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What’s X-Linux

Some of our customers need embedded Linux to start their development. There are too much resource about Linux and needs a lot of time to make embedded Linux. We have some projects/products using embedded Linux and our Linux programmers put it on web site. It can save money and development time for our customers about Linux application. X-Linux is maintained and improved since 2002. Bugs are fixed and customers use it as their Linux application without trouble. X-Linux does not provide full documents and friendly tools to install, but it is enough and good for most embedded Linux application.

X-Linux feature list:

l Can run on M6117D (386) and Vortex86 series with 4M bytes memory.

l Only needs 6M bytes storage space.

l Only need 10 (or less) seconds to boot on Vortex86 series from power on.

l Only need 20 (or less) seconds to boot on M6117D series from power on.

l Support MSTI Embeddisk.

l Support EXT2 filesystem.

l Working with read-only filesystem (using tmpfs to reduce writing Flash storage).

l Support serial console for device without VGA.

l Support Ethernet on M6117D and Vortex86 series.

l Include FTP, TELNET and WWW server.

l Support DHCP.

l Support PPP dial-up and access PPP dial in.

l Support NFS.

l Support Vortex86 audio.

l Support USB mass storage and keyboard/mouse.

l Support CD-ROM.

If you have trouble about using X-Linux on ICOP board, please mail to soc@dmp.com.tw. We will try to help you.

Update History

Release 5.4 (2006-01-09)

l Update BusyBox to 1.01.

l Use vsftpd 2.0.3 as FTP server.

l Add NFS V2 and V3.

l Update EXT2 filesystem tools 1.38.

l Use SysLinux boot loader.

l Add domain name resolving.

l Provide three versions for M6117D, Vortex86 and Vega86 series.

l glibc updated to 2.3.3.

Release 5.3 (2005-06-21)

l Linux kernel updated to 2.4.31.

l Use LILO 22.2 as boot loader.

l BusyBox updated.

l glibc updated to 2.3.2.

l Support USB mass storage and keyboard.

l Support Vortex86 audio.

l Support CD-ROM.

l Use tmpfs to replace RAM disk for /var and /tmp.

l Update web server to WN server 2.4.6.

Release 5.2 (2005-01-05)

l Linux kernel updated to 2.4.28.

l SysLinux updated.

l BusyBox updated.

l glibc updated to 2.3.2.

l Support USB mass storage and keyboard.

l Support Vortex86 audio.

Release 4 (2003-05-28)

l Linux kernel updated to 2.4.20.

l SysLinux updated.

l udhcp updated.

l BusyBox updated.

l PPP server function added.

l Login shell added.

l Set root filesystem to read only.

l Link /var and /tmp to RAM disk to reduce writing of disk.

l Serial console added. (Version 4.1 only)

Release 3 (2002-12-31)

l Loadable module support enabled.

l inetd added to take some of the effort out of running services such as telnet and ftp.

l TELNET service daemon added.

l WU-FTPD service daemon added.

Environment Overview

Software	Version	Path
Linux Kernel	2.4.31	/boot/linux
Boot Loader	SysLinux 2.13	/boot
Shell	BusyBox 1.01	/bin/busybox
FTP Server	vsftpd 2.0.3	/usr/sbin/ftpd
TELNET Server	BusyBox 1.01	/usr/sbin/telnetd
HTTP Server	WN Server 2.4.6	/usr/httpd
Share Library	glibc 2.3.3	/lib
DHCP Client	BusyBox 1.01	/sbin/udhcpd
PPP Daemon	pppd 2.4.1	/sbin
NFS	NFS-Utils 1.0.6	/sbin
Web Pages		/usr/www
Size Requirement		< 6 MB

Install X-Linux

We strongly recommend using Norton GHOST to restore X-Linux. If programmers have Linux knowledge, they can try to use tar.gz to restore. Or, it will need a lot of time for junior engineers on restoring X-Linux. We release X-Linux to help developers to start their development quickly. If developers waste too much time on restoring X-Linux, please order DOM or Embeddisk (http://www.icop.com.tw/products_detail.asp?ProductID=185) from ICOP with X-Linux installed. It can save a lot of time.

