SnapGear Linux for LEON - 1 INTRODUCTION

1 INTRODUCTION
LINUX support for LEON2 and LEON3 is provided through a special version of the SnapGear Embedded Linux distribution. SnapGear Linux is a full source package, containing kernel, libraries and application code for rapid development of embedded Linux systems. The LEON port of SnapGear supports both MMU and non-MMU LEON configurations, as well as the optional V8 mul/div instructions and floating-point unit (FPU). A single cross-compilation tool-chain is provided which is capable of compiling the kernel and applications for any configuration.
LEON Linux has support for symmetric multi-processing (SMP), it has not been extensively tested yet, but work is in progress.

支持LEON2和LEON3的LINUX来自SnapGear嵌入式Linux发行版的一个特别版本。SnapGear Linux是一个完全代码包，包括内核，库，和面向嵌入式快速开发的应用。SnapGear Linux的LEON移植版支持带MMU和无MMU两种LEON配置，以及可选的SPARC V8 mul/div 指令和浮点运算单元（FPU）。最后还提供一个简单的交叉编译的工具链，可以用来编译任何配置的内核和应用。
LEON Linux 支持对称多处理器（SMP），虽然还没有经过完整的测试，但是相应的工作已经在进行中。

1.1 LEON Linux
There are two different versions of the Linux kernel in the Gaisler SnapGear distribution, namely 2.6.x and 2.0.x. The 2.0 version is modified for use with MMU-less LEON systems, it is called micro controller Linux – μCLinux. 2.6.x has support for MMU systems only, the kernel is from kernel.org with LEON specific patches and additional drivers mainly for GRLib hardware.
The Linux kernel can be configured using a graphical interface. One can remove drivers and features to save space. On LEON3 systems the AMBA plug&play information is used to detect devices and load their respective software drivers. LEON2 uses hard coded addresses to find its devices. During configuration the processor type is selected, LEON2 or LEON3, it is done from the Linux kernel configuration GUI and in the main SnapGear GUI.
Multi processor LEON3 systems are supported by Linux 2.6.21.1 , symmetric multiprocessing support (SMP) can be enabled through the Linux kernel configuration.
The Linux kernel can be used for other projects that need not be based on SnapGear. The boot loader will still be needed but it is possible to create custom projects with custom file systems. Even though it is out of the scope of this document , it is described how to set up Linux with other distributions via NFS.

Gaisler SnapGear发行版有两种不同版本的Linux内核，2.6.x和2.0.x。2.0版本用来支持无MMU系统，也被称为微控制Linux - μCLinux。2.6.x只支持MMU系统，其内核来自kernel.org，增加了一些针对LEON的补丁和针对GRLib硬件的附加驱动。
Linux内核可以进行图形化配置。可以去除一些驱动和特性以节省空间。在LEON3系统上AMBA plug&play信息被用来检测设备以及用来加载其相应的软件驱动。LEON2则使用硬编码的地址来定位其设备。在Linux内核配置的图形化工具中可以选择处理器类型是LEON2或者LEON3。
多处理器LEON3系统使用Linux 2.6.21.1，对称多处理器支持（SMP）可以在内核配置中选定。
Linux内核可以用在其它非SnapGear工程上。仍然需要boot loader，但是有可能使用自定的文件系统来建立自定的系统。

1.2 SnapGear Linux
SnapGear Linux is a full source package, containing kernel, libraries and application code for rapid development of embedded Linux systems . It is configured from a graphical interface similar to the Linux 2.4 kernel configuration utility.

SnapGear Linux 是一个完整的源代码包，包括内核，库，和面向嵌入式快速开发的应用。它使用的图形化配置工具类似于Linux 2.4内核配置工具。

1.3 Boot loader for LEON Linux
A small boot loader has been incorporated into the SnapGear Linux software distribution, it is designed especially for the LEON processors, both SMP and uniprocessor systems. It is capable of passing arguments to any of the Linux kernels and initialize low level hardware. The main purpose of the boot loader should be to initialize basic hardware, such as memory controllers and console output for debugging, before launching LEON Linux.
The SnapGear graphical interface as been extended to allow users to set boot loader parameters in an easy fashion. The boot loader is stored in a non-volatile memory at the address where the LEON processor reads its first instructions to be executed, usually stored in flash at address 0.
During the development process grmon may be used to load the resulting image into RAM directly, thus bypassing the flash. This shortens the development time drastically. Using this method only the last part of the boot loader is executed, it is often referred to as “stage 2”. Instead, grmon initializes the hardware before running stage 2.

SnapGear Linux软件发行版整合了一个小型的boot loader，它是为LEON处理器特别设计的，包括SMP和单处理器系统。它能向任何Linux内核传递启动参数以及进行初始化底层硬件。Boot loader的主要作用应该是在启动LEON linux之前初始化一些基本硬件，比如内存控制器和除错用的控制台输出。
SnapGear的图形化界面被扩展了，使得用户可以用方便的方式制定boot loader的参数。Boot loader存在非易失存储器上，从其地址上LEON处理器读取并执行第一条指令，通常都存储在地址为0的flash上。
在开发期间grmon常常将目标映像直接加载进内存，这样就忽略了flash。这样能大大缩短开发时间。使用这种方法，只有boot loader的最后一部分执行，这部分常常被称为“步骤2”。取而代之的是grmon负责在运行步骤2之前初始化硬件。