[U-Boot] open u-boot on the DockStar

[Prafulla Wadaskar]

Hi Alexander

Welcome on board :-)
Pls see my in lined answers 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alexander Holler [mailto:holler at ahsoftware.de] 
> Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 4:15 AM
> To: Prafulla Wadaskar
> Subject: Re: open u-boot on the DockStar
> 
> Hello again,
> 
> through painful debugging by reset (tm) ;) I have found the exact 
> location where the problem seems to occur. The following diff 
> explains it:
...snip...
> Am 14.01.2010 20:45, schrieb Alexander Holler:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I'm currently trying to build an u-boot from the sources at 
> denx.de and
> > I'm stuck. Because I currently only have a serial 
> connection an no JTAG,

Working on u-boot really needs some JTAG since it is risky game.

> > debugging isn't easy and I have only limited knowledge 
> about the hardware.
> >
> > It is no problem if you don't want or could help me on that 
> topc, I'm

I will try to help you, You are most welcomed (as my first line)...

> > just thought mailing to you directly could be worth a try.

I would prefer to be u-boot mailing list so that other users can benefit from the discussion.
I am copying to mailing list.

> >
> > What I've done so far:
> >
> > For all things, I'm using the precompiled gcc from the 
> sheevaplug sdk

I suggest to use latest gcc, (ref: www.codesourcery.com to work with latest u-boot

> >
> > Currently I'm booting using an u-