afaik this is not yet possible with dm7025
no, there's no "multiboot software" yet 
Booting from CF is supported by DMM, no extra software needed. What you need:
1) A CF that has at least two partitions, one for boot and one for root
2) The boot partition must be the first partition on the CF, and must be formatted as a FAT partition.
3) The root partition can not be FAT, but could be e.g. ext3
4) A file on the the boot partition called "autorun.bat" that loads the boot screen image and the kernel. Kernel options are allowed, and must be used to change the root partition from flash (a default that is compiled into the kernel) to the root partition on CF.
5) Obviously all the needed boot files on the boot partition, and all the rest of the files in the image on the root partition.
Here's a small script (to be run on the 7025) to partition and format the CF. Change to fit your own needs.
#! /usr/bin/python
import os, sys, getopt
#################################################################
# This is GPL software.
# Written by noggie
#################################################################
# The script will prepare a CF for booting an image.
# - Partition with FAT + EXT3 (+ optionally swap)
# - Format partitions
# Partition sizes. The remainder goes to the ext3 partition.
# Swap is only made if the "-s" option is provided.
SIZE_FAT = 30 # MB
SIZE_SWAP = 96 # MB
# Some paths
CF_PREFIX = '/dev/ide/host1/bus0/target0/lun0/'
CF_DISK = CF_PREFIX + 'disc'
CF_FAT = CF_PREFIX + 'part1'
CF_EXT3 = CF_PREFIX + 'part2'
CF_SWAP = CF_PREFIX + 'part3'
PROC_PREFIX = '/proc/ide/hdc/'
# Optional arguments
opts, pargs = getopt.getopt(sys.argv[1:], 'svb', ['swap', 'verbose', 'batch'])
opts = dict(opts)
make_swap = (opts.has_key('-s') or opts.has_key('--swap'))
verbose = (opts.has_key('-v') or opts.has_key('--verbose'))
# Warn the poor user
if not opts.has_key('-b'):
sys.stdout.write('THIS WILL DELETE ANY PREVIOUS CONTENTS ON THE CF!!\n')
print 'Do you want to continue? '
if sys.stdin.readline().lower()[0] != 'y':
os.exit(1)
def vprint(fmt, *args):
if verbose:
sys.stderr.write(fmt % args)
# Get CF geometry
fd = open(PROC_PREFIX + 'geometry', 'r')
for line in fd:
if line.startswith('logical'):
cylinders, heads, sectors = line.replace('logical', '').strip().split('/')
fd.close()
# Convert strings to ints.
cylinders = int(cylinders)
heads = int(heads)
sectors = int(sectors)
cf_size = cylinders * heads * sectors
vprint('Geometry : %d/%d/%d (=%d MB)\n', cylinders, heads, sectors, cf_size/2048)
# Make sure CF is not in use
fd = open('/proc/mounts', 'r')
for line in fd:
if line.startswith(CF_PREFIX):
dir = line.split()[1]
vprint('Umounting %s\n', dir)
os.system('/bin/umount ' + dir)
fd.close()
fd = open('/proc/swaps', 'r')
for line in fd:
if line.startswith(CF_PREFIX):
dev = line.split()[0]
vprint('Removing swap %s\n', dev)
os.system('/sbin/swapoff ' + dev)
# Clear existing partition table
vprint('Clearing existing partition table\n');
fd = os.popen('2>/dev/null 1>&2 /sbin/sfdisk -q ' + CF_DISK, 'w')
fd.write('0,0\n')
fd.close()
# Compute new partitions
sectors_pr_mb = 1024 * 1024 / 512
sectors_pr_cyl = sectors * heads
fat_cyls = (SIZE_FAT * sectors_pr_mb) / sectors_pr_cyl + 1
if make_swap:
swap_cyls = (SIZE_SWAP * sectors_pr_mb) / sectors_pr_cyl + 1
else:
swap_cyls = 0
ext3_cyls = cylinders - 1 - fat_cyls - swap_cyls
vprint('Calculated partition sizes\n');
vprint('\tPartition table : 1 (=%d KB)\n', sectors_pr_cyl / 2)
vprint('\tFAT : %d (=%.2f KB)\n', fat_cyls, fat_cyls * sectors_pr_cyl / 2.0)
vprint('\tEXT3 : %d (=%.2f KB)\n', ext3_cyls, ext3_cyls * sectors_pr_cyl / 2.0)
vprint('\tswap : %d (=%.2f KB)\n', swap_cyls, swap_cyls * sectors_pr_cyl / 2.0)
# Create new partition table
vprint('Creating new partition table\n')
fd = os.popen('2>/dev/null 1>&2 /sbin/sfdisk -q ' + CF_DISK, 'w')
fd.write(',%d,6\n' % fat_cyls)
if make_swap:
fd.write(',%d,\n' % ext3_cyls)
fd.write(',,S\n')
else:
fd.write(',,\n')
fd.close()
if verbose:
os.system('/sbin/sfdisk -l ' + CF_DISK)
# Format partitions
vprint('Formatting partitions\n')
os.system('/usr/sbin/mkdosfs ' + CF_FAT)
