Etherboot can boot a kernel from an IDE device as well as a floppy or over a network.
Have you checked the freebios/HOWTO/EPIA file? That should help get you started. To get it working from an IDE device, The basic procedure should go something like this: 0) Consider investing in a BIOS Savior device in case something goes wrong. 1) Modify the epia.config.example file to use IDE--Add the line "option BOOT_IDE=1" somewhere in there, maybe some other stuff Sone Takeshi or Andrew Ip or some others around here can help you with. Here's an old one from Sone that I haven't defiled: http://www.flagen.com/~sc/linux/lb/epia/epia.config.sone 2a) Download Etherboot ( etherboot.sf.net ) Build a working etherboot payload (Should be ide_disk in the etherboot/src/bin directory after you 'make' etherboot). 2b) Build LinuxBIOS with that python command described in freebios/HOWTO/EPIA and run 'make' in the target directory to build your romimage. 2c) Burn the romimage to the EPIA flash chip using the flash_write utility (Under /freebios/util/flash_and_burn). 3) Build kernel for EPIA. 4) Use mkelfImage ( ftp://lnxi.com/pub/mkelfImage/ ) on your kernel image. 5) Format your IDE device with FAT 6) Write your elfImage to the IDE device like so: dd if=elfImage of=/dev/your_compactflash_device bs=1024 seek=4 7) Test it out, fail, and have someone with more expertise explain this to you in further (And more correct) detail :) If all else fails, you can try this ROM: http://www.flagen.com/~sc/linux/lb/epia/epia-ide.andrew.rom . It's an old one from Andrew Ip, the l33t master. If it doesn't work, at least you can use it as a proof of concept to figure if this whole ordeal is worthwhile for your needs. > Hello, (second try) > > I'm planning to build my own car mp3 player on a PC basis and now found > out that the VIA epia boards seem to be supported by linuxbios. > I'd love to boot my mp3 player via linuxbios to get the music playing > asap... unfortunatly the linuxbios-docs are not very userfriendly - I > understand that it's possible to boot the epia boards via etherboot, but > can i also load a kernel from IDE devices, e.g. a compact flash card > mounted into a IDE compact flash drive? > If not - is there any other way to load a linux-kernel really FAST in a > EPIA standalone (car-) system? > > Would you recommand a special board, such as the EPIA-V8000, or are they > all working well? > > Thanks a lot for your help, > > > Hubert > --- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > _______________________________________________ > Linuxbios mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios > _______________________________________________ Linuxbios mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
