You build the Miniloader
seperately from the Kernel. As the Miniloader requires parts of the kernel
to function (for example interrupt handling) you must first
configure and build the
kernel that matches with Miniloader that you want to build. Mostly this
means building the kernel with the same version number.
So, miniboot-1.3.31.tgz will build against linux-1.3.31.tar.gz.
The Miniloader *may* build against a higher version of the kernel, but there
again it may not.
In the remainder of this discussion,
I assume that your kernel sources and object files are stored in the
subtree at /usr/src/linux.
Before you try to build the Miniloader, you should note that you can
build the Miniloader in two basic ways, the
first is with vmlinux embedded in it and the second is with Linux
device drivers in it. I suggest that you read the section on loading
the Miniloader before you answer this question, but embedding
vmlinux into the Miniloader makes the image too large for most
flash/roms.
To build the Miniloader,
change your working directory to the milo source directory and
invoke make with:
make KSRC=/usr/src/linux config
Just like the Linux kernel, you will be asked a series of questions
Make a WNT ARC loadable image (MINI_ARC) [n]
Take the default and answer "n" as this option is not yet fully working and released (it will be). The next question is:
Include BIOS emulation code (MINI_BIOSEMU) [y]
You should answer yes if you have a video card that is of any type other than simple ISA VGA. See the list at the end of this howto to see if your video card is known to be supported. The next question asks you if you want to see Miniloader output (and input) echoed to the serial port of your system:
Echo output to the serial port' MINI_SERIAL_ECHO [y]
It's a good idea to echo kernel printk to /dev/ttyS0 if you can.
If you can (and want to), then type "y", otherwise "n".
You are now free to build the Miniloader. So go ahead and type:
make KSRC=/usr/src/linux.noname
All being well, all of the images that this target requires will be built. The following files are of interest:
The main item on the menu.
This is a utility that can be loaded by the Miniloader. It can update the flash with a Miniloader image so that you don't have to boot from floppy or the network. This contains a copy of the Miniloader.
Used in building an SRM boot block floppy for Noname
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