[U-Boot-Users] Re: U-boot with IBM-PPC440GP - questions

[JobHunts02 at aol.com]

In the posting below, what does "sure" mean as an answer to question #3?

 >>> (3) - My board uses the LXT972 as the Ethernet transceiver (PHY). Does 
 >>> the boot loader support it?
 
 >>  Sure.

I am porting U-Boot to a custom board that has an LXT972 Ethernet Transceiver 
(PHY).  Should U-Boot support it without making changes to the code?  If 
changes are necessary, what are they?  

Without making changes to U-Boot, I am finding that auto-negotiation times 
out.  Thus, I am wondering what "sure" means.

Thank you for the clarification.



From: Wolfgang Denk <wd at de...>
Re: U-boot with IBM-PPC440GP - questions  
2004-07-19 11:43

 In message <40FBFF16.50003 at cy...> you wrote:
 >  > (please answer with copy to me, because I am not subscribed to the 
 > mailing list)
 
 This is a one-time exception. You ask here, so we reply here.
 
 > (1) - Did anyone use the U-boot with the IBM-440GP? If so, could you 
 > give me an idea of the boot time, both with the default configuration 
 > and with an optimized configuration?
 
 I did such measurements lately, but on a slower system (405EP at  133
 MHz);  in  this application it was critical how long it takes until a
 certain Linux device driver  starts  running  to  empty  some  FIFOs.
 Without  any modifications to the code the driver started running not
 more than 600 milliseconds after Power-on; the  Linux  kernel  starts
 loading  about  175  ms after power-on. Approx. 110ms of this time is
 spent for the PCI initialization; if you omit this, you can  probably
 start the Linux kernel 65 ms after power-on.
 
 > (2) - The binary file (u-boot.bin) generated was too big for me (almost 
 > half Mbytes). Could it be smaller, how? Is it already compressed?
 
 The image is mostly empty. The size is determined by the link address
 in flash and the faxt that the reset vector is the last word in flash
 - there is a huge gap. The actual code is MUCH scmaller:
 
    -> MAKEALL EBONY
    Configuring for EBONY board...
       text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
          163772   24316   23948  212036   33c44 u-boot
 
 As you can see, the real size is 212036 bytes = 207 kB.
 
 > (3) - My board uses the LXT972 as the Ethernet transceiver (PHY). Does 
 > the boot loader support it?
 
 Sure.
 
 > (4) - I will use the Montavista Linux as operating system. Have anyone 
 > done that already? How hard is it to integrate the U-boot with it?
 
 Zero effort.
 
 > (5) - Will I have to publish the changes which are specific to my board, 
 > if I use the u-boot?
 
 If you distribute the board with your modified U-Boot, yes. U-Boot is
 covered by the GPL.
 
 Best regards,
 
 Wolfgang Denk
 
 -- 
 Software Engineering:  Embedded and Realtime Systems,  Embedded Linux
 Phone: (+49)-8142-4596-87  Fax: (+49)-8142-4596-88  Email: wd at de...
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 because people refuse to see it.           -- James Michener, "Space"