EB2410ITX Debian installation notes |
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©2005 Simtec Electronics
$Id: debian-3.1r0-notes.html,v 1.1 2005/11/09 01:01:25 vince Exp $
This document outlines the necessary steps to install the Debian 3.1 (sarge) Operating System (OS) on a Simtec EB2410ITX. Simtec have ensured that the Debian OS should work using the official Debian 3.1r0a install media, unfortunately a compiler issue with this release means the shipped kernel and boot image fail to boot under some circumstances. Because of this issue we are providing updated kernels and installer images until the official Debian release is fixed.
The main steps to perform the install are:
This document relies on the user being familiar with the general operation of their EB2410ITX and the ABLE bootloader. Manuals and documentation exist for all Simtec products which should provide more in depth information on any specific areas. Links to additional relevant documentation can be found in the References section.
Before you begin the installation several prerequisites must be met:
The 3.1 (sarge) release of Debian fully supports the EB2410ITX, however an issue has been identified with the 3.1r0 boot kernel where it fails to start under some circumstances. The issue has been identified (as Debian bug number #274517) and corrected. Unfortunately updated boot images will not be immediately available until Debian do a point update (rebuilt images are available from Debian).
To ensure ease of installation the corrected installer kernels and boot images have been made available from the EB2410ITX resources page and on the support CD (version 2.11 and later). There are two different versions of the boot images one designated "cdrom" and a second "netboot". The cdrom version should be generally preferred as it allows for installation of packages from both network and cdrom media (the netboot variants are limited to network installs).
The kernel and boot image may be retrieved either directly from the debian server or from the EB2410ITX resources page. Alternately the support CD (version 2.11 or later) contains the boot images for all platforms.
The two files retrieved in the Obtaining the correct files section (vmlinuz-2.4.27-bast and initrd.gz) should be placed on some media where ABLE can retrieve them, that is typically either an ISO9660 cdrom or from a tftp server on the network. If desired the Debian disc 0 may be modified by replacing the boot kernel and installer images although this is not usually required.
The EB2410ITX should be powered on with a screen and USB keyboard attached. If the support CD is being used and ABLE is set to the default autoboot the install should start automatically.
If the default ABLE boot is not configured the following extra steps will need to be performed using the serial console to communicate with ABLE (USB keyboard support is not yet present in the bootloader ABLE FAQ #17). The video must be enabled as the sarge installation cannot be performed over the serial port (this is being addressed). The following gives an example of starting the installation using tftp.
Initialising Detecting SDRAM size SDRAM: BANK6 size 04000000 SDRAM: BANK7 size 04000000 ABLE: 2.11 (s3c2410x) (ben@kira) Mon Oct 17 15:17:51 BST 2005 Processor: Samsung S3C2410A (arm920) System: Machine bast/s3c2410x, Linux id 0x014b .S3C2410X RTC: 00:13:55, 09/11/2005 NAND: configured boot slot is 0 (card slot) NAND device 0: Samsung K9F1208u0a [131072,32,512] (flash0) on (nand0p1) (flash1) on ((nand0p2):jffs2) EEPROM: 24cXX, 1024 bytes, single byte addressed, UID unset (nvram0) on (24cxx0p1) sys.speed is unset, Setting CPU Speed to 266MHz no configuration, defaulting to VGA Chrontel CH7006 detected screen mode is 640x480, ?Hz, ?Hz HSync video: video size 300K s3cvid_set_timings: VClk=22166666 HZ configuring ch7006: vga selected all-wr for console write selected all-rd for console read DRAM: 128 Mb (134217728 bytes) BAST: PMU version 1.02, ID 00:01:3d:00:01:6a ABLE 2.11 (C) 2001-2005 Simtec Electronics hda: ATAPI CDROM: GCR-8483B PIO mode 4 hdc: FUJITSU MHF2043AT: ATA PIO mode 4 hdc:Diagnosing disc drive: ok (hdc) 4GB (hd0) on ((hdc1):ext2) (hda) 22MB (cd0) on ((hda1):iso9660) DM9000: dm0: r1, 00:01:3d:00:01:6a int phy, link down NE2000: ne0: ISA/Generic, 00:01:3d:00:01:6b TMP101: not detected sys.autoshadow unset, automatically shadowing Autoboot attempt 1, Press any key to abort Autobooting in 6 >load (tftpboot)vmlinuz-2.4.27-bast (tftpboot)initrd.gz tftp: attempting bootp bootp: serverip: 192.168.7.1 bootp: netmask: 255.255.255.0 bootp: serverip: 192.168.7.1 bootp: netmask: 255.255.255.0 bootp: address: 192.168.7.237 ............................... ................................ ................................ ..............................loaded (tftpboot)vmlinuz-2.4.27-bast, 0xf8164 byt0 .. ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ......................loaded (tftpboot)initrd.gz, 0x16fec6 bytes at 0x00608000 >setargs root=/dev/ram >boot boot: booting 'linux' Booting Linux Uncompressing Linux.............................................................
Once started the standard Debian installer process can be followed. In brief (for a cdrom install) the steps are:
Before rebooting the system you need to ensure the updated kernels are installed, this is outlined in the next step.
If the serial ports are to be used as consoles etc. they should be configured using the appropriate mknod commands see the EB2410ITX FAQ for details.
To get a system that is bootable the bug fixed kernel must be installed this is available from the Debian servers and must be installed to avoid booting issues.
The following shows how to list the kernel files on the hard drive and configure one for use in autobooting
>ls (hd0)/boot System.map-2.4.27-bast config-2.4.27-bast vmlinuz-2.4.27-bast >nvset boot.cmd "(hd0)/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.27-bast root=/dev/hdc1" >nvshow shell-hist (is unset) cons-write (is unset) cons-read (is unset) boot.fs (is unset) boot.auto = on boot.cmd = (hd0)/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.27-bast root=/dev/hdc1 boot.timeout (is unset) ide.multi-limit (is unset) fb.enable = on fb.output (is unset) fb.refresh (is unset) fb.y (is unset) fb.x (is unset) sys.autoshadow (is unset) sys.speed (is unset) >nvsave verifying written data... >
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