Adding options to RPI-B

[Rui Paulo]

On 27 Jul 2013, at 10:40, Tim Kientzle <kientzle at freebsd.org> wrote:

> 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.

Ah, ok. Makes sense.

>>> 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.

No, but a lot of ARM systems we support are currently serial console only.  

> 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.

BTW, the U-Boot we ship with Crochet is unable to identify the eMMC via the U-Boot API. I'm able to boot loader(8) via eMMC but then loader(8) is unable to see the eMMC. I haven't investigated much, but this is another blocker for the "let's boot FreeBSD off eMMC" project.

>  (For that matter,
> I hope we'll have a video driver for BB Black someday.)

Do you know how it's being done in Linux? I thought the GNU PowerVR driver wasn't ready yet. 
What's the driver that ships with Angstrom Linux?

--
Rui Paulo