Changes

= Why IGEP-Xloader =

Exist some important reasons for use this bootloader on IGEP boards.

== Security ==

This is one of the most important reasons why we develop this new IGEP X-loader. Probably you knows that in the flash devices with the normal usage get new bad memory blocks that be unusable or can damange the software that resides inside the flash (ex: upgrading the software, copy a new kernel ... ), in these cases your board cannot be usable anymore if you don't use a right nand filesystem that insure the data integrity. Using the old schema we've 4 importat partitions on flash without any protection, x-loader, u-boot, u-boot enviroment and kernel.

IGEP X-loader resolve this situation due the configuration and kernel files resides inside a jffs2 partition.

== Mantenience ==

With the old schema exist 3 different software (x-loader, u-boot, kernel) that do exactly the same job it means reconfigure the board, it increas the complexity of mantenience for the board system and provide a major bug source due we must insure that all software must be aligned with all changes, it has a second point of view if we do the job three times the boot process be more complex and slow.

== Easy to use ==

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; ">With this new approach use the software it's more easy, if you've the boot information stored inside a jffs2 partition you can use the linux kernel for access to it directly without use any flash tool for modify the software (ex: use nandwrite it's to risky due it cannot garanty the data integrity over the Nand Flash memory).</span>

Upgrade a new kernel it's more easy and faster, you only need copy the new kernel inside the boot partition and copy your new igep.ini inside and reboot the board with all security.

<pre>boot_delay=0</pre> 

<pre>smsc911x.mac=0xb2,0xb0,0x14,0xb5,0xcd,0xde</pre> 

rootfstype=ubifs</pre>

<br>  == Can How I change can boot downloading the Processor frecuencykernel using wget? == The way for do that it's using one minimal kernel and RAMdisk (ex: using image-core-minimal from poky), the procedure can be more or less:  a) Copy your minimal kernel and your Ramdisk inside the boot partition. b) Boot Normally from this kernel and Ramdisk, create one script your your desired command such wget http://192.168.15.22/mykernel.bin c) Execute the script when boot (you can do that adding the script to the init enviroment) d) if the downloading it's ok then execute the kexec call, first load the kernel and then pass to it your desired parameters.

Yes you can, IGEP X-loader configures the processor to boot at 600 Mhz you can select a different e) finally boot speed using the variable mpurate as:<pre>mpurate=800</pre>If you don't force any frequency the linux new kernel will put your processor at the maximum speed (ex: DM3730 will run at 1 Ghz)with kexec.

When you test your IGEP X-loader, igep.ini file and kernel we suggest use a microsd card in front of use directly the flash nand, if your flash not boot copy all files in one microsd card and boot from there. You can check what happens removing some files from your microsd card for example if you wish test if your flashed kernel it's loaded in a right way then remove the kernel from your microsd card (note: use the same kernel name), IGEP X-loader first try load the file from your microsd card but if it's not found then it try to find the file in the flash.<br>