Re: Querying Loader from Kernel

[Gary Thomas <gary at mlbassoc dot com>]

H Hartley Sweeten wrote:
> On Monday, June 29, 2009 12:00 PM, Eric Bresie wrote:
>> Is it possible to query info from the loader (Redboot) from the
>> loaded kernel?
>>
>> I'd like to have Redboot version indicated in syslog or something
>> to confirm version details at both loader and kernel level.
>>
>> With dmesg I see some indication of the mtd partitions but nothing
>> else beyond that.
>>
>> Any ideas?
> 
> I'm not sure you can query the info from the kernel but maybe from
> userspace.
> 
> You can use the fconfig utility to parse the mtd partition that
> contains your Redboot config.  Create an alias in Redboot that has
> the version information you need.  For example I set a serial number
> on each of my boards as:
> 
> alias/SNUM: 0x27260017
> 
> Then use fconfig to read it:
> 
> / #fconfig -r -d /dev/mtd3 -n alias/SNUM
> 0x27260017
> / #

Two things:
 * What is the 'fconfig' utility and where did you get it?
 * This only works for data stored in 'fconfig'  I think the
   original poster was interested in other data, such as the
   build version string, etc.  The best way to provide that
   would be to pass it to Linux during 'exec'.  The details
   depend on the architecture (e.g. PowerPC does things differently
   from how ARM works, etc)


-- 
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Gary Thomas                 |  Consulting for the
MLB Associates              |    Embedded world
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