Boot.txt Question


xopher

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Is there a way using boot.txt to have it display more than the default boot option and boot from SD1? What I mean is can it also contain another entry somehow to boot straight into console, and even boot default console, and boot SD1 console if present?

Thanks.
 
Boot into console:
http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/54918-unbricking-my-pandora/page__view__findpost__p__885362
 
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That post made me think of it, might there be a way to have more menu options than default and SD1, can boot.txt somehow be able to hold multiple entries and parse them out for selection?
 
There's no simple way to "multiplex" multiple boot.txt's into one, mostly because there isnt a simple user input method usable by u-boot (except the game buttons, but these are only (easily) usable from C code, which is the predefined boot menu). (I'm not saying it's impossible, I mean since you can load binary data in and run it, nothing is impossible). You can however:
1. Have autoboot.txt (in the first partition) as the safe/normal case which is ran normally.
2. And have boot.txt in the first partition as the experimental case that is ran manually.
3. And have a boot.txt in every other partition in the first SD card (selectable from the menu), if you want to meddle with many partitions/root filesystems, each of which propably needs its own bootargs anyways.
(And i propably wont need to mention that incase all of above fails it will still boot normally from NAND, and that you can have several SDs to switch amongst...)

Obvioysly it isnt exceptionally hard to run an arbitarily named script if you can get to the u-boot console (eg. with the USB serial option or with the breakout board and the normal serial console), but this isnt really that usable/simple (USB works, but needs a linux PC and knowhow) for general public, so...
 
Probably best workaround to get this is to create multiple tiny partitions on SD, each with a boot.txt, then you'll get a boot option for every of them. Don't know if extended partitions are supported though, you might be limited to 4 if not.
 
Thanks for the hints, I'll have to grab another SD card and try this. When I have a chance to play I'll post the results here unless someone beats me to it.
 
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