Embedding an image

After you've created your bootable OS image on the host system, you'll want to transfer it to the target system so that you can boot the QNX Neutrino RTOS on the target. The various ways of booting the OS on a target system are described in the chapter on customizing IPL programs in this guide.

If you're booting the OS from flash, then you'll want to write the image into the flash devices on the target. The same applies if you have a flash filesystem image — you'll want to write the image into flash on the target.

Figure 1. Flash configuration options for your QNX Neutrino-based embedded systems.

Depending on your requirements and the configuration of your target system, you may want to embed:

Also, you may wish to write the boot image and the flash filesystem on the same flash device or different devices. If you want to write the boot image and the flash filesystem on the same device, then you can use the mkimage utility to combine the image files into a single image file.

During the initial development stages, you'll probably need to write the image into flash using a programmer or a download utility. Later on if you have a flash filesystem running on your target, you can then write the image file into a raw flash partition.

If your programmer requires the image file to be in some format other than binary, then you can use the mkrec utility to convert the image file format.