[U-Boot-Users] Re: Using u-boot as application-firmware upgrader / Performing logical operations?

[Wolfgang Denk]

Dear Martin,

in message <41C968B7.6050300 at egholm-nielsen.dk> you wrote:
> 
> > You're not the first to implement this. See the existing code.
> Can you please guide me to where?

I already mentioned board/trab/auto_update.c in my message; see  also
board/esd/common/auto_update.c

> > Why a hardcoded address instead of the usual, configurable mechanism?
> Because there is no keyboard, nor any display attached to the board.

You can (and should) still store the  IP  address  in  a  envrionment
variable  so  ir  remains  changeable  -  either through a netconsole
interface, or by a Linux application.

> That's right! But in case there is no tftpserver responding within x 
> seconds, the commands should abandon.

Define "responding". There are many failure modes, some temporary and
recoverable.

> Hence, what I'd like, was a way to determine if the download was 
> successfull - e.g. by comparing the return value for the command.

You can do that easily - just not by timeout only.

> I was hoping to perform the logics using some scripting functionality in 
> u-boot (although http://www.denx.de/twiki/publish/DULG/UBootScripts.html 
> is quite empty).

Yes, of course. This is what I'm talking about, too. Depending on the
complexity this can be done as  script,  or  you  may  find  it  more
efficient to code it in C.

> As you mention, many before me has done (requested) this, but we all run 
> different boards. Hence, wouldn't it be nice if one could use some 
> "standard" u-boot runtime scripting to do this, instead of having to 
> write the "same" update code in each of our boards' init-blocks?

It can be done in a general way now, but requirements differ, and  so
you will end up seeing many different implementations. Of course what
you  can  actually _see_ is only what ends up as C code in the U-Boot
tree. So far none of the customers I know of  decided  to  put  their
scripts into CVS.

> Of course, the boards' hardware configurations are different, but they 
> often have a common denominator - namely serial- and ethernet-connections.

Sure. And/or USB memory sticks, or CompactFlash cards, or ...

> Maybe we should gather this information in twiki... Any references?

Sorry, no.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
Software Engineering:  Embedded and Realtime Systems,  Embedded Linux
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd at denx.de
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