I'm coming from the SheevaPlug ("Plug") and hope to install Gentoo on the Efika MX. I'm therefore drawing upon my experience in installing Gentoo on the Plug.

The Plug has a UART port and shipped with the Plug is a cable that is Mini-B plug (5-pin)
Standard-A receptacle to Standard-A plug. One would use this cable by plugging the Mini-B into the Plug and the Standard-A into one's workstation/laptop where you run a communications software such a minicom or picocom. You could then watch and interact with the U-Boot.

Does the Efika support through its Standard-A USB plug the ability to do same? I suspect not as I recall the USB ports would be recognized by U-Boot during the process, so I am guessing the UART port provides an earlier insight into the booting process.

I do not have a free HDMI monitor and was hoping I could interact with the Efika without having to divert one of my current HDMI/DVI monitors for this project. I simply want to act within U-Boot and get myself to a point of being assured the SSH daemon is running.

Hi.

We used to ship debug boards which allows what you intend to do. We've run out of these, and are not planning on building more.

However, you can still buy them from NewIT here: http://www.newit.co.uk/shop/products.php?cat=22


Johan.

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Johan Dams, Genesi USA Inc.
Director, Software Engineering

Yep, I have a blog... PurpleAlienPlanet

We do not support that functionality through USB. However what you are after is what we call our Debug board. This will give you serial output. If you do not have one, please let me know.

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Steev Klimaszewski, Genesi USA Inc.
Senior Software Engineer

I do not have one. Will it provide anything superior to using the HDMI port to a monitor? I basically want to create a "from opening the box to having a fully functioning Gentoo server" Howto (assuming I am successful) to encourage people who might want to build a server to do so using Gentoo. The existing documentation could be improved upon. I just wanted to make sure there was not some way of using the existing USB Standard-A ports before I "borrow" one of my monitors for this project.

I'm hoping the HDMI port show the U-Boot progress, for propriety, it would be helpful if you knew the answer to this question and posted it herein.

Once I'm in my SSH connection, I'm good, so the need is only for a very short time and I'm hoping I could accomplish my install without the need for the board. After all, this will be for others to follow who will not have such a board and may possibly be intimidated were they required to utilize one.

While there is work being done to provide video in uboot, at the moment, uboot output is only available via serial console.

As a Gentoo developer, I love your idea. :)

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Steev Klimaszewski, Genesi USA Inc.
Senior Software Engineer