Problems with PM826 card

Problems with PM826 card

[bhavin]

Hello All,

    I am using a PM826 card with our own developed carrier extension
board. I have build the ppcboot image. I am booting the image from flash
and through serial communication SCC and I have configured the correct
serial channel number from our card's schematics. Now, the ppcboot works
but, when I try to write something in flash through ppcboot (either
'loadb' command or 'nm' command) the flash contents are not getting
changed. All other functionality of ppcboot works like erase, read, etc.
but all the functionality related to 'write to flash' is not working.
Can any one please suggest me what could be the possible reason??

Also, I have one separate program which, I downloaded from somewhere
which does some read/write operation to the PM826 card's flash. Through
that program the writing is working perfect.

Has it something to do with ppcboot configuration or the addressing mode?
Your help will be highly appreciated.


Thanks & Regards,
Bhavin Shah
Embedded Engineer
eInfochips Ltd.,
bhavinp@einfochips.com


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Re: Problems with PM826 card

[Wolfgang Denk]

Dear Bhavin,

in message <3F56C5D3.9080202@einfochips.com> you wrote:
>
>     I am using a PM826 card with our own developed carrier extension
> board. I have build the ppcboot image. I am booting the image from flash

Please upgrade. PPCBoot is pretty old, and  a  lot  of  modifications
have been added lately. Please use a recent version of U-Boot instead
(0.4.7).

> and through serial communication SCC and I have configured the correct
> serial channel number from our card's schematics. Now, the ppcboot works
> but, when I try to write something in flash through ppcboot (either
> 'loadb' command or 'nm' command) the flash contents are not getting

Neither the "loadb" nor "nm" commands can operate directly  on  flash
memory.  please  download to RAM (or modify the RAM contents) and use
the "cp" command to write to flash.

> changed. All other functionality of ppcboot works like erase, read, etc.
> but all the functionality related to 'write to flash' is not working.

I think all these things are working fine, you are  just  using  them
wrong.

> Can any one please suggest me what could be the possible reason??

Read the documentation; see
http://www.denx.de/twiki/bin/view/DULG/Manual

> Also, I have one separate program which, I downloaded from somewhere
> which does some read/write operation to the PM826 card's flash. Through
> that program the writing is working perfect.

It's working perfectly in PPCBoot and U-Boot, too. Just remember that
the  command  to  write  to  flash  is  "cp"   (and   it's   variants
"cp.{l|w|b}").

> Has it something to do with ppcboot configuration or the addressing mode?

No, it is a user error.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

--
Software Engineering:  Embedded and Realtime Systems,  Embedded Linux
Phone: (+49)-8142-4596-87  Fax: (+49)-8142-4596-88  Email: wd@denx.de
Software suppliers are trying to make their  software  packages  more
``user-friendly''.  .  .  .  Their best approach, so far, has been to
take all the old brochures, and stamp the words, ``user-friendly'' on
the cover.                                               - Bill Gates

** Sent via the linuxppc-embedded mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/

Re: Problems with PM826 card

[bhavin]

Hello,

   Thanks a bunch for your guidance. It helped a lot. I was able to
download my Linux image to memory and in flash memory after through cp.
But in both the cases when I tried to boot my linux,  the setup got
restarted after giving the message
 > bootm 100000
## Booting image at 00100000 ...
   Image Name:   2.4.5-pre1 initrd for
PM826
   Created:      2003-09-04  13:43:13
UTC
   Image Type:   PowerPC Linux Kernel Image
(gz
   Data Size:    516901 Bytes = 504 kB = 0
MB
   Load Address: 00000000
   Entry Point:  0000000c
   Verifying Checksum ... OK
   Uncompressing Kernel Image ...

Could any one please help me what could be the possible problem as I am
totally new to this area. Or If I can get some pointer on where to look
for this trouble It would be a great help.

