FreeBSD 8.0 Plug Computer Distribution
Contents |
FreeBSD on the Marvell Sheeva Plug Computer
As of FreeBSD 8.0 the ARM platform is officially a Tier 2 architecture. The FreeBSD project does not provide official releases or pre-built packages for this platform. For details check :[1]
The directions below are for developers who are interested in FreeBSD to boot and install FreeBSD 8.0 onto a USB key or use a DHCP/TFTP/NFS configuration initially and then install FreeBSD.
FreeBSD 8.0 Release State
FreeBSD is offering Marvell SoC support. FreeBSD 8 supports the following devices:
* serial console * gigabit ethernet * USB port
The following device are not supported:
* NAND flash * SD card reader
Booting FreeBSD from USB Storage
MS-DOS FAT file system is a convenient common file system between U-Boot and FreeBSD. One can set up a small (10-20MB) slice on the boot device for the kernel. U-Boot can load the kernel from this slice and also it will be writable (for updates) within FreeBSD.
Known problems and workarounds
Data corruption on UFS filesystems
This is a known problem for details read: [2] As a workaround all UFS volumes should be mounted with the "-o noclusterr -o noclusterw" options. Example:
mount -o rw -o noclusterr -o noclusterw /dev/da0s1a /mnt
These options can be applied to the /etc/fstab entry as:
# Device Mountpoint FStype Options Dump Pass# /dev/da0s2a / ufs rw,noclusterr,noclusterw 0 0
FreeBSD root filesystem on USB Key
FreeBSD 8.0 Release has a bug where USB devices are not detected early enough to mount them as root device. Candidate patches are available (See:[3]) but they are needed to be modified for 8.0 Release.
Tweaked patches are available from this site:
* cam_hook.diff: Patch 1/2:File:Cam hook.diff.gz * usb_hook.diff: Patch 2/2:File:Usb hook.diff.gz
Applying USB patches
Extract patches with GUnzip: <pre>
armbuild# gunzip Cam_hook.diff.gz armbuild# gunzip Usb_hook.diff.gz
</pre>
Change directory where you store your surce files: <pre>
armbuild# cd /usr/src
</pre>
Apply both patches: <pre>
armbuild# patch < /path/to/cam_hook.diff Hmm... Looks like a unified diff to me... The text leading up to this was: -------------------------- |--- sys/sys/kernel.h 2009/07/23 20:50:15 |+++ sys/sys/kernel.h 2009/10/01 18:45:12 -------------------------- Patching file sys/sys/kernel.h using Plan A... Hunk #1 succeeded at 155 (offset 1 line). Hmm... The next patch looks like a unified diff to me... The text leading up to this was: -------------------------- |--- sys/cam/cam_xpt.c 2009/09/15 00:20:41 |+++ sys/cam/cam_xpt.c 2009/10/02 05:00:03 -------------------------- Patching file sys/cam/cam_xpt.c using Plan A... Hunk #1 succeeded at 107. Hunk #2 succeeded at 908. Hunk #3 succeeded at 4630 (offset 2 lines). Hunk #4 succeeded at 4685 (offset 2 lines). Hunk #5 succeeded at 4742 (offset 2 lines). done
</pre>
<pre>
armbuild# patch < /path/to/usb_hook.diff Hmm... Looks like a unified diff to me... The text leading up to this was: -------------------------- |--- sys/dev/usb/controller/usb_controller.c 2009/09/28 07:05:14 |+++ sys/dev/usb/controller/usb_controller.c 2009/10/02 21:07:21 -------------------------- Patching file sys/dev/usb/controller/usb_controller.c using Plan A... Hunk #1 succeeded at 67. Hunk #2 succeeded at 80. Hunk #3 succeeded at 138. Hunk #4 succeeded at 169. Hunk #5 succeeded at 245. Hunk #6 succeeded at 454. Hmm... The next patch looks like a unified diff to me... The text leading up to this was: -------------------------- |--- sys/dev/usb/usb_bus.h 2009/09/28 07:45:13 |+++ sys/dev/usb/usb_bus.h 2009/10/02 21:07:21 -------------------------- Patching file sys/dev/usb/usb_bus.h using Plan A... Hunk #1 succeeded at 51. done armbuild#
</pre>
Now you are ready to build your SHEEVAPLUG kernel! :)
SheevaPlug always starts in "single user mode"
When the FreeBSD kernel is loaded as "kernel.bin" and executed with the U-Boot "go" command the kernel defaults to single user mode. To change this behavior apply the following patch:
disable_forcedsingle.diff: File:Disable forcedsingle.diff.gz
Applying the patch:
armbuild# gunzip disable_forcedsingle.diff.gz armbuild# cd /usr/src armbuild# patch < /path/to/patch/diable_forcedsingle.diff
BIND crashes with SIG11
Patch for this issue is at the following mails in archive: [4] and [5]
Summary
It is possible to setup a working and usable FreeBSD system on the SheevaPlug computer.
Return to Main Page#Comparing the Operating System Distributions Available for the Plug Computer
