[wellylug] embedded arm-linux anybody?

[Pete Black]

As I understand it, all that is required for most ARM dev. boards and 
embedded systems is a bootloader that supports your specific ARM 
platform, and a means to install it - There are a number of bootloaders 
available, some open source and some not, and it is very likely that 
whatever development tools were shipped with your board (or are 
available for your board) include a bootlader that is capable of booting 
a linux kernel/loading an initrd etc.

Generally, you should expect to have to bring up Linux on serial console 
initially, unless you know exactly what drivers/params are required for 
the ARM systems video card/framebuffer, which may not conform to a 
standard video card interface e.g. VESA VGA. Make sure serial console 
support and support for the serial hardware in the ARM system is present 
in the kernel if you are compiling yourself.

Unfortunately, your question is really one of those 'how long is a piece 
of string' type queries, and you need to give more information about 
your specific hardware and setup - do you have a Linux kernel/distro you 
know works and are struggling with installing it, or have you simply 
heard that Linux supports ARM and you have some hardware that happens to 
be ARM-based, and thats as far as you have got?

There are many machines that contain a CPU that is 'supported by Linux' 
but can't actually boot Linux due to unsupported core hardware devices 
such as memory and bus controllers, or lack of a boot loader.

-Pete


>The whole gcc toolchain supports ARM, and the kernel has all the needed
>ARM support.
>
>Maybe it's then a matter of following the 'Linux From Scratch' recipes.
>
>  
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