We provide two solutions (GHOST image and tar.gz file) for programmer to restore X-Linux.

Using Norton GHOST

If programmer has Notron GHOST, download GHOST file and restore X-Linux as “Disk From Image”. Use GHOST to restore X-Linux is recommended.

If programmer can not use GHOST to restore X-Linux, try to use tar.gz file:

Using tar.gz with SysLinux Boot Loader

1. Assume you have a Linux system (Linux host system can be any distribution, ex: Redhat, SUSE, Debian, etc.) and DOM is /dev/hdb in your system.

2. Use fdisk to make a primary FAT12/16 partition (/dev/hdb1) and a secondary Linux partition (/dev/hdb2).

3. Toggle the bootable flag to the primary partition.

4. Format the primary partition and Linux partition as EXT2 filesystem.

# mkdosfs /dev/hdb1

# mke2fs /dev/hdb2

5. You will have those two partitions:

/dev/hdb1 * 1 62 984 6 FAT16

/dev/hdb2 63 1000 15008 83 Linux

6. Mount /dev/hdb2 to /mnt. (Ex: “mount -t ext2 /dev/hdb2 /mnt/”).

7. Run “tar -xzvf ~/xlr54-rootfs.tar.gz -C /mnt/” to restore X-Linux root filesystem.

8. Mount /dev/hdb1 to /mnt/boot. (Ex: “mount -t msdos /dev/hdb1 /mnt/boot”)

9. Run “syslinux /dev/hdb1" to install SysLinux.

10. Copy /etc/syslinux.cfg to /mnt/boot. (ex: “cp /etc/syslinux.cfg /mnt/boot”)

11. If your board is M6117D series, run “tar -xzvf ~/xlr54-kernel-2.4.31-m6117d.tar.gz -C /mnt”.

12. If your board is Vortex86 series, run “tar -xzvf ~/xlr54-kernel-2.4.31-vortex86.tar.gz -C /mnt”.

13. If your board is Vega86 series, run “tar -xzvf ~/xlr54-kernel-2.4.31-vega86.tar.gz -C /mnt”.

14. Umount /dev/hdb1 and /dev/hdb2.

15. Plug DOM to ICOP/DMP boards and set it as IDE master to boot.

Using tar.gz with LILO Boot Loader

1. Assume you have a Linux system and DOM is /dev/hdb in your system.

2. Use fdisk to make a primary Linux partition, as /dev/hdb1.

3. Format the partition as EXT2 file system.

4. Mount /dev/hdb1 to /mnt.

5. Run “tar -xzvf ~/xlr54-rootfs.tar.gz -C /mnt/” to restore X-Linux root filesystem.

6. If your board is M6117D series, run “tar -xzvf ~/xlr54-kernel-2.4.31-m6117d.tar.gz -C /mnt”.

7. If your board is Vortex86 series, run “tar -xzvf ~/ xlr54-kernel-2.4.31-vortex86.tar.gz -C /mnt”.

8. If your board is Vega86 series, run “tar -xzvf ~/ xlr54-kernel-2.4.31-vega86.tar.gz -C /mnt”.

9. Because the path of Linux kernel image is /vmlinuz in /etc/lilo.conf, we have to make a soft link for /vmlinuz. Run “ln –sf /boot/linux /mnt/vmlinuz” to generate a soft link.

