--- Senthil Shanmugham neorebel@gmail.com wrote:

Hi All,

I was wondering about the difference between the bootm and run flash_self commands. I understand that bootm command uncompresses and boots the kernel from a given memory location. The board hangs when I try to use bootm command to load the kernel whereas it works perfectly when I use "run flash_self" command.

flash_self is a macro. Look below...

The environment variables is same for both the scenarios. I've included the environment variables as well as command outputs below.

Enviroment variables

=> printenv bootcmd=run flash_self baudrate=115200 loads_echo=1 preboot=echo;echo Type "run flash_nfs" to mount root filesystem over NFS;echo netdev=eth0 hostname=taishan nfsargs=setenv bootargs root=/dev/nfs rw nfsroot=${serverip}:${rootpath} ramargs=setenv bootargs root=/dev/ram rw addip=setenv bootargs ${bootargs}

ip=${ipaddr}:${serverip}:${gatewayip}:${netmask}:${hostname}:$1addtty=setenv

bootargs ${bootargs} console=ttyS1,${baudrate} flash_nfs=run nfsargs addip addtty;bootm ${kernel_addr}

flash_self=run ramargs addip addtty;bootm ${kernel_addr} ${ramdisk_addr}

It does much more than bootm, such as telling the kernel you're using an initrd for rootfs(ramargs), passing network configuration, which isn't likely causing your problem (addip), and of course setting up the console port, which probably is causing your problem (addtty). The definitions of these items are obscured by your printout, but they're not trivial. Type 'printenv addtty', for example.

regards, Ben