Gateworks Avila GW2348-4

[Jim Thompson]

Olivier Houchard wrote:
> Hi Henrik,
> 
> On Wed, Jun 20, 2007 at 09:14:32PM +0200, Henrik Brix Andersen wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Seeing how FreeBSD/arm seems have become the de facto reference
>> implementation for embedded FreeBSD I thought I might as well get into
>> the loop and order myself an ARM development board (I have previously
>> only worked with embedded FreeBSD on x86 and that other operating
>> system on x86, ColdFire and mips32).
>>
>> I have my eyes set on the Gateworks Avila GW2348-4 but before ordering
>> one there are a few things, I'd like to know. Hopefully, someone on
>> this list can answer my questions.
>>
>> I have only found one European reseller of the GW2348-4, DD-WRT SHOP
>> [1], and according to their website the GW2348-4 is currently out of
>> stock. Anybody know of any other European resellers?
>>
>> Gateworks lists an optional type A USB host interface for the
>> GW2348-4, but I have been unable to find any reseller that holds this
>> version of the board. Anybody here have one? Know where/if I can get
>> one? USB isn't crucial as I will mostly be using the board to get
>> aquinted with the ARM architecture (and, I hope, do some FreeBSD
>> development), but it's a nice to have feature.
>>
> 
> I can't help for those, sorry. Beware however, I don't think we currently
> support the USB port. It shouldn't be too hard, but it's just not there.

Oliver,

Note that Hendrik's reference was to the *optional* PCI-resident USB 
host port, not the USB  device port that is in the ixp42x SOC.

No, it shouldn't be too difficult, but I also don't know of any FreeBSD 
developers who have access to this modification.

>> Anybody know if all Avila boards are sold with the Redboot bootstrap
>> bootloader - or is that only included in the Development Kit? Is this
>> a vanilla version of Redboot, or does it require custom patches to
>> work with the Avila boards?
>>
> 
> I'm quite sure it will come with RedBoot. And I think vanilla won't work out
> of the box, because it will lack the ethernet driver.

You're talking about two different things.

Hendrick wanted to know if the Redboot on the flash would boot FreeBSD. 
  I explained (privately) how to get around it, in that it won't boot 
FreeBSD directly, but you can load a FreeBSD kernel out of flash 
(assuming the root is on CF) and then boot that(*).

You're saying that FreeBSD will boot, but that the npx Ethernets won't 
come up without installing the Intel-microcode, etc.  Also true, btw.

(*) Yes, there is a more modern secondary bootloader, which can read the 
kernel out of a UFS filesystem, but I've not completely tested that yet.

Jim
p.s.  I answered his other questions as best I could 1:1, because they 
seemed "commercial" in nature, and I didn't want to come off as being 
"commercial" (or "too commercial", anyway).