[U-Boot] Setting uboot env vars from OS

[Jason Cipriani]

Hi all,

I have about 50 Gumstix Overos, each running uboot and:

root at overo:~# uname -a
Linux overo 3.2.28-rt42+ #6 PREEMPT RT Fri Sep 21 12:23:39 EDT 2012 armv7l
GNU/Linux

I'm trying to automate installing our software on each one, but this
includes setting and saving one uboot environment variable (which is stored
on the Gumstix NAND):

  # setenv dvimode="1024x768MC-24 at 60"
  # saveenv

Our current deployment process will be, for each of the 50 Gumstix:

  1. Clone SD card from image, using a PC
  2. Copy device-unique configuration files to SD image
  3. SD card into Gumstix
  4. Boot Gumstix, interrupt uboot
  5. Set and save uboot environment variables

Steps 1, 2, and 3 are automated in a script. I'd really like to get rid of
steps 4 and 5, which currently are going to be a significant part of
deployment time.

My question is: Is there any way to set and save a uboot environment
variable from the Linux OS? If so, what I would do is make a startup script
that runs once which sets up uboot then reboots, and that way our
deployment script can just copy it to the SD card and the first time we
boot each Gumstix it will automatically configure the uboot environment.

Thanks!
Jason