Installing TFTP server

Background Information

Trivial File Transfer Protocal or TFTP is used to transfer files from machine to machine with less overhead that our protocols. For more information about TFTP see the following page: [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivial_File_Transfer_Protocol ]

Nearly all of the EMAC ARM based systems require a TFTP server to transfer the Linux kernel and file system to the board from a host PC. The boot loader will connect to the server and retrieve specific files and relocate them to SDRAM for programming on the target's flash.

Installing a TFTP server on Ubuntu

There are several TFTP server alternatives in Ubuntu. The tftpd or tftpd-hpa packages are recommend for install.

Installing tftpd

To install the tftpd package run the following:

sudo apt-get install tftpd

To configure the the TFTP server, create /etc/xinetd.d/tftp with the following contents:

service tftp
{
protocol        = udp
port            = 69
socket_type     = dgram
wait            = yes
user            = nobody
server          = /usr/sbin/in.tftpd
server_args     = /tftpboot
disable         = no
}

Run the following to create the TFTP server's base directory:

sudo mkdir /tftpboot
sudo chmod -R 777 tftpboot
sudo chown -R nobody /tftpboot

Once the configuration is complete the xinetd start should be restarted to enable the server:

sudo /etc/init.d/xinetd restart

The TFTP server is then ready to send/recieve files from /tftpboot.

Notes that the used directory can be changed to your needs by editing the server_args variable in /etc/xinet.d/tftp file.

Installing a TFTP server on Windows

For Window's based systems, EMAC recommends the Tftpd32 server. The installation procedure is typical and should be self explanatory.