which uboot source to compile (and how) for emmc/NAND

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1

Hi,

I’m trying to automate the process of flashing a bootable emmc (NAND) on my beagle bone black. I’ve pin strapped the board to boot using bootp/dhcp - the kernel that gets loaded by the u-boot.img (that was pulled in via dhcp+tftp) uses an initramfs as the basis of writing the MLO, (a different) u-boot.img and root file system (containing zImage and uEnv.txt) to emmc/NAND. This all works and when I restart the beagle bone black it boots as I expect. Hooray for automated emmc flashing.

However my problem is that I can’t seem to hand roll a version the the MLO and u-boot.img that I flash to NAND. What I’m using right now are copies I found of these two files in the debian images distributed here: https://beagleboard.org/latest-images (These images tend to contain filesystems with /opt/backup/uboot/MLO and /opt/back/uboot/u-boot.img files existing). If I use these two boot loader files, and craft my /boot/uEnv.txt just so (uuid needs to be specified), then I can boot a couple of kernels/filesystems I have lying around successfully.

But I can’t seem to reproduce these two files (MLO and u-boot.img) for my NAND from source. I’ve tried these git repos:

git://git.denx.de/u-boot.git
git://git.ti.com/ti-u-boot/ti-u-boot.git

and even the u-boot source that that ships with the SDK:
~/ti-processor-sdk-linux-am335x-evm-04.00.00.04/board-support/u-boot-2017.01+gitAUTOINC+9fd60700db-g9fd60700db/

For each of those I’m running

make CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- O=am335x_evm am335x_evm_defconfig && make CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- O=am335x_evm

And I’ve even tried a different config:

make CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- O=am335x_boneblack am335x_boneblack_defconfig && make CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- O=am335x_boneblack

This compilation process creates the MLO and u-boot.img files, but I can never seem to successfully boot anything if I use them regardless of which config I use.

If it helps with clarity, I am trying out MLO and u-boot.img files by booting from the SD card, copying over the new versions, and then running

dd if=MLO of=/dev/mmcblk1 conv=notrunc bs=128k count=1 seek=1
dd if=u-boot.img of=/dev/mmcblk1 conv=notrunc bs=384k count=2 seek=1

Note that I can always get back to the “bootable state” by writing the backup boot loader files that come with debian distro instead: (the sd card is running debian 8.7):

dd if=/opt/backup/uboot/MLO of=/dev/mmcblk1 conv=notrunc bs=128k count=1 seek=1
dd if=/opt/backup/uboot/u-boot.img of=/dev/mmcblk1 conv=notrunc bs=384k count=2 seek=1

How can I build MLO and u-boot.img files in order to successfully boot a kernel and file system of my choosing on the emmc/NAND? Is there a page somewhere? Any help would be appreciated.

2

I’m a newbie, so take this with a grain of salt or as comic relief for the experts on this website.

I don’t completely understand what you’re trying to do, but it sounds like the kernel some how contains/flashes MLO/u-boot.img???

But maybe you can generate SD Card which contains everything you need (e.g. MLO, u-boot.img, kernel, fs, uEnv.txt) and then uncomment the appropriate line within uEnv.txt to convert that into a flasher image, and subsequently flash the eMMC…

Instructions for where to get EVERYTHING and transfer it to SD card for the BBB can be found here:

https://eewiki.net/display/linuxonarm/BeagleBone+Black

Once you download the u-boot source and apply all of the the obligatory patches for BBB, you will have a buildable u-boot/SPL tree.

In lieu of generating a complete SD card image, it MAY BE possible to dd just the MLO/u-boot.img to the eMMC on the BBB, but I think you can only do this from a running FS on the BBB.

3

AFAIK That SDK isn’t Debian usually it’s Arago and the sdk has a wiki describing building uboot but if your looking duplicate those .org binaries. If you search this group you should find a link Probally from Robert as to how to clone and build the correct stuff. Also check his eewiki he’s got detailed instructions

4

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for your reply. After I wrote that post I found the exact same link (https://eewiki.net/display/linuxonarm/BeagleBone+Black) and the “obligatory patches” are basically what I was missing for building the MLO and u-boot.img files for the EMMC.

Sorry if I wasn’t clear - my task is to write the contents of the EMMC from scratch using only an Ethernet connection. I’m doing that using BOOTP/DHCP and TFTP. It’s working now.

Thanks,

Dave.

5

Good to hear…

This may come in handy when we’re at the point of writing the eMMC in our board…

Regards,

jeff

6

Hi Jeff (and posterity),

I am just going over my notes now and making sure it’s all reproducible. When you use BOOTP/DHCP to grab the bootloaders you have to set up a TFTP server to supply u-boot.spl.bin and u-boot.img files (and a zImage but … tmi for now) - my point being you have to generate these two files (u-boot.spl.bin and u-boot.img) from the u-boot source. And these are different to the MLO and u-boot.img files you flash to your NAND . This NAND part I definitely have working thanks to the recipe we both found above (https://eewiki.net/display/linuxonarm/BeagleBone+Black).

Frustratingly, I had to use a different git repo to generate the BOOTP/DHCP boot loader files (u-boot.spl.bin and u-boot.img respectively). To generate these I instead use:

git clone git://[git.ti.com/ti-u-boot/ti-u-boot.git](http://git.ti.com/ti-u-boot/ti-u-boot.git)
cd ti-u-boot
git checkout ti-u-boot-2017.01
CC=arm-linux-gnueabihf-
make CROSS_COMPILE=${CC} O=am335x_evm am335x_evm_defconfig 
make CROSS_COMPILE=${CC} O=am335x_evm

And then the files you are after are am335x_evn/spl/u-boot-spl.bin and am335x_evn/u-boot.img.

I hope that helps anyone in the same situation.

It would be interesting to hear from anyone with more insight…

end spam,

Dave.