yamon and mipsboot

[4@@@@]

Does anybody have experience with mipsboot?

I found this:
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MIPSboot is my rather hacked bootloader that goes with the MIPS/TimeSys
Linux distro, and does not as yet sit in the MBR...one day perhaps.

Anyway, it sits at the beginning of the first partition on disk (which
should not be formatted with a filesystem and can be very small), and
then loaded with a YAMON command line like:

YAMON> disk read hda 3f ff 800d0000; go 800d0000

MIPSboot version 0.3
Loading /boot/mb.conf . ok
Choose a kernel image to boot:
(0) aprp-2.6.19-glibc root=/dev/hda3
(1) smtc-2.6.19-glibc root=/dev/hda3
...

You can put that command line in the "start" environment variable to
autostart it.

I've dropped source and binary tarballs together with an example conf
file on our ftp site:

ftp://ftp.mips.com/pub/tools/software/timesys/extras/mipsboot/
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So disk is available in our yamon. We can use one unformated partition in usb stick (the first one) or internal HDD and the second with the E2 and the /boot with different kernel.

If we can build a working mipsboot, the multiboot is reality, I think.

What do you think?

[4@@@@]

This command will load the kernel:
yamon> disk read hdb 0x3F 0x9506B9 0x090020000; go

The first partition of a device (not formated and the vmlinux put with dd in it.
/dev/sda1 63 385559 192748+ 83 Linux
starts at 63 which is 3f in hex
the size of the kernel is 0x9506B9.

The problem is that our yamon only supports hda or hdb not sda. (we should rebuild yamon with usb devices support to use this).

I also have to repartitioning my internel HDD and this will take some time.

Maybe someone has a empty HDD to test this.

[The_Ripper]

@4@@@@
Problem is that Sigma didnt patched YAMON for USB support nor YAMON has that support for others.
For what I read/find even on new Sigma chips YAMON still doesnt have USB support :S

[4@@@@]

Well I will try it with local disks - maybe I find a way with DOM, like it is done with ufs910 an ubootmini. Put the kernel at a defined play at a partition with a lot of space and boot from there. If the space is little, I will check to build mipsboot for the AZBox.
The will be a way I think ;)