Initrd in Slackware

majek.sh Posted on by

There is small simple howto with Slackware package mkinitrd, man page says a little bit more, more is kind of mystery 🙂
I switched from full kernel (in fact, my own compiled kernel) to initrd few years ago and since then I had learned a lot about it (sometimes in hard way) 🙂

So, this is my way (a little different than in man and readme) of doing initrd.

Installation

During Slackware installation you need to install:

  • kernel-generic (not kernel-huge!)
  • kernel-modules
  • mkinitd

and of course other packages you would like to have 🙂
Remember NOT to install kernel-huge package.

Install everything, setup lilo, timezones etc as usual. At the end DON’T reboot at the end of setup – system isn’t finished yet!

Now, it’s time to prepare new initrd.

  1. Chroot to /mnt (where new system should be already mounted)
  2. Make copy of default mkinitrd config:
    cp /etc/mkinitrd.conf.sample /etc/mkinitrd.conf
  3. Edit new /etc/mkinitrd.conf with your favourite editor and set few options:
    • uncomment and set MODULE_LIST and ROOTFS to type of your root filesystem, for example
      ROOTFS="ext3"
      MODULE_LIST="ext3"

      You don’t need to worry about all related modules, they will be added automatically.

    • if you use software raid, uncomment and set
      RAID="1"
    • if you use lvm or encryption, uncomment and set
      LVM="1"
    • I strongly recommend to set SOURCE_TREE and OUTPUT_IMAGE to some more unique names, for example
      SOURCE_TREE="/boot/initrd-tree-3.10.12"
      OUTPUT_IMAGE="/boot/initrd-3.10.12.gz"

      You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to play with custom kernels etc.

  4. make new initrd with mkinitrd -F
  5. add initrd image to lilo.conf adding it just after ‘image’ line, so it will look like this:
    image = /boot/vmlinuz-generic-3.10.12
     initrd = /boot/initrd-3.10.12.gz
  6. get out of chroot and rebuild lilo with:
    mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
    mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
    lilo -r /mnt

Right now you could reboot system and enjoy new Slackware with initrd:-)

What’s an advantage of this way instead of running mkinitrd with many bizarre options? See next part.

Normal usage

Sometimes you need to change kernel, upgrade or something like that.

There are 2 ways of maintaining Slackware with initrd:

  1. Use one initrd for all kernels
  2. Use separate initrd for every kernel or even every entry in lilo

One initrd for all

At start, make sure that you have commented out CLEAR_TREE or set it to 0 in mkinitrd.conf!

After installation of new kernel and running still from old one, you need to to set KERNEL_VERSION to version of your new kernel, for example

KERNEL_VERSION="3.17.4"

Then just run mkinitrd -F
That’s all about initrd – now image has required modules for both/all your kernels.
Of course you need new entry in lilo.conf for new kernel with exactly the same initrd as old one.
If you are making kernel upgrade (replace old kernel package) you don’t even need to touch lilo.conf. But in both cases, you must run lilo at the end.

From time to time, you could clean initrd tree from old modules from kernel you don’t use anymore. In this case just remove all directory with that modules from /boot/initrd-tree/lib/modules/old-kernel-version and regenerate initrd using as usual mkinitrd -F. And rerun lilo of course 🙂

Now, you probably see advantage of using mkinitrd.conf instead of remembering all those weird switches you used last time to generate this image.

Separate initrd for every kernel

This way have a little sense if you only use one root filesystem and only stock kernel which you sometimes only upgrade.

Separate initrd is even easier than ‘one for all’ attitude.
One drawback is that mkinitrd with -F flag only reads one default /etc/mkinitrd.conf file, so each time you have to copy saved configuration back to this file.
So, for first kernel you should customize at least SOURCE_TREE, OUTPUT_IMAGE and KERNEL_VERSION. Generate new initrd with mkinitrd -F, then make backup of mkinitrd.conf to for example mkinitrd.conf.3.10.17.
For next kernel with different options customize mkinitrd.conf again, create new initrd, make backup and so on.
That way you could have different initrds and saved all options to regenerate each of them. It’s safe attitude as playing with new kernel and initrd configuration you always have working old one.

Ok, that was easy part:-)
Next time I’ll cover how to combine initrd with encrypted root and even root on encrypted lvm 🙂

Update 2015.02.20

I found quite good article on the same topic at Slackware Documentation Project. So, it looks like i didn’t do so much research before writing this post 🙂

Picture thief

majek.sh Posted on by

Recently I noticed in server’s logs that one of my blog pictures become very popular:
SDR# in action
It’s from this post: RTL2832U spectrum analyzer – part 2

Sometimes people embed my schematic or pictures on forums to enhance discussion. But this time one seller from Italy used my picture in his eBay offer. Moreover, he embedded my (and not only my) full resolution picture there, so he is also using my server bandwidth for free. Everything without a word.

