Installation Guide

This guide is intended to help you get a Linux system up and running on an ST40 or ST200 based System on Chip (SoC) platform. In addition to the SoC platform you will also need:

an x86 PC running Linux, fitted with an NIC (ethernet) card,
an ST Micro Connect interface adaptor (and an appropriate ribbon cable to connect this to the SoC platform), or a board with the U-Boot bootstrap agent already installed in non-volatile memory,
a network router,
suitable cables and connectors to link these devices, but only Ethernet is supported from Linux hosts,
a terminal which can plug into the RS232 port on the SoC platform or a serial cable to connect this port to the host PC (which will emulate a terminal), if you require access to the Linux console using a serial connection.

The PC will be used to build and host the software to run on the SoC platform, and may also perform the roles of ST Micro Connect controller, Network File System (NFS) server, and terminal emulator. See Figure 1: Setting up the hardware.

The outline procedure for setting up the SoC platform is:

Download the ST Linux software to the host PC from the ST website, either as individual RPMs or as a complete ISO disk image.
If required, write the ISO image to a writable CD.
Install the software in the host PC.
Generate an SoC kernel image on the host PC, or use one of the pre-built Linux kernels provided with the distribution.
Generate an exported network file system on the host PC to be the root file system of the SoC platform.
Start an NFS server on the host PC to give the SoC platform access to its root file system.
Run the SoC platform load program on the host PC to instruct the ST Micro Connect to copy the SoC kernel image into the SoC platform RAM, or use the U-Boot bootstrap agent to download the kernel.
A Linux shell on the SoC platform can be accessed using the physical terminal or the terminal emulator. Depending on your configuration you may be able to log in to Linux remotely using TELNET or a similar network protocol.

Figure 1: Setting up the hardware

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