Debugging U-Boot standalone apps on Tegra 2 board

Debugging U-Boot standalone apps on Tegra 2 board

[Nuno Santos]

Hi

I'm currently running U-Boot on the Tegra2 Harmony board and I'd 
appreciate some help on how to debug U-Boot standalone applications. I'm 
currently stuck with some nasty bugs and without a debugger it will be 
extremely painful to fix them.

I read that using a JTAG device seems to be the best option. According 
to the technical specs of the Harmony board, JTAG is supported and 
looking at the board, there's apparently a debug port (J10). However, 
this port looks too tiny to be a regular JTAG interface.

Do you have any idea if a JTAG debugger is indeed supported? If so, 
could you please recommend me one that is compatible with this board? 
Otherwise, are you aware of an alternative approach for debugging the 
system?

I really appreciate your help on this. Thanks in advance.

Regards,
--Nuno

Re: Debugging U-Boot standalone apps on Tegra 2 board

[Stephen Warren]

On 08/23/2012 10:38 AM, Nuno Santos wrote:
> Hi
> 
> I'm currently running U-Boot on the Tegra2 Harmony board and I'd
> appreciate some help on how to debug U-Boot standalone applications. I'm
> currently stuck with some nasty bugs and without a debugger it will be
> extremely painful to fix them.
> 
> I read that using a JTAG device seems to be the best option. According
> to the technical specs of the Harmony board, JTAG is supported and
> looking at the board, there's apparently a debug port (J10). However,
> this port looks too tiny to be a regular JTAG interface.
> 
> Do you have any idea if a JTAG debugger is indeed supported? If so,
> could you please recommend me one that is compatible with this board?
> Otherwise, are you aware of an alternative approach for debugging the
> system?
> 
> I really appreciate your help on this. Thanks in advance.

I've CC'd a couple of people more involved in U-Boot and JTAG debugging.
For Harmony, I believe you need an external debug board to expose the
JTAG connector in a standard form-factor. I don't know if these are
available; it's probably best to ask whoever you got your Harmony from.

RE: Debugging U-Boot standalone apps on Tegra 2 board

[Tom Warren]

The main Harmony PC board (1162) connects via ribbon cable to a debug board (1137) w/20-pin JTAG, RS-232 serial port, etc. if I remember correctly (haven't touched my Harmony in a long time).

Once you have the debug board, any JTAG dongle will connect - we use the Flyswatter from TinCanTools, and/or the parallel-port JTAG adapters, as well as the Lauterbach.

As Stephen says - whoever gave you the Harmony originally should be able to help you get the debug board to go with it.

HTH,

Tom

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stephen Warren [mailto:swarren-3lzwWm7+Weoh9ZMKESR00Q@public.gmane.org]
> Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2012 10:41 AM
> To: Nuno Santos; Tom Warren; Allen Martin
> Cc: linux-tegra-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public.gmane.org
> Subject: Re: Debugging U-Boot standalone apps on Tegra 2 board
> 
> On 08/23/2012 10:38 AM, Nuno Santos wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > I'm currently running U-Boot on the Tegra2 Harmony board and I'd
> > appreciate some help on how to debug U-Boot standalone applications.
> > I'm currently stuck with some nasty bugs and without a debugger it
> > will be extremely painful to fix them.
> >
> > I read that using a JTAG device seems to be the best option. According
> > to the technical specs of the Harmony board, JTAG is supported and
> > looking at the board, there's apparently a debug port (J10). However,
> > this port looks too tiny to be a regular JTAG interface.
> >
> > Do you have any idea if a JTAG debugger is indeed supported? If so,
> > could you please recommend me one that is compatible with this board?
> > Otherwise, are you aware of an alternative approach for debugging the
> > system?
> >
> > I really appreciate your help on this. Thanks in advance.
> 
> I've CC'd a couple of people more involved in U-Boot and JTAG debugging.
> For Harmony, I believe you need an external debug board to expose the JTAG
> connector in a standard form-factor. I don't know if these are available;
> it's probably best to ask whoever you got your Harmony from.

