eCos 3.0 beta 1 Testing Guidelines

Introduction

We are looking for as many developers as possible to support the push towards an eCos 3.0 final release by evaluating the eCos 3.0 beta 1 release. At present, the maintainers are able test on a small proportion of the total number of supported boards only. We hope that net users will be able to fill in some of the gaps in our coverage testing. If you are able to spare some time and have hardware supported by eCos, please consider downloading the beta release and providing feedback. We have assembled a set of testing guidelines which should help you to assess the state of eCos on a specific hardware platform. The guidelines will also ensure that feedback is as useful and consistent as possible.

eCos testing procedure

1. Send e-mail to ecos-discuss@ecos.sourceware.org stating your intention to test the eCos 3.0 beta 1 release. To avoid duplicated effort, please also state the host platform (eg Fedora 9, Windows XP) and the target hardware platform (eg Atmel AT91EB55) you will be using.


2. Download and install the eCos 3.0 beta 1 release by following the installation instructions. If a pre-built toolchain is available for your target hardware architecture, please download and use the pre-built toolchain for all testing. If you will be testing on a Windows host and already have Cygwin installed, we recommend that you update your Cygwin installation to use the latest stable version of each package. Note that the Cygwin package libmpfr1 is essential for correct operation of the new eCos toolchains.


3. Build the eCos library and tests for your target using the all packages template and with no other modifications to the eCos configuration. We would like testers to use the eCos Configuration Tool (configtool) to do this. However, if you really don't like using graphical tools, we would still value your testing feedback using the command-line tool (ecosconfig). The all template is selected in the Configuration Tool by invoking the Templates dialog box from the Build menu. Users of ecosconfig should specify "all" as the third argument when creating a new configuration: ecosconfig new <target> all
   
   Note: If your target has limited memory, it may be necessary to use the default packages template, or even the kernel packages template to ensure that the eCos tests will link correctly.


4. Run a subset of the eCos tests by invoking the Run Tests dialog box from the Tools menu and selecting the following tests:
   
   
   hal/* (all HAL tests)
   kernel/v3_0b1/tests/tm_basic
   kernel/v3_0b1/tests/stress_threads
   services/memalloc/common/v3_0b1/tests/malloc4
   net/common/v3_0b1/tests/multi_lo_select
   language/c/libc/* (one of the libc tests selected at random)
   language/c/libm/v3_0b1/tests/* (one of the libm tests selected at random)
   compat/posix/v3_0b1/tests/* (one of the POSIX tests selected at random)
   
   
   If any of the above tests do not pass, please cut and paste the test output from the Output tab of the Run Tests dialog box into a text file.


5. Report any test failures or other problems using Bugzilla. Full instructions are provided on our problem reports page. Please ensure that problems are reported against version "3.0beta1" and mention the host and toolchain which you were using for testing.

RedBoot testing procedure

Warning! Updating RedBoot on an embedded target involves an element of risk. The level of risk depends on the alternative facilities which are at your disposal to reprogram the ROM should the update process fail or the new RedBoot image prove to be faulty. If you are not fully aware of the risk, we recommend that you do not attempt to update RedBoot or otherwise participate in RedBoot testing. The eCos maintainers cannot be held responsible for boards which are rendered inoperative by an attempt to update RedBoot.

1. Install the eCos 3.0 beta 1 release, as described in the eCos testing procedure (above).


2. Carefully follow the instructions for building and installing RedBoot for your target hardware provided either in the RedBoot User Guide or in the eCos Reference.


3. Verify that you are able to enter commands at the RedBoot> prompt using both serial and ethernet ports as applicable.


4. Verify that you are able to download and execute eCos tests using GDB. Again, please verify correct operation using both serial and ethernet ports as applicable.


5. Verify that you are able to write a new image to each of the Flash memory regions provided on your target platform.


6. Report problems using Bugzilla, as described in the eCos testing procedure (above).