Palm Pre:NFS-Root
This page describes shortly how to run an own uImage with custom rootfs without any changes on your Palm Pre's flash. If you are interested in installing a custom linux to Pre's flash follow the instructions on this page.
Contents |
1. Build an Image
We assume that you have already build or downloaded a rootfs and uImage. You can build an Image following the instructions on Palm_Pre:_Install_FSO#1._Build_the_FSO_image
2. Boot from NFS without Changing anything on your Pre
2.1. preparations
Our preparations are based on three steps:
- install NFS and novaterm on your host
- extract and export the rootfs
- set up networking on the host system
2.1.1. NFS and novaterm
You can get novaterm from [1]. To install NFS on Debian-like systems it only takes the following command as root
apt-get install nfs-kernel-server
now extract the image you have build to some folder e.g. to /foo/bar
cd /foo/bar
tar xfz yourImage.tar.gz .
This is your root-directory into which the Pre will boot and we need to tell our NFS-server to export this directory.
With your favorite text editor edit /etc/exports
and add the line
/foo/bar 192.168.0.0/24(rw,fsid=0,insecure,no_subtree_check,async,no_root_squash)
btw this assumes that you will use 192.168.0.0 network range with the server-ip 192.168.0.200 and 192.168.0.202 as your Pre-ip
Now you need to restart the NFS service to apply the changes.
2.1.2 set up networking
On your host (if it is using hotplug) put the following lines to /etc/network/interfaces'
allow-hotplug usb0
iface usb0 inet static
address 192.168.0.200
netmask 255.255.255.0
2.2. boot from NFS
a) connect the Pre via USB to your local machine. Go into recover mode
either by powering on the Pre and holding the volume-up key or via novaterm
tellbootie recover
b) change bootargs
Now you are in the recover mode and should see a large USB logo on Pre's screen. Via novaterm you can now talk to bootie the Pre bootloader
novaterm
press enter and you see booties prompt ] here type
setenv bootargs "root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=192.168.0.200:/foo/bar,v3 ip=192.168.0.202:192.168.0.200:192.168.0.200:255.255.255.0::usb0:"
These bootargs tell the Kernel to boot from nfs and set the ip address of your pre's usb0 interface.
c) boot your Kernel
tell bootie to boot your kernel
novaterm boot mem:// < uImage.bin
This should boot into your image with your kernel.
Have fun testing and developing.
