From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Arnout Vandecappelle Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2013 11:48:34 +0100 Subject: [Buildroot] designing a firmware update mechanism In-Reply-To: <1358460573.32266.63.camel@genx> References: <1358460573.32266.63.camel@genx> Message-ID: <50FBCB82.9060507@mind.be> List-Id: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: buildroot@busybox.net On 01/17/13 23:09, John Stile wrote: > I use buildroot for an embedded project, which has an atmel arm > processor, at91BootStrap on NOR to call uboot (and the reset of the > system) on NAND. > > I am trying to devise a brick-safe strategy to update the systems once > created, but I'm making this up as I go for a lack of better ideas. > > So far I am trying to split NAND in redundant halves (each with a copy > of uboot + uboot-env + kernel + roofs), and modify at91bootstrap to > choose which uboot to load, based on something inside the uboot-env > areas. Do you really need U-Boot itself to be upgradeable? If not, you can put U-Boot and its environment in NOR. That gives you U-Boot scripting to choose an appropriate kernel+rootfs, it allows you to use a bootcounter to fall back on the other kernel when it is resetting all the time (due to watchdog), it allows you to detect failed upgrades (CRC check fails), it allows you to put everything in UBI volumes (if you need the wear levelling and bit scrubbing), etc. > Will I need to compile 2 versions of uboot, differing only in where to > look for the uboot-env, or is there another way? If so, is there a way > to do this within buildroot, or does uboot need to become an external > project from my buildroot setup? As Peter wrote, you don't need to (but then you have to hack U-Boot). If you do want to build two versions of U-Boot, it's not that hard: make BR2_TARGET_UBOOT_BOARDNAME=myboard_p1 uboot mv output/images/u-boot.img output/images/u-boot.myboard_p1.img make BR2_TARGET_UBOOT_BOARDNAME=myboard_p2 uboot mv output/images/u-boot.img output/images/u-boot.myboard_p2.img > Could anyone share a firmware update strategy for a project that uses > buildroot, at91bootstrap, and uboot, or is that outside the scope of > this list? > > I have not found any built-in mechanisms to handle updates. I started on a project that collects the best practices of firmware updates, but I haven't made much progress up to now :-( Regards, Arnout -- Arnout Vandecappelle arnout at mind be Senior Embedded Software Architect +32-16-286500 Essensium/Mind http://www.mind.be G.Geenslaan 9, 3001 Leuven, Belgium BE 872 984 063 RPR Leuven LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/arnoutvandecappelle GPG fingerprint: 7CB5 E4CC 6C2E EFD4 6E3D A754 F963 ECAB 2450 2F1F