My changes in yaboot for PPCRCD

Przemek Iskra sparky at sparky.homelinux.org
Mon Mar 27 07:50:10 EST 2006


I was working on yaboot (binary part only) for a while, because I need
some additional functionality for my PPCRCD:

You can find my changes in PLD-linux's SVN:
- http://svn.pld-linux.org/svn/ppcrcd/trunk/yaboot
or throught web interface:
- http://svn.pld-linux.org/cgi-bin/viewsvn/ppcrcd/trunk/yaboot/


And changes/hacks are:

- gunzip support (from grub, only for vmlinux, as it can't detect end of
  file)
  [ vmlinux is very big, so first i just gzipped it, now gunzip is
  required for vmlinux.bin extraction from zImage file ]

- help files (very simple, can split long files in 20-lines parts)
  [ used for displaying more information, about images and options ]

- better malloc (from prom-libc)
  [ old malloc was to weak for help files and gunzip sopport ]

- multi-file initrd (files in one initrd argument, split with '|')
  [ required for booting from tftp, as OF can't load big files (>4Mb),
  may be used for multi-part initramfs ]

- vmlinux and initrd extraction from zImage file
  it's very big hack, as it can't detect needed parameters, they must be
  specified manually: vmlinux.bin.gz beginning, uncompressed vmlinux.bin
  size; initrd beginning and size
  [ as yaboot doesn't work on Pegasos 2 i provide chrp-bootable zImage
  kernel file with initrd included, it boots on pegasos, for not to put
  twice same thing there is extraction possibility from this file ]

- fat partitions (using OF)
  [yaboot and needed files can be put on M$-formated pendrive, it works]

- fixed netbooting, simply commented out code which was breaking it in
  rc1


I think thats all, for now.


Now I'll allow myself for a little advertising:
PPCRCD is the best PowerPC rescue cd, find it at:
 http://ppcrcd.pld-linux.org

features:
- only 50mb, fits on buisnes-card CD
- boots from cd on NewWorld Macs and chrp machines, including Pegasos 2
- boots from network
- boots from hfs-formated or fat-formated usb-storage device
- may be booted on OldWorld macs using zImage.coff or zImage.miboot
- and many more
just grab ppcrcd.iso, and eventually bonus files you need and try it !


see ya (:

-- 
 ____  Sparky{PI] -- Przemyslaw _  ___  _  _  ........... LANG...Pl..Ca..Es..En
/____) ___  ___  _ _ || Iskra  |  | _ \| |  | : WWW........ppcrcd.pld-linux.org
\____\| -_)'___| ||^'||//\\// <   |  _/| |  | : JID......sparky<at>jabberes.org
(____/||   (_-_|_||  ||\\ ||   |_ |_|  |_| _| : Mail....sparky<at>pld-linux.org



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