[Debian-coldfire-devel] Linux on coldfire MCF547x

[Wouter Verhelst]

On Thu, Nov 09, 2006 at 10:07:00PM +0530, kitts wrote:
> Hi All,

Hi,

> I am new to this list and to using linux on embedded projects other than 
> x86. I am fairly experienced with linux on the desktop. I currently work 
> exclusively with kubuntu edgy amd64 on my desktop.
> 
> I have an assignment towards getting linux on the MCF547x/8x evaluation 
> board from freescale and also a customized version of the same. I am sure 
> there are people on this list that are experienced with this and i am 
> seeking you help with getting started.
> 
> I have a set of questions that i am going to put out and hope to get good 
> response. :-)

I'll answer to the best of my abilities, but do note that this list is
more about getting Debian to run on the thing (which as of yet isn't
possible) rather than helping people with doing embedded development.
For the latter, you'll find more help on the mailinglist
'coldfire at wildrice.com'. There are also some people from Freescale who
subscribe to that list.

> 1) What is the recommended bootloader? The eval board comes colilo but i am 
> inclined towards going with Das u-boot. The customized version of the board 
> has a combination of NOR (for the boot loader) and NAND flash (JFFS2 root 
> filesystem with the linux kernel inside).

Colilo is what I use. It's pretty solid, IMO.

> 2) Freescale claims that the kernel is modified. What are the modifications? 
> I was considering a picking a new version of the kernel from kernel.org and 
> only using the appropriate config file as used by freescale.

Hardware support patches, mostly. Most of them have been merged with the
upstream Linux kernel by now, if I'm not mistaken.

> 3) How does the MTD subsystem identify and operate with the flash chip. Do 
> the bootloader and the kernel need to explicitly notified of the particular 
> chip and interface being used? And then at run time or compile time? Here 
> NOR flash is somewhat understandable as it is memory mapped and operates 
> like RAM. How about NAND flash?

No clue, sorry.

> 4) Tool chain: will i need to compile them or are there debs available? 
> Where can i get the binaries and/or how can i compile the toolchain? I have 
> a parallel port BDM from P&E Micro. Will i be able to use it on linux? Any 
> documentation available?

There are currently no debs available, and there won't be for a while.
To get a working toolchain, there's a .iso you can download from the
Freescale website. You have to register for that first, though.

The environment on that iso is supported on Debian 3.1, and a few other
platforms (not sure about (k)ubuntu). It allows you to generate
filesystem images that are directly ready for deployment on a
CompactFlash card for your board, or (as I do) NFS trees that you can
boot off of with NFS-root.

HTH, HAND

[...]

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