TS-4800 Kernel Compile Guide

WARNING:

Backup any important data on the board before continuing.

For adding new support to the kernel, or recompiling with more specific options you will need to have an X86 compatible linux host available that can handle the cross compiling. Compiling the kernel on the board is not supported or recommended. Before building the kernel you will need to install a few support libraries on your workstation:

Prerequisites

RHEL/Fedora/CentOS:

yum install ncurses-devel ncurses
yum groupinstall "Development Tools" "Development Libraries"

Ubuntu/Debian:

apt-get install build-essential libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev

For other distributions, please refer to their documentation to find equivalent tools.

Set up the Sources and Toolchain

# Download the cross compile toolchain (EABI) from Technologic Systems:
wget ftp://ftp.embeddedTS.com/ts-socket-macrocontrollers/ts-4800-linux/cross-toolchains/arm-2008q3-2.tar.gz

# Create target directory and extract:
sudo mkdir /opt
sudo mkdir /opt/4800
sudo tar -xvzf arm-2008q3-2.tar.gz -C /opt/4800/

# Download the kernel sources
wget ftp://ftp.embeddedTS.com/ts-socket-macrocontrollers/ts-4800-linux/sources/linux-2.6.35-ts-latest.tar.gz

#Extract the Kernel Sources
tar -xvf linux-2.6.35-ts-latest.tar.gz

cd linux-2.6.35-ts/

The kernel sources need a few variables to be exported.

# Set the CROSS_COMPILE variable to the absolute path to the toolchain.  This will be different for your system:
export CROSS_COMPILE=/opt/4800/arm-2008q3/bin/arm-none-linux-gnueabi-

# Normally, ARCH will be set based on your build hosts architecture.
export ARCH=arm

This sets up the default configuration that we ship with for the TS-4800

make ts4800_defconfig

make menuconfig

This will bring up a graphical menu where you can edit the configuration to include support for new devices. For Example, to include support for a Prolific USB to serial adapter you would go to 'Device Drivers -> USB Support-> USB Serial Support' and then select 'USB Prolific 2303 Single Port Serial Driver'. Since the kernel only has a limited space, build drivers as modules whenever possible.

make menuconfig

Build the kernel Once you have it configured, start building. This usually takes a few minutes.

make && make modules

The new kernel will be at "arch/arm/boot" in a compressed format called zImage. The uncompressed version is simply called Image. It is required that the kernel fit in your partition #2 on the SD card (or 1 on the XNAND). If you need to shorten the size, try including your changes to the kernel as modules instead. Otherwise you will need to resize the kernel partition to account for the size difference.

Install the kernel Now that you have a kernel you can install it as you would our stock. See the #Backup / Restore section for examples on writing this to disk.

To install the modules:

mkdir newmodules
INSTALL_MOD_PATH=newmodules make modules_install

# Replace /dev/sdb with your sd card
mkdir /mnt/miniSD{3,4}
mount /dev/sdb4 /mnt/miniSD4/
mount /dev/sdb3 /mnt/miniSD3/

# Remove old modules in initrd
rm /mnt/miniSD3/mx_sdhci.ko
rm /mnt/miniSD3/mxc_ipuv3_fb.ko

# Update initrd drivers
cp ./drivers/mmc/host/mx_sdhci.ko /mnt/miniSD3/
cp ./drivers/video/mxc/mxc_ipuv3_fb.ko /mnt/miniSD3/

# Remove existing modules on SD
rm -r /mnt/miniSD4/lib/modules/*
cp -r newmodules/* /mnt/miniSD4/

umount /mnt/miniSD3
umount /mnt/miniSD4
sync && sync

After you install the new modules, you will need to boot the kernel and run "depmod -a" to rebuild the dependency map. You can them use modprobe to load the individual modules. You can also copy individual modules to your existing kernel assuming the kernel is the exact same version as the installed one and you use the same toolchain.