Thanks & Regards,
Bhavin Shah
Embedded Engineer
eInfochips Ltd.,
bhavinp@einfochips.com

Wolfgang Denk wrote:

>Dear Bhavin,
>
>in message <3F56C5D3.9080202@einfochips.com> you wrote:
>
>
>>    I am using a PM826 card with our own developed carrier extension
>>board. I have build the ppcboot image. I am booting the image from flash
>>
>>
>
>Please upgrade. PPCBoot is pretty old, and  a  lot  of  modifications
>have been added lately. Please use a recent version of U-Boot instead
>(0.4.7).
>
>
>
>>and through serial communication SCC and I have configured the correct
>>serial channel number from our card's schematics. Now, the ppcboot works
>>but, when I try to write something in flash through ppcboot (either
>>'loadb' command or 'nm' command) the flash contents are not getting
>>
>>
>
>Neither the "loadb" nor "nm" commands can operate directly  on  flash
>memory.  please  download to RAM (or modify the RAM contents) and use
>the "cp" command to write to flash.
>
>
>
>>changed. All other functionality of ppcboot works like erase, read, etc.
>>but all the functionality related to 'write to flash' is not working.
>>
>>
>
>I think all these things are working fine, you are  just  using  them
>wrong.
>
>
>
>>Can any one please suggest me what could be the possible reason??
>>
>>
>
>Read the documentation; see
>http://www.denx.de/twiki/bin/view/DULG/Manual
>
>
>
>>Also, I have one separate program which, I downloaded from somewhere
>>which does some read/write operation to the PM826 card's flash. Through
>>that program the writing is working perfect.
>>
>>
>
>It's working perfectly in PPCBoot and U-Boot, too. Just remember that
>the  command  to  write  to  flash  is  "cp"   (and   it's   variants
>"cp.{l|w|b}").
>
>
>
>>Has it something to do with ppcboot configuration or the addressing mode?
>>
>>
>
>No, it is a user error.
>
>Best regards,
>
>Wolfgang Denk
>
>--
>Software Engineering:  Embedded and Realtime Systems,  Embedded Linux
>Phone: (+49)-8142-4596-87  Fax: (+49)-8142-4596-88  Email: wd@denx.de
>Software suppliers are trying to make their  software  packages  more
>``user-friendly''.  .  .  .  Their best approach, so far, has been to
>take all the old brochures, and stamp the words, ``user-friendly'' on
>the cover.                                               - Bill Gates
>
>
>
>


** Sent via the linuxppc-embedded mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/

Re: Problems with PM826 card

[Wolfgang Denk]

Dear Bhavin,

in message <3F5747CC.5060107@einfochips.com> you wrote:
>
>    Thanks a bunch for your guidance. It helped a lot. I was able to
> download my Linux image to memory and in flash memory after through cp.
> But in both the cases when I tried to boot my linux,  the setup got
> restarted after giving the message

And again this is a user error which could have been avoided had  you
read the documentation (like the README that comes with U-Boot).

>    Image Name:   2.4.5-pre1 initrd for PM826

I recommend NOT to attempt to use  a  2.4.5-pre1  kernel.  The  PM826
board  is  supported by our 2.4.4 and 2.4.20 kernel trees. 2.4.5-pre1
will most likely NOT run.

>    Load Address: 00000000
>    Entry Point:  0000000c

Also, for all 2.4.x kernels the entry point address is 0x0000.

> Could any one please help me what could be the possible problem as I am
> totally new to this area. Or If I can get some pointer on where to look
> for this trouble It would be a great help.

If you are new you should probably  start  using  tested  components,
like  our 2.4.4 or 2.4.20 kernel trees instead of completely untested
2.4.5-pre1. See also http://www.denx.de/re/linux.html

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

--
Software Engineering:  Embedded and Realtime Systems,  Embedded Linux
Phone: (+49)-8142-4596-87  Fax: (+49)-8142-4596-88  Email: wd@denx.de
"Plan to throw one away. You will anyway."
                              - Fred Brooks, "The Mythical Man Month"

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