[U-Boot] Creating U-Boot env image

[U-Boot] Creating U-Boot env image

[Alexey Smishlayev]

Hello!

I would like to flash the environment variable values to my board, 
rather than setting them at the prompt. I've founa a tool mkenvimage is 
made specially for that. I used it to create a binary image of the 
U-Boot environment. However, when I flash it to my board, I get the message
*** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment

I thought it is due to that redundant memory wasn't written aswell, so I 
commented out #define CONFIG_ENV_REDUND_OFFSET in the 
include/configs/at91sam9g20ek.h, and tried once again, but I'm still 
getting this error.

What should I do to flash environment values directly to the board's NAND?

Best regards,
Alexey Smishlayev

[U-Boot] Creating U-Boot env image

[Wolfgang Denk]

Dear Alexey Smishlayev,

In message <52A5D4F1.7020101@xtech2.lv> you wrote:
> 
> I would like to flash the environment variable values to my board, 
> rather than setting them at the prompt. I've founa a tool mkenvimage is 
> made specially for that. I used it to create a binary image of the 
> U-Boot environment. However, when I flash it to my board, I get the message
> *** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment
> 
> I thought it is due to that redundant memory wasn't written aswell, so I 
> commented out #define CONFIG_ENV_REDUND_OFFSET in the 
> include/configs/at91sam9g20ek.h, and tried once again, but I'm still 
> getting this error.
> 
> What should I do to flash environment values directly to the board's NAND?

Why don't you just use "env import"?

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd at denx.de
Living on Earth may be expensive, but it includes an annual free trip
around the Sun.

[U-Boot] Creating U-Boot env image

[Alexey Smishlayev]

Dear Wolfgang Denk,

On 2013.12.09. 22:12, Wolfgang Denk wrote:
> Dear Alexey Smishlayev,
>
> In message <52A5D4F1.7020101@xtech2.lv> you wrote:
>> What should I do to flash environment values directly to the board's NAND?
> Why don't you just use "env import"?
>

I didn't have any information about that. Also, I would like to get done 
without entering the U-Boot prompt. I am flashing my board using the 
J-TAG - USB cable, and it will be much more simple and convenient if I'd 
be able to just write the binary images on the NAND flash.

So, there is no way to do something like that straight away?

Best regards,
Alexey Smishlayev

[U-Boot] Creating U-Boot env image

[Stephen Warren]

On 12/09/2013 02:39 PM, Alexey Smishlayev wrote:
> Dear Wolfgang Denk,
> 
> On 2013.12.09. 22:12, Wolfgang Denk wrote:
>> Dear Alexey Smishlayev,
>>
>> In message <52A5D4F1.7020101@xtech2.lv> you wrote:
>>> What should I do to flash environment values directly to the board's
>>> NAND?
>> Why don't you just use "env import"?
>>
> 
> I didn't have any information about that. Also, I would like to get done
> without entering the U-Boot prompt. I am flashing my board using the
> J-TAG - USB cable, and it will be much more simple and convenient if I'd
> be able to just write the binary images on the NAND flash.
> 
> So, there is no way to do something like that straight away?

I have no idea if something similar would work on your SoC, but I flash
my Tegra devices as follows:

* Download a copy of U-Boot into RAM and execute it.

I use "tegrarcm" to download it (a method of talking to Tegra's boot
ROM), but I imagine you could download using JTAG too.

* This U-Boot's bootcmd (specified in the attached device tree in my
case) writes the desired binary to boot flash; I flash from the device
itself rather than using JTAG/... for the actual flash writes.

* After flashing the U-Boot binary, the same U-Boot does "env default -f
-a; saveenv" and hence re-initializes the environment in flash. You can
easily "setenv foo bar" between those two commands for any custom
overrides. You could even push a file into some known RAM location and
run "env import" on it too...

* Reboot into the newly-flashed U-Boot.

The code is at:
https://github.com/NVIDIA/tegra-uboot-flasher-scripts

[U-Boot] Creating U-Boot env image

[Mats Kärrman]

Hi Alexey,

on: Monday, December 09, 2013 3:34 PM, Alexey Smishlayev wrote:
> I would like to flash the environment variable values to my board,
> rather than setting them at the prompt. I've founa a tool mkenvimage is
> made specially for that. I used it to create a binary image of the
> U-Boot environment. However, when I flash it to my board, I get the message
> *** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment
> 
> I thought it is due to that redundant memory wasn't written aswell, so I
> commented out #define CONFIG_ENV_REDUND_OFFSET in the
> include/configs/at91sam9g20ek.h, and tried once again, but I'm still
> getting this error.

