[U-Boot] installing u-boot on a virtual x86 machine

[Francesco Lucconi]

2015-04-28 12:45 GMT+02:00 Bin Meng <bmeng.cn at gmail.com>:

> Hi Francesco,
>
> On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 4:40 PM, Francesco Lucconi <luccons at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Here you have the 512 bytes of MBR within the Virtual Disk Image (VID) of
> > virtualbox. As you can notice there's not clearly the string "Error!"
> > mentioned on previous screenshot.
> > About MBR building to ease the procedure, I've created the MBR code
> > automatically with PartitionGuru application...
> >
>
> Could you please provide detailed setup instructions (like how you
> generated the u-boot binary, how you setup the virtual machine and
> MBR, etc), so that I can have a try in my environment?
>
> And please stop top posting.
>
>
U-boot setup:

1. cd uboot-2015.01/
2. CROSS_COMPILE=/path_to_my_i386_toolchain/i386-linux-uclibc- make
ARCH=x86 coreboot-x86_defconfig u-boot-dtb.bin

Virtualbox setup:

1. I've created a VID disk with size 64 MB with virtualbox
2. I've created a unique FAT16 primary partition and automatically the 512
MBR bytes content with PartitionGuru application, and I've loaded
u-boot-dtb.bin within its content
3. I've created a VM machine (type: Other, version: Other/Unknown) and I've
registered the VID disk as its storage disk managed by the SCSI controller

I'm confident that MBR data has been created coherently with virtual disk
geometry because earlier I have formatted the FAT16 partition and I've
installed a test tool; after this MBR loads it without any error, this
proofs that the partitions table has been filled correctly.




> > 2015-04-28 10:25 GMT+02:00 Bin Meng <bmeng.cn at gmail.com>:
> >>
> >> Hi Francesco,
> >>
> >> On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 4:23 PM, Francesco Lucconi <luccons at gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >> > Yes, I've readed the README.x86 document provided from uboot, I've
> >> > created
> >> > my u-boot-dtb.bin following the rules of coreboot-x86 recipe.
> >> > I suppose I have to apply several tunings since I'm working with a PC
> >> > with
> >> > i7-2600 Intel Core CPU, right?
> >> > Here you have the screenshots of some starting phases on virtualbox
> >> > platform
> >> > (I've attached the files even if I think they don't give many
> >> > information).
> >> >
> >>
> >> Looks like the 'error' message is printed by the MBR loader codes. Can
> >> you point us the source of the MBR?
> >>
> >> >
> >> > 2015-04-27 17:50 GMT+02:00 Simon Glass <sjg at chromium.org>:
> >> >>
> >> >> Hi Francesco,
> >> >>
> >> >> On 27 April 2015 at 00:56, Francesco Lucconi <luccons at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >> >> >
> >> >> > 2015-04-25 1:04 GMT+02:00 Bin Meng <bmeng.cn at gmail.com>:
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> Hi Francesco,
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> On Fri, Apr 24, 2015 at 3:20 PM, Francesco Lucconi
> >> >> >> <luccons at gmail.com>
> >> >> >> wrote:
> >> >> >> > I'm Francesco Lucconi from Italy, and I'm involved into a x86
> >> >> >> > project
> >> >> >> > where
> >> >> >> > my issue is to compile a u-boot (I'm currently using
> >> >> >> > uboot-2015.01)
> >> >> >> > and
> >> >> >> > to
> >> >> >> > install it into a VID (virtual image disk) of virtualbox.
> >> >> >> >
> >> >> >> >
> >> >> >> > I've already tuned the MBR, registering two FAT16 partitions,
> one
> >> >> >> > for
> >> >> >> > u-boot and the other one for future kernel uImage and firmware
> >> >> >> > development.
> >> >> >> > In this moment I figured out that I've installed correctly the
> MBR
> >> >> >> > cause
> >> >> >> > I
> >> >> >> > can see on the display strings I've applied on the MBR source
> code
> >> >> >> > but
> >> >> >> > it
> >> >> >> > seems that u-boot.bin code doesn't run correctly, the system
> hangs
> >> >> >> > out....
> >> >> >> > Could you give me any tips I didn't notice before?
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> Could you elaborate more on what BIOS is being used, and what MBR
> >> >> >> codes is that? Is it grub?
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> Regards,
> >> >> >> Bin
> >> >> >
> >> >> >
> >> >> > @Simon Glass: About u-boot I'm using coreboot_x86 config, and with
> >> >> > u-boot.srec I noticed that I received several prints of startup (
> >> >> > like
> >> >> > this
> >> >> > "......................" ) but later the virtual machine hangs up.
> >> >>
> >> >> Did you follow the instruction sin README.x86? Can you provide
> console
> >> >> output?
> >> >> >
> >> >> > @Bin Meng: I'm using BIOS embedded of Virtualbox platform and I've
> >> >> > customized the 512 bytes MBR data with several debug prints and
> with
> >> >> > the
> >> >> > partitions table based on the features of my FAT16 partitions.
> >> >> >
> >> >> > Regards,
> >> >> > Francesco
> >> >> >
> >> >>
> >>
>
> Regards,
> Bin
>