Introduction: How to Remotely Boot PcDuino From a NFS Server
In cases, we would like pcDuino to boot from a network hosted file
system. In this tutorial, we will explain how to make this happen.
Step 1: NFS Server
We will first set up a NFS server. The following command will be used on a X86 server, and starts with the character ‘#’.
To install NFS server, we type the following command:
#sudo apt-get install nfs-kernel-server
Configure the root directory of the network file system:
#sudo vim /etc/exports
The following is the content:
# /etc/exports: the access control list for filesystems which may be exported
# to NFS clients. See exports(5). # # Example for NFSv2 and NFSv3: # /srv/homes hostname1(rw,sync,no_subtree_check) hostname2(ro,sync,no_subtree_check) # # Example for NFSv4: # /srv/nfs4 gss/krb5i(rw,sync,fsid=0,crossmnt,no_subtree_check) # /srv/nfs4/homes gss/krb5i(rw,sync,no_subtree_check) # /home/pillar/rootfs *(rw,sync,no_root_squash,no_subtree_check)
In the above, we set the directory ‘/home/pillar/rootfs’ as the root directory of the file system.
To make the setting valid, we need to the following:
#sudo /etc/init.d/portmap restart
#sudo /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server restart
We can use the following command to show the shared directory:
#showmount -e
To mount the rootfs, we need to copy the pcDuino rootfs file
“pcduino_ubuntu_20131126.img” or new rootfs image to the nfs server, and mount the image to rootfs:
#sudo mount -t ext3 -o loop pcduino_ubuntu_20131126.img rootfs/
To check the mounted content,
To see photo:
When we reboot the ubuntu nfs server, it will get IP address by DHCP. As
pcDuino replies on the server to boot, we need to configure a static IP address:
#sudo vim rootfs/etc/network/interfaces
# interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)
auto lo iface lo inet loopback auto eth0 iface eth0 inet static
Step 2: Modify Kernel
We need to modify the kernel in two places to support nfs.
1. Uncheck initramfs:
General setup --->
[ ] Initial RAM filesystem and RAM disk (initramfs/initrd) support
2. Check NSF support:
File systems --->
[*] Network File Systems ---> [*] Root file system on NFS
After finishing the build process, flash the kernel to the board. We don’t need to flash the rootfs.
We provide a copy of finished kernel. The built kernel can be downloaded at here.
Step 3: Configure U-boot
We also need to configure u-boot to support network boot. After reboot,
the booting information will be displayed on the debug terminal (which is accessed from the debug serial port using a serial USB debug cable):
to see photo:
When the uboot is starting, we need to press any key, and stop the booting. Then we type the following:
>setenv setargs setenv bootargs root=/dev/nfs ip=192.168.2.7:196.168.2.1:255.255.255.0:::eth0 nfsroot=192.168.2.19:/home/pillar/rootfs console=${console} init=${init} loglevel=${loglevel}
>saveenv
>printenv
sun4i#printenv
boot_fastboot=fastboot
boot_normal=fatload nand 0 0x48000000 uImage; bootm 0x48000000
boot_recovery=nand read 40007800 recovery;boota 40007800
bootcmd=run setargs load_script boot_normal
bootdelay=1
console=ttyS0,115200
ethact=emac
ethaddr=00:11:22:33:44:55
fastboot_key_value_max=0x8
fastboot_key_value_min=0x2
init=/init
load_script=fatload nand 0 43000000 script.bin
loglevel=8
mmc_root=/dev/mmcblk0p7
nand_root=/dev/nandd
recovery_key_value_max=0x13
recovery_key_value_min=0x10
setargs=setenv bootargs root=/dev/nfs ip=192.168.2.7:196.168.2.1:255.255.255.0:::eth0 nfsroot=192.168.2.19:/home/pillar/rootfs console=ttyS0,115200 init=/init loglevel=8
stderr=serial
stdin=serial
stdout=serial
Environment size: 736/131068 bytes192.168.2.19 is the IP of the NFS server.
Reboot the board, we can see the board boots from the server:
to see photo
via :
