Need to update glibc on embedded board
 

Hi,
I am developing for a MPC8543 embedded board,
The board uses Uboot 1.3.1, Linux 2.6.24 Kernel and ELDK 4.3 as rootfs
ELDK 4.3 has glibc-2.6, It's really old and does not support many new functions which I need,
I have the DTS and defconfig for my board (although for kernel 2.6.24),
What is the procedure to update the libc?, Do I need to update all the components (rootfs, kernel and uboot)?
Or one of them is enough?,
Thanks.

Glibc is one of the fundamental packages in the toolchain. Any major version update of glibc would probably break things, as it changes the support libraries that everything uses. Even worse, it could introduce a 'maybe' into reliability with weirdo intermittent faults. I would plan a system upgrade. If you don't have source, you have a real problem. The LFS mailing list archives used to have much on this question
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org

I do have the defconfig and DTS for kernel version 2.6.24,
Yet newer versions introduce various new things which I don't know what their values are,
What does the system upgrade include? Uboot, Kernel and rootfs?
I'm pretty scared about the uboot since I don't have a BDI at hand.

I have had success updating old kernels to much later versions. There was some pain going to version 3.x from 2.x because a lot of required versions were updated, and my OS was aging. You need to compile only the features you need on your board. There is the option _not_ to compile in stuff. From memory, the 3.x kernel source listed all the required versions in the docs at the top of the source tree.

Okay,
Is there any need to update the u-boot or rootfs before trying to update the kernel?

There is a need to back up some way you can get it back if the update causes it to puke on bootup (Worst case). If you can, add the kernel, don't replace one with the other.

Okay,
I am having progress with this,
I built a new kernel (2.6.25) using older 2.6.24 dts and defconfig,
Though it's not working,
Unfortunately I am having zero input after this:
I feel like i'm missing something about the relationship between the U-Boot,Kernel and rootfs in my system,
Do I need to upgrade something else before I try and upgrade the kernel?

Have you added support for the basic parts of your system? You need to compile in support for disk filesystems on your hd if you haven't got it, etc. defconfig is a wild guess hardly suited for a Mac or any particular machine.