Subject: The ever recurring question - Booting on EBSA285

From: Chris Bohme <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 20:01:28 -0200

Hi,

after reading through the archives I am still a bit confused about a few
issues. It is my intention to get Linux to run on the EBSA in host mode
on a back plain without a hard drive.

Thus,

- is a bootloader necessary when the flash is programmed directly with
the kernel image (= objdump'ed elf; what about compressed kernels) ? Or
are there any hardware initialization steps necessary before the kernel
can boot (what are they ?)

- Can Russell's bootloader be used to boot a kernel from flash (or only
via TFTP) ?

- What should happen after the kernel booted ? Am I right in the
assumption that the only way to execute init etc. is via an NFS mounted
root partition (or has anyone  made it work disklessly) ?

Answers on the above questions will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Chris

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---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 19:49:36 +0100 (BST)

> can boot (what are they ?)

The bootloader sets up all the SDRAM and PCI busses, so yes, it is
necessary.  It also loads the kernel into RAM (don't run it from flash
directly unless you want a slow machine).

> - Can Russell's bootloader be used to boot a kernel from flash (or only

Thank you.  I'll consider adding flashed kernel support.

> root partition (or has anyone  made it work disklessly) ?

You could have an initrd image, which is loaded prior to the kernel booting,
which can provide the info it needs.
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