Booting the whole system over USB (U-Boot + kernel + initramfs)

[phintegrator]

Hi All,

 

I have a requirement to boot a whole a20 system over USB as discussed in the link below.

 

http://linux-sunxi.org/FEL/USBBoot#Boot_the_system_over_USB

 

It requires U-Boot + kernel + initramfs to do this. 

Right now the only part that I succeed is booting on uboot, but not yet in kernel as well as initramfs (which is I dont have yet). 

 

I cant find a good tutorial how to do this.

Hope someone can help.

 

Thanks in advance. 

[tkaiser]

Where do you want to put the rootfs on? NFS or a separate USB storage device?

[phintegrator]

Hello Tomas,

 

At the minimum we need something like this, rootfs resides on the host PC.

sunxi-fel -v uboot u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin \
             write 0x42000000 uImage \
             write 0x43000000 sun7i-a20-cubietruck.dtb \
             write 0x43100000 boot.scr \
             write 0x43300000 rootfs.cpio.lzma.uboot

But,it will be great if it is possible to put the rootfs in a USB storage device. (can you share an instructions)

 

Thanks.

[phintegrator]

Hello Thomas,

 

Thanks sharing an idea.

I am now able to boot my A20 on a usb  storage device through fel mode.

 

Will try to update this post with the instruction on how I was able to did that.

 

Best Regards.

[tkaiser]

I am now able to boot my A20 on a usb  storage device through fel mode.

 

Will try to update this post with the instruction on how I was able to did that.

 

Highly appreciated sharing your instructions even if I still don't get the whole idea (the only reason I could imagine to use FEL boot apart from image testing is to save every local storage capabilities, that means booting through FEL and rootfs on NFS -- but I'm happy to learn from new use cases)