Windows hosting development, x86 target w/compactflash

QNX USERS QNX6 - OS
1

Hello All,
I have read many postings here but not sure I have found the answer.
My background is strictly WIN32 on FAT32 x86 SBC’s. I will learn QNX
if its the last thing I do on earth. I am close, it appears I have made a image but I still do not understand how I am going to get a compactflash to be bootable with the image I have created on my XP box. I am focusing on dinit and/or dloader.

Q1,
Doesn’t the CF need the QNX file system.

Q2,
How do I get the image over to the CF from XP.

Thanks to who-ever can respond.

2

“dinit” essentially format the CF’s QNX partition and creat a QNX file system on it.

“dinit” has an option to preload the image onto the CF.

3

Can I run this command from XP or is it for QNX only. And can the CF format properly from a USB reader. I think NOT
but should be IDE driven only.

4

A QNX system doesn’t require a QNX filesystem to boot. If you can write the MBR of the compact
flash with the appropriate boot information (or a boot loader like grub) then you can just specify
the Neutrino image (as a file) file to use to boot.

All of the QNX utilities (fdisk, dinit) assume they are putting down a QNX filesystem and only (currently)
run under Neutrino. You can create a VMWare image from the Neutrino ISO as a bootstrap system
to get this done initially.

5

I created a vmware image in case you want to try out.

6

Thanks, I have this running now. I still need to discover how to get my image from XP over to the compact flash.
I would believe that if someone where to create a good set of docs and utils for windows envir (getting bootable and copying)
there would be many more on the QNX band wagon.

7

I think “dinit.exe” is part of the Windows hosted installation.
If you have everything in the image and don’t need the qnx file system, you can run dinit to format the CF card and preload your image onto it.

eg:
your CF is F: drive
your image is myimage.ifs
From a Windows Command prompt, you can run:
dinit -h -f myimage.ifs f:

The CF can now boot your image.

8

I thought by now, someone already figured out how to put the entire ISO onto a USB key (or compact flash). So people just took the USB key and boot from it. (just like they burn the CD and boot from CD).

noc? :smiley:

9

Hello Again, I have gotten further down the QNX path but still have some issue.

Of course I am using the dinit command and this is in XP, to load my image to the CF, my target is booting and getting some small distance but hangs just after it say’s “Hit ESC for .altboot” . I feel like my image is not getting to the CF and the dinit command is just loading the 2nd stage loader. Do I still need to copy my image to the CF.

I am using the qnxbasedma build for this but have tried others.

Thanks for your patience.

10

after dinit the next step should be “dloader”
Under qnx it would be “dloader /dev/hd1 pc2”
assuming your CF is attached as /dev/hd1.
How it should be called from Windows I do not know.
Move your *.ifs file to QNX system with attached CF and call dloader!