I have code that initializes (some of) the sandpoint hardware - enough to get the sandpoint to copy and gunzip stuff (code etc) from the floppy disk to memory. I program it into the PPMC flash memory and use it to load a proprietary OS. The floppy code polls the floppy controller so I don't need to have interrupts and DMA in the bootloader.
I also have code that knows how to initialize a couple of different VGA cards that I use. If someone was interested in making a more useful bootloader for linux/sandpoint I'd look into cleaning it up (removing the proprietary stuff) and releasing the code. Bob. Alex Shnitman wrote: > > On Tue, Aug 29, 2000 at 12:16:09PM -0700, you wrote the following: > > > > I downloaded the kernel and tried it. It starts booting, but it hangs > > > right after initializing the the OpenPIC. :-( I'll download the source > > > code tonight and try to look at it, although I don't have much hopes > > > gotta learn though. > > > > > > Is there any book that you recommend to get me started? Any other > > > docs/tips? > > > > Oops, I should have included the sandpoint switch settings. For > > this version of the kernel, the sandpoint switches must be set as > > follows: > > > > S4,S3: up, down > > S5: down > > S6: down (yours is probably up which is why it hung in openpic) > > > > Try this and see if it helps. > > It did! The kernel boots fine now all the way through. > > Thanks a lot! > > Another question: what would be the best way to go about booting Linux > from the flash? Would flashing the kernel in instead of the dink32 > monitor do the trick, or does dink32 do some important initializations > that are needed for the kernel to boot? ** Sent via the linuxppc-embedded mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/
