[U-Boot-Users] Proposal for patch to configure networkparameters

[Ulf Samuelsson]

mån 2007-04-23 klockan 01:57 +0200 skrev Wolfgang Denk:
> In message <005c01c78528$c4831720$01c4af0a at Glamdring> you wrote:
> >
> > > Use a script to auto-install your board. Expect is a great  tool.
> > 
> > Expect is Linux specific. I want to be able to do things using
> 
> No. Expect is based on tcl, and tcl is available for other host
> environments, too, including Solaris, HP-UX and Windows.
> 
> > tools as simple as Hyperterminal, or even without serial line at all.
> 
> AFAIK even HT understands some form of "scripting".

Since U-Boot does have a enviroment area. the natural place
to put compile time initialization is in the environment area
and compile the environment as a separate entity which is linked
to the environment. You can define a sector in the <board>.lds.
It will not handle "reset to factory defaults" though.

Then you can have compile time initialization AND 
if you so choose, you could during production decide
to first program u-boot into the flash, and then afterwards
modify the environment.
On a dataflash that is easy, since the minimium erase block is 1056
bytes and you have several blocks in the environment area.

Doing it this way, still require you to *create* the environment data
Until there is a configuration method which allows your
grandmother to get networking running my proposed patch is still useful.



> Without serial line, you can  use  one  of  the  other  approaches  I
> explained  several  times  during  the  last  two days. They work for
> others, and theycould work  for  you,  too,  it  you  tried.  Without
> chnages to the code, mind you.
> 
> > If  you, like me, dont deliver any boards, then you do not have this 
> > problem.
> 
> Indeed, it's a SEP instead - Somebody Else's Problem.
> 
> > It is the reponsibility of the user of the S/W to ensure that it is
> > used in a restricted environment like production or development
> > where the MAC address can be selected at random.
> 
> Making life easy for you and difficult for the user is  only  one  of
> the many possible ways of working. It's not my preferred way.

My goal is to make it easier for the user, and I hopefully 
will at a later stage will have a small application which
will generate a board specific script which can be installed
on the production PC and run once per board.

Currently the ethernet address is already set by u-boot.
It is set to 00:00:00:00:00:00, making it impossible 
to communicate over ethernet.


> Best regards,
> 
> Wolfgang Denk
>