Das U-Boot

The submarine ( The Universal Bootloader) is a bootstrap software that particular run on microcontrollers on different processors (eg PowerPC, ARM, AVR32, MIPS, Blackfin ). It is mainly used in the field of embedded systems.

With flexible configuration options during compilation, it is possible to generate specific variants for different applications. Also at run time can influence behavior through extensive command-line commands or a shell ( Hush by BusyBox project) as well as persistent storable environment variables.

The development of the project is very similar to Linux. Parts of the source code come from there. Particular emphasis was placed on booting Linux images. The software can be compiled using a cross-compiler on an x86 PC for the target platforms. Provide support for toolchains such as crosstool, the Embedded Linux Development Kit ( ELDK ) or OpenEmbedded.

U -Boot is based on a 8xx PowerPC bootloader called 8xxROM by Magnus Damm. As the project moved to SourceForge, it was renamed PPCBoot, since there is no project names were allowed, starting with numbers. In November 2002, the project was renamed again, as supporting a variety other architectures was taken.

Development process

The development process is similar to the development process of Linux. A development cycle lasts two months. The first two weeks, new features are introduced. After this merge window only changes in the next release can be incorporated that fix any errors. Changes are introduced in the form of e -mails with the appropriate patch to the U- boot mailing list.