midge.vlad.org.ua :: View topic

Last edited by IJs on Thu Apr 06, 2006 10:49 am; edited 3 times in total

A few days ago I decided to abandon Gentoo (painfully slow emerge) on my ADM5120 board and start with a fresh new distro. Eventually I tried midge which is really just a clean and up-to-date distribution to run.

After some hacking, I managed to boot kamikaze 20060205 (kernel 2.4.32) from a USB root filesystem, which I really needed for my router. Making your router boot and use your USB drive just requires a little more effort.

I'm writing this how-to so you can try it yourself. Note that this is unsupported by midge, and me.. so try on your own risk.

USB-on-kamikaze-20060205 v1.1 by IJs on 06-04-2006

Preparing
Make sure your ADM5120 board has a USB connector. If you happened to have an Edimax BR-6104K or a Sweex LB000021, here's a link on how to add a USB connector.
If you're adding a USB connector, please make sure it works perfectly before trying to install a USB root filesystem. Try and compile the original 2.4.18 kernel with USB support first and see if that works.

Some links to the 2.4.18 kernel: 1 2. (Find out how to compile this for yourself, there's enough info available.)

Compiling kamikaze for tmpfs

*

kamikaze-200602050443.tar.bz2

*

Code:

# cd build_mipsel/linux-2.4-adm5120/linux-2.4.32/
# make menuconfig

* Change the bootloader parameters for the kernel.

Code:

General setup --->
[*] Default bootloader kernel arguments
Initial kernel command string:
"console=/dev/ttyS0 panic=30 root=/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 rw"

This assumes you have a root filesystem on partition 1 of your USB drive.
* Verify the RAM disk is turned off.

Code:

Block devices --->
< > RAM disk support

* Build in SCSI, Filesystem and USB support

Code:

SCSI support --->
<*> SCSI support
<*> SCSI disk support
(2) Maximum number of SCSI disks that can be loaded as modules
File systems --->
<*> Ext3 journalling file system support
<*> Second extended fs support
USB support --->
<*> Support for USB
<*> OHCI (Compaq, iMacs, OPTi, SiS, ALi, ...) support
<*> AHCI ADM5120 (USB 1.1) Host controller support (EXPERIMENTAL)
<*> USB Mass Storage support

* Exit menuconfig and save your configuration
* Applying the necessary patches. I spent quite some time attempting to hack the kernel with 2.6 patches, since the filesystem structure changed since 2.4.18 and looks more like a 2.6 one than a 2.4.18 one. Eventually this worked out very well.

Here are the files you will need to overwrite. Patches itself are N/A since I didn't backup the original OpenWRT/kamikaze kernel files.

1

2

3

* Compile the kernel. It will generate a vmlinuz file.

Code:

# make

* Return to the root directory (openwrt).

Getting your USB harddrive ready to boot
This assumes you have an empty harddrive. If not, well.. figure something out on your own based on the info below, or erase it.
This howto is also based on a USB harddrive, not a stick. I'm not sure how these sticks work, but I don't think you can partition them. If I'm right about that, just skip the partitioning.
If you're stuck with something like a FAT filesystem on your USB drive, build in FAT support into your kernel and don't even try to turn it into a ext3 filesystem (mke2fs).

*

Code:

# fdisk /dev/sda

(press: n, p, 1, [enter], [enter], w, [enter] to create & write the new partitions)

* Create a ext3 filesystem and mount your new ext3 partition.

Code:

# mke2fs -j /dev/sda1
# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb

* Copy kamikaze's root files to your USB drive.

Code:

# cd build_mipsel/linux-2.4-adm5120/root/
# cp -R -f * /mnt/usb/

* Enabling USB root booting by hacking some configs.

1

etc/midge.conf

MIDGE_TYPE=usb

2

mount_root-usb.patch

sbin/mount_root

Code:

# # patch mount_root < /path/to/mount_root-usb.patch

* Unmount your USB disk.

Code:

# umount /mnt/usb

Creating the router firmware
From this point you can choose to either upload vmlinuz to your SDRAM with TFTP/XModem, or to flash it into your router.
If you don't want to flash the kernel into your router, you can skip the following steps and enjoy your USB-root-enabled router!

*

Code:

# wget http://modpro.be/adm5120/mksyshdr.c
# gcc mksyshdr.c -o mksyshdr && chmod 755 mksyshdr

* Turning your vmlinuz into a "flashable" firmware.

Code:

# ./mksyshdr csys vmlinuz
# cat csys vmlinuz > firmware.img

* You can now upload/flash firmware.img to your router.

Testing your new kernel & USB filesystem
Now it's time to see if all the above worked. Just boot up your router, load or flash in vmlinuz or the firmware you created above, and see.
This is what I get with my USB->IDE2.5 converter and 2.5" IBM harddrive:

Code:

...
LED & GPIO Driver v1.1
VFS: Cannot open root device "scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1" or 00:00
VFS: Retrying.
VFS: Mounted root (rootfs filesystem).
do_mounts.c: retrying in 1s.
hub.c: new USB device adm5120-hcd-2, assigned address 2
Manufacturer: Myson Century, Inc.
Product: USB Mass Storage Device
SerialNumber: 100
scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Vendor: IBM-DTNA Model: -22160 Rev: A50G
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Attached scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
SCSI device sda: 4233600 512-byte hdwr sectors (2168 MB)
Partition check:
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0:<7>usb-storage: queuecommand() called
p1 p2
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on sd(8,1), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
VFS: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem).
Mounted devfs on /dev
...

