Re: [Ltib] how does one generate a combined initramfs.cpio.gz image with an uImage under ltib

[Stuart Hughes]

Hi James,

You could do it that way, but it breaks the model of each package being 
a single entity.  Commonly the kernel source is removed after it builds, 
so it's quite ugly to do it this way.

It would be better IMHO to try to process this after everything is build 
in a similar way to other deployments (like RAMDISK etc).  So the 
section that currently creates the initramfs would need to be extended 
to also "glue" the kernel and dtb together.  It would be nice to have an 
elegant solution to this.

Regards, Stuart

Newell, James C. wrote:
> Hi Stuart,
>
> Thanks for the response.  How about a .spec file that modifies the
> kernel .config to point to the ltib generated initramfs cpio file and
> reruns the kernel build to produce the monolithic uImage?  Does that
> break the dependency chain in ltib?
>
> Jim
>
> > -----Original Message----- From: Stuart Hughes
> > [mailto:address@hidden Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 9:15 AM To:
> > Newell, James C. Cc: address@hidden Subject: Re: [Ltib] how does
> > one generate a combined initramfs.cpio.gz image with an uImage
> > under ltib
> >
> > Hi Jim,
> >
> > I understand the problem.  Unfortunately I've not had time to look
> > into this though.
> >
> > The problem is that in a "typical situation" the kernel wants it 
> > filesystem blown out and available to turn info a cpio image and
> > then linked in.  However in a situation where you want the rootfs
> > to be the initrams, this is not possible as you have not yet built
> > it.
> >
> > I believe LTIB correctly builds the initramfs cpio image.  The
> > remaining problem is to get the kernel to recognise this when it
> > boots.  I had hoped you could load and pass this to the bootloader
> > (u-boot) and have it picked up in the same way that ext2.gz
> > ramdisks are, but this doesn't seem to work.  Alternatively maybe
> > it's possible to take the raw kernel pieces and "link" the together
> > to build the composite monolithic image.
> >
> > Anyhow I've not much experience with this, so these are just ideas.
> > It would be great to hear from anyone who has good a better idea of
> > how to do this.
> >
> > Regards, Stuart
> >
> > Newell, James C. wrote:
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > Any suggestions/hints on how to handle generating a combined 
> > > initramfs.cpio image with a kernel uImage under ltib.  The kernel
> > >  build system links the initramfs.cpio file but ltib executes the
> > >  kernel spec first then builds the initramfs file.  It's a
> > > classic chicken/egg problem.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > >
> > > Jim