GP2X Root On Sd Card


theoddbot

Certified Guru
Joined
Sep 25, 2005
Messages
341
Website
oddbot.googlepages.com
GP2X: root on SD Card

After a bit of fiddling I have created a kernel that can use the 2nd partition of the SD card (formatted as ext2) as the root filesystem. This is a great way to mess around with the gp2x filesystem without fear of rendering your gp2x unbootable

Requires art103's u-boot.

1. Create a 2nd partition on your SD card and format it as ext2.
2. Mount the new partition on your host.
3. Extract the image.tar.gz file into this new partition, removing the image/ part. so image/sbin becomes /sbin and so on
4. Copy kernel.img to the 1st (vfat) partition of your SD card.

When you boot this kernel the root filesystem will be /dev/mmcsd/disc0/part2

ps. Don't take your SD card out :)

Download the files from http://brendan.mine.nu/gp2x/sdroot/
 
We'll -- It's brick proof once you get art's uboot on... but at any rate awsome news.
 
What will the speed difference be like accessing the SD card compared to the NAND?
 
It's a completely different filesystem to either jffs2 or cramfs/squashfs. That said it boots from the u-boot prompt in 10 seconds, so I guess its about the same speed as cramfs/squashfs. The overall bandwidth of the SD card is about 1/2 of the NAND (I think) but in practice it doesnt seem to make any difference.
 
I'm really going to have to get a flashing compatible SD card.

Still, thanks for all of this theoddbot. Surely guru status is only a matter of time now.

(thanks also to all the GPL campaigners who made this possible)
 
fomit posted on Mar 6 2006 at 05:41 AM said:
Quick question. What is this new U-Boot? Any info or links? I searched and can't find anything.

By the way: TheOddBot, thanks for the wonderful cramfs.

As I recall it's not quite ready for the masses yet, and it's only be handed out over IRC to people who have asked for it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
verry cool!!
+1 for oddbots guru status! :)


cheers
 
any news/files to play with?
or better, where one can get art103's u-boot ?


cheers
 
dunno
but tried it and it works great!
it's really nice to have the complete filesystem on sd, so one can
play with the config files without risk.

warning! flashing the bootloader can really brick the gp2x. if things go wrong you need a jtag cable to get it working again!
 
Is it possible to create a ext2 partition under windows? Or is there a tool we can use?
 
Back
Top