Thanks goes out to all the guys that made this hack possible.

Hope it does the trick for you, cause it sure did for me Very Happy

/me alt+tabs back to his adm5120 ircII client
_________________
Developer of the first and best multiplayer modification for Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City and San Andreas: Multi Theft Auto.

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 8:06 am Post subject:

It does not work. First in line 45 files usb-shci.c to be *include <asm/am5120/adm5120.h>, instead of *include <asm/adm5120/adm5120.h>. Secondly the same file is not compiled with a message:

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 10:39 am Post subject:

Yeah I remember that. I'll put up my hacked files, hang on.

http://modpro.be/adm5120/usb-shci.c
http://modpro.be/adm5120/usb-shci.h

Tutorial changed.
_________________
Developer of the first and best multiplayer modification for Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City and San Andreas: Multi Theft Auto.

Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:58 pm Post subject:

Just a quick question....

Will I need the new bootloader on my edimax to make this work or does it work with the standard one? As per this site the kamikaze does not work with the normal bootloader, but the problem seems to be the mounting of the root fs, and that comes from USB ?

If you havn't tried with the current bootloader then I will post my success (or failure Smile

)

Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 6:40 pm Post subject:

place http://midge.vlad.org.ua/tmp/004-kernel-entry.patch to the
target/linux/adm5120-2.4/patches/ and recompile whole kernel

this patch resolve bootloader problem
Big thanks to MrWebLover!

Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2006 11:08 am Post subject:

Okay it works Razz

thanx to the patch. I am now running MIDGE from USB
(I used to be running a USB kernel that booted a woody debian.

Now I will configure my needs....

THANX for the howto and the patch

Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2006 1:28 pm Post subject:

mipsel debian on USB flash?

IJs: good work!

Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2006 12:46 pm Post subject:

No problem. It's pretty cool as you got a lot more (permanent and mobile) storage. Pretty much boosts the functionality of your embedded device.

By the way.. you can also chroot into some debian/gentoo/whatever distro on your USB device. Too bad mine only has 16MB of memory though.
_________________
Developer of the first and best multiplayer modification for Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City and San Andreas: Multi Theft Auto.

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 8:24 am Post subject:

Could the working firmware for the router and USB stick be made available? (for the original boot loader) There are learners/users who would appreciate that. I could host the code if needed.
http://www.sunspot.co.uk/Projects/Sweex.htm

Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 3:39 pm Post subject:

When I follow the manual ans execute "make V=99" the first time, I get an error.

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 4:51 pm Post subject:

Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 12:38 am Post subject:

I am also looking for a "sane" toolchain/kernel/userland source for the BR6104KP router that will allow me to seriously play with it (2 serial ports, usb mass storage).

I downloaded the kamikaze-200602050443.tar.bz2 and tried to "make" it without success.
toolchain/install seems to be done,
target/compile also,
but
package/compile fails in a strange way

Working on a Redhat 9, first I did "gmake menuconfig", was ok, than "gmake":
This begins with
/mnt/big/jk/embedded/midge/kamikaze/kamikaze-200602050443/trunk/openwrt/build_mipsel/iproute2-2.6.11-050330/Makefile
# For now disable compiling of the misc directory because it seems to fail
rm -rf /mnt/big/jk/embedded/midge/kamikaze/kamikaze-200602050443/trunk/openwrt/build_mipsel/iproute2-2.6.11-050330/misc

than a few lines later

touch: creating `/mnt/big/jk/embedded/midge/kamikaze/kamikaze-200602050443/trunk/openwrt/build_mipsel/stamp/.iproute2-prepare': No such file or directory

and indeed there is no stamp dir in build_mipsel
and finally

gmake[3]: Entering directory `/mnt/nbig/jk/embedded/midge/kamikaze/kamikaze-200602050443/trunk/openwrt/package/iptables'
Makefile:33: /mnt/big/jk/embedded/midge/kamikaze/kamikaze-200602050443/trunk/openwrt/build_mipsel/linux/.config: No such file or directory
gmake[3]: *** No rule to make target `/mnt/big/jk/embedded/midge/kamikaze/kamikaze-200602050443/trunk/openwrt/build_mipsel/linux/.config'. Stop.

and again, there is no linux dir (nor linux-2.4.32) in build_mipsel (there is one in toolchain_build_mipsel)

Any help will be very much appreciated

Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 7:17 am Post subject:

please run:

Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 7:58 am Post subject:

Forgot to tell you, this is exactly what I did (gmake distclean) before
gmake menuconfig
and
gmake V=99
(gmake is make on redhat9)

Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 8:08 am Post subject:

please try delete your whole directory and unpack archive again

(or if you have skills on linux rm -rf build_mipsel)