccessible at this time.  :(

> I think the important part is under "Booting in the final system"
>
> setenv mainlineLinux yes

I guess the kernel from sheeva.with-linux.com is considered a mainline
Linux?  What would be considered *not* mainline linux?

> (too many people bricked their plugs so they have have an extra step  
> and the sheeva installer writes a new uboot along with the kernel and  
> filesystem to help prevent this.) Im sure you found the instructions  
> for using the open u-boot.

Yeah, my plug isn't bricked.  It happily boots the default ubuntu distro
installed on the device.  I just want to replace the kernel and root
with fedora.  I don't care where or not I update uboot.  However none of
the instructions I've found so far say how to do this.  The only
instruction I found for updating the nand said to use the
sheevaplug-installer, which also wants to update uboot.

> Do note in the instructions they are trying to use UbiFS instead of JFFS.
> Im not sure I would overwrite the U-boot with what they suggest either.
> but the procedure for overwriting the nand should be very similar.

Okay, n00b question here: what's the difference between UbiFS and JFFS,
and why would I want to choose JFFS over UbiFS?  (I know what JFFS is to
some degree -- I used that back in the TuxScreen, but if the Sheeva
wants to use UbiFS, what's wrong with that?)

> I would try it with jffs first. You may have to compile kernel support  
> to read the rootfs, but you should at least see your kernel boot. (and  
> it will fail with something similar to "Kernel panic - not syncing:  
> VFS: Unable to mount root fs".)

Ah, see, I'm trying *NOT* to compile anything, if I can avoid it.  I
don't want to be in the business of building my own kernels; that's what
distributions are for.  I just want to install the distribution on my
system.

Is UbiFS part of the default kernel config, usually?

> And as always if you actually figure it out. Update the wiki :)

Of course!

-derek

> Quoting Derek Atkins <warlord at MIT.EDU>:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I just received my SheevaPlug shipment yesterday, and today I've been
>> trying (and failing) to install Fedora 12 onto it.  I'm trying to set up
>> the plug to boot off nand.  Unfortunately the instructions on the wiki
>> are pretty sparse.  I'd consider myself a Fedora expert, but I'm
>> definitely new to ARM and embedded systems (modulo some time I spent
>> with a TuxScreen system about a decade ago).
>>
>> I've downloaded the f12 root filesystem and modified it as per the wiki.
>> I also downloaded the 2.6.32.21 kernels from
>> http://sheeva.with-linux.com/sheeva/2.6.32.21/ (as per the wiki), but I
>> have no idea if these are the "right" packages to use.  I only chose
>> this because it's the version of the kernel my F12 laptop is running).
>>
>> Then I downloaded the sheevaplug installer (again, as per the
>> fedora arm wiki), but of course it didn't work on my fedora-12 64
>> system; the problem was that runme.php needed "<?php" instead of just
>> "<?" in order to get php to run...  and even when running in an su
>> environment, it still thought I wasn't root.
>>
>> After trying to comprehend the sheevaplug-installer readme, googling to
>> figure out where to find the uboot-custom.txt, and then finally getting
>> the installer running, then I get the dreaded "No valid NAND flash
>> driver found":
>>
>>  ****	Burning uboot and environment variables ... This will take few  
>> minutes ...
>> Open On-Chip Debugger 0.4.0 (2010-02-22-22:59)
>> Licensed under GNU GPL v2
>> For bug reports, read
>> 	http://openocd.berlios.de/doc/doxygen/bugs.html
>> 2000 kHz
>> trst_and_srst separate srst_gates_jtag trst_push_pull srst_open_drain
>> jtag_nsrst_delay: 200
>> jtag_ntrst_delay: 200
>> dcc downloads are enabled
>> Error: No valid NAND flash driver found (0)
>> Available NAND flash controller drivers:
>>   nonce
>>   davinci
>>   lpc3180
>>   orion
>>   s3c2410
>>   s3c2412
>>   s3c2440
>>   s3c2443
>>   s3c6400
>>   imx31
>>   at91sam9
>>  ****	openocd FAILED
>>  ****	Is the mini USB cable connected?
>>
>>
>> Luckily my sheeva is still running its original config.  uboot is
>> working (albeit with the default version):
>>
>>  ** MARVELL BOARD: SHEEVA PLUG LE
>>
>> U-Boot 1.1.4 (Jul 14 2009 - 06:46:57) Marvell version: 3.4.16
>>
>> So...  can someone help me wipe out the debian installation and install
>> fedora-12?  I think there are enough hits on the web to reflash my
>> uImage, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to flash the
>> rootfs.tar.gz into mtd2.
>>
>> Any help would be greatly appreciated!
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> -derek
>>
>> --
>>        Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
>>        Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
>>        URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
>>        warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available
>> _______________________________________________
>> arm mailing list
>> arm at lists.fedoraproject.org
>> https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/arm
>>

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available


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