[Buildroot] u-boot, setup SD card, BeagleBoard-xM

[Buildroot] u-boot, setup SD card, BeagleBoard-xM

[Torsten Mohr]

Hello,

i wonder if anybody can give me some hints on how to set up an SD card for
u-boot for my BeagleBoard-xM.

The board came with a card with an Angstrom distro that works fine and fist 
starts u-boot and then uImage.

I've set up a second card using some descriptions i found googling, but don't 
really get any success.

I've set up the second card to:
heads: 255
sectors: 63
cylinders: trunc(size/255/63/512)

---  1st try:

The fist partition is type 0x0c (W95), bootable and formatted using:
mkfs.msdos -F 32 -n "beagle" /dev/sdc1

I created u-boot and a kernel using buildroot-2010.11.

I copied a MLO to the SD card, then u-boo.bint and then uImage.

I created a user.scr from input.scr:
mmc init
setenv console tty0 console=ttyS2,115200n8

I created user.scr from it with:

../host/usr/bin/mkimage -A arm -O linux -T script -C none -a 0 -e 0 -n lassie 
-d input.scr user.scr

I only get weird output.


---  2nd try:
i created an exact copy of the SD card with the Angstrom distro (that works) 
using "dd", that i put on the second SD card.

I then mounted the first partition as /mnt and deleted the u-boot.bin that was 
on the card and copied the same file (exactly the same file) onto the card.

Booting from this card does not work, the OMAP does not find a working u-
boot.bin:

Texas Instruments X-Loader 1.4.4ss (Aug 19 2010 - 02:49:27)
Beagle xM Rev A
Reading boot sector
u-boot.bin not found or blank nand contents - attempting serial boot . . .
## Ready for binary (kermit) download to 0x80008000 at 115200 bps...

I don't understand this, i thought that i only need to copy the files onto the 
SD card.  Is it important where the sectors of each file are on the card?
Do i need to run some other tool (like what was necessary for LILO)?

Can anybody give me a hint on how to set up an SD card?
- Where do i get a MLO?
- Do i need to configure MLO?
- What do i need to do with the files?
- Did i miss an important step during setup of the card?


Thanks for any hints,
Torsten.

[Buildroot] u-boot, setup SD card, BeagleBoard-xM

[Steve Calfee]

Hi, I'm working on the XM too. see below



----- Original Message ----
> From: Torsten Mohr <tmohr@s.netic.de>
> Hello,
> 
> i wonder if anybody can give me some hints on how to set up an SD  card for
> u-boot for my BeagleBoard-xM.
> 
> The board came with a card with  an Angstrom distro that works fine and fist 
> starts u-boot and then  uImage.
> 
> I've set up a second card using some descriptions i found  googling, but don't 

> really get any success.
> 
> I've set up the second  card to:
> heads: 255
> sectors: 63
> cylinders:  trunc(size/255/63/512)
> 
> ---  1st try:
> 
> The fist partition is  type 0x0c (W95), bootable and formatted using:
> mkfs.msdos -F 32 -n "beagle"  /dev/sdc1
> 
> I created u-boot and a kernel using buildroot-2010.11.
> 
> I  copied a MLO to the SD card, then u-boo.bint and then uImage.
> 
> I created a  user.scr from input.scr:
> mmc init
> setenv console tty0  console=ttyS2,115200n8
> 
> I created user.scr from it  with:
> 
> ../host/usr/bin/mkimage -A arm -O linux -T script -C none -a 0 -e 0  -n lassie 

> -d input.scr user.scr
> 
> I only get weird  output.
>

Try changing only one thing at a time. First get your kernel to boot, then try 
to modify u-boot. I assume you did a typeo above and actually spelled u-boot.bin 
as that and not as you said u-boo.bint?

I have had problems creating a sd card from scratch on ubuntu lucid. gpartd 
doesn't seem to work correctly. disk utility did, and I have heard that fdisk 
will work correctly. Since bootstrapping was too simple, TI added MLO as a first 
stage bootstrap. TI's rom only reads a particular fat format, and must find MLO 
as the first file in the fat. So you must copy MLO first onto the sd. MLO then 
reads the fat and must find the perfectly named u-boot.bin.
 
