redboot based boot loader for kernels?

[John Hay]

Hi Olivier,

On Wed, Feb 28, 2007 at 12:50:37PM +0100, Olivier Houchard wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 28, 2007 at 12:24:59PM +0200, John Hay wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > Does anyone have or is busy with an app that one can load in the
> > redboot flash, that will load the kernel from the active partition
> > of a compact flash? I know one can load the kernel in the redboot
> > flash, but that makes remote upgrading more difficult. The way I
> > have done with our wrap and soekris boards, is to create 2 slices
> > on the CF. When upgrading, you just format and install on the
> > non-active slice, change the active bit and reboot.
> 
> The problem is, it's very difficult to do so in a generic way. RedBoot doesn't
> export any facility to read from flash, so for each board, such a loader would
> require an IDE driver to read from CF, etc. As far as I know, nobody is
> working on it.
> Would being able to update the kernel located in the onboard flash from
> FreeBSD be an acceptable solution for you ?

Yes that would also be great.

At the moment I have ROOTDEVNAME=\"ufs:ad0s1a\" in my kernel config
file and twiddle that to the correct slice, but maybe one can make
something a little more intelligent that look for the active slice.

The board I have is an Avila 2348. I proably should have mentioned
that in the first email. :-/

John
-- 
John Hay -- John.Hay at meraka.csir.co.za / jhay at FreeBSD.org