Embedded Linux S3C2440 environment setup

Summary

Setup the embedded Linux S3C2440 environment recently, by using Fedora Linux system in Virtualbox, the USB to serial port, did the minicom setup, network connection setup etc.

Create Virtualbox image from USB image

As my Fedora Linux system was in a 32GB USB drive, I need to convert to Virtualbox image, use Virtualbox in Windows system is more convenient than use pure Linux system for me, I created Samba for the file sharing between two systems.

First I converted the boot USB drive to raw image by using DD command, it took more than one hour to convert.

Then use Virtualbox command to convert raw material image to VDI (Virtualbox) or VMDK (Vmware), I found both can be imported into Virtualbox. Command usage as below, and refer to this ​​Link​​.

dd command,

$ sudo dd if=/dev/sdb

VDI format convert,

$ VBoxManage convertdd sdb.raw sdb.vdi

VMDK format convert,

$ VBoxManage convertdd sdb.raw sdb.vmdk

Convert between VDI/VMDK formats:

$ VBoxManage clonehd sdb.vdi sdb.vmdk --format VMDK
$ VBoxManage clonehd sdb.vmdk sdb.vdi

USB to serial port usage

As most of current computer / laptop doesn’t have serial port anymore, we have to use USB to serial port converter, I am using two types of converter, ​​PL2303​​​ and ​​MCT U232 P9​​

use putty as hyper terminal

As Windows latest version doesn’t support hyper terminal anymore, the best replacement is the putty, after connect the USB to serial port hardware, the device manger shows as below and change the baud rate as 115,200,

The putty configuration interface is as below screenshot,

After connection and start S3C2440, it shows the startup screen in putty,

Use minicom in Fedora Linux

As mentioned, it’s not required to install the USB to RS232 serial port converter driver. First just select the device to be used in Virtualbox, as below screenshot shows,

Configure the minicom by command below,

$ minicom -s

Then choose “Serial port setup”, configure the “Serial device”, if you are using RS232 cable, the serial device shall be /dev/ttyS0, here I am using USB-serial converter, then should be /dev/ttyUSB0, as below screenshot shows,

After connection and start S3C2440, it shows the startup screen in minicom as below,

Network connection between S3C2440 and Virutalbox

Added three Network Adapter in the Virtualbox,

• First one, NAT, to access the external internet
• 2nd one, Host-only Adapter to communicate between Virtualbox Linux and host
• 3rd one, Bridged Adapter, communicate between S3C2440 and Virtualbox

As below screenshot shows,

eth0 is NAT(10.0.2.15), eth1 is Host-only(192.168.18.1), and eth2 is Bridged Adapter(192.168.0.10),

The S3C2440 ip address is 192.168.0.11,

Ping from Virtualbox Fedora to S3C2440,

Telnet from Virtualbox Fedora to S3C2440,

USB connection between S3C2440 and Virtualbox

USB connection is to download the Linux image to S3C2440, to use the USB port, just simply select the USB port in Virtualbox, and use the minicom interface to download use the USB port,

Download zImage screenshot as below,

Reference Link

1, ​​MCT U232-P9 Linux driver​​​: As I found Fedora Linux doesn’t require the USB to serial driver, so I didn’t use this.
2, ​​​USB-RS232 Converter Driver​​​, The MCT_U232_P9 cannot be installed successful.
3, ​​​linux+arm环境配置——minicom的使用篇​​, describe the usage of minicom.

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