When a platform is initially powered or a hard reset performed, the Initial Program Loader (IPL) is started. The IPL is a very small program which retrieves and starts the full boot loader. If the IPL is unsuccessful it will attempt an XModem transfer using the primary serial port. The IPL is not a boot loader, the image it loads can only be retrived from the flash it was loaded from, it takes no user input, produces no output and configures no peripherals.
The IPL retrives ABLE and passwes execution to it. ABLE is constructed using a small core and numerous modules. Each module represents a specific set of functionality and may provide additional functionality to other modules. Each component module is loaded in turn according to a priority. The modules command may be used to examine the currently loaded modules and their priorities.
The last module loaded is the ABLE shell which will present the user with a command line interface.
ABLE is interacted with using a textural Command Line Interface. This interface is most commonly presented on a serial port but may be on a video console or via the network.
ABLE has a flexible console system for its input and output
which can be configured to meet most requirements. The console
system is controlled with console command and the
console.read and
console.write parameters.
Details on using the console system can be found in Chapter 5, ABLE Console
The default console operation is to use all suitable input and output devices available.
On the EB2410ITX both the first serial port and the video display will be used for output and the serial port and USB keyboard for input.
Example 2.1. Display after starting ABLE on EB2410ITX
This example shows the typical default output shown when ABLE is started.
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 2.20 Copyright 2001-2005,2006 Simtec Electronics hdb: ATAPI CDROM: TOSHIBA CD-ROM XM-7002B PIO mode 4 hdc: FUJITSU MHF2043AT: ATA PIO mode 4 hdc:Diagnosing disc drive: ok (hdc) 4GB (hd0) on ((hdc1):ext2) (hdb) Drive Empty DM9000: dm0: r1, 00:01:3d:00:01:6a int phy, link ok, 100Mbit full duplex NE2000: ne0: ISA/Generic, 00:01:3d:00:01:6b TMP101: not detected sys.autoshadow unset, automatically shadowing >
Unless the boot parameters are altered from their default settings the automatic boot process will commence. To manually start an operating system the command line must be used.