[U-Boot] Copy environment variables to another board

[Giuseppe Modugno]

On 30 Dec 2008 at 22:42, Wolfgang Denk wrote:
> It is difficult to make recommendations when you're providing
> inconsistent input. In your previous message you wrote:
> 
> >> I have a board running U-Boot/Linux. U-Boot program, two U-Boot
> >> environments, Linux kernel and root filesystem for Linux are stored
> >> in a NOR Flash.
> 
> Now you claim "I don't have Linux".
> 
> Can you please decide whether or not you have Linux running on that
> board?

I'm sorry for the misunderstanding.

Linux really runs on my board, but only after I store the kernel and 
the root filesystem on the Flash memory. And to do these operations, 
I must have a good U-Boot environment.

So I have a source board with a good U-Boot environment and Linux, 
and a destination board (picked from the shelf) with just U-Boot and 
its default environment (no Linux runs on it).

I can copy the good U-Boot environment from the source board to a 
file by using Linux, but I can't use Linux on the destination board 
to store the good environment in the memory.

I think the best solution is to use Linux on the source board to copy 
the good U-Boot environment in a image file. On the destination 
board, I can download (by tftp) the image and store it on the Flash 
at the correct address. In this way, I'll use only U-Boot on the 
destination board to retrieve the good environment. From that, I can 
install kernel and root filesystem.


> > Another possibility is to printenv on the source board, copy the
> > text result from the terminal into a text file, append "setenv " at
> > the top of each lines, substitute = character with space, insert the
> > quotes where needed and paste the result in the terminal of the
> > destination board.
> 
> You could (and probaly should) put the constant part of your
> definitions into the default environment, and use a script image for
> the rest.

Just now I'm reading about the scripting capabilities of U-Boot. It's 
interesting. Starting from which U-Boot version they are available?


Just another question. I have two redundant U-Boot environments. 
Should I copy both of them in two different images, or are they the 
same and I can copy the first into the second?

Regards,
  Giuseppe