Initialization Script

Initialization Script

The init process, that automatically is started by the Kernel, first starts the script file /etc/rc and then uses /etc/inittab to start more processes, if some are defined there. By default the uCLinux-dist uses an empty inittab thus only /etc/rc is used to bring up the system.

By default the uCLinux-dist uses sash (compiled as the "sh" executable in /bin) as the shell that executes the rc script. This is nice, as sash has a lot of useful "internal" commands and has a very small footprint. OTOH, sash is a very basic shell and can't do things like "if" and does not support pipes from files and between the processes it starts. Thus it often is not good enough for more complex shell scripts.

If one day, the uCLinux Tool Chain might support XIP (Execute in place: executables in memory based file systems can be executed without loading [copying] them), it will make more sense to drop sash completely and use hush as the only shell and activate all necessary commands as "external" commands in busybox.

On a "full" Linux with an MMU-enabled NIOS, supposedly shared libraries can be used, and the concept based on busybox again will need some rethinking.

A way to use more complex shell scripts with sash as the initial shell, is to activate hush and some "external" shell commands (such as "ls" and "cat") in busybox. (echo and test ( aks "[" ) are builtin commands with hush and don't need to be activated (this is why hush is much faster with scripts than msh, which is depreciated due to several bugs, anyway)

... / BusyBox / Coreutils --->

[*] cat

[*] ls

... / BusyBox / Shells --->

[*] hush

[*] Support for if/then/elif/else/fi

[*] Support for while and until loops

[*] Support for case ... esac statement

Now we can just call several shell scripts from rc and have them executed by hush (as usual, this is done by defining the interpreter in the first line of the script:

#!/bin/hush

and setting the executable flags for the script file.

In rc, the script is now simply called like a normal executable.

Usually the complex script files will be located in /etc. To have them moved there, they are created in vendor/altera/nios2 and the Makefile in that directory is edited to handle them appropriately.

It makes much sense to use one or more simple script files in a Flash file system that are called (i.e. "sourced") by the rc-file(s) and just do some environment settings that are to be acknowledged by the initialization scripts.

These Flash based files can be changed "online" by an appropriate mechanism. Very easy is doing this with FTP (which is enabled in our uCLinux-dist by default). A much more user-friendly way is to do this with a web browser via boa and cgi. Here using a "haserl" script is most appropriate,

Example initialization scripts

You must have "hush" shell and the coreutil "cat" 'enabled 'in busybox (see on top)!

An example of cascaded initialization scripts is provided here. These are used in the current version of the binary NEEK distribution that can be found on the TryOutuClinuxpage.

/etc/rc is the initial script executed by the init process using /bin/sh (thus sash)

/etc/rc0 is called by rc and executed by hush. Here the configuration is read and decisions are made based on the configuration settings. rc0 writes the file /etc/rcc that can be read by any shell using the "source" or "." command to use the preprocessed configuration options.

/etc/rcts does additional system configuration settings

/etc/rca is meant for starting the primary applications (based on configuration settings)

/etc/rcd does the default configuration settings that are used even if the configuration in flash is not (yet) available

/etc/rcc can be read by any shell (sash using the "source", hush using the "." command) to use the preprocessed configuration options. As the environment variables can be e.g. names of additional script files, decisions that are done when rc0 was executed can get effective later.

/mnt/configflash/rc1 is located in the Flash. It does configuration settings and can be edited on the running device.

File /etc/rc (created in vendors/Altera/nios2)

mount -t proc proc /proc

mount -t sysfs sysfs /sys

mount -t usbfs none /proc/bus/usb

mkdir /var/tmp

mkdir /var/log

mkdir /var/run

mkdir /var/lock

mkdir /var/empty

ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1

route add -net 127.0.0.0 netmask 255.0.0.0 lo

cat /etc/motd

#########################

# FLASH #

#########################

mkdir /mnt/configflash

mount -t jffs2 /dev/mtdblock0 /mnt/configflash

#########################

# Read configuration #

#########################

/etc/rc0

source /etc/rcc

#########################

# APPLICATIONS #

#########################

/etc/rca

#########################

# AFTER STARTING APPS #

#########################

File /etc/rc0 (created in vendors/Altera/nios2)