os.system('/sbin/mkfs.ext3 ' + CF_EXT3)
if make_swap:
os.system('/sbin/mkswap ' + CF_SWAP)
# Make sure we have mount-points
for dir in ['/media/cf', '/media/cf2']:
try:
os.mkdir(dir)
except OSError:
pass
# Add entries to /etc/fstab, if necessary
fd = open('/etc/fstab', 'r')
fstab = fd.readlines()
fd.close()
changed = 0
if len(filter(lambda x: x.startswith(CF_FAT), fstab)) == 0:
fstab.append(CF_FAT + ' /media/cf auto defaults 0 0\n')
changed = 1
if len(filter(lambda x: x.startswith(CF_EXT3), fstab)) == 0:
fstab.append(CF_EXT3 + ' /media/cf2 auto defaults 0 0\n')
changed = 1
if make_swap and (len(filter(lambda x: x.startswith(CF_SWAP), fstab)) == 0):
fstab.append(CF_SWAP + ' swap swap defaults 0 0\n')
changed = 1
if changed:
fd = open('/etc/fstab', 'w')
fd.writelines(fstab)
fd.close()
# Finally, mount the partitions
os.system('/bin/mount /media/cf')
os.system('/bin/mount /media/cf2')
if make_swap:
os.system('/sbin/swapon ' + CF_SWAP)
(Please excuse my python code, I'm still learning...)
The script assumes that you have the dosfstools package installed, it contains the "mkdosfs" program. You will also need a directory for the root partition on CF. The script assumes that this directory is /media/cf2
A simple way to make an image on CF is to mount the CF on your Linux PC and copy the files from your OE build environment. You could also make a copy of the existing files on flash, so that the CF contains a backup. The following script could perhaps be a starting point:
#! /bin/sh
cp /boot/* /media/cf
cd /media/cf2
cp -a /bin /etc /hdd /home /lib /sbin /share /tmp /usr .
mkdir boot dev media proc sys var
cd media
mkdir card cf cf2 cifs dvd hdd mmc1 net nfs ram realroot union usb
(
echo /cf/bootlogo.elf
echo /cf/vmlinux.gz root=/dev/hdc2 console=ttyS0,115200
) > /media/cf/autorun.bat
sed -e '/boot/s/^/#/' -e '/media\/cf/s/^/#/' /etc/fstab > /media/cf2/etc/fstab
echo "/dev/ide/host1/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 /boot auto defaults 0 0" >> /media/cf2/etc/fstab
You could also unpack nfi files on your Linux PC if you have the required mtd and jffs2 modules for your kernel. Doing the same thing on the 7025 is possible, but it requires some extensive kernel patching, and you probably don't want to do that. I've got my own scripts to unpack nfi-files on my PC, but they are quite dependant on my own Linux setup and probably won't run on any other machine without some modifications. I don't have a problem posting them, but I kinda doubt that anybody would find them very interesting. Let me know if I'm wrong.
Hi noggie,
yes, i'd like to know the way to mount the .nfi images on my linux pc, because I'm also interested to boot from CF images :). And, there is a way to change files on the unpacked .nfi and pack it again?
Thanks!
Well, let it not be said that I didn't warn you... These scripts have been written for my own private use, reflecting my Linux environement, with no attempt at making them generic and usable for anybody else. I can almost guarantee that they will need changes to run on any other machine but my own.
Just to make it clear, these scripts are used on my PC, not on the 7025. On the PC, each image for the 7025 is stored in a separate directory.
There are four different scripts:
1) Backup_cf, to copy the existing image from CF to the PC disk.
2) Unpack_image, to unpack an nfi file to PC disk
3) Update_files, to copy config files etc. from one image to another (still on the PC)
4) Copy_image_to_cf, to copy an image to the CF
Those four scripts would typically be run one after the other when I test a new image. The new image on CF would then contain all my up-to-date configuration files, and I would have a backup of my last working image on disk in case the new one fails for whatever reason.
Notably missing is a script to install extra ipkg-packages offline on an image. This script would also make it easier to update single packages (think CVS versions of enigma2) from OE. Maybe this week-end... Currently, I keep a collection of ipkg-files in a directory on the harddisk on the 7025, and install them on any new image from the 7025 itself.
Thanks! I'll try it