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Booting uClinux from SD-Card possible?

Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Hello, 

i am new on developing with Nios II an uClinux.  

I have got an DE2-115 Board and was able to set up a Nios II Processor, build the kernel and run it. 

Now i wonder if it is possible to put the zImage somehow on an SD-Card so that the processor is able to boot from it. Also i would like to use the SD-Card as the filesystem. If this is possible i don't need to download the zImage all the time and files could be stored permanently. 

 

If its not possible it would be nice if you have other solutions achieving my goals. 

 

Thanks allot and sorry for my bad English :/
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
325 Views

Hi, 

 

 

--- Quote Start ---  

Hello, 

I have got an DE2-115 Board and was able to set up a Nios II Processor, build the kernel and run it. 

Now i wonder if it is possible to put the zImage somehow on an SD-Card so that the processor is able to boot from it. Also i would like to use the SD-Card as the filesystem. If this is possible i don't need to download the zImage all the time and files could be stored permanently. 

 

If its not possible it would be nice if you have other solutions achieving my goals. 

 

 

--- Quote End ---  

 

 

Please refer to my page. 

 

http://www.alterawiki.com/wiki/linux_with_mmu_on_veek/t-pad#unfortunately.2c_if_you_don.27t_have_veek.2ft-pad_kit.2c_but_you_have_de2-115...  

 

Kazu
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
325 Views

Thank you for the reply. 

 

Your project is complex, so I have a few questions: 

 

1. I added a "SPI (3 Wire Serial)" component to my Qsys-Design to connect to the mmc/sd. Are there more changes to do there? 

 

2. When I use the "sopc2dts" tool, are there any changes to make? 

 

3. Due the "make menuconfig" witch options shell I select? 

 

4. How do I prepare the SD-Card? Witch partitions are needed and how big should i make them? 

 

5. What Files do I need on the SD-Card? When I make the Kernel I get the "zImage" but what to do with it and do I need the "u-boot" and how do I do that? 

 

EDIT: 

I found this document (http://uuoc.org/uclinux_nios2_custom_hardware.pdf) and did all the steps. But I cant see anything on the console. 

I guess either the CPU can't read from the SD-Card or doesn't now to read from there :/
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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I found this document (http://uuoc.org/uclinux_nios2_custom_hardware.pdf) and did all the steps. But I cant see anything on the console. 

I guess either the CPU can't read from the SD-Card or doesn't know to read from there :/
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
325 Views

I now have been able to get SD-Card working through SPI. I´m able to mount the SD-Card in uClinux can read and write data. 

Now I would like to use the SD-Card as Root-Device, so i followed the instructions here: http://www.alterawiki.com/wiki/root_device

 

Now the problem: 

When I unselect the [ ] Initial RAM filesystem and RAM disk (initramfs/initrd) support and type make the "zImage" is not generated. 

The message shown says: "*** No rule to make target `image.zimage.all'" 

 

What can I do to make it work?
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