Compressed U-Boot image
Hi,
The u-boot image is quite large.
Has anyone done any working in getting a compressed u-boot image to boot ala the Linux kernel ?
Cheers
Terry
Signature · 6 lines
Dr Terry Barnaby BEAM Ltd
Phone: +44 1454 324512 Northavon Business Center, Dean Rd
Fax: +44 1454 313172 Yate, Bristol, BS37 5NH, UK
Email: terry at beam.ltd.uk Web: www.beam.ltd.uk
BEAM for: Visually Impaired X-Terminals, Parallel Processing, Software
"Tandems are twice the fun !"Quoted 2 lines · In message <[email protected]> you wrote:
The u-boot image is quite large.
120...240 kB is no much for a boot loader with the capabilities of U-Boot.
Quoted 2 lines
Has anyone done any working in getting a compressed u-boot image to boot ala the Linux kernel ?
Some people did (like for the AT91RM9200), but it makes little sense, unless you abandon very basic design principles, like doing as much as possible in standard C code, providing console output as early as possible, making ports to new CPUs and boards as easy as possible, etc.
On the AT91RM9200 we're right now in the process of getting od of the binary boot loader that loads a compressed U-Boot image: it's a PITA to have yet another piece of software that needs to be ported, debugged and maintained, and that does nothing but adding lots of delays to the boot time.
While technically possible (and not exactly difficult) it makes no sense to me to implement such a feature.
Best regards,
Wolfgang Denk
Signature · 4 lines
See us @ Embedded/Electronica Munich, Nov 09 - 12, Hall A.6 Booth 513 Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd at denx.de Power is danger. -- The Centurion, "Balance of Terror", stardate 1709.2
Quoted 25 lines · Wolfgang Denk
Quoted 1 line · In message <[email protected]> you wrote:
The u-boot image is quite large.
120...240 kB is no much for a boot loader with the capabilities of U-Boot.
Quoted 2 lines
Has anyone done any working in getting a compressed u-boot image to boot ala the Linux kernel ?
Some people did (like for the AT91RM9200), but it makes little sense, unless you abandon very basic design principles, like doing as much as possible in standard C code, providing console output as early as possible, making ports to new CPUs and boards as easy as possible, etc.
On the AT91RM9200 we're right now in the process of getting od of the binary boot loader that loads a compressed U-Boot image: it's a PITA to have yet another piece of software that needs to be ported, debugged and maintained, and that does nothing but adding lots of delays to the boot time.
Quoted 7 lines
While technically possible (and not exactly difficult) it makes no sense to me to implement such a feature.
Best regards,
Wolfgang Denk
In my case I was hoping to use u-boot simply as a network boot loader without all of the debugging options. However I have only 32KByte to store the code in ....
Is there another PPC based network boot loader you know off that would be better at this than u-boot ?
Cheers
Terry
Signature · 6 lines
Dr Terry Barnaby BEAM Ltd
Phone: +44 1454 324512 Northavon Business Center, Dean Rd
Fax: +44 1454 313172 Yate, Bristol, BS37 5NH, UK
Email: terry at beam.ltd.uk Web: www.beam.ltd.uk
BEAM for: Visually Impaired X-Terminals, Parallel Processing, Software
"Tandems are twice the fun !"Dear Terry,
Quoted 4 lines · in message <[email protected]> you wrote:
In my case I was hoping to use u-boot simply as a network boot loader without all of the debugging options. However I have only 32KByte to store the code in ....
The boot loader still has to do a lot of things, and 32 kB is not much. Just reserve more memory for the boot loader :-)
Quoted 2 lines
Is there another PPC based network boot loader you know off that would be better at this than u-boot ?
Better than UBoot? Such a question is obviously off topic here :-) :-)
Sory - I don't know of a boot loader small enough and still with network support included, but then I'm not absolutely sure about all possible configuration options for other boot loaders.
Best regards,
Wolfgang Denk
Signature · 5 lines
See us @ Embedded/Electronica Munich, Nov 09 - 12, Hall A.6 Booth 513 Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd at denx.de Even historians fail to learn from history -- they repeat the same mistakes. -- John Gill, "Patterns of Force", stardate 2534.7