mario::konrad
programming / C++ / sailing / nerd stuff
Linux on Aria-G25
© 2013 / Mario Konrad

The Aria G25 is a nice embedded board, ideal to tinker with it, see http://www.acmesystems.it/aria.

The Terra as motherboard for the Aria is perfect for prototyping. This page is about how to set up a minimal Linux system on it.

There is already a lot of information on the vendors page about the topic (see http://www.acmesystems.it/developers) this page describes how to install Linux/RootFS/Busybox on the board.

Toolchain

The easiest way on Ubuntu (or derivatives) is to install the toolchain using apt-get:

$ sudo apt-get install gcc-arm-linux-gnueabi
$ sudo apt-get install g++-arm-linux-gnueabi
$ sudo apt-get install binutils-arm-linux-gnueabi

Partitions

On the microSD card, the first partition must be FAT (FAT16 works), a second partition is advised for the rootfs. Finally a third to store data. I am using a 4GB microSD with the following partition table. Use the command:

$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdi

to get the output:

Disk /dev/sdi: 3957 MB, 3957325824 bytes
16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 15096 cylinders, total 7729152 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdi1   *        2048       67583       32768    6  FAT16
/dev/sdi2           67584     2164735     1048576   83  Linux
/dev/sdi3         2164736     7729151     2782208   83  Linux

Note: the device /dev/sdi may have another designation for you, check dmesg.

Filesystems

Format the file systems. ext3 may not be the best choice for embedded systems, feel free to use others. If you do, don’t forget to alter the kernel configuration to support other filesystems.

$ sudo mkfs.vfat -F 16 -n kernel /dev/sdi1
$ sudo mkfs.ext3 -L rootfs /dev/sdi2
$ sudo mkfs.ext3 -L home /dev/sdi3

Probably not necessary but useful, filesystem checks:

$ sudo fsck /dev/sdi1
$ sudo fsck /dev/sdi2
$ sudo fsck /dev/sdi3

Now mount all of them (easiest way: remove and plug the microSD card back into the card writer).

Bootloader

As described here you can build the bootloader from source. Or take the precompiled version (for the 256MB Aria G25) from here: ariaboot-256.tar.gz (you might want to change the MAC address in macaddr.txt).

Unpack and copy them to the FAT partition of the microSD card (you probably must use sudo):

$ tar -xzf ariaboot-256.tar.gz -C /media/kernel

Kernel

(see also http://www.acmesystems.it/ariag25_compile_linux_2_6_39)

Download the necessary packages:

Unpack the kernel:

$ tar -xjf linux-2.6.39.tar.bz2

Unpack and apply the patch (in the extracted linux-2.6.39 directory):

$ tar -xzf ariag25.patch.tar.gz -O | patch -p1

Unpack the kernel configuration (a .config file):

$ tar -xzf linux-2.6.39-config-ariag25.tar.gz

Build the kernel:

$ make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabi-
$ make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabi- uImage

Modules are not necessary for this installation.

Copy the built kernel to the first partition:

$ cp arch/arm/boot/uImage /media/kernel

Root File System

Prepare the root file system (mounted at /media/rootfs):

$ cd /media/rootfs
$ sudo mkdir -p proc sys boot dev lib home var tmp dev etc etc/init.d
$ sudo cp -rap /usr/arm-linux-gnueabi/lib/*.so.* /media/rootfs/lib
$ cd dev
$ sudo mknod console c 5 1
$ sudo mknod null c 1 3
$ sudo mknod tty c 5 0
$ sudo mknod tty1 c 4 1
$ sudo mknod tty2 c 4 2
$ sudo mknod tty3 c 4 3
$ sudo mknod tty4 c 4 4
$ sudo mknod ttyS0 c 253 0
$ sudo mknod ttyS1 c 253 1
$ sudo mknod ttyS2 c 253 2
$ sudo mknod ttyS3 c 253 3
$ sudo chmod 777 *

BusyBox

Download the necessary packages:

Unpack the tarball:

$ tar -xjf busybox-1.21.0.tar.bz2

Configure and build it:

$ cd busybox-1.21.0
$ make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabi- defconfig
$ make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabi-

Install it on the microSD card:

$ sudo make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabi- CONFIG_PREFIX=/media/rootfs install

Configuration Files

etc/inittab

null::sysinit:/bin/busybox hostname -F /etc/hostname
::sysinit:/etc/init.d/rcS
::ctrlaltdel:/bin/umount -a -r
::respawn:/sbin/getty 115200 console

etc/hostname

aria

etc/passwd

root::0:0:root:/root:/bin/sh

etc/group

root:x:0:
users:x:1000:

etc/fstab

proc            /proc               proc      defaults           0 0
sysfs           /sys                sysfs     defaults           0 0
devpts          /dev/pts            devpts    defaults           0 0
debugfs         /sys/kernel/debug   debugfs   noauto,defaults    0 0
none            /var                tmpfs     rw,noexec          0 0
none            /tmp                tmpfs     rw                 0 0
none            /dev/shm            tmpfs     defaults           0 0
/dev/mmcblk0p1  /boot               vfat      ro,noauto,defaults 0 0
/dev/mmcblk0p3  /home               ext3      defaults           0 0

etc/profile

# /etc/profile

alias remountro='/bin/mount -o remount,ro,noatime /dev/root /'
alias remountrw='/bin/mount -o remount,rw,noatime /dev/root /'
alias l='ls -l'

etc/init.d/rcS

#!/bin/sh

# filesystems

/bin/mount -t proc  none /proc
/bin/mount -t sysfs none /sys
/bin/mount /var

if [ ! -d /var/log ] ; then
        /bin/mkdir -m 0755 /var/log
fi

if [ ! -d /dev/pts ] ; then
        /bin/mkdir -m 0755 /dev/pts
fi

if [ ! -d /dev/shm ] ; then
        /bin/mkdir -m 0755 /dev/shm
fi

/bin/mount -a

# scan sys and populate dev

/sbin/mdev -s

# syslog

/sbin/syslogd -S -D -O /var/log/messages

# configure network

/sbin/ifconfig lo up
/sbin/ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.10

# cleanup

/bin/mount -o remount,ro,noatime /dev/root /