diff --git a/README.hardware b/README.hardware index 270c71a1f5..fe384b37d2 100644 --- a/README.hardware +++ b/README.hardware @@ -433,4 +433,79 @@ following differences: $ cp ./tmp/deploy/images/gnu-tar /path/to/my-cf-card/gnu-tar +Intel Atom based PCs and devices (atom-pc) +========================================== +The atom-pc MACHINE is tested on the following platforms: + + o Asus eee901 + o Acer Aspire One + o Toshiba NB305 + o Intel Embedded Development Board 1-N450 (Black Sand) + +and is likely to work on many unlisted atom based devices. The MACHINE type +supports ethernet, wifi, sound, and i915 graphics by default in addition to +common PC input devices, busses, and so on. + +Depending on the device, it can boot from a traditional hard-disk, a USB device, +or over the network. Writing poky generated images to physical media is +straightforward with a caveat for USB devices. The following examples assume the +target boot device is /dev/sdb, be sure to verify this and use the correct +device as the following commands are run as root and are not reversable. + +Hard Disk: + 1. Build a directdisk image format. This will generate proper partition tables + that will in turn be written to the physical media. For example: + + $ bitbake poky-image-minimal-directdisk + + 2. Use the "dd" utility to write the image to the raw block device. For example: + + # dd if=poky-image-minimal-directdisk-atom-pc.hdddirect of=/dev/sdb + +USB Device: + 1. Build an hddimg image format. This is a simple filesystem without partition + tables and is suitable for USB keys. For example: + + $ bitbake poky-image-minimal-live + + 2. Use the "dd" utility to write the image to the raw block device. For + example: + + # dd if=poky-image-minimal-live-atom-pc.hddimg of=/dev/sdb + + If the device fails to boot with "Boot error" displayed, it is likely the BIOS + cannot understand the physical layout of the disk (or rather it expects a + particular layout and cannot handle anything else). There are two possible + solutions to this problem: + + 1. Change the BIOS USB Device setting to HDD mode. The label will vary by + device, but the idea is to force BIOS to read the Cylinder/Head/Sector + geometry from the device. + + 2. Without such an option, the BIOS generally boots the device in USB-ZIP + mode. + + a. Configure the USB device for USB-ZIP mode: + + # mkdiskimage -4 /dev/sdb 0 63 62 + + Where 63 and 62 are the head and sector count as reported by fdisk. + Remove and reinsert the device to allow the kernel to detect the new + partition layout. + + b. Copy the contents of the poky image to the USB-ZIP mode device: + + # mount -o loop poky-image-minimal-live-atom-pc.hddimg /tmp/image + # mount /dev/sdb4 /tmp/usbkey + # cp -rf /tmp/image/* /tmp/usbkey + + c. Install the syslinux boot loader: + + # syslinux /dev/sdb4 + + Install the boot device in the target board and configure the BIOS to boot + from it. + + For more details on the USB-ZIP scenario, see the syslinux documentation: + http://git.kernel.org/?p=boot/syslinux/syslinux.git;a=blob_plain;f=doc/usbkey.txt;hb=HEAD