How to Install Fedora on a SheevaPlug and Boot Off a SD Card.

I saw a post on the SheevaPlug at Slashdot and then in Popular Mechanics. It seemed like an interesting device  it runs @ 2.5w, no fans, solid state and no need for a monitor.

For years I have carried around an old CRT monitor just in case my linux box crashed, no need as this has a real serial console built in.

This instructable will detail how to build a SheevaPlug with Fedora (v12), to both run and boot off of a SD card.

I got a lot of good info from the PlugComputer Forum and a FedoraProject Wiki

You will need:
SheevaPlug Dev Kit (I bought mine from Global Scale) 
SD Card
SD Card Reader
A linux box to install the OS on the SD card.

Add the SD Card to your linux box you are building this on and run:

dmesg | tail

The output here shows me that it has been mounted as /dev/sdc.

We will partition the SD card now.

fdisk /dev/sdc

Delete any existing partitions.

d
1

Create the new partition.
c
accept defaults

Make it bootable
a

Verify it
p

Write the new parition table
w

Create the filesystem.
mkfs.ext2 /dev/sdc1

Download the Kernel and Distro
wget http://ftp.linux.org.uk/pub/linux/arm/fedora/platforms/sheevaplug/uImage-2.6.30-sheevaplug
wget http://ftp.linux.org.uk/pub/linux/arm/fedora/rootfs/rootfs-f12.tar.bz2

Create a mount point
mkdir /media/flash

Mount the SD Card
mount /dev/sdc1 /media/flash

Uncompress the filesystem
tar -jxf rootfs-f12.tar.bz2

Copy the filesystem over to the sd card
cp -r rootfs-f12/* /media/flash/

Copy the kernel over to the sd card
cp uImage-2.6.30-sheevaplug /media/flash/boot/

The fstab needs to be edited to point to the SD card. The Sheevaplug see's the SD card as /dev/mmcblk0pX
vi /etc/fstab
change /root to
/dev/mmcblk0p1          /                       ext2     relatime        1 0

I have no idea what roots password is set to. So we'll remove it.
vi /media/flash/etc/shadow

Change the remove the password:
root:65946945gkfhkfjghkfghfkngdfshgt843:14495:0:99999:7:::
to
root::14495:0:99999:7:::

Edit the network configuration for your network

vi /media/flash/etc/sysconfig/network
NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=YourHostnameHere

vi /media/flash/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=static
ONBOOT=yes
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
IPADDR=10.0.0.2
GATEWAY=10.0.0.1
DNS1=10.0.0.1
TYPE=Ethernet
USERCTL=no
PEERDNS=no
IPV6INIT=no
NM_CONTROLLED=no

Unmount the sd card
umount /media/flash
Put it in the SheevaPlug

The SheevaPlug ships with a firmware that can boot off of SD cards. So you need to update it over TFTP
Install a tftp server
yum install tftp-server

Get the u-boot image and make it available to the sheevaplug

cd /var/lib/tftpboot/
wget http://www.cyrius.com/tmp/u-boot.bin-3.4.19
mv u-boot.bin-3.4.19 uboot.bin
vi /etc/xinetd.d/tftp
change "disable  = yes " to "disable = no "


Add the script to load the ftdi driver when the SheevaPlug is connected:
vi /etc/udev/rules.d/85-sheevaplug.rules

# if no driver has claimed the interface yet, load ftdi_sio
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_interface", \
        ATTRS{idVendor}=="9e88", ATTRS{idProduct}=="9e8f", \
        DRIVER=="", \
        RUN+="/sbin/modprobe -b ftdi_sio"

# add the sheevaplug VID and PID to the list of devices supported by ftdi_sio
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="drivers", \
        ENV{DEVPATH}=="/bus/usb-serial/drivers/ftdi_sio", \
        ATTR{new_id}="9e88 9e8f"

# optionally create a convenience symlink for the console device
ACTION=="add", KERNEL=="ttyUSB*", \
        ATTRS{interface}=="SheevaPlug JTAGKey FT2232D B", \
        ATTRS{bInterfaceNumber}=="01", \
        SYMLINK+="sheevaplug"

***Plug in the serial cable from the Sheevaplug, if a /dev/ttyUSBx is not created, reboot

your linux system

Hook up the usb cable to the mini usb connector on the SheevaPlug to a usb port on your linux box.
screen /dev/ttyUSBX 115200

Update the firmware

Marvell>> setenv serverip 192.168.1.2 # IP of your TFTP server
Marvell>> setenv ipaddr 192.168.1.200 #IP of sheevaplug
Marvell>> bubt uboot.bin

**Warning**
If U-Boot Endiannes is going to change (LE->BE or BE->LE),
Then Env parameters should be overridden..
Override Env parameters? (y/n) n

Next you need to configure the bootloader to boot off of the SD card
setenv mainlineLinux yes
setenv arcNumber 2097
setenv bootargs_console console=ttyS0,115200
setenv bootargs_root 'rw root=/dev/mmcblk0p1 rootdelay=10 rootfstype=ext2'
setenv bootcmd_mmc 'mmcinit; ext2load mmc 0 0x800000 /boot/uImage-2.6.30-sheevaplug'
setenv bootcmd 'setenv bootargs $(bootargs_console) $(bootargs_root); run bootcmd_mmc; bootm 0x0800000'
saveenv
reset

It should boot up now.

You need to change the  root password.
IP Tables is not loading right on my f12 install. So edit /etc/hosts.allow and hosts.deny until someone can figure it out...

I run Apache/PHP/DNSmasq/samba/etc on it and can't really notice any big performance hit.