Re: Debugging U-Boot standalone apps on Tegra 2 board

[andrey.smirnov-MC3rjLPHZ0ivD/XHwUtZZ+TW4wlIGRCZ]

Hi Tom,

You happen to mention a very sore subject for me Flyswatter and Harmony, 
so now that we are on the subject I would like to ask you a couple of 
questions :-)

What software do you use with Flyswatter? Is is OpenOCD? If so what are 
the board files that you use and would it be possible for you to share 
them? The reason I ask is because three month ago or so I tried to use 
the aforementioned combo as a JTAG debugger on my Harmony board(with 
intent to use it on our Harmony based design later) and I failed miserably.

I do have Lauterbach, but the experience of trying to make it work(and 
failing to do so) made me decide not to use that wunderwaffe ever again, 
unless my parents are being held hostage or something.


On 08/23/2012 10:47 AM, Tom Warren wrote:
> The main Harmony PC board (1162) connects via ribbon cable to a debug board (1137) w/20-pin JTAG, RS-232 serial port, etc. if I remember correctly (haven't touched my Harmony in a long time).
>
> Once you have the debug board, any JTAG dongle will connect - we use the Flyswatter from TinCanTools, and/or the parallel-port JTAG adapters, as well as the Lauterbach.
>
> As Stephen says - whoever gave you the Harmony originally should be able to help you get the debug board to go with it.
>
> HTH,
>
> Tom
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Stephen Warren [mailto:swarren-3lzwWm7+Weoh9ZMKESR00Q@public.gmane.org]
>> Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2012 10:41 AM
>> To: Nuno Santos; Tom Warren; Allen Martin
>> Cc: linux-tegra-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public.gmane.org
>> Subject: Re: Debugging U-Boot standalone apps on Tegra 2 board
>>
>> On 08/23/2012 10:38 AM, Nuno Santos wrote:
>>> Hi
>>>
>>> I'm currently running U-Boot on the Tegra2 Harmony board and I'd
>>> appreciate some help on how to debug U-Boot standalone applications.
>>> I'm currently stuck with some nasty bugs and without a debugger it
>>> will be extremely painful to fix them.
>>>
>>> I read that using a JTAG device seems to be the best option. According
>>> to the technical specs of the Harmony board, JTAG is supported and
>>> looking at the board, there's apparently a debug port (J10). However,
>>> this port looks too tiny to be a regular JTAG interface.
>>>
>>> Do you have any idea if a JTAG debugger is indeed supported? If so,
>>> could you please recommend me one that is compatible with this board?
>>> Otherwise, are you aware of an alternative approach for debugging the
>>> system?
>>>
>>> I really appreciate your help on this. Thanks in advance.
>> I've CC'd a couple of people more involved in U-Boot and JTAG debugging.
>> For Harmony, I believe you need an external debug board to expose the JTAG
>> connector in a standard form-factor. I don't know if these are available;
>> it's probably best to ask whoever you got your Harmony from.
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Re: Debugging U-Boot standalone apps on Tegra 2 board

[Stephen Warren]

On 08/24/2012 09:42 AM, andrey.smirnov-MC3rjLPHZ0ivD/XHwUtZZ+TW4wlIGRCZ@public.gmane.org wrote:
> Hi Tom,
> 
> You happen to mention a very sore subject for me Flyswatter and Harmony,
> so now that we are on the subject I would like to ask you a couple of
> questions :-)
> 
> What software do you use with Flyswatter? Is is OpenOCD? If so what are
> the board files that you use and would it be possible for you to share
> them? The reason I ask is because three month ago or so I tried to use
> the aforementioned combo as a JTAG debugger on my Harmony board(with
> intent to use it on our Harmony based design later) and I failed miserably.

