Using NARD with other boards

[Ronny Nilsson]

Hi
Creating a lists of what would have to be ported implies quite some work. 
Likely several hours if investigatsions are needed. Here is what I can come 
up with out of my memory:

- Automounting of SD-card persistent storage need modification.

- Check of SD-card filesystem errors at boot need modification.

- Automatic allocation of SD-card free space at first bootup won't work.

- Remote firmware updates wont't work.

- Delayed USB enumeration at boot might need modification.

- Moving the entire rootfs into a tmpfs at boot might need modification.

- Use of files in /boot/settings/* only makes sense if they are stored in a 
removable media where an operator can access them by moving the media to a 
laptop.

- U-Boot persistent env variables would duplicate /boot/settings/*

- Drivers loaded at boot might need modification.

- Symlinks to board LEDs in /sbin/hotplug.led

- The bootloader would have to copy the initramfs image from flash to ram and 
provide the load address to the kernel.

- The toolchain (compiler) which build the kernel need to have similar 
settings as used by Nard, especially regarding ABI and endian.

/Ronny



------------------------------------
> > Hi list members,
> > I'm passing this privately started conversation with Ronny to the mailing
> > list, so everyone can participate.
> >
> > I would like to use the full NARD SDK with my non RPi platform. I'm
> > trying to evaluate the cost of the adaptations needed to use it
> >
> > This board (AT91SAM9G45 based) has MTD and an SD car slot. By now it's
> > booting from the internal flash. I didn't try to boot it from SD.
> >
> > Can you please, make a simple list of the items I would have to patch to
> > use the SDK with a non RPi platform?
> > Then I will evaluate the work to do and maybe convince my client to
> > migrate to NARD.
> >
> > Thanks
> > ^Cebas
> >
> >
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > From: Ronny Nilsson <rln-nard at arbetsmyra.dyndns.org>
> > Date: Wed, Apr 15, 2015 at 10:54 AM
> > Subject: Re: Using NARD with other boards
> > To: Sebastián Salgado <ssalgado at gmail.com>
> >
> >
> > Hi
> > If possible I prefer the mailinglist for discussions. Then others can
> > potentially benefit from it too.
> >
> > Using the root fs only might be possible, but it will likely need quite
> > some work. And you will probably loose some nice to have features such as
> > remote upgrades and automatic allocation of SD-card free space at first
> > boot. What type of flash does your system have, integrated via MTD or
> > SD-card? The root fs is passed to the kernel at boot as an initramfs. I
> > think U-Boot has support for it. At startup U-Boot need to copy the
> > initramfs image from flash
> > to the upper part of RAM and then pass an address to the kernel.
> >
> > /Ronny
> >
> >
> >
> > -------------------------------------
> >
> > > Hi Ronny,
> > > nice to meet you!
> > > Sorry for my mistake. Is ok to write to you to this address, or you
> > > prefer me to use the mailinglist?
> > >
> > > Do you think it's difficult to use it for another platform? I wanted
> >
> > mostly
> >
> > > to create the root fs. The bootstrap, uboot and kernel are already made
> >
> > and
> >
> > > don't need too much modifications.
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Tue, Apr 14, 2015 at 12:22 PM, Ronny Nilsson <
> > >
> > > rln-nard at arbetsmyra.dyndns.org> wrote:
> > > > Hi Cebas
> > > > You sent a message to the Nard mailinglist from wrong mailaccount.
> > > > ssalgado at gmail.com isn't subscribed and thus your message got
> > > > discarded (to
> > > > prevent spam). However, I got a copy so I can answer.
> > > >
> > > > For the time being Raspberry Pi is the only hardware supported by
> > > > Nard SDK. Technically other processors could perhaps be added but
> > > > it's unlikely to be worth the effort. Nard is pretty much tuned to
> > > > the Raspberry Pi system architecture (ARM cpu, boot from FAT-fs in a
> > > > SD-card and a bootloader).
> > > >
> > > > /Ronny
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > -------------------------------------
> > > >
> > > > > Hello NARDs,
> > > > > I'm starting to work with embedded Linux projects. I have two
> > > > > products in development and another planned.
> > > > > By now, the platform is a custom board based on AT91SAM9G45.
> > > > > I'm also evaluating the RPi B+ for future projects. This is how I
> > > > > met
> > > >
> > > > NARD.
> > > >
> > > > > I do like the NARD SDK, and I wonder if I can use it with the
> > > > > AT91SAM9G45 board.
> > > > > Does anybody had some expirience using the SDK with other platform
> >
> > than
> >
> > > > the
> > > >
> > > > > Pi?
> > > > >
> > > > > ///Cebas