[U-Boot] U-Boot on IMX.51 EVK

[U-Boot] U-Boot on IMX.51 EVK

[Thomas Besemer]

Hi Group -

I am working with the imx.51 on the Freescale EVK.  Up to this point, have
been working with the version of U-Boot (and Kernel) from the Freescale web
site; the SDK which is LTIB based.  Pretty stale stuff; U-Boot is rather old
(8/2009), as with Kernel (2.6.31).

I pulled U-Boot before Christmas, got this version:

  [tbesemer at t4linux1 u-boot]$ git describe
  v2010.12-82-gcdc51c2

Main interest being the IPU code, so I can do a Splash Screen. Compiles
fine, boots fine on EVK, but I can't get it to boot my old Kernel; I put my
own command line stuff in place, which is pulling kernel from a known offset
in SD card:

  mmc read 0 ${loadaddr} 0x800 0x1800;bootm

Kernel loads, but hangs on start (shows that U-Boot found it, parsed
header).  Passes CRC.  Have not looked into issue further.  My Kernel
command line all the same; what I did was take the default boot parameters
from existing U-Boot and put them into current U-Boot, re-compile.
${loadaddr} same from before, same as what is in current U-Boot.

A couple of comments/questions:

  - Is above version of U-Boot known to work on EVK?  It appears that this
version supports DOS partitions on SD card, and default command line is to
load from those.  But, I can't find any documentation on how to partition
the SD card to try this.  Help on how to set up the SD card appreciated.

  - Should above "raw" load from SD work?  Probably my preference, but have
an open mind.  My Root FS is on two partitions that U-Boot does not need to
know about; one is primary/recovery, one is working copy on release.

  - The Freescale supplied SDK applies over 100 patches to the 8/09 release
of U-Boot; wondering how many made it into current version of U-Boot, and
how much I should care.

  - I pulled the 2.6.37 Kernel from kernel.org to maybe try that with
current U-Boot, but it doesn't seem to have IPU support, so not viable on my
end.  Might be willing to pull IPU code into Kernel from 2.6.31->2.6.37 to
get it current, but outside scope of this mailing list.

End game:

  - Get the Splash Screen working on imx.51 EVK.  I will provide patch set
back to mailing list once I do.  I will derive from vision2 board.

  - Get it to boot old 2.6.31 SDK supplied Kernel (which also has a bunch of
Freescale patches that don't seem to have made it into kernel.org).

Any help on this appreciated; I will be more than happy to provide patch set
work for anything I do for EVK back to this list for evaluation and
incorporation.

Thanks,

tom

[U-Boot] U-Boot on IMX.51 EVK

[Stefano Babic]

On 01/11/2011 03:02 AM, Thomas Besemer wrote:
> Hi Group -
> 

Hi Thomas,

>   - Is above version of U-Boot known to work on EVK?

As far as I know, yes.

>  It appears that this
> version supports DOS partitions on SD card,

They are additional features, as reading files from a formatted SD is
very common on several boards.

> and default command line is to
> load from those.  But, I can't find any documentation on how to partition
> the SD card to try this.  Help on how to set up the SD card appreciated.

There is some hidden documentation. How to prepare a SD card (partition
table, u-boot image) is described in doc/README.imximage. Getting files
form the SD card is a generic issue, and it is not board specific. You
find examples for fatload in code.

>   - Should above "raw" load from SD work?  Probably my preference, but have
> an open mind.

It should work, but I admit I tested booting from partitions and from
network. Your assumption that CRC is ok let me think that there should
be no problem to read the kernel from the SD card, even in raw mode.

You could verify if your kernel boots independently from storage. Try to
load the kernel from net instead from SD.

>  My Root FS is on two partitions that U-Boot does not need to
> know about;

Correct. u-boot does not need to read the root partition. It is enough
to pass the correct root device to the kernel.

> one is primary/recovery, one is working copy on release.
> 
>   - The Freescale supplied SDK applies over 100 patches to the 8/09 release
> of U-Boot; wondering how many made it into current version of U-Boot, and
> how much I should care.

Rather if they are not pushed to this ML, they cannot be integrated in
the official releases. However, are you sure they are related to the
i.MX51 ? Most of them are probably related to other processors.

>   - I pulled the 2.6.37 Kernel from kernel.org to maybe try that with
> current U-Boot, but it doesn't seem to have IPU support,

I know, but as I see on Linux ARM ML, there is already someone working
on this issue.

> End game:
> 
>   - Get the Splash Screen working on imx.51 EVK.

As reference, take a closer look at the vision2 board. The IPU driver
was ported from Freescale's 2.6.31 linux exactly for this goal. The
splashimage is shown with the help of the "preboot" variable, because
the image is stored on a device not directly addressable (SPI-Flash for
vision2).  It is the same for the mx51evk, because the image must be
loaded (in raw mode or from a partition) from the SD card.

>  I will provide patch set
> back to mailing list once I do.  I will derive from vision2 board.

There is already some work on this issue. A patchset was already sent to
ML, but it requires changes to be included. You could use it as starting
point ;-).

http://www.mail-archive.com/u-boot at lists.denx.de/msg41631.html

Technically, the actual IPU drive in u-boot supports only diu0 (required
by the vision board). So changes are minimal in the IPU driver itself.
However, please read the whole discussion on ML, so you can find which
are the open points to be fixed.

>   - Get it to boot old 2.6.31 SDK supplied Kernel (which also has a bunch of
> Freescale patches that don't seem to have made it into kernel.org).
> 
> Any help on this appreciated; I will be more than happy to provide patch set
> work for anything I do for EVK back to this list for evaluation and
> incorporation.