I have a FlySwatter 2 and used it with some random git version of
OpenOCD quite a while ago. This worked somewhat on our Springbank board,
although there were some stability issues, although Allen recently
pointed out that /might/ have been due to attempts to access CPU cores
that weren't powered up. Anyway, it was enough to do something useful at
least on the AVP CPU if not the A9s. I mention this because I tried the
exact same setup on Harmony, and also couldn't get OpenOCD to connect at
all IIRC. I'm afraid I haven't investigated this. So, at least we're in
the same boat.

> I do have Lauterbach, but the experience of trying to make it work(and
> failing to do so) made me decide not to use that wunderwaffe ever again,
> unless my parents are being held hostage or something.

I believe most JTAG use within NVIDIA is with a Lauterbach:-(

Re: Debugging U-Boot standalone apps on Tegra 2 board

[Nuno Santos]

On 8/23/12 7:47 PM, Tom Warren wrote:
> As Stephen says - whoever gave you the Harmony originally should be able to help you get the debug board to go with it.
Thank you very much for all your contributions!

I've just contacted NVIDIA, from whom I bough my Harmony board, and 
asked for the external debug board. Unfortunately, the only way to 
acquire / get assistance on these products is through their developer 
portal, which has been under maintenance for the past two months...

Do you have any idea about alternative hardware manufacturers or 
distributors that commercialize the debug board for Harmony? Otherwise, 
it seems that I'll have to change hardware platform...

Thanks again,
--Nuno

Re: Debugging U-Boot standalone apps on Tegra 2 board

[Stephen Warren]

On 08/24/2012 11:22 AM, Nuno Santos wrote:
> On 8/23/12 7:47 PM, Tom Warren wrote:
>> As Stephen says - whoever gave you the Harmony originally should be
>> able to help you get the debug board to go with it.
> Thank you very much for all your contributions!
> 
> I've just contacted NVIDIA, from whom I bough my Harmony board, and
> asked for the external debug board. Unfortunately, the only way to
> acquire / get assistance on these products is through their developer
> portal, which has been under maintenance for the past two months...
> 
> Do you have any idea about alternative hardware manufacturers or
> distributors that commercialize the debug board for Harmony? Otherwise,
> it seems that I'll have to change hardware platform...

Sorry, I sincerely doubt the board is available through anyone but
NVIDIA. I'll ask internally and see if the board is available for
external purchase.

I believe Peter De Schrijver has used JTAG on the TrimSlice, but again
you need a (different) debug board, and I have no idea if Compulab make
those available. I CC'd Peter to see if he knows.

Re: Debugging U-Boot standalone apps on Tegra 2 board

[Peter De Schrijver]

On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 08:26:30PM +0200, Stephen Warren wrote:
> On 08/24/2012 11:22 AM, Nuno Santos wrote:
> > On 8/23/12 7:47 PM, Tom Warren wrote:
> >> As Stephen says - whoever gave you the Harmony originally should be
> >> able to help you get the debug board to go with it.
> > Thank you very much for all your contributions!
> > 
> > I've just contacted NVIDIA, from whom I bough my Harmony board, and
> > asked for the external debug board. Unfortunately, the only way to
> > acquire / get assistance on these products is through their developer
> > portal, which has been under maintenance for the past two months...
> > 
> > Do you have any idea about alternative hardware manufacturers or
> > distributors that commercialize the debug board for Harmony? Otherwise,
> > it seems that I'll have to change hardware platform...
> 
> Sorry, I sincerely doubt the board is available through anyone but
> NVIDIA. I'll ask internally and see if the board is available for
> external purchase.
> 
> I believe Peter De Schrijver has used JTAG on the TrimSlice, but again
> you need a (different) debug board, and I have no idea if Compulab make
> those available. I CC'd Peter to see if he knows.

I tried to, but I never managed to get it to work unfortunately and gave up.

Cheers,

Peter.