> 
> ---  2nd try:
> i created an exact copy of the SD card  with the Angstrom distro (that works) 
> using "dd", that i put on the second  SD card.
> 
> I then mounted the first partition as /mnt and deleted the  u-boot.bin that was 
>
> on the card and copied the same file (exactly the same  file) onto the card.
> 
> Booting from this card does not work, the OMAP does  not find a working u-
> boot.bin:
> 
> Texas Instruments X-Loader 1.4.4ss  (Aug 19 2010 - 02:49:27)
> Beagle xM Rev A
> Reading boot sector
> u-boot.bin  not found or blank nand contents - attempting serial boot . . .
> ## Ready for  binary (kermit) download to 0x80008000 at 115200 bps...
> 
> I don't  understand this, i thought that i only need to copy the files onto the 
>
> SD  card.  Is it important where the sectors of each file are on the  card?
> Do i need to run some other tool (like what was necessary for  LILO)?
> 

It is true, all you need is a perfectly formatted sd card. You must have 
forgotten to sync or had a bad copy of u-boot.bin. I have copied from nautilus, 
u-boot.bin onto the micro-sd card.

> Can anybody give me a hint on how to set up an SD card?
> - Where  do i get a MLO?
From your working sd card.

> - Do i need to configure MLO?
Not unless you want to build it (I haven't tried that yet).

> - What do i need to do with  the files?
MLO must be first in the fat directory.

> - Did i miss an important step during setup of the  card?
> 

Please do things one step at a time. Please ask simpler questions. I'll try to 
help.

Regards, Steve


      

[Buildroot] u-boot, setup SD card, BeagleBoard-xM

[Torsten Mohr]

Hello Steve,

thanks for your answer and your help.

I got a bit further in reproducing the problem.  First, i was not using "sync" 
before, but i don't think this was the problem as i always mounted and 
unmounted the card.

Now what i did in steps:
First test:
- create a FS on partition 1, sommand: mkfs.msdos -F 32 -n "beagle" /dev/sdc1
- mount it and copy MLO on it as the first file
- copy all other files from the angstrom distro on it, starting with u-
boot.bin.  What i wrote below was a mistake, "u-boot.bin" was the file name i 
always used.
- Booting from that card works fine.
- Hooray !

Second test:
- I shut down the kernel i booted properly
- mount the card in the PC again
- delete u-boot.bin
- copy the u-boot.bin from buildroot onto the card
- unmount card, sync
- i did not touch "MLO" at all
- the output says that X-Loader can't find u-boot.bin "or blank nand contents"

Third test
- i mount the card again on the PC
- i delete all files except MLO
- i copy all files from angstrom distro on the card, same order as the first 
time, when everything worked.  MLO was not touched at all on the card.
- when booting, X-Loader tells me that it can't find "u-boot.bin" "or blank 
nand contents".
- I don't understand why this happens, the same files are on the card as 
before and i did not touch MLO.


Fourth test:
- format the card as above
- copy MLO on it first
- copy u-boot.bin and uImage from buildroot to the card
- unmount, sync
- When booting, X-Loader finds u-boot.bin, starts it, but there is only weird 
output:
Texas Instruments X-Loader 1.4.4ss (Aug 19 2010 - 02:49:27)                                                                                                                                                    
Beagle xM Rev A                                                                                                                                                                                                
Reading boot sector                                                                                                                                                                                            
Load???&??oot.b?????????????g????Ca????????&?*??      ??(?5??I?*???j??????
&???k?+????                                                                                                                      
?a??                                                                                      
?????????i??????C!???????.??                                                                                        
                                                                                                                          i????                                                                                
                                                                                                                                 ?
W+???+????!??Zh                                                             


It looks that the card should be created "at once" and not by deleting / 
adding files?

It looks that buildroot-2010.11 / u-boot does not work properly?


Best regards,
Torsten.