#!/bin/hush

#using the more versatile shell to read the configuration settings

RC=/etc/rcd

if [ -e $RC ]; then

echo reading configuration settings in $RC

. $RC

fi

RC=/mnt/configflash/rc1

if [ -e $RC ]; then

echo reading configuration settings in $RC

. $RC

fi

if [ $NANOX == Y ]; then

RC=/etc/rcts

if [ -e $RC ]; then

echo reading configuration settings in $RC

. $RC

if [ -e $TSLIB_CALIBFILE ]; then

echo touch screen support enabled

export TSLIB_FBDEVICE

export TSLIB_CONSOLEDEVICE

export TSLIB_CALIBFILE

export TSLIB_TSDEVICE

else

export TSLIB_FBDEVICE=none

export TSLIB_CONSOLEDEVICE=none

export TSLIB_CALIBFILE=none

export TSLIB_TSDEVICE=none

fi

RC=/etc/rcc

echo HOSTNAME=$HOSTNAME > $RC

echo DHCP=$DHCP >> $RC

echo IP=$IP >> $RC

echo INETD=$INETD >> $RC

echo BOA=$BOA >> $RC

echo NANOX=$NANOX >> $RC

echo DEMO=$DEMO >> $RC

echo DEMOPIC=$DEMOPIC >> $RC

echo TSLIB_FBDEVICE=$TSLIB_FBDEVICE >> $RC

echo TSLIB_CONSOLEDEVICE=$TSLIB_CONSOLEDEVICE >> $RC

echo TSLIB_CALIBFILE=$TSLIB_CALIBFILE >> $RC

echo TSLIB_TSDEVICE=$TSLIB_TSDEVICE >>$RC

echo =========================

cat $RC

echo =========================

/bin/sh -c hostname $HOSTNAME

if [ $DHCP == Y ]; then

echo starting dhcp client

dhcpcd -p -a -h $HOSTNAME eth0 &

else

echo set IP to $IP

/bin/sh -c ifconfig eth0 $IP

fi

if [ $INETD == Y ]; then

echo starting inetd

inetd &

fi

if [ $BOA == Y ]; then

echo starting boa

boa -d &

fiif [ $NANOX == Y ]; then

echo starting nano-X

nano-X &

nanowm &

fi

File /etc/rcts (created in vendors/Altera/nios2)

TSLIB_FBDEVICE=/dev/fb0

TSLIB_CONSOLEDEVICE=none

TSLIB_CALIBFILE=/mnt/configflash/pointercl

TSLIB_TSDEVICE=/dev/input/event0

File /etc/rca (created in vendors/Altera/nios2)

#!/bin/hush

#using the more versatile shell to start application

. /etc/rcc

if [ $DEMO == Y ]; then

echo starting nano-X demo

nxview $DEMOPIC &

fi

File /etc/rcd (created in vendors/Altera/nios2)

# Default configuration

# used if the flash based configuration files are not available

HOSTNAME=uclinux

DHCP=Y

IP=0.0.0.0

INETD=Y

BOA=Y

NANOX=Y

DEMO=Y

DEMOPIC=/etc/p.jpg

File /etc/rcc (created on the fly by rc0)

HOSTNAME=uclinux

DHCP=Y

IP=192.168.37.173

INETD=Y

BOA=Y

NANOX=Y

DEMO=Y

DEMOPIC=/mnt/configflash/demo.jpg

TSLIB_FBDEVICE=/dev/fb0

TSLIB_CONSOLEDEVICE=none

TSLIB_CALIBFILE=/mnt/configflash/pointercl

TSLIB_TSDEVICE=/dev/input/event0

File /mnt/configflash/rc1 (created in the devices flash file system e.g. via FTP)

HOSTNAME=uclinux

DHCP=Y

IP=192.168.37.173

BOA=Y

DEMO=Y

DEMOPIC=/mnt/configflash/demo.jpg