Adding options to RPI-B

[Tim Kientzle]

On Jul 27, 2013, at 10:05 AM, Rui Paulo wrote:

> On 27 Jul 2013, at 09:17, Tim Kientzle <kientzle at freebsd.org> wrote:
>> Here's a proposed patch that installs all of the standard Forth
>> files as part of ubldr on ARM.  It does not install a loader.rc,
>> however, so it should have no effect per se, other than putting
>> a few more files on the image.
> 
> Why ? I thought installing loader.rc was the main point.

The way I'd like to split this:

* FreeBSD Makefiles install all of the Forth support files
   as part of ubldr.

* System build scripts (such as Crochet) can install
   a loader.rc if they see fit.

Loader.rc is just a couple of lines, so it's trivial for Crochet
to install that one file.  I intend to do that after I've had a few
days to test.

But installing a loader.rc as part of ubldr would have implications
for every ARM system using ubldr.  I'd rather not do that until
we bettter understand the consequences.


>> To enable loader.conf, first boot the system, then:
>>   $ cp /boot/loader.rc.sample /boot/loader.rc
>> and reboot.
>> 
>> With these changes, I've built and booted a BeagleBone
>> image that does process loader.conf and seems none
>> the worse for it.
>> 
>> I still need to test on RPi; hope to do that this weekend.

After that testing, I'll start pushing changes into Crochet
to install a loader.rc by default for RPi and BeagleBone.


>> This should be enough for people to start experimenting
>> with the beastie menu on RPi.  Just copy the loader.rc from
>> i386 and see what happens.  ;-)
> 
> Well, the beastie menu was always overkill on serial consoles :)

But the RPi isn't just a serial console.

And on the BeagleBone Black, it might be nice to
have a startup menu with options to boot from eMMC or
external SD, reflash the eMMC, etc.  (For that matter,
I hope we'll have a video driver for BB Black someday.)

Now that the Forth infrastructure is available, it
should be much easier to start experimenting
with such things.

Tim