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--------------------
Serial Loading Tools
--------------------

This collection of tools enables you to boot Linux on a palmld PDA via the
'Sandal' recovery console on the serial port.  They may also be useful for other
devices.

Usage
-----

Connect PDA to PC's serial port.  You'll need to convert between the PDA's TTL
level serial port and your PCs RS232.  Alternatively you can get a something
like a Nokia DKU-5 data cable which does TTL serial -> USB conversion.

Open the serial port using something like minicom at a baud rate of 115200 with
both software and hardware flow control disabled.

Reset the PDA while holding down the hotsync button.  The LCD should remain off
indicating the recovery console has been entered.  On the PC you should see the
Sandal prompt.  Check to make sure the link is working by typing a command such
as "w 0".

Compile the 'quickload' bootloader by typing 'make'.  Upload the bootloader to
the PDA using a command like:

    ./bin2sandal.py -d quickload.bin > /dev/ttyUSB0

In minicom you should see a bunch memory write commands hopefully ending in
quickload's prompt "Q?" .

Upload your kernel image using ql.py:

    ./ql.py < zImage > /dev/ttyUSB0

This may take a while, ql.py will print the progress percentage and you should
see the bootloader replying with lots of dots in minicom.  When the upload is
complete ql.py will exit and the bootloader will print 'G' and then attempt to
jump to the image.


Kernel Note
-----------

Quickload doesn't support passing a kernel command line at the moment so you'll
want to compile one into kernel itself.  Normally you'll want to at least 
specify the RAM size of the device and put the console on the serial port like
this:

    mem=32M console=ttyS0,115200

License
-------

Copyright (C) 2007 Alex Osborne

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 
or at your option version 3 as published by the Free Software Foundation

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA

----
Alex Osborne 
<alex at-sign hackndev dot com>