I can definitely see the use case in producing a complete flash image, e.g. for
production use and maybe be able to select the env image from one of many
depending on some factor.

What you describe should definitely be possible. Are you sure that it's not
something simple like a missmatch in env size?

You could use U-Boots Linux fw_printenv tools and/or dd to read the flashed env
image and perhaps compare it to an image saved by U-Boot to figure out what is
going wrong.

BR // Mats

[U-Boot] Creating U-Boot env image

[Alexey Smishlayev]

Hello, Mats,

On 2013.12.10. 13:39, Mats K?rrman wrote:
> Hi Alexey,
>
> I can definitely see the use case in producing a complete flash image, e.g. for
> production use and maybe be able to select the env image from one of many
> depending on some factor.

Yes, the use case is exactly as you described.

> What you describe should definitely be possible. Are you sure that it's not
> something simple like a missmatch in env size?
I'm not sure, if that's not something simple, that's why I wrote to this 
list. I just don't know every little detail about using U-Boot.

> You could use U-Boots Linux fw_printenv tools and/or dd to read the flashed env
> image and perhaps compare it to an image saved by U-Boot to figure out what is
> going wrong.

That's what I've thought also - if I just dd the environment contents to 
a file, can I then use it as a valid image for production? That could be 
the most simple way to achieve what I want.

Best regards,
Alexey Smishlayev

[U-Boot] Creating U-Boot env image

[Mats Kärrman]

On: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 1:32 PM, Alexey Smishlayev wrote:
> I'm not sure, if that's not something simple, that's why I wrote to this
> list. I just don't know every little detail about using U-Boot.

I was thinking something like:  [flash-sector-size] <= [U-Boot-configured-env-size]
and you must give the right number to the env image generation program.

> That's what I've thought also - if I just dd the environment contents to
> a file, can I then use it as a valid image for production? That could be
> the most simple way to achieve what I want.

Yes, should be possible. If you're using redundant environments, you
probably want to use the env copy that has "0x01" in the 5:th byte.
See common/env_flash.c and include/environment.h.

// Mats

[U-Boot] Creating U-Boot env image

[Alexey Smishlayev]

Hello Mats,

On 2013.12.10. 15:33, Mats K?rrman wrote:
> On: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 1:32 PM, Alexey Smishlayev wrote:
>> I'm not sure, if that's not something simple, that's why I wrote to this
>> list. I just don't know every little detail about using U-Boot.
> I was thinking something like:  [flash-sector-size] <= [U-Boot-configured-env-size]
> and you must give the right number to the env image generation program.
>
>> That's what I've thought also - if I just dd the environment contents to
>> a file, can I then use it as a valid image for production? That could be
>> the most simple way to achieve what I want.
> Yes, should be possible. If you're using redundant environments, you
> probably want to use the env copy that has "0x01" in the 5:th byte.
> See common/env_flash.c and include/environment.h.

Thank you, I will check that. How can I see if I'm compiling U-Boot with 
redundant environment, or not?

Best regards,
Alexey

[U-Boot] Creating U-Boot env image

[Bo Shen]

Hi Alexey Smishlayev,

On 12/09/2013 10:34 PM, Alexey Smishlayev wrote:
> Hello!
>
> I would like to flash the environment variable values to my board,
> rather than setting them at the prompt. I've founa a tool mkenvimage is
> made specially for that. I used it to create a binary image of the
> U-Boot environment. However, when I flash it to my board, I get the message
> *** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment

Can you try the sam-ba tool provide by Atmel to generate this kind of 
image? Run the bat file in demo package [1]. It will generate the image 
automatically.
More information, please reference the demo package [1].

[1] 
ftp://ftp.linux4sam.org/pub/demo/linux4sam_2.0/linux4sam-angstrom-at91sam9g20ek.zip

> I thought it is due to that redundant memory wasn't written aswell, so I
> commented out #define CONFIG_ENV_REDUND_OFFSET in the
> include/configs/at91sam9g20ek.h, and tried once again, but I'm still
> getting this error.
>
> What should I do to flash environment values directly to the board's NAND?
>
> Best regards,
> Alexey Smishlayev

Best Regards,
Bo Shen