Booting eSATA and original Sheevaplug from same SD card

[Bakra]

What can I do in the meantime untill this is available?
I want to boot my eSATA plug from an SD-card that I used before in a white Sheevaplug. So I know the SD-card is OK. I can boot it in the white Sheevaplug.

Do I need to upgrade the uboot or the kernel in order to boot my eSATA plug from SD card? Or are there other ways?
I never compiled a kernel before, so I'm not sure if that's the best way to go for me.

Any help will be much appreciated!

[NewIT_Marcus]

What can I do in the meantime untill this is available?
I want to boot my eSATA plug from an SD-card that I used before in a white Sheevaplug. So I know the SD-card is OK. I can boot it in the white Sheevaplug.

You should also be able to boot from the same SD card in an eSATA plug. Just make sure that the environment variables are set up appropriately. There's a "BUT" - see below.

Do I need to upgrade the uboot or the kernel in order to boot my eSATA plug from SD card? Or are there other ways?

BUT if you use the original SD card, you won't have the eSATA kernel module. You can use everything except the eSATA port.

I never compiled a kernel before, so I'm not sure if that's the best way to go for me.

Any help will be much appreciated!

It depends on what you are trying to achieve. A card that would be suitable in both plugs would automatically load the eSATA module in the eSATA plug (only when required), but our kernel has it built in. You could compile the kernel that you would need.

[Bakra]

I understand what you say.

I think my problem at this moment is that the environment variables are not correct.

I tried the variables from this link: http://www.newit.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,136.0.html U-Boot environment variables for Sheevaplug SD-boot version

 and from this one: http://www.newit.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,194.0.html U-Boot environment variables for Sheevaplug multi-boot version

At boot it the black Sheevaplug recognizes the SD-card, but when it has to boot from it I receive an error on mmcinit.

What are the correct variables to use?

[peter a]

The ones I change to boot from a sd card are:-

setenv mainlineLinux yes
setenv bootargs_console console=ttyS0,115200
setenv bootargs_root 'root=/dev/mmcblk0p2'
setenv bootcmd_mmc 'mmcinit; ext2load mmc 0 0x0800000 /uInitrd; ext2load mmc 0 0x400000 /uImage'
setenv bootcmd 'setenv bootargs $(bootargs_console) $(bootargs_root); run bootcmd_mmc; bootm 0x400000 0x0800000'
saveenv

That`s booting debian on a sd card made with :-
http://www.cyrius.com/debian/kirkwood/sheevaplug/unpack.html

[NewIT_Marcus]

Bakra -

The best answer to your question can only come if you explain why it is that you want to boot two different plugs from the same SD card. This question has nothing to do with the thread that you originally posted in (therefore I have split your post and subsequent replies into this new thread), please stay on topic or start a new thread.

[Bakra]

Marcus,

The reason I want to boot from the SD card is that I used it on the white Sheevaplug. So its configured with all the programs I use.
Now I want to boot it from the black Sheevaplug because I need the eSATA functionality.

[NewIT_Marcus]

Marcus,

The reason I want to boot from the SD card is that I used it on the white Sheevaplug. So its configured with all the programs I use.
Now I want to boot it from the black Sheevaplug because I need the eSATA functionality.

In that case, I think that you need to compile a kernel that will load the eSATA functionality on demand / for the black plug only. (If you try to boot with built-in eSATA, the boot process will hang - possibly indefinitely).

[Bakra]

Thanks Marcus for the reply.

But I think I'll wait until there's one I can download. I'm not sure compiling it would be my way to go.
Or would the uboot-sata-090903.bin be sufficient for what I want?

[NewIT_Marcus]

Thanks Marcus for the reply.

But I think I'll wait until there's one I can download. I'm not sure compiling it would be my way to go.
Or would the uboot-sata-090903.bin be sufficient for what I want?

I may have misunderstood.

If you only want to use your current SD card in a new eSATA plug, you can use it straightaway. If you upgrade the kernel, eSATA functionality will be available.

It's only if you want to put that card back into a non-eSATA plug that you would run into trouble.

Alternatively, you could create a partition for an eSATA kernel, and one for a non-eSATA kernel, and create U-Boot environment settings that would boot each plug from a different kernel partition. That would help keep separate the significant parts of the systems.

[Bakra]

Hi Marcus,

That is exactly what I want: use the SD card in the black plug. If it works in the black plug, I don't have to use it in the white plug anymore.
But I thought that the only thing i had to do was change the boot variables of the black plug to get it to boot, but it doesn't.
So do I have to change something in the uboot or do i just use the wrong variables?

[NewIT_Marcus]

Hi Marcus,

That is exactly what I want: use the SD card in the black plug. If it works in the black plug, I don't have to use it in the white plug anymore.
But I thought that the only thing i had to do was change the boot variables of the black plug to get it to boot, but it doesn't.
So do I have to change something in the uboot or do i just use the wrong variables?

For the SD card to work, you only need to change the environment variables. Don't forget to save them after you change them with saveenv.

When you first boot the eSATA plug, eSATA won't work. Install a suitable kernel and it will become available.

• http://www.newit.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,285.0.html
• http://www.newit.co.uk/kernels/
• http://sheeva.with-linux.com/sheeva/

[Bakra]

Hi Marcus,

Sorry for the late reply, but I finally had some time to experiment with the black plug.
I did use the Sheevaplug-installer to make it multi-boot. That works fine now. I can also boot from the SD-card I used before in the white plug.
Because I used the installer, I now have a kernel without SATA support.
On plugcomputer.org it says: " 2.6.34 now has official support for the e-sata sheevaplug."
So I booted from the SD-card installed that kernel from http://sheeva.with-linux.com/sheeva/README-2.6.34 .
Installation was without problems. Only thing is, it is still booting from the old kernel.
This is because my environment variables has to be changed (correct me if I'm wrong somewhere).
Problem is I don't know exactly what this variables have to be, because (if I'm correct) I used the Sheeva-installer I now have a UBIFS system.
I found some variables but they were for jffs2.

I have to say that I didn't change the bootloader yet. I'm still using the one that was installed with the Sheeva-installer.
But if I understand it right that is only a problem if I want to boot from eSATA.

So to go short: what variables do I need to boot the 2.6.34 kernel I installed with sheeva.with-linux.com?

Thanks for your help. It's very much appreciated!

[NewIT_Marcus]

You need to put your new kernel in the first partition of your SD card:

• Boot from NAND
• Download and copy kernel to /dev/mmcblk0p1 (over-writing the kernel that is already there)
• Copy modules to rootfs ie /dev/mmcblk0p2
• Reboot

There is no need to change your environment variables.

[Bakra]

Maybe a stupid question, but how do I copy the uImage?

I booted from nand,
I renamed sheeva-2.6.34-uImage to uImage,
and tried "cp uImage /dev/mmcblk0p1" -> still booting old kernel

Then I put the Sd-card in my laptop and tried to copy uImage to the first partition, but then it says read-only filesystem

[NewIT_Marcus]

and tried "cp uImage /dev/mmcblk0p1" -> still booting old kernel

You have to mount the SD card first.