[U-Boot-Users] Safe firmware updates

[T Ziomek]

On Thu, 16 Feb 2006 ian.ridge at apdcomms.com wrote:
>
> Power disconnect during firmware update:
>
> We are implementing facility for automatic firmware upgrades (either the
> Linux uImage or cramfs) on our embedded device. However there is a
> requirement that the device is not broken by (the user for example)
> disconnecting the power supply at any stage during the flash update.
>
> In the absence of a backup battery, I guess the boot loader would have
> to be modified to cope with this. Has anybody produced a solution
> already?
>
> If not I'm considering adding a command to u-boot. 'update' could work
> as follows:
  [SNIP]
> Any comments?

Just to make sure you're considering all options -- the problem could also
be addressed solely with Linux.

Filesystem upgrades were discussed in a paper at the 2005 Linux Symposium
(URL not at hand but easy to find), I think from codefidence.com .

kexec() seems to be the current recommendation for kernel upgrades, though
I think it's only in 2.6.

Further discussion of approaches not involving U-Boot would be off-topic
here, of course.

Tom Ziomek
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