Re: [Etherboot-developers] Porting question

[Yannis M. <gm...@te...>]

Eric W. Biederman wrote:

>May I ask which RISC processor you are using?
>
Ok, the processor is Hyperstone's E132-XS (http://www.hyperstone.com).
Actually we have a project to port Linux to the aforementioned 
processor. Currently, we have done almost everything done in the 
architecture dependent part of the kernel and we are working on the libc 
as well as on the executable file loader (the processor doesn't have an 
MMU so we are following the uClinux aaproach).

The problem that arises is that the kernel needs almost 3-4 minutes to 
download through the serial port which imposes us a significant delay. 
This is the reason why we started looking into the etherboot.

>I am trying to think of a RISC processor that only has COFF support
>in binutils.  I know linux won't build without ELF support.  So I
>don't know which embedded OS the board is targeted for.
>  
>
You are not exactly right :-) When using the uClinux approach there is 
no need to have ELF capable tools. This is due to the fact that all the 
executables have to be converted to the "flat" file format before 
executing them. So even if you had ELF tools you still have to convert 
to the "flat" file format.

>>>Etherboot is already running on the Itanium so 64bit issues, and
>>>alignment issues are already sorted out.  Though not all of the
>>>drivers have been tested.
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>I need only the well-konwn cs89x0 driver :-)
>>    
>>
>
>That makes it easy then.
>  
>
Yes this is exactly what I thought, still the driver needs a little bit 
of hacking because there is no provision for implementations without an 
EPROM (most embedded systems do not include a ROM to store the 
onfiguration data like the standard NICs do).

I will keep you inform on the progress of my work but most probably 
prior to this I will come back with more questions :-)

Regards

Yannis