10. Run “ROOT=/mnt /mnt/sbin/lilo.real –C /etc/lilo.hdb.conf” to install LILO.

11. Umount /dev/hdb1.

12. Plug DOM to ICOP/DMP boards and set it as IDE master to boot.

Setup Files

File Name	Description
/boot/linux	Linux kernel.
/etc/exports	The file describing exported filesystems for NFS services.
/etc/fstab	Lists the filesystems mounted automatically at startup by the mount -a command in startup file.
/etc/group	Similar to /etc/passwd but for groups rather than users.
/etc/hosts	List hosts for name lookup use that are locally required.
/etc/inetd.conf	The inetd.conf file contains the list of servers that inetd invokes when it receives an Internet request over a socket.
/etc/init.d/rcS	It will be run first and you can add your initial programs into it. We add statement assign our IP in this file.
/etc/inittab	This file plays a crucial role in the boot sequence.
/etc/kernel-config	Linux kernel configuration file. Developer can use the kernel configuration to build new Linux kernel.
/etc/lilo.conf	This file is used by lilo to determine which operating system or kernel to start, as well as to know where to install itself.
/etc/mtab	A list of currently mounted filesystems generated by /proc.
/etc/nsswitch.conf	Name service switch configuration file.
/etc/passwd	The user database with fields giving the username, real name, home directory, encrypted password and other information about each user.
/etc/ppp/pap-secrets	User name and password file for PPP dial-up.
/etc/profile	It work as autoexec.bat under DOS and will be run automatically.
/etc/protocols	Describes DARPA internet protocols available from the TCP/IP subsystem. Maps protocol ID numbers to protocol names.
/etc/resolv.conf	Configures the name resolver, specifying the address of your name server and your domain name.
/etc/securetty	This file allows you to specify which TTY devices the root user is allowed to login on.
/etc/services	This file contains information regarding the known services available in the DARPA Internet.
/etc/shadow	Shadow password file on systems with shadow password software installed. Shadow passwords move the encrypted password files from /etc/passwd to /etc/shadow which can only be read by root.
/etc/syslinux.cfg	SysLinux configuration file. Copy it to target device after installing SysLinux.
/etc/vsftpd.conf	Vsftpd configuration file.
/usr/www	Our web pages are here.

Utilities

Run those commands via keyboard or scripts. List of important commands/scripts:

Command	Path	Description
setserial	/bin	Get/set Linux serial ports information.
syslinux	/bin	SysLinux boot loader.
fdisk	/sbin	Partition table manipulator for Linux.
fsck	/sbin	Filesystem check tool.
httpd	/sbin	Start a HTTP server.
ifconfig	/sbin	Configure a network interface.
lilo.real	/sbin	LILO boot loader.
mkdosfs	/sbin	Create an MS-DOS filesystem under Linux.
mke2fs	/sbin	Create a Linux second extended filesystem.
portmap	/sbin	Start RPC to be a NFS client.
rpcinfo	/sbin	Show port used by RPC.
showmount	/sbin	Displays a list of all clients that have remotely mounted filesystems.
tune2fs	/sbin	Adjust tunable filesystem parameters on second extended filesystems.
exportfs	/usr/sbin	Maintain list of NFS exported filesystems.
nfsd	/usr/sbin	Script to enable NFS server. Refer to below section about NFS for more.
ppp-off	/usr/sbin	Stop a ppp connection.
ppp-on	/usr/sbin	Start a ppp connection.

Commands listed below are implemented by BusyBox:

(You can go to http://www.busybox.net/downloads/BusyBox.html to get more information.)

Path	Command
/bin	addgroup, adduser, ash, cat, chgrp, chmod, chown, cp, date, dd, delgroup, deluser, df, dmesg, echo, egrep, false, fgrep, getopt, grep, gunzip, gzip, hostname, ip, kill, ln, login, ls, mkdir, mknod, mktemp, more, mount, mv, netstat, pidof, ping, pipe_progress, ps, pwd, rm, rmdir, run-parts, sed, sh, sleep, stty, su, sync, tar, touch, true, umount, uname, usleep, vi, watch, zcat
/sbin	getty, halt, hwclock, ifconfig, ifdown, ifup, init, insmod, klogd, loadkmap, logread, lsmod, makedevs, mkswap, modprobe, poweroff, reboot, rmmod, route, start-stop-daemon, swapoff, swapon, sysctl, syslogd, udhcpc
/usr/bin	[, ar, awk, basename, bunzip2, bzcat, clear, cmp, crontab, cut, dirname, dos2unix, du, env, expr, find, fold, free, head, hexdump, hostid, id, install, killall, length, loadfont, logname, od, passwd, readlink, realpath, renice, reset, seq, setkeycodes, sort, strings, tail, tee, telnet, test, tftp, time, top, tr, traceroute, tty, uniq, unix2dos, unzip, uptime, wc, wget, which, who, whoami, xargs, yes
/usr/sbin	chroot, crond

