[E3-hacking] Just got an e3 - where do I start

[Edward Robbins]

To bring this discussion back round to the original topic, now that I
have an e3 setup how do I go about getting it to boot?

I've got a serial going with an inverter, I know I can use pbltool to
flash an image to the NAND, and I'm happy building a kernel for it. So
as far as I can tell my next steps are to use the resources at
http://the.earth.li/pub/e3/ to flash the kernel, a bootloader, and
some fs.

Still, the way forward seems a little hazy, at least without reading
the last 6 years worth of mailing list archives. As far as I can tell,
there are a couple of ways to boot:

- use pbltool with a script to flash uboot, kernel, initrd. Not sure
if script needs to be modified for kernel/initrd size or if the kernel
will then just happily boot after every reset unattended.
- use pbltool to flash !LDR, uboot, kernel and initrd. Not sure if I
need to first boot a (possibly very old) system to flash !LDR or if it
can be done using pbltool
- flash !LDR, kernel and initrd, without uboot.

In any case, I am still unsure about a few things

- can I use pbltool to do the flashing in any of those scenarios, or
do I need something else?
- are the versions of pbltool and !LDR at the link I posted the latest?
- will I need to modify the kernel to have the correct NAND partition
offsets for my kernel etc? Is there a specific address PBL looks to
boot from?
- how do you set kernel parameters etc? Does uboot give its normal
boot prompt to framebuffer/serial?

Sorry for all the newbie questions!
Best,
Ed