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Building the Ubuntu PandaBoard Kernel

So that I can find it next time I need it, here’s what you need to do to checkout and build the Ubuntu kernel for a PandaBoard:

First up, clone it using git:

  • git clone git://kernel.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ubuntu-natty.git

You can see the current list of kernels on the getweb page.

Branch the remote ti-omap4 branch and check it out locally:

  • git branch --track ti-omap4 remotes/origin/ti-omap4
  • git checkout ti-omap4

Set up your environment:

  • export ARCH=arm
  • export CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabi-

Grab the default configuration:

  • cp debian.ti-omap4/config/config.common.ubuntu .config

Configure it for your needs:

  • make oldconfig
  • make menuconfig

And build away!

  • make uImage -j3

Thanks rsalveti on #ubuntu-arm!

4 Comments

  1. Can't find usb device says:

    Hi,
    I used this process and got uImage.
    The kernel can boot. But can’t find usb key and usb mouse?

    Can you help me?

    Thank a lot.

  2. michaelh says:

    Sorry, I don’t know the answer to that. I built this kernel for a headless board that had a USB flash drive but otherwise no display, keyboard, or mouse.

    You might want to hop on #ubuntu-arm on freenode and see if they can help. The stock binary kernel has everything under the sun and might cover what you need already.

  3. may says:

    Following your instructions I could get the uImage.

    Can you please let me know how to load this custom uImage onto the SD card so that I can see the changes running on Pandaboard?

    Thank you.

  4. michaelh says:

    A nice thing about the Beagle and Panda is that they boot straight from a FAT32 partition on a SD card. If you already have a card that boots, plug it into the SD slot on your computer and you should see a new drive come up with files like ‘MLO’, ‘u-boot.bin’, and ‘uImage’. Copy the uImage over the existing one, unmount, put it in the board and boot!

    See http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard#MMC.2FSD_boot for more.

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