u-boot setup

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1

Hi,

i just got my new BeagleBoard-xM, it came with a prepared Angstrom card
that it can boot from.

I bought a new uSD card and try to install buildroot on it. It does not
work as expected, i prepared the card according to some descriptions i
found googling, first setting up the uSD cards parameters:

heads: 255
sectors: 63
cylinders: trunc(size/255/63/512)

1st partition as type 0x0C, 50 Mb
2nd partition as type 0x83, rest

I created the MSDos file system:

mkfs.msdos -F 32 -n "beagle" /dev/sdc1

Also, the 1st partition is bootable.

I use "minicom" with 1152008N1 to see the serial output of the boot process.

First i only got "60" as the only output on the serial line when i powered up
the board.
I copied "MLO" to the SD card as the first action after creating the file
system, also "u-boot.bin". Now i only get some weird character garbage
when booting up.

I'm not really sure what i do wrong. I have some questions, e.g.:

- Where should i get "MLO", i copied it from:
  http://beagleboard.org/demo/esc#boot
  Is this the preferred way? Do i need to compile / configure it?

I first made a backup image of the working uSD card that came with the board:

dd if=/dev/sdc of=beagle_backup.image

If i now copy this backup to my uSD card that i prepared as described above:

dd if=beagle_backup.image of=/dev/sdc

Then the board boots up fine, so i guess the uSD card is set up properly by
HW.

I created a "user.scr" by writing an input.scr text script like:
mmc init
setenv console tty0 console=ttyS2,115200n8

I created user.scr from it with:

../host/usr/bin/mkimage -A arm -O linux -T script -C none -a 0 -e 0 -n lassie
-d input.scr user.scr

I copied the files directly into the msdos filesystem that is on partition1 of
the uSD card. So the files are on the card, but the sectors are not at
defined offsets, i'm not sure if this is necessary?

It seems to me that either MLO or u-boot.bin try to write something on the
serial line, but with 115200,8N1 there is just weird garbage, also with
9600 and 38400.

Does anybody have a hint on how to set up u-boot to load an init script and
then boot a linux kernel?

Thanks for any hints,
Torsten.

2

Hi,

i have some questions related to u-boot for BealeBoard-xM, can anybody give me
a hint on setting up u-boot on an SD card.

When i just copy the image of the Angstrom SD card that came with the board to
another card, it works fine.

Based on that SD card copy that works:
If i remove uImage and replace user.scr with the one i created, i see that
being executed.
Created with:

---- input.scr:
mmc init
setenv console tty0 console=ttyS2,115200n8

I created user.scr from it with:

../host/usr/bin/mkimage -A arm -O linux -T script -C none -a 0 -e 0 -n
lassie -d input.scr user.scr

If i remove u-boot.bin and replace it with the u-boot.bin that
buildroot-2010.11 created, i see output that says:

u-boot.bin not found or blank nand contents - attempting serial boot . . .

If i put back the original u-boot.bin on the SD card, i see the same log
output.

It is the same u-boot.bin that was on the card before! Do i need to run some
other tool that tells the loader where the sectors of the u-boot.bin and other
files are?

If not, then i could not explain what i observed.

I just re-tested:
- mount the original SD card (raw, exact copy, created with dd)
- removing u-boot.bin
- copying exactly the same file onto the SD card again
- unmounting it
- booting the board with it:

Texas Instruments X-Loader 1.4.4ss (Aug 19 2010 - 02:49:27)
Beagle xM Rev A
Reading boot sector
u-boot.bin not found or blank nand contents - attempting serial boot . . .
## Ready for binary (kermit) download to 0x80008000 at 115200 bps...

It seems to me that i miss some important step in setting up an SD card for
u-boot / linux.

Best regards,
Torsten.