There are many ways of dealing with that type of abuse, but I decided to use it as free promotion 🙂

I prepared new edited version of this picture (also smaller one):
sdrsharp-ebay

And set new rule in .htaccess to redirect all requests from eBay page to new file:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ebaydesc\.com/|ebay\.it/                                                                                                        
RewriteRule ^wp-content/uploads/2013/06/sdrsharp\.png /wp-content/uploads/2014/12/sdrsharp-ebay.jpg [R=302,L]

Now, his offer shows my new picture 🙂

Soldering AWG10 wire to XT60 connector

majek.sh Posted on by

If you need more flight time, more battery capacity helps (to some extent) 🙂
But most batteries are designed for very high current, wires and connectors are also choosen for this purpose.
It’s sometimes a problem. I use in my tricopter standard XT60 connectors as it’s amperage is good enought for this purpose. When I used 1800-2200mAh batteries it was ok, as there come also with XT60.

When I bought 4000mAh with HXT4mm connector, I also bought adapter from HXT to XT60 for it. Problem solved.

Soon 4000mAh was not enought for me 🙂
So, I bought 5000mAh, but this battery comes with 5.5mm bullet connectors. This time I decided to change connector to XT60 instead of messing with heavy adapters.
On Polish R/C forum there is a thread about such changes and most difficult thing for people is to solder XT60 to much thicker wires. My new 5Ah battery have 10AWG wire, so it’s quite thick. There are some ways for soldering these wires and I also have one.

Because ‘seeing is believing’ or ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’, I recorded how I solder such thick wire to XT60 🙂

What you need to make it:

  • tin ends of wire (mine were already tined as I desoldered old connectors instead of cutting it off)
  • turn pins in XT60 in opposite direction (you could use flat pilers to do it)
  • use ‘third hand’ – it’s very handy and also heat resistant
  • solder one wire at a time – it’s for your safety – don’t get a chance for short circuit
  • put tin into connector
  • put soldering iron into tin in connector and put wire there – this way area of heating is increased, so it’s easier and faster to do it
  • don’t hold wire in bare hands – use pilers, beacuse of heat
  • little patience depending on power of your soldering iron (mine have 65W) and experience

Good luck 🙂

LCD88 – going public :-)

majek.sh Posted on by

Last days I was learning how to use git instead of svn 🙂

I think it was worth to migrate LCD88 code from my personal repository to more public place, Github!
So, any further development will be there, I hope that it will be not only for downloading, but also you can contribute to project.
If you can’t code, there is also issue tracker, so you can request new feature, or simply report a bug. Starting forum threads is also planned 🙂

During repository move GPL license was also added, so feel free to use this code.

Repository url: https://github.com/majekw/lcd88

Another thing I’m making is separate part of my site dedicated only to LCD88. Someone could call it ‘documentation’ 🙂
Explore new menu item LCD88!

XEBOOT – tiny Amega8 xmodem bootloader

majek.sh Posted on by

Story

Few years ago I was working on some commercial device based on Atmega8. One of features was to deliver device with some software, but it should’ve been ready for further firmware updates by customer as well.

Burning some ready-made bootloader with STK or other proprietary protocol was not an option. Customer had only serial port adapter and that’s all. Operating system also could vary.

There was also another problem – device was quite simple, most of it’s power was in software. So, new firmware released to customer shouldn’t work with 3rd party hardware.
That way encryption was another ‘must be’ option for bootloader.

And last requirement – size. Program had some quite large tables burned in, so spending 2kB or more on bootloader was a waste of precious flash space.

So, I wrote bootloader myself 🙂

Last days I decided to release this code to public as after all these years there is still no small xmodem bootloader available and now I could do it.

Features

  • small size (less than 512B)
  • supported protocol: xmodem
  • pure serial operation (no other hardware or wiring than rx/tx is required)
  • support some kind of encryption (not strong, but it’s enough to prevent unexperienced user to just burn it into clone)
  • it’s free (GPL v3) 🙂

Code

You can download code from Github: https://github.com/majekw/xeboot
Technical details are also available in README on repository.

Fork

Yes, project evolved 🙂
It was forked to support Atmega88/168/328. I had to sacrifice encryption to fit it in 0.5KB, so it’s no longer xEboot.
Fork is currently part of my other project LCD88 (diy r/c transmitter) and sources are also available on Github repository: https://github.com/majekw/lcd88