[U-Boot] USB fatload fails to load rootfs

[Chuck Wical <chuck.wical@amanomcgann.com>]

Romain Izard <romain.izard.pro <at> gmail.com> writes:

> 
> On 2013-08-28, Chuck Wical <chuck.wical <at> amanomcgann.com> wrote:
> > I am trying to load rootfs.ext2.gz.uboot from usb using fatload but
> > when it reaches a point in writing the file to memory a reset occurs
> > of the CPU.  If I load this file using tftp it works fine.  Here are
> > the commands I am using:
> >
> > loadaddr=0x21000000
> >
> > tftp $(loadaddr) rootfs.ext2.gz.uboot
> >
> > usb start fatload usb 0 $(loadaddr) rootfs.ext2.gz.uboot
> >
> > The version of U-Boot used is 2009.11.1 and upgrading at this point
> > may be an issue.  Before a bunch of questions are asked I inherited
> > this project, it is mature and works, I have no documentation, and I
> > am simply trying to copy a file from usb to memory.  Nothing more,
> > nothing fancy.
> >
> > My searches on the web have not yielded any possible solutions or good
> > explanations of the usb subsystem in U-Boot so I am hoping someone can
> > provide some possible solutions or information I can read.
> >
> The FAT reading code in old versions of U-Boot is quite sensitive to
> external conditions. In my experience, changing the compiler for a
> source tree based on the 2007 U-Boot code from GCC 4.3.3 to GCC 4.7.3
> produced the same issue as the one you described. Surprisingly, the
> issue only occurred for the rootfs, and not the kernel, which was a
> smaller file.
> 
> Unfortunately for you, our answer to this issue was the finalization of
> the porting of our platform to the U-Boot mainline, which does not has
> those problems.
> 
> Best regards,


Thank you Roman for the response.  You stated exactly what I am seeing, it
is only the rootfs file that fails while the uImage and etc.jffs2 files copy
and write to nand with no problem.

You will have to forgive my lack of knowledge on U-Boot since I have only
been working on this specific task that involves U-Boot for about a week now
so I have been on a steep learning curve.  You mentioned U-Boot mainline not
having this issue.  Could you direct me to where I can find this so I can
take a look?

My concern is the cross-compiler that was created by a third party may not
be compatible with newer versions of U-Boot and I would need to go through
the patches to see if there was anything custom created.  As you probably
understand this is time consuming work, especially with the learning curve I
am on.  

Again many thanks for the response!

Chuck