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U-Boot (bootloader)

U-Boot 2018

Based on mainline U-Boot.

Dependencies

  • bison (YACC-compatible parser generator)
  • flex (fast lexical analyzer generator)
  • bc (GNU bc arbitrary precision calculator language)
  • openssl/bn.h header (Secure Sockets Layer toolkit - development files)
  • make (GNU Make)
  • gcc (GNU C Compiler)

Under Debian / Ubuntu, the dependencies can be installed using

sudo apt-get -y install bison flex bc libssl-dev make gcc

Cross compiler

Even though mainline U-Boot requires GCC minimum version 6, it would generate oversized SPL (Secondary Program Loader) image. Therefore it is recommended to use GCC version 7.

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

Install the toolchain.

sudo apt -y install gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf binutils-arm-linux-gnueabihf

Setup environment for cross compiling.

export ARCH=arm
export CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf-

Other OS/ Distribution

Other OS / Distribution that does not have GCC version 7 such as Debian, should use Linaro arm-linux-gnueabihf toolchain.

Download and extract the toolchain.

cd ~

wget http://releases.linaro.org/components/toolchain/binaries/7.3-2018.05/arm-linux-gnueabihf/gcc-linaro-7.3.1-2018.05-x86_64_arm-linux-gnueabihf.tar.xz

tar Jxf gcc-linaro-7.3.1-2018.05-x86_64_arm-linux-gnueabihf.tar.xz

Note

Latest Linaro toolchain version 7 can be found here.

Setup environment for cross compiling.

export ARCH=arm
export CROSS_COMPILE=~/gcc-linaro-7.3.1-2018.05-x86_64_arm-linux-gnueabihf/bin/arm-linux-gnueabihf-

Compile U-Boot

git clone https://github.com/kobol-io/u-boot.git -b helios4

cd u-boot

make mrproper
make helios4_defconfig

Note

To support Armbian boot script (/boot/boot.scr), please apply this patch to U-Boot source code before

make helios4_defconfig

SD Card image

make -j$(nproc)

it would produced u-boot-spl.kwb

SPI NOR flash image

Since helios4_defconfig targeting SD card image, we need to modified the configuration to generate SPI NOR flash image before compiling.

mv -f .config .config_mmc

awk '{\
gsub(/CONFIG_MVEBU_SPL_BOOT_DEVICE_MMC=y/,"# CONFIG_MVEBU_SPL_BOOT_DEVICE_MMC is not set");\
gsub(/# CONFIG_MVEBU_SPL_BOOT_DEVICE_SPI is not set/,"CONFIG_MVEBU_SPL_BOOT_DEVICE_SPI=y");\
gsub(/CONFIG_ENV_IS_IN_MMC=y/,"# CONFIG_ENV_IS_IN_MMC is not set");\
gsub(/# CONFIG_ENV_IS_IN_SPI_FLASH is not set/,"CONFIG_ENV_IS_IN_SPI_FLASH=y");\
}1' .config_mmc >> .config

rm -f .config_mmc

make -j$(nproc)

it would produced u-boot-spl.kwb

Customize U-Boot

U-Boot has configuration editor based on ncurses similar like Linux Kernel configuration editor.

Install ncurses development files. Under Debian/Ubuntu can be done using this command

sudo apt-get -y install libncurses5-dev

Launch configuration editor

make menuconfig

menuconfig main

After exiting the configuration editor and saving the configuration, build the image according to SD Card image or SPI NOR flash image instructions.


Marvell U-Boot 2013.01

Based on U-Boot 2013.01 Marvell version: 2015_T1.0p16

Cross compiler

Under Debian / Ubuntu you need first to install the necessary packages and tools for cross compiling for ARM.

sudo apt-get install gcc make gcc-arm-linux-gnueabi binutils-arm-linux-gnueabi

Other option, use Linaro cross compiler 4.9.4 arm-gnueabi toolchain. Download here.

Note

DO NOT use hard-float variant (arm-linux-gnueabihf).

Compile U-Boot

git clone https://github.com/kobol-io/u-boot-marvell.git

cd u-boot-marvell

export ARCH=arm
export CROSS_COMPILE="/path/to/cross/compiler"
export CROSS_COMPILE_BH=${CROSS_COMPILE}

make mrproper

Note

To compile using Ubuntu 16.04 cross compiler, please apply this patch to U-Boot source code.

Note

To support Armbian boot script (/boot/boot.scr), please apply this patch to U-Boot source code.

SD Card image

./build.pl -f mmc -b armada_38x_helios4

it would produced u-boot-a38x-mm-d-mmc.bin whereas mm is month and d is day. For example, building u-boot on October 2nd would produced u-boot-a38x-10-2-mmc.bin

SPI NOR flash image

./build.pl -f spi -b armada_38x_helios4

it would produced u-boot-a38x-mm-d-spi.bin whereas mm is month and d is day. For example, building u-boot on October 2nd would produced u-boot-a38x-10-2-spi.bin

Write U-Boot to Boot Device

MicroSD Card

Note

Replace u-boot-spl.kwb with u-boot-a38x-*-mmc.bin in command below if you are using Marvell U-Boot 2013.01

On Development PC

1) Put SD card to Memory Card Reader

2) Write U-Boot image (u-boot-spl.kwb) to Memory Card Reader (eg. /dev/sdc) and reboot

sudo dd if=u-boot-spl.kwb of=/dev/sdc bs=512 seek=1 status=noxfer
sudo sync

3) Remove the SD card and put it to Helios4.

Live System - Under Armbian

1) Upload the U-Boot SPI binary that you built on your PC to Helios4 and rename it as u-boot.mmc.

scp u-boot-spl.kwb root@10.10.10.1:/usr/lib/linux-u-boot-next-helios4_*/u-boot.mmc

2) SSH to Helios4

ssh root@10.10.10.1

3) Run nand-sata-install utility

sudo nand-sata-install

4) Select option Install/Update the bootloader on SD/eMMC

armbian install bootloader menu

5) Confirm the operation

armbian bootloader write confirmation

6) Reboot the system

Live System - Generic Linux

1) Transfer U-Boot image into home folder in Helios4 using scp

scp u-boot-spl.kwb root@10.10.10.1:~/

2) SSH to Helios4

ssh root@10.10.10.1

3) Write U-Boot image (u-boot-spl.kwb) to SD Card device (/dev/mmcblk0) and reboot

sudo dd if=u-boot-spl.kwb of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=512 seek=1 status=noxfer
sudo reboot

SPI NOR Flash

Please refer to instructions in SPI (NOR flash) page.


Last update: August 7, 2020

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