Best regards,
Stefano Babic

-- 
=====================================================================
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: +49-8142-66989-0 Fax: +49-8142-66989-80  Email: office at denx.de
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[U-Boot] U-Boot on IMX.51 EVK

[Thomas Besemer]

Hi Stefano -

Thanks for your very quick response to my posting.  I'm going to follow up
just for informational purposes, as I was able to get Freescale SDK (LTIB)
Kernel to boot find with current U-Boot.



> >   - Should above "raw" load from SD work?  Probably my preference, but
> have
> > an open mind.
>
> It should work, but I admit I tested booting from partitions and from
> network. Your assumption that CRC is ok let me think that there should
> be no problem to read the kernel from the SD card, even in raw mode.
>
> You could verify if your kernel boots independently from storage. Try to
> load the kernel from net instead from SD.
>

Looks like the problem I was having is the Freescale SDK (LTIB) had a
.config file that ended up with the wrong load address; was picking up the
MX53 (0x70008000 versus 0x90008000) load/build addys.  Don't know why it
ever worked....  I hacked the right address into Makefile.boot, and comes up
fine.  Basic regression testing shows no issues right now.

I was also able to boot over network without issues.

I don't install uImage on a partition, rather, hand install it on SD card
with DD, and then load with this:

  bootcmd_mmc=run bootargs_base bootargs_mmc; mmc read 0 ${loadaddr} 0x800
0x1800;bootm

 Just pulls from an offset in SD card.  Works fine.



>
> >   - The Freescale supplied SDK applies over 100 patches to the 8/09
> release
> > of U-Boot; wondering how many made it into current version of U-Boot, and
> > how much I should care.
>
>
> Rather if they are not pushed to this ML, they cannot be integrated in
> the official releases. However, are you sure they are related to the
> i.MX51 ? Most of them are probably related to other processors.
>

I spot checked this; yes, a lot of patches for other processors.  I'm going
to spot check the key ones for MX51, and if I see needed installs (that are
missing), will do, and provide a clean patch set to this ML (with comment
tied back to the original FS patch set I found needs in).


>
> > End game:
> >
> >   - Get the Splash Screen working on imx.51 EVK.
>
>
> As reference, take a closer look at the vision2 board. The IPU driver
> was ported from Freescale's 2.6.31 linux exactly for this goal. The
> splashimage is shown with the help of the "preboot" variable, because
> the image is stored on a device not directly addressable (SPI-Flash for
> vision2).  It is the same for the mx51evk, because the image must be
> loaded (in raw mode or from a partition) from the SD card.
>
> >  I will provide patch set
> > back to mailing list once I do.  I will derive from vision2 board.
>
> There is already some work on this issue. A patchset was already sent to
> ML, but it requires changes to be included. You could use it as starting
> point ;-).
>
> http://www.mail-archive.com/u-boot at lists.denx.de/msg41631.html
>
> Technically, the actual IPU drive in u-boot supports only diu0 (required
> by the vision board). So changes are minimal in the IPU driver itself.
> However, please read the whole discussion on ML, so you can find which
> are the open points to be fixed.
>
>
Looked briefly at this list; thanks.  I'm going to move forward now to get
IPU support going on EVK with both display ports so that Splash Screen works
on both.

I will post a clean patch set back to ML as I go on (or if I have trouble,
explain what I am seeing).  I'll try to keep my work clean, so it does not
interfere with mainline development, possibly setting up environment
variables to pick output channel.

Thanks again for fast response.

Regards,

tom

[U-Boot] U-Boot on IMX.51 EVK

[Jason Liu]

Hi, Thomas

2011/1/12 Thomas Besemer <thomas.besemer@gmail.com>:
> Hi Stefano -
>
> Looks like the problem I was having is the Freescale SDK (LTIB) had a
> .config file that ended up with the wrong load address; was picking up the
> MX53 (0x70008000 versus 0x90008000) load/build addys. ?Don't know why it
> ever worked.... ?I hacked the right address into Makefile.boot, and comes up
> fine. ?Basic regression testing shows no issues right now.

For picking up MX53 DDR address, it will due to that FSL BSP support
i.mx5 family such as
mx51/mx53/mx50 with one single image. So it take mx53 DDR address by
default by kernel and uboot
will make the adjustment if you take a look at the FSL uboot version.

>
> I was also able to boot over network without issues.

>
> Regards,
>
> tom
>
> _______________________________________________
> U-Boot mailing list
> U-Boot at lists.denx.de
> http://lists.denx.de/mailman/listinfo/u-boot
>
>

[U-Boot] U-Boot on IMX.51 EVK

[Stefano Babic]

On 01/12/2011 02:34 AM, Thomas Besemer wrote:
> Hi Stefano -
> 

Hi Thomas,

> Looks like the problem I was having is the Freescale SDK (LTIB) had a
> .config file that ended up with the wrong load address; was picking up
> the MX53 (0x70008000 versus 0x90008000) load/build addys.

Well, then it is clear why the board does not boot...

>  Don't know
> why it ever worked....

I can only say I have tested with Freescale's kernel, too, and it
worked. Probably I tried with a version before the introduction of MX53,
and the address was correct.

> I was also able to boot over network without issues.
> 
> I don't install uImage on a partition, rather, hand install it on SD
> card with DD, and then load with this:
> 
>   bootcmd_mmc=run bootargs_base bootargs_mmc; mmc read 0 ${loadaddr}
> 0x800 0x1800;bootm
> 
>  Just pulls from an offset in SD card.  Works fine.

Fine, thanks to report to the ML your results.

Best regards,
Stefano Babic

-- 
=====================================================================
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: +49-8142-66989-0 Fax: +49-8142-66989-80  Email: office at denx.de
=====================================================================