Is it possible to netboot a FreeRunner?

Jan Keymeulen spam at keymeulen.com
Sun Aug 31 18:43:21 CEST 2008


On Sun 31 August 2008 om 16:38:17 GMT Al Johnson told us:
> On Sunday 31 August 2008, Jan Keymeulen wrote:
> > On Sun 31 August 2008 om 14:30:11 GMT Al Johnson told us:
> > > On Saturday 30 August 2008, Andreas Zuber wrote:
> > > > Am Samstag 30 August 2008 10:06:01 schrieb Torfinn Ingolfsen:
> > > > > Hi,
> > > > >
> > > > > I just got a strange idea into my head. So I'll ask a possibly silly
> > > > > question:
> > > > >
> > > > > Is it possble to netboot a Neo FreeRunner? Can you netboot at all
> > > > > over usb? Does uboot have netbot support?
> > > >
> > > > I know uboot from an other embedded system, where it was installed, and
> > > > it is able to download a kernel from a tftp server to the memory. This
> > > > is done by the "tftpboot" command.
> > > > There is also a "dhcp" command so uboot can get an ip for the network.
> > > >
> > > > But i dont know if uboot can handle the usb as a network device.
> > > > Someone has already tried this?
> > >
> > > I think it can be done, but you will now need a custom kernel. When
> > > moving the USB ethernet gadget driver from built-in to module Andy Green
> > > (IIRC) mentioned that someone needed it builtin for netbooting with
> > > rootfs on NFS.
> >
> > Booting with rootfs on nfs != netbooting.
> >
> > Netbooting gets a kernel from a tftpserver, while rootfs on nfs requires
> > a kernel already loaded. The problem here is that it's uncertain whether
> > uboot can handle the usb network interface (or wireless or bluetooth).
> 
> I know the distinction well as I netboot diskless workstations, but my 
> recollection of the exchange is that someone _was_ netbooting. Looking back 
> at the thread I may have been reading things into it due to my experience 
> netbooting a Neuros OSD, as the boot method isn't explicitly mentioned. 
> Andy's last comment suggests it may not be supported, but judge for yourself 
> starting about half way through this thread:
> 
> http://lists.openmoko.org/nabble.html#nabble-td641300

I don't see anyone mentioning that he's netbooting his freerunner, just
rootfs on nfs.

U-boot docs mention only a few network chipsets on which it supports 
netbooting. Usb is only supported for keyboards, floppies or serial consoles.

So unless someone writes a usb/bluetooth/wireless driver for uboot, I don't
think netbooting can be done. 




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