[ARMedslack] Using a bootdisk to install armedslack on TrimSlice

[Frank Donkers]

Hi all,

I wanted to install armedslack 14.0 on my new TrimSlice, but didn't feel 
like setting up any (boot) servers. According to the wiki, the stock 
firmware looks for a boot.scr script file on an attached SD card, 
micro-SD or USB device, so I decided to use that method. Here are my steps:

1. You need the mkimage command from the u-boot toolkit. Install the 
u-boot-tools package from AlienBOB's repository.

2. Create a new text file called boot.cmd with the following content:
---------------------------------------------------------------
# Slackware u-boot installation script. Create image with:
# mkimage -A arm -O linux -T script -C none -d boot.cmd boot.scr
setenv kerneladdr 0x00800000
setenv initrdaddr 0x01100000
setenv kernelfile /boot/uImage-tegra
setenv initrdfile /boot/uinitrd-tegra.img
#
setenv loadinitrd ${fs}load ${interface} ${device} ${initrdaddr} 
${initrdfile}
setenv loadkernel ${fs}load ${interface} ${device} ${kerneladdr} 
${kernelfile}
setenv bootargs console=ttyS0,115200 nodhcp kbd=uk root=/dev/ram rw
setenv bootcmd bootm ${kerneladdr} ${initrdaddr}
#
run loadinitrd
run loadkernel
bootd
---------------------------------------------------------------

3. Create the script file as follows:
mkimage -A arm -O linux -T script -C none -d boot.cmd boot.scr

4. Take an SD card or USB pendrive with an ext2/ext3/fat filesystem and 
enough room for the kernel and root fs. Create a new /boot directory on 
it. Copy the new boot.scr file to /boot.

5. From the ARM tree, copy isolinux/uinitrd-tegra.img and 
kernels/tegra/uImage-tegra to /boot.

6. Now insert the card/pendrive and start the TrimSlice. The default 
firmware will find the boot.scr file and execute it. This will load the 
slackware installer. I have my ARM tree on an external USB disk, so I 
installed from a pre-mounted directory.

7. Finish with the regular INSTALL_TEGRA.TXT instructions to setup u-boot.

That's it. If your install device is large enough, you could put the ARM 
tree on that. My external HD has xfs, so I couldn't combine those steps. 
I tried to mount the SD card from the installer, but I couldn't get that 
to work. Maybe I did something wrong...

NOTE: during the process, I upgraded the firmware to the latest 2012 
version. Big mistake; that version only works with the 3.5 kernel, so I 
couldn't boot. The 2010 firmware version works fine.

Anyway, thought I would share this. Let me know what you think.

regards,
Frank Donkers.