Using X-Linux

Default setting may not meet programmer’s requirement. Here are some sections to help developer to change X-Linux settings.

The default user name is root and password is password. Remember to change default password.

Disable Booting Message

If developer wants to disable Linux kernel booting message, add “quiet” to boot loader configuration. For example, if SysLinux is used as your boot loader, edit /boot/syslinux.cfg to add “quiet”:

APPEND root=/dev/hda2 quiet

And redirection messages from /etc/init.d/rcS and /etc/profile:

::sysinit:/etc/init.d/rcS >/dev/null 2>&1

Enable Disk Writable

We only set root filesystem can be read because embedded system will power-off at any time. If any data want to save into disk, re-mount disk writable is needed. For example: user wants to use FTP to upload file, he should uses telnet to X-Linux and do those steps:

# mount -o remount,rw / (mount root filesystem readable/writable)

# (use FTP to upload files...)

# sync (flush filesystem buffers)

# mount -o remount,ro / (mount root filesystem read only)

Set Fixed IP Address and DNS

If user wants to use fixed IP address, change this line in /etc/init.d/rcS:

echo $Linux_string: Set IP=192.168.0.222

ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.222 netmask 255.255.255.0

If DNS is needed, edit /etc/resolv.conf to add your DNS server:

nameserver 192.168.0.1

Using DHCP

Remove the “#” in /etc/init.d/rcS to enable DHCP:

#echo $Linux_string: Getting IP from DHCP server

#udhcpc >/dev/null 2>&1

Use PPP Dial-Up

Modify configuration files with information from your ISP to enable PPP dial-up. We recommend using FTP to download it, modify it, and then upload it. Assume you connect modem to COM1.

1. /etc/ppp/pap-secrets

This file contain user's account, you can see first line:

my_username ppp0 my_password

"my_username" is your dial-up account user name, "my_password" is password. You should change them with yours.

2. /usr/sbin/ppp-on

#!/bin/sh

pppd nodetach lock modem crtscts /dev/ttyS0 38400 noipdefault defaultroute noauth \

name my_username connect "chat -v '' ATDT123456789 CONNECT" &

You should replace "my_username" with your user name as "/etc/ppp/pap-secrets". \ "ATDT123456789" is AT command to dial to ISP. You should replace "123456789" with your ISP's phone number.

Now, you can type "ppp-on" to dial-up to your ISP and "ppp-off" to hang-up. Type "ifconfig" to display network configuration, you can find device "eth0" and "ppp0". Any problem, mail us to help you to dial-up.

Enable PPP Server

Follow those steps to enable PPP server function.

1. /etc/inittab

You can find those two lines on /etc/inittab:

# remove '#' of next line to enable PPP server function, but ppp client function will not work

#ttyS0::respawn:/sbin/mgetty -D -a modem ttyS0

Remember to remount root filesystem readable/writable and remove '#' of "#ttyS0".

2. /etc/ppp/options.ttyS0

Use mv to restore /etc/ppp/options.ttyS0:

# mv /etc/ppp/options.ttyS0.pppd /etc/ppp/options.ttyS0

/etc/ppp/options.ttyS0 is needed for PPP server.

3. PPP Account

Default use name and password for PPP client to dial-up are "pppuser" and "xlinux". If you want to add other user account, just duplicate line 2 of "/etc/ppp/pap-secrets" and replace "pppuser" with new user name and "xlinux" with new password:

my_username ppp0 my_password *

pppuser * xlinux *

After doing that, login in as root and do those steps:

# adduser new_user_name (add new user)

# passwd new_user_name (change user's password)

Because accepting PPP dial-up will run mgetty which read account data from system to verify user, we have to add user account to accord with /etc/ppp/pap-secrets.