Am Montag, 14. M?rz 2011, 17:42:38 schrieb Steve Calfee:
> Hi, I'm working on the XM too. see below
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----
> 
> > From: Torsten Mohr <tmohr@s.netic.de>
> > Hello,
> > 
> > i wonder if anybody can give me some hints on how to set up an SD  card
> > for u-boot for my BeagleBoard-xM.
> > 
> > The board came with a card with  an Angstrom distro that works fine and
> > fist starts u-boot and then  uImage.
> > 
> > I've set up a second card using some descriptions i found  googling, but
> > don't
> > 
> > really get any success.
> > 
> > I've set up the second  card to:
> > heads: 255
> > sectors: 63
> > cylinders:  trunc(size/255/63/512)
> > 
> > ---  1st try:
> > 
> > The fist partition is  type 0x0c (W95), bootable and formatted using:
> > mkfs.msdos -F 32 -n "beagle"  /dev/sdc1
> > 
> > I created u-boot and a kernel using buildroot-2010.11.
> > 
> > I  copied a MLO to the SD card, then u-boo.bint and then uImage.
> > 
> > I created a  user.scr from input.scr:
> > mmc init
> > setenv console tty0  console=ttyS2,115200n8
> > 
> > I created user.scr from it  with:
> > 
> > ../host/usr/bin/mkimage -A arm -O linux -T script -C none -a 0 -e 0  -n
> > lassie
> > 
> > -d input.scr user.scr
> > 
> > I only get weird  output.
> 
> Try changing only one thing at a time. First get your kernel to boot, then
> try to modify u-boot. I assume you did a typeo above and actually spelled
> u-boot.bin as that and not as you said u-boo.bint?
> 
> I have had problems creating a sd card from scratch on ubuntu lucid. gpartd
> doesn't seem to work correctly. disk utility did, and I have heard that
> fdisk will work correctly. Since bootstrapping was too simple, TI added
> MLO as a first stage bootstrap. TI's rom only reads a particular fat
> format, and must find MLO as the first file in the fat. So you must copy
> MLO first onto the sd. MLO then reads the fat and must find the perfectly
> named u-boot.bin.
> 
> > ---  2nd try:
> > i created an exact copy of the SD card  with the Angstrom distro (that
> > works) using "dd", that i put on the second  SD card.
> > 
> > I then mounted the first partition as /mnt and deleted the  u-boot.bin
> > that was
> > 
> > on the card and copied the same file (exactly the same  file) onto the
> > card.
> > 
> > Booting from this card does not work, the OMAP does  not find a working
> > u- boot.bin:
> > 
> > Texas Instruments X-Loader 1.4.4ss  (Aug 19 2010 - 02:49:27)
> > Beagle xM Rev A
> > Reading boot sector
> > u-boot.bin  not found or blank nand contents - attempting serial boot . .
> > . ## Ready for  binary (kermit) download to 0x80008000 at 115200 bps...
> > 
> > I don't  understand this, i thought that i only need to copy the files
> > onto the
> > 
> > SD  card.  Is it important where the sectors of each file are on the 
> > card? Do i need to run some other tool (like what was necessary for 
> > LILO)?
> 
> It is true, all you need is a perfectly formatted sd card. You must have
> forgotten to sync or had a bad copy of u-boot.bin. I have copied from
> nautilus, u-boot.bin onto the micro-sd card.
> 
> > Can anybody give me a hint on how to set up an SD card?
> > - Where  do i get a MLO?
> 
> From your working sd card.
> 
> > - Do i need to configure MLO?
> 
> Not unless you want to build it (I haven't tried that yet).
> 
> > - What do i need to do with  the files?
> 
> MLO must be first in the fat directory.
> 
> > - Did i miss an important step during setup of the  card?
> 
> Please do things one step at a time. Please ask simpler questions. I'll try
> to help.
> 
> Regards, Steve

[Buildroot] u-boot, setup SD card, BeagleBoard-xM

[Thomas Petazzoni]

On Mon, 14 Mar 2011 22:05:36 +0100
Torsten Mohr <tmohr@s.netic.de> wrote:

> It looks that buildroot-2010.11 / u-boot does not work properly?

Does U-Boot mainline completely support the BeagleBoard XM ? Did you
select the appropriate U-Boot configuration ?

Regards,

Thomas
-- 
Thomas Petazzoni, Free Electrons
Kernel, drivers, real-time and embedded Linux
development, consulting, training and support.
http://free-electrons.com

[Buildroot] u-boot, setup SD card, BeagleBoard-xM

[Torsten Mohr]

Hello,

i found that hint when i googled, but directly after it the note that the 
patch is deprecated as it is included in u-boot since version x.y.z.

I have to say that i did not verify what version comes with buildroot (it 
actually is 2010.06), but the patched version was quite old.

I configured "omap3_beagle", which becomes omap3_beagle_config for u-boot.

In the mailing list for beagleboard it seems somebody else also has weird 
output from u-boot.bin that comes with buildroot.


Best regards,
Torsten.


Am Dienstag, 15. M?rz 2011, 11:22:16 schrieb Thomas Petazzoni:
> On Mon, 14 Mar 2011 22:05:36 +0100
> 
> Torsten Mohr <tmohr@s.netic.de> wrote:
> > It looks that buildroot-2010.11 / u-boot does not work properly?
> 
> Does U-Boot mainline completely support the BeagleBoard XM ? Did you
> select the appropriate U-Boot configuration ?
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Thomas

[Buildroot] u-boot, setup SD card, BeagleBoard-xM

[Torsten Mohr]

Hello,

when using buildroot-2011.02 it works !!  Hooray.

Though for the linux 2.6.37 the config failed as there is no omap3_defconfig 
in there.  Copying it over from 2.6.36.x made it compile.

u-boot.bin does not show any weird output any more.


Best regards,
Torsten.