[U-Boot-Users] at45 dataflash

[U-Boot-Users] at45 dataflash

[Z.N.]

Hi!

I'm running u-boot 1.1.2 on an AT91 compatible board, however I have no
NAND flash, only serial dataflash.

As far as I've looked at the sources, there is a configuration option
that I can store environment variables on the dataflash, however how can
I load the kernel image & ramdisk image from dataflash into SDRAM? 
(I've found no commands to do this, maybe I overlooked it somewhere..)

If there is no way to do this, what if I load the kernel image together
with u-boot into sdram on startup, can u-boot start this "pre-loaded"
kernel image?

Thank you for you answers!

Best Regards,
Zoli

[U-Boot-Users] at45 dataflash

[Wolfgang Denk]

In message <1107905713.9293.9.camel@localhost> you wrote:
> 
> As far as I've looked at the sources, there is a configuration option
> that I can store environment variables on the dataflash, however how can
> I load the kernel image & ramdisk image from dataflash into SDRAM? 
> (I've found no commands to do this, maybe I overlooked it somewhere..)

You use the same commands as for NOR  flash.  Dataflash  support  was
intergrated transparently.

> If there is no way to do this, what if I load the kernel image together
> with u-boot into sdram on startup, can u-boot start this "pre-loaded"
> kernel image?

In theory it can. [And actually it most probably will.]

However, you are aware that U-Boot expects to be started fresh out of
reset on a completely uninitialized system, and on such a system  you
cannot  have any SDRAM contents as the SDRAM has not been initialized
yet. I guess you may want to read the FAQ at
http://www.denx.de/twiki/bin/view/DULG/CanUBootBeConfiguredSuchThatItCanBeStartedInRAM

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
Software Engineering:  Embedded and Realtime Systems,  Embedded Linux
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd at denx.de
"And it should be the law: If you use  the  word  `paradigm'  without
knowing  what  the  dictionary  says  it  means,  you  go to jail. No
exceptions."                     - David Jones @ Megatest Corporation

[U-Boot-Users] at45 dataflash

[Z.N.]

Hi!

Thanks for the reply!

This is how u-boot boots for me:

U-Boot 1.1.2 (Feb  9 2005 - 16:43:51)

U-Boot code: 21F00000 -> 21F16F40  BSS: -> 21F1B5F8
RAM Configuration:
Bank #0: 20000000 32 MB
Atmel: Flash:  0 kB
Error Timeout
DataFlash:AT45DB161
Nb pages:   4096
Page Size:    528
Size= 2162688 bytes
Logical address: 0xC0000000
Area 0: C0000000 to C0007FFF (RO)
Area 1: C0008000 to C001FFFF (RO)
Area 2: C0020000 to C0027FFF
Area 3: C0028000 to C020FFFF
*** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment

In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
U-Boot>

And if I display the contents of the Dataflash, the following happens:

U-Boot> md c0000000
c0000000:Error Timeout
Error Timeout
data abort
pc : [<21f08648>]    lr : [<21f12310>]
sp : 21eddc38  ip : 21edda28  fp : 21eddc7c
r10: c0000000  r9 : 00000100  r8 : 21eddfdc
r7 : 00000010  r6 : 00000000  r5 : 00000004  r4 : 21eddc48
r3 : 00000000  r2 : fffff200  r1 : 21edda5c  r0 : ffffffff
Flags: nZCv  IRQs off  FIQs off  Mode SVC_32
Resetting CPU ...


How come that the dataflash _gets detected_, however it is not
_readable_?!

(I only have dataflash no NAND flash..)

I've tried to set CFG_MAX_FLASH_BANKS and CFG_MAX_NAND_DEVICE to 0, but
this did not help (same as above). How can I remove NAND support from my
config? (Maybe that is the cause of the dataflash errors..)

I hope Wolfgang or someone could give me a hint (or some pointers to the
documentation..)

Best regards,
Zoli

PS:

In fact I've also tried to use the Atmel supplied loader.bin to load the
u-boot image, with the following results:

When the loader.bin image is running on the board, and outputting the
'C' characters, waiting for the Xmodem transfer. Then, the following
happens during the Xmodem transfer:

sx -X u-boot.bin </dev/ttyS0 >/dev/ttyS0
Sending u-boot.bin, 728 blocks: Give your local XMODEM receive command
now.
Xmodem sectors/kbytes sent:   0/ 0kRetry 0: NAK on sector
Retry 0: NAK on sector
Retry 0: NAK on sector
Retry 0: NAK on sector
Retry 0: NAK on sector
Retry 0: NAK on sector
Retry 0: NAK on sector
Retry 0: NAK on sector
Retry 0: NAK on sector
Retry 0: NAK on sector
Retry 0: NAK on sector
Retry 0: Retry Count Exceeded

Transfer incomplete

Have anyone experienced such thing?

On Wed, 2005-02-09 at 00:35 +0100, Wolfgang Denk wrote:
> In message <1107905713.9293.9.camel@localhost> you wrote:
> > 
> > As far as I've looked at the sources, there is a configuration option
> > that I can store environment variables on the dataflash, however how can
> > I load the kernel image & ramdisk image from dataflash into SDRAM? 
> > (I've found no commands to do this, maybe I overlooked it somewhere..)
> 
> You use the same commands as for NOR  flash.  Dataflash  support  was
> intergrated transparently.
> 
> > If there is no way to do this, what if I load the kernel image together
> > with u-boot into sdram on startup, can u-boot start this "pre-loaded"
> > kernel image?
> 
> In theory it can. [And actually it most probably will.]
> 
> However, you are aware that U-Boot expects to be started fresh out of
> reset on a completely uninitialized system, and on such a system  you
> cannot  have any SDRAM contents as the SDRAM has not been initialized
> yet. I guess you may want to read the FAQ at
> http://www.denx.de/twiki/bin/view/DULG/CanUBootBeConfiguredSuchThatItCanBeStartedInRAM
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Wolfgang Denk

[U-Boot-Users] at45 dataflash

[richard at uclinux.net]

Hello


Never worked with SPI flash in u-boot yet...but...
are you sure it gets detected correctly?

> Atmel: Flash:  0 kB
> Error Timeout

For me a "Timeout" doesn't tell me that a device is recognized properly (o;

> DataFlash:AT45DB161
> Nb pages:   4096
> Page Size:    528
> Size= 2162688 bytes

rick

[U-Boot-Users] at45 dataflash

[Z.N.]

Hi!

> Never worked with SPI flash in u-boot yet...but...
> are you sure it gets detected correctly?
> 
> > Atmel: Flash:  0 kB
> > Error Timeout
> 
> For me a "Timeout" doesn't tell me that a device is recognized properly (o;
isnt this Timeout message refer to the parallel NAND flash? (since there
is no NAND flash in the design, this would be natural)

Zoli