Thank you, and one comment

Hello,

and thank you so much for such a detailed article.

I almost got my NSA325 working straight on the first attempt, but the box refused to boot (from HDD) ... until I created the filesystem again with '-L "rootfs"' -parameter...

I don't know why this was needed as the documentation gives an impression that the u-boot would be able to figure out everything by itself...

As this was my very first attempt to install debian on my NSA325, so first I did the u-boot section, then proceeded by installing 'Debian-4.12.1-kirkwood-tld-1-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2'.

After I got the box booting from HDD, I was able to update the OS to 'linux-4.18.4-kirkwood-tld-1-bodhi.tar.bz2'.

So, I don't know whether or not it would be needed to create the filesystem with '-L "rootfs"' -parameter, (i.e. mkfs.ext3 -L "rootfs" /dev/sdX) but at least in my case it solved the boot problem.


In addition, I'd like to know is u-boot able to boot from a raid -partition, or would I first need to flash uImage in order to be able to continue booting uInitrd from raid partition?

jama,

> I don't know why this was needed as the
> documentation gives an impression that the u-boot
> would be able to figure out everything by
> itself...

See the expanation why rootfs label is needed (It is quite easy to set up booting wihtout label rootfs if you choose to do so, but you should not):

https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,19093

> In addition, I'd like to know is u-boot able to
> boot from a raid -partition, or would I first need
> to flash uImage in order to be able to continue
> booting uInitrd from raid partition?

Usually for raid, you need a separate 1st partition as Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 to house uImage, uInitrd, and DTB (basically the kernel files in /boot folder). And the rootfs can be on any raid partition (hence the label rootfs is important). The 2 partition approach would be better than flashing uImage to NAND.

-bodhi
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Hi bodhi,

Could you please expand on why flashing uImage and uInitrd is not recommended?

I'm currently booting my ix2-dl from usb (rootfs and /boot) but would like to free up the usb port for backups.

Unfortunately, my sata drives are completely used as a linear mdadm array, I have a partition on the array I can host the rootfs on and was thinking of flashing the boot images to NAND to free up the usb.

This blog; https://blog.nobiscuit.com/2011/08/06/installing-debian-to-disk-on-an-ix2-200/ shows how to write an updated image to nand (although I'd need to do it from uboot as the nand isn't accessible on the ix2-dl), but if it's not going to work I'll try to come up with something else.

Thanks,
J

Hi jdwl101,

> Could you please expand on why flashing uImage and
> uInitrd is not recommended?

It is only to make updating system easier. If the kernel files are in NAND, you will tend not upgrade it to the latest to get security fixes. You will wear out NAND if you do that too often.

>
> Unfortunately, my sata drives are completely used
> as a linear mdadm array, I have a partition on the
> array I can host the rootfs on and was thinking of
> flashing the boot images to NAND to free up the
> usb

If your configuration requires that, then flashing uImage and uInitrd in NAND is OK, you have to do it.

So depending on the format of NAND partition (uibfs or jffs2), you would be able to repartion and flash them, quite easily. The kernel files can be flashed either raw, or as part of NAND roofs.

-bodhi
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2018 08:45AM by bodhi.