[Freedombox-discuss] Creating image on SD card

Nick M. Daly nick.m.daly at gmail.com
Sat Feb 2 23:10:23 UTC 2013


dww writes:

>>> "Has the version of u-boot on DP changed in the last year whereby
>>> formerly it booted from a fat partition but now an ext2 partition?"
>>
>> "Yes, that is correct. However, this is adjustable by using the Jtag
>> module to change the u-boot environment..."
>
> So why would it be necessary or desirable to format the boot partition
> as fat?

Two reasons:

1. We don't know how to detect a new machine from an old machine
   automatically, in the code.  Removing support for the old devices
   would break them.  How do we add new support in a non-breaking way?
   Given that we're dealing with how the SD card is formatted, this is a
   non-trivial problem that must be handled both at image build time and
   boot time, without irritating/confusing users (two "SD" images would
   be a confusing option).

   If you can think of solutions here, I'd really appreciate that work.

2. Not everybody has access to a JTAG, and even the folks that do find
   them irritating/fiddly/likely-to-break-things.  The less we need to
   change the boot environment by hand while booting, the better.

If you can think of solutions for either of these problems, or have
thoughts that could contribute to a discussion on these problems, please
send them along, we'd love to simplify the boot process.  This problem
is *why* the FreedomBox Foundation (FBF) flashes the units it sells
before sending them out, so that users can use a single partition EXT2
card.

The FBF used u-boot version 2012.0401, last I knew.  Do you know what
version GlobalScale is flashing on their devices?

Thanks for your time,
Nick
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