[Freedombox-discuss] apt-get updating the kernel

monkeyiq monkeyiq at gmail.com
Thu Jun 28 21:07:39 UTC 2012


On Thu, 2012-06-28 at 11:35 -0400, Ian Sullivan wrote:
> On 06/27/2012 10:22 PM, Nick M. Daly wrote:
> > If you're using the uBoot that came with the DreamPlug, kernel upgrades
> > or boot process changes will probably give you trouble.  If you're using
> > the upgraded uBoot [0], everything should be fine.  Ian might recall
> > details I've forgotten, though.
> 
> The default uboot causes trouble because it cannot boot directly from an
> ext formatted partition. As a workaround Globalscale formatted all the
> cards with a small fat partition at the beginning of the disk and put
> the kernel image there for the bootloader. Unfortunately, apt does not
> know to update the kernel image over on that separate partition. I think
> this can be resolved by manually copying over the kernel and initrd
> images to the fat partition once apt is done upgrading them where they
> live on the ext partition but I have not done it myself. The big danger
> is that your newly upgraded system will depend on functionality missing
> from the older kernel that uboot grabs off of the fat partition and then
> you will get stuck with an unbootable system.
> 
> -Ian

After a bit of digging I notice that although the system itself is
installed on /dev/sdb2 the /boot is a VFAT which is actually /dev/sda1.
Among some non interesting files, uImage is listed in /boot, I can't see
any initrd image on /dev/sda1.

I also wonder if the initrd is copied to /dev/sda1 if the kernel would
find it there during boot or become wedged somehow and not
mount /dev/sdb2 and go on from there.

I'm thinking it may be best to get another plug and the JTAG unit before
tinkering with this bit. Probably starting with the uboot upgrade and
then trying a few kernel updates on the non live plug system.

Thanks for the info guys!





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