Skip to main content.

Installing Debian on Power Architecture® based systems using U-Boot

Author

This document was created by WolfgangDenk (wd {at} denx {dot} de) and is based on work by Bernhard Kuhn (bkuhn {at} metrowerks {dot} com).

Introduction

This document describes how to install Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 (woody) on Power Architecture® based systems equipped with the U-Boot bootloader. Both, the root filesystem and the installation media will be mounted via NFS.

Status

The following installation instructions have been successfully tested with TQM860L and LITE5200 boards and U-Boot-0.3.0. Other versions of U-Boot should work as well.

Software Reqirements

On the Linux host, you need to have an TFTP and NFS server up and running. For the target, you need to download the Power Architecture® binary iso image "woody-powerpc-1.iso", i.e. from:

http://smokeping.planetmirror.com/pub/debian-minicd/woody/

Copy or move the iso image to the /tmp directory on your host machine (not to the target file system).

For the following instructions, it is assumed that your host has the IP address 192.168.1.1 and the target has 192.168.1.20

Preparing the host for installation

In order to be able to install Debian on the target, you first need to prepare several files, directories and services on the host: login as root on the host and perform the following steps:

  1. Prepare an NFS root directory for the target, i.e. 
         install -d /tftpboot/192.168.1.20
  2. Loop-back mount the iso image and copy the content to the NFS directory of the target 
         install -d /mnt/loop
     install -d /tftpboot/192.168.1.20/var/ftp/debian
     mount -o loop /tmp/woody-powerpc-1.iso /mnt/loop
     cp -vax /mnt/loop/* /tftpboot/192.168.1.20/var/ftp/debian
     umount /mnt/loop
  3. Prepare the installation ramdisk image: 
         cp /tftpboot/192.168.1.20/var/ftp/debian/install/prep/root.bin /tftpboot/
     /opt/Embedix/bsp/mpc5200icecube-2.0/emb-bin/mkimage \
        -T ramdisk -d /tftpboot/root.bin /tftpboot/root.bin.img
    The location of "mkimage" may vary.
  4. Add an NFS export entry for the target and restart the NFS server: 
         echo "/tftpboot/192.168.1.20 192.168.1.20(rw,no_root_squash)" \
       >> /etc/exports
     /etc/rc.d/init.d/nfs stop
     /etc/rc.d/init.d/nfs start
    For SuSE, use /etc/rc.d/nfsserver instead.
  5. Compile the kernel for the target and place the U-Boot compliant kernel image to /tftpboot as "uImage".

    Please note that the kernel needs support for initial ramdisk and that a "cat /proc/cpuinfo" on the target needs to show an entry like this: 
         machine : PReP
    Otherwise the Debian installer will complain about a not yet supported platform and stop operation.

    Usualy, you need to modifiy the kernel to archive this behaviour.

    For the TQM860, just add the line 
         len += sprintf(len+buffer,"machine\t\t: PReP\n");
    in file arch/ppc/kernel/m8xx_setup.c, function m8xx_setup_residual().

    For IceCube+, change the appropriate line to 
         seq_printf(m, "machine\t\t: PReP\n");
    in file arch/ppc/platforms/icecube.c, function icecube_show_cpuinfo().

Preparing the target for Installation

Setup several bootloader environment variables on the U-Boot command line prompt. make sure that U-Boot has been installed on the target, do a reset and type in the following lines after the bootloader comes up on the serial terminal (default com parameters: 115200,8,n,1): 

  setenv ethaddr 00:11:22:33:44:55
  setenv ipaddr 192.168.1.20
  setenv serverip 192.168.1.1
  setenv bootcmd tftp 100000 /tftpboot/uImage \; tftp 200000 /tftpboot/root.bin.img \; bootm 100000 200000
  setenv bootargs root=/dev/ram rw
  saveenv

Installing Debian

  1. Reset the target. After the autoboot sequence, the kernel and the installation root filesystem should be downloaded via the network, both will be uncompressed, the kernel will boot and mount the ramdisk. Finally, the Debian installer intro will come up on the serial console. Just press to continue.
  2. Skip the Keyboard configuration and select "Configure the hostname" alternativly - just accept the default "debian"
  3. Accept "Next: Configure the Network", don't do "Automatic Network Configuration". Enter the following values during network configuration: 
         IP address: 192.168.1.20
     Netmask: 255.255.255.0
     Gateway: 192.168.1.1
     Domain name: muenchen.de
     DNS server: 62.155.254.208
    Some of these parameter may differ in your setup.

    After the network setup, you should be returned to the "Debian GNU/Linux Installation Main Menu"
  4. Select "Do Without a Swap Partition" and accept "Yes" in the next dialog.
  5. Now choose "Execute a Shell" and type mount the target root filesystem manually: 
         mount -o nolock -t nfs 192.168.1.1:/tftpboot/192.168.1.20 /target
    Type "exit" in order to return to the main menu.
  6. Select "Install the Base System" in the main menu.
  7. In the "Select Installation Medium" dialog, choose "mounted : already mounted filesystem".
  8. Accept the given "partition" in the next dialog.
  9. Choose "manually : Enter the directory manually" in the "Select Debian Archive path" dialog box and enter 
          var/ftp/debian/dists/woody/main/binary-powerpc
    as the directory that contains the Archive files.

    The installation process will start, now. For the TQM860l, this took about an hour to complete. After the installation, the configuration of several packages will fail - this is not fatal. Just press until you end up in the main menu, again.
  10. Reset the target, wait until the bootloader shows up and interrupt the autoboot sequence.

Preparing the target filesystem for operation

After the installation, you need to modify several files on the target filesystem. It's easier to do these changes on the export filesystem on the host:

  1. In /tftpboot/192.168.1.20/etc/inittab, comment out the following entries: 
         1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1
     2:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty2
     3:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty3
     4:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty4
     5:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty5
     6:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty6
    and add the following entry: 
         T0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 115200 ttyS0
  2. In /tftpboot/192.168.1.20/etc/securetty, add an entry for the serial console: 
         ttyS0
  3. Goto to /tftpboot/192.168.1.20/sbin and type: 
         mv start-stop-daemon start-stop-daemon.FAKE
     mv start-stop-daemon.REAL start-stop-daemon
    to correct some installation wiredness.
  4. Goto /tftpboot/192.168.1.20/etc and type: 
         find rc* -name "S*pcmcia" | xargs rm
     find rc* -name "K*pcmcia" | xargs rm
     find rc* -name "S*hwclock*" | xargs rm
     find rc* -name "K*hwclock*" | xargs rm
    to get rid of hwclock and pcmcia startup script invocation
  5. In /tftpboot/192.168.1.20/etc/init.d/checkroot.sh change line 27 ("rootcheck=yes") into "rootcheck=no". Then comment out lines 169 and 174: 
         line 169:  #mount -n -o remount,$rootmode /
     line 174:  #mount -f -o remount /
  6. Goto /tftpboot/192.168.1.20/etc and type: 
         echo "server ntp1-rz.rrze.uni-erlangen.de" > ntp.conf
     echo "deb file:/var/ftp/debian woody main" > apt/sources.list
     echo "none                    /proc                   proc    defaults        0 0" >> fstab
     rm resolv.conf
     cat > resolv.conf << EOF
search muenchen.de
nameserver 62.155.254.208
nameserver 194.25.2.129
EOF
    for adjusting certain settings.
  7. Goto /tftpboot/192.168.1.20 and type: 
         install -d lib/modules/2.4.21-rc1/kernel

Preparing the target bootloader for operation

Finally setup the bootloader to automatically load the kernel and boot Debian via nfs: 

  setenv bootargs root=/dev/nfs rw nfsroot=192.168.1.1:/tftpboot/192.168.1.20 ip=192.168.1.20:192.168.1.1:192.168.1.1:255.255.255.0:ppc:eth0:off
  setenv bootcmd tftpboot 100000 /tftpboot/uImage \; bootm 100000
  saveenv
After reset, the Debian should boot. Login as root, there is no password.

Optimizing Debian for operation

After booting Debian in the target, login as root and perform the following steps:

  1. Install ntpdate 
         apt-get update  
     apt-get install ntpdate
    Now reset the target and login as root, again.
  2. Install certain packages that will allow you to compile a kernel nativly: 
         apt-get install gcc
     apt-get install g++
     apt-get install make
     apt-get install ssh
  3. Apply a password for root, or otherwise you won't be able to login via ssh.
  4. Reset the target to make sshd effective. Alternativly, start sshd manually.

Compiling a Kernel nativly

  1. Prepare the target filesystem on the host. Type: 
         cd /tftpboot/192.168.1.20/lib
     ln -s libncurses.so.5 libncurses.so
     cp -a /usr/include/ncurses* /tftpboot/192.168.1.20/usr/include
     cp -a /opt/Embedix/home/kuhn/project/mpc5200-4/src/linuxppc_2_4_mpc5200 /tftpboot/192.168.1.20/usr/src/linux
    The patch from where to take the kernel may certainly vary in your setup.

    Please note that the ncurses header files for the target are taken from the host. The clean solution would be to compile the ncurses library nativly.
  2. Login into the target via ssh and type: 
         cd /usr/src/linux
     cp .config config_icecube
     make CROSS_COMPILE= distclean
     cp config_icecube .config
     make CROSS_COMPILE= menuconfig
     make CROSS_COMPILE= uImage