Timesys Getting Started Guide for Vantron VT-SBC-BT35

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Contents

Introduction

This document will describe in detail the procedures for booting a Linux kernel image and mounting a root file system from a hard disk on the Vantron VT-SBC-BT35.

This guide was tested with the Vantron VT-SBC-BT35 using the GRUB bootloader.

Please see the Additional Information section for instructions on using other bootloaders.

The following configurations are supported:

  • BIOS with Grub Bootloader (Non-UEFI)
  • BIOS with Grub2 Bootloader (Non-UEFI)
  • BIOS with SYSLINUX Bootloader

Prerequisites

Host Requirements

To properly boot a board using software from Timesys, your host machine must meet the following requirements:

  • Modern GNU/Linux Distribution. While you can use nearly any modern Linux distribution released in the last 24 months, Timesys recommends one of the following:
    • Ubuntu (Most recent release or LTS)
    • Fedora (Most recent release)
  • An internet connection on the Development Host.
  • Root or sudo permission on the Development Host.
  • A copy of the Linux Kernel (bzImage-6.6-ts-x86_64 ) and Root File System (rootfs.tar.gz) for the Target Board downloaded from Factory. These are found in the output directory of your online build, or in the directory build_x86_64-timesys-linux-<libc>/images/ on the command line.

Target Requirements

To boot the Vantron VT-SBC-BT35, you will need the following items:

  • Vantron VT-SBC-BT35 Board
  • Serial NULL Modem Cable

Once you have all of the necessary components, you should perform the following steps:

  1. Connect the UART port of the board (J9 on the VT-SBC-BT35) to the serial port of your workstation using the NULL modem cable.
  2. Connect the power supply to your board.

Preparing the Target

Installing Boot Images to your Hard Disk

You must install the root file system, kernel image, and GRUB image to the hard disk.

If you are using a non-EFI BIOS, you should use the following guide:

/docs/wiki/engineering/howto_install_grub_built_by_the_factory

For EFI-enabled BIOS, use the following guide:

/docs/engineering/wiki/HOWTO_Install_GRUB2_with_EFI_support

NOTE: The default Timesys builds provide a non-EFI GRUB image by default. You must use the Desktop Factory to produce the EFI-enabled image.

Preparing the Host

No additional host setup is required to boot from hard disk.

Booting the Board

If you followed the instructions in /docs/wiki/engineering/howto_install_grub_built_by_the_factory, your board should boot to a Linux kernel automatically. However, you may wish to modify your boot process, or enable a serial console in the kernel. These instructions detail how to manually boot a kernel from GRUB.

For more information on Grub, see http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/.

Set your Root Partition

Grub commands affect the active partition. In order to load your kernel, you must set your hard drive RFS partition as active.

Non-EFI Grub:

grub>set root=(hd0,1)

EFI Grub:

grub>set root=(hd0,2)

Load The Kernel

You can use kernel command load the kernel that is on the hard disk.

Example

Non-EFI Grub:

grub> linux /boot/bzImage-6.6-ts-x86_64 root=/dev/sdb1 rootwait net.ifnames=0

EFI Grub:

grub> linux /boot/bzImage-6.6-ts-x86_64 root=/dev/sdb2 rootwait net.ifnames=0

Boot The Kernel

Use the boot command to boot the loaded kernel image.

grub> boot

Additional Information

Factory Documentation

Bootloaders

There are a number of supported bootloaders on this platform. Use the following guides to use them: