Preinstallation

This page will explain what you have to do before beginning with the installation.

Update U-Boot bootloader

If you once used the  sheevaplug (re)installation tool, your U-Boot on the sheevaplug's flash was already updated to a recent version which is capable of booting off an SD card. Booting from USB drive or internal NAND flash memory should work with the default U-Boot version. To perform an update manually, you first have to set up a TFTP server. An another arch linux machine the installation of the server is easy:

# pacman -Sy tftp-hpa

You have to grand permission in the file /etc/hosts.allow. Add the following

tftpd: ALL
in.tftpd: ALL

and start the tftpd daemon

# /etc/rc.d/tftpd start

Put the new firmware  uboot.bin in the default tftp directory /var/tftpboot. Then use the U-Boot update mechanism in the serial terminal. To access U-Boot, connect sheevaplug to your USB port, load the kernel module and open the serial console with screen.

# modprobe usbserial vendor=0x9e88 product=0x9e8f
# modprobe ftdi_sio vendor=0x9e88 product=0x9e8f
$ screen /dev/ttyUSB1 115200

If you don't have the ftdi_sio module, you have to compile it...

Device Drivers --->
  <*> USB support  --->
    <*> USB Serial Converter support  --->
      <*> USB FTDI Single Port Serial Driver

Now reboot sheevaplug. Then press a key to interrupt U-Boot's booting process when it says "Hit any key to stop autoboot: 3..2..1..0". Update U-Boot:

setenv ipaddr <required IP address for the plug>
setenv serverip <tftp server IP address>
bubt u-boot.bin
reset

This is actually everything what you have to do. Now go to the corresponding wiki pages whether you want to install on the internal NAND flash memory or on an USB drive or SD card.