Recompile Kernel for SheevaPlug

Howto recompile a custom kernel for our SheevaPlug:

In this example we suppose that our pc has ip 192.168.1.220, and the network has dhcp.
First of all install packages needed:

apt-get install git-core build-essential

Then download the latest kernel from Marvell:

cd /usr/src
git clone git://git.marvell.com/orion.git

Then set default config for SheevaPlug:

cd orion
make ARCH=arm kirkwood_defconfig

And then run menuconfig for set our personalized features:

make ARCH=arm menuconfig

When done, save the config and compile it:

make -j4 ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=../arm-2009q3/bin/arm-none-eabi- uImage

make -j4 ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=../arm-2009q3/bin/arm-none-eabi- modules

make -j4 ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=../arm-2009q3/bin/arm-none-eabi- INSTALL_MOD_PATH=.. modules_install

The last command copy our modules in ../lib, we make a tar of them and copy into sheevaplug:

cd ..
tar cvf lib_snapshot.tar lib

The new kernel is built in orion/arch/arm/boot/, we copy it in our tftp directory

cp orion/arch/arm/boot/uImage /var/lib/tftpboot

log in as root in sheevaplug, and copy the tar of modules:

scp 192.168.1.220:/usr/src/sheeva/compile/lib_snapshot.tar .
tar xvf lib_snapshot.tar
mv lib/modules/2.6.KERNEL_VERSION /lib/modules

now we need to connect the sheeva’s console cable to our pc and connect with a terminal emulator like minicom (for information on how to do this look at plugcomputer.org), stop the boot process and go to bootloader prompt. On our machine we need to setup a tftp server (information at http://plugcomputer.org), in this example 192.168.1.220 is the tftpserver ip.

Write this on bootloader prompt:

bootp
setenv serverip 192.168.1.220
tftpboot 0x2000000 uImage
setenv bootargs $(bootargs_console) $(mtdpartitions) $(bootargs_root)
bootm 0x2000000

Now our sheevaplug is booting with new kernel….
If it start 😉 run uname -a and look the kernel version!
Enjoy 😉

Test your sheevaplug with your new kernel, it is running well we can write the new kernel in flash, copy the uImage in any directory of sheevplug and flash it!

scp 192.168.1.220:/var/lib/tftpboot/uImage /tmp
flash_eraseall /dev/mtd0
nandwrite -p /dev/mtd0 /tmp/uImage

reboot and sheevaplug automatically start with new kernel 😉