[U-Boot-Users] U-Boot code checksum?

[Wolfgang Denk]

In message <B64365CEC50FA74DB2B72D3F7A5D4C7D10AD30 at EPEXCH02.qlogic.org> you wrote:
> 
> Does the U-Boot code generate and check a
> checksum or CRC on itself?  I see code to verify

No.

> CRC checksums on images that U-Boot loads into
> memory, but I do not see any code that checks the
> U-Boot image itself.

I'm not sure what you mean with "image" here. If you build  a  U-Boot
image (meaning using the "mkimage" tool to create an image out of the
"u-boot.bin" file) this _will_ have checksums included and checked.

The U-Boot code as stored in flash does compute or check a checksum.

> If there is a function that checks the U-Boot CRC or
> checksum, could someone point it out to me?

You can use the CRC command to compute a checksum, and  store  it  at
location  of  your choice. Note however that with many board configu-
rations this will  not  work  (especially  with  those  that  use  an
embedded environment).

> We burn the U-Boot code into a boot PROM and I need
> some way of verifying the boot PROM was burned correctly
> when the system powers up.  I've written checksum generation
> and verification utilities in the past but would
> prefer to use the utilities that come with U-Boot if
> they exist.

You can use the existing CRC32 code in U-Boot for such a purpose, but
be aware that you have a chicken-and-egg problem here. If you  assume
that  the U-Boot image in the PROM is corrupted but still running god
enough that you can do _anything_ with it - what  makes  you  believe
that  it  will  calculate  a  valid  checksum  then?  If the image is
corrupted, it might be exactly the part of the  code  that  does  the
checksum verification...

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
Software Engineering:  Embedded and Realtime Systems,  Embedded Linux
Phone: (+49)-8142-4596-87  Fax: (+49)-8142-4596-88  Email: wd at denx.de
"Why waste negative entropy on comments, when you could use the  same
entropy to create bugs instead?"                        - Steve Elias