5 advanced topics, 1 building the linux kernel, Overview – Aero-Flex GAISLER GR-LEON4-ITX User Manual
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GR-LEON4-ITX Development Board
Quick Start Guide
5
ADVANCED TOPICS
5.1 Building the Linux kernel
Overview
Aeroflex Gaisler provides a Linux distribution named SnapGear Linux. A release of
SnapGear Linux has been included on the first partition of the USB stick delivered with the
board (software/Linux contains the distribution and software/toolchains/Linux contains the
toolchain). SnapGear Linux can also be downloaded from
To be able to easily create a Linux configuration to run on the GR-LEON4-ITX board,
SnapGear Linux includes three template configurations that can be selected to quickly
compile a new Linux configuration:
Configuration name
Description
gr_l4itx_video
Main console is DVI video. Mounts root filesystem from second partition on
USB Flash stick.
gr_l4itx_serial
No video support, main console is serial terminal. Mounts root filesystem
from second partition on USB Flash stick.
gr_l4itx_busybox
No video support, main console is serial terminal. Root filesystem is a
memory image containing a Busybox system, does not mount USB Flash
stick.
Table 5-1: SnapGear template configurations
To be able to easily create a Linux configuration to run on the GR-LEON4-ITX board,
SnapGear Linux includes three template configurations that can be selected to quickly
compile a new Linux configuration.
First extract the SnapGear distribution:
jan@jan:~/Linux$ tar jxf snapgear-2.6-p41.tar.bz2
Enter the SnapGear directory and issue the command make xconfig. In the menu system
click Template Configurations and select the wanted configuration in the new window, also
check the box below the selection, as shown in Figure 5-1.
After the selection has been made, click the Main Menu button and in the remaining window
click Save and Exit.
The configuration of the SnapGear system and Linux kernel have now been updated to
predefined values. The system can now be compiled by issuing make at the system prompt.
The updated configuration can also be tailored as for normal SnapGear configurations. For
further information on SnapGear please see the SnapGear Linux for LEON manual.
© Aeroflex Gaisler AB
June 2010, Rev. 0.2