4. Run "sync" command and reboot xLinux.

If you enable PPP server function, PPP client dial-up function of xLinux will not work.

Enable Serial Console

Flow those steps to add serial console into X-Linux R5:

1. Run "mount -o remount,rw /" to make root filesystem can be read/wrote.

2. Edit /etc/inittab to add this line or remote “#” at start of this line:

# remove '#' of next line to support serial console logins

ttyS0::respawn:/sbin/getty -L 9600 ttyS0

3. Edit /etc/securtty to add those lines:

ttyS0

ttyS1

4. Edit /etc/lilo.conf or /boot/syslinux.cfg to add this line:

APPEND ”console=tty1 console=ttyS0,9600n8”

5. Run “lilo.real” to write lilo.conf into boot loader (if SysLinux is used, skip this step).

6. Run "sync" and reboot the device.

7. Use a cross RS-232 cable to connect to X-Linux and your PC.

8. Run terminal program and set COM parameters:

Baud Rate = 9600

Parity Bit = No

Data Bits = 8

Stop Bits = 1

Flow Control = OFF

9. Turn on X-Linux device. You can get message from serial port and login now.

When /dev/ttyS0 is used by serial console, PPP client or server function will not work. You can enable one of them or use another serial port (ex: /dev/ttyS1) for serial console or PPP.

Use USB Mass Storage

USB function is enabled in X-Linux kernel. After enabling USB in BIOS, X-Linux can find USB mass storeage device. When USB storage is plugged, Linux will find SCSI devices:

hub.c: new USB device 00:01.2-1, assigned address 2

scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices

Vendor: Usb Model: Flash Disk Rev: 1.11

Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02

Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0

SCSI device sda: 129024 512-byte hdwr sectors (66 MB)

sda: Write Protect is off

sda: sda1 sda2 < >

Mount USB storage:

~ # mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

Now, you can read/write USB storage. Linux kernel in X-Linux only support EXT2 and FAT16/32 filesystem. If you other filesystem on USB storage, X-Linux can not recognize it. Beside, before removing your USB storage, please unmount USB device first. Also, USB keyboard can work with X-Linux.

Install Vortex86 Audio Driver

To install Vortex86 audio driver, run those:

~ # modprobe sis7019

You can add it into /etc/profile to automatically install.

Enable CD-ROM Access

Here are the steps to access CD-ROM:

~ # modprobe isofs

~ # modprobe ide-cd

~ # mount /dev/hdb /mnt

Those commands will load ISO9660 filesystem module and mount CD-ROM.

Boot from USB Mass Storage

Some people install X-Linux onto USB mass storage and X-Linux will hang while booting. In order to boot from USB mass storage, use those codes to replace old function in file /init/do_mounts.c of kernel 2.4.x source files (this job is done in Linux kernel of X-Linux R5.4. If developer make new Linux kernel, those steps are needed.):

static void __init mount_block_root(char *name, int flags)
{
    char *fs_names = __getname();
    char *p;

    get_fs_names(fs_names);
retry:
    for (p = fs_names; *p; p += strlen(p)+1) {
        int err = sys_mount(name, "/root", p, flags, root_mount_data);
        switch (err) {
            case 0:
                goto out;
            case -EACCES:
                flags |= MS_RDONLY;
                goto retry;
            case -EINVAL:
                case -EBUSY:
                continue;
        }
            /*
         * Allow the user to distinguish between failed open
         * and bad superblock on root device.
         */
        printk ("VFS: Cannot open root device \"%s\" or %s\n,
            retrying in 1 second.",root_device_name, kdevname (ROOT_DEV));
        printk ("You may need to append a correct \"root=\" boot option");
        printk ("or wait for the root device to become ready.");

        /* wait 1 second and try again,
         * allowing time for hubs/devices to become ready */
        set_current_state(TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE);
        schedule_timeout(HZ);
        goto retry;
    }
    panic("VFS: Unable to mount root fs on %s", kdevname(ROOT_DEV));
out:
    putname(fs_names);
    sys_chdir("/root");
    ROOT_DEV = current->fs->pwdmnt->mnt_sb->s_dev;
    printk("VFS: Mounted root (%s filesystem)%s.\n",
        current->fs->pwdmnt->mnt_sb->s_type->name,
        (current->fs->pwdmnt->mnt_sb->s_flags & MS_RDONLY) ? " readonly" : "");
}

Using NFS

NFS is helpful for development phase. We add NFS support into X-Linux and here are steps to enable NFS:

X-Linux to be NFS server

Run "portmap" and "nfsd".
Modify "/etc/exports" to add share path. Share path is root by default in X-Linux.
Run "exportfs -vr" to make settings in "/etc/exports" active.

X-Linux to be NFS client

Run "portmap".
To get sharing status of NFS server, run "showmount -e (hostname or ip)".
To mount a NFS share: "mount -t nfs host:/ /mnt/nfs"
To umount a NFS share: "umount /mnt/nfs"

Make Your Linux Kernel

If developer wants to extend Linux kernel function, copy the kernel configuration file from X-Linux (for example, the /etc/kernel-config/2.4.31-vortex86.config is kernel configuration for Linux kernel 2.4.31 for Vortex86 series) to your Linux kernel source code directory and rename it to “.config”. Then, you can make your kernel based on X-Linux kernel.

Install Your Program

This is an example form our Mity-Mite demo box Linux version. We wrote simple LCM library under Linux.

FTP server is enabled on our Linux DOC/MDM that can use FTP to upload programs. The default user name is "root" and password is "password". Install Linux (Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE...) on a powerful PC to develop applications is recommended. Write and compile programs then upload it to Mity-Mite/Tiny module via FTP to test. Kill the process if program is not correct. Repeat those steps until programs are okay. There is an example:

1. We create a directory "/demo".

2. Put lcd (LCD driver), dmp.bmp (DM&P logo, will loaded by lcd) and lcd_time (send time to display every 0.5 second) into "/demo".

3. Write a script "demo" to load lcd and lcd_time.

#!/bin/sh./lcd&

sleep 5

./lcd_time&

4. Remember to change mode of upload files to executable.

chmod +x ./lcd

chmod +x ./lcd_time

chmod +x ./demo

5. Run "demo" to test. If programs are not correct, use "ps" to find process ID of program to kill it. Go to step 2 until programs are okay.

# ps

PID Uid Stat Command

1 0 S init

2 0 S [keventd]

3 0 S [ksoftirqd_CPU0]

4 0 S [kswapd]

5 0 S [bdflush]

6 0 S [kupdated]

11 0 S -sh

14 0 S ./ftpd

17 0 S /usr/httpd/wnsd -p 80

19 0 S ./lcd

21 0 S ./lcd_time

22 0 R ps

# kill 21

# kill 22

Also, you can lunch "demo" script at /etc/profile to run it automatically when program is okay.

Hint

Before uploading your programs, use "ldd" to check share library dependency. Upload share library to /lib first if need.

[root@/root/grlcd]# ldd lcd

libstdc++-libc6.2-2.so.3 => /usr/lib/libstdc++-libc6.2-2.so.3 (0x4002c000)

libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x4006e000)

libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x40090000)

/lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000)

[root@/root/grlcd]#

Reference Links

Linux Kernel	http://www.kernel.org/
SysLinux	http://syslinux.zytor.com/
BusyBox	http://www.busybox.net/
Linux NetKit	ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/Networking
vsftpd	http://vsftpd.beasts.org/
WN Server	http://hopf.math.nwu.edu/
LILO	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LILO_(boot_loader)

Technical Support

For more technical support, please visit http://www.dmp.com.tw/tech or mail to soc@dmp.com.tw.