Moving Files to the Target System

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Return to the Sitara Linux Software Developer's Guide

Introduction

This guide discusses how applications or other files can be moved to the target file system of the EVM.

File System on SD card

The SD card which comes with the TI SDK has a Linux ext3 partition that is used as the target file system.  This partition is readable from a Linux host.  In Ubuntu 10.04 this partition will be mounted on /media/rootfs when the card is used with an SD card reader inserted into a USB port on the Ubuntu host. 

When the SD card is mounted with a card reader in the Linux host it is possible to perform "cp" commands from the host into sub-directories under /media/rootfs or just use a browser window to drag and drop the files from the host to the SD card.

Switching the SD card back and forth from the EVM to the SD card reader is time consuming during development.  Using a NFS during development is the preferred method and makes moving files between the host and target trivial.

File System on Network File System (NFS)

When the target file system is served from the Linux development host machine it is trivial to move files between the host and target.  The NFS directory is set up on the host machine by the SDK installer.  The default location in the Ubuntu 10.04 development environment is /home/user/ti-sdk-AM3715-evm-4.0.0.0/filesystem.  This could vary depending on the version of the SDK and how it was installed.  An "ls -l" of this directory in the host system will show what will be the root directory of the target when it boots up.

user@U1004GT:~/ti-sdk-AM3715-evm-4.0.0.0/filesystem$ pwd
/home/user/ti-sdk-AM3715-evm-4.0.0.0/filesystem
user@U1004GT:~/ti-sdk-AM3715-evm-4.0.0.0/filesystem$ ls -l
total 60
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 2010-05-07 07:51 bin
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 2010-05-07 00:30 boot
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 2010-05-05 16:28 dev
drwxr-xr-x 24 root root 4096 2010-05-14 10:46 etc
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root 4096 2010-05-07 00:29 home
drwxr-xr-x  4 root root 4096 2010-05-07 00:30 lib
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   12 2010-05-13 09:35 linuxrc -> /bin/busybox
drwxr-xr-x 13 root root 4096 2010-05-14 11:01 media
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 2010-05-07 00:29 mnt
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 2010-05-05 16:28 proc
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 2010-05-07 07:51 sbin
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 2010-05-07 07:51 Settings
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root 4096 2010-05-07 00:29 srv
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 2010-05-05 16:28 sys
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root    8 2010-05-13 09:35 tmp -> /var/tmp
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 4096 2010-05-07 08:43 usr
drwxr-xr-x  7 root root 4096 2010-05-04 21:54 var
user@U1004GT:~/ti-sdk-AM3715-evm-4.0.0.0/filesystem$

So from the perspective of the host, the target filesystem is just a sub-directory of the host.  If the file is in ./filesystem on the host, then the same file will show up in the root directory of the target after the target boots into the NFS.  And if the file is in a subdirectory of ./filesystem (example ./filesystem/sub-dir) then it will show up in the /sub-dir directory of the target after the target boots into the NFS.

The top level makefile of the TI SDK supports an install target that will copy applications into the NFS of the SDK.  See the README file at the top level of the SDK for information about the install target.