[U-Boot-Users] Safe firmware updates
Wolfgang Denk
wd at denx.de
Fri Feb 17 01:29:54 CET 2006
In message <9D8FC3304AA0924E9CD0A211DFEDCBAB0164D7AF at bespin.apdcomms.co.uk> you wrote:
>
> 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.
This is not new. It's actually a astandrard requirement.
> 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?
There is no need to change anything. U-Boot is perfectly capable of
supporting such requirements.
> 4) 'update' routine checks specified flash location for new upgrade
> image with valid CRC. If no image found or has bad CRC it returns,
> control passes to next command in bootcmd, and Linux boots normally.
>
> 5) 'update' routine erases target area of flash, and then copies content
> of upgrade image to target location.
Why would you do that if the new image is already in flash? Just swap
boot addresses...
> Any comments?
Your design is much too complicated. Keep it simple.
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
"Data is a lot like humans: It is born. Matures. Gets married to
other data, divorced. Gets old. One thing that it doesn't do is die.
It has to be killed." - Arthur Miller
More information about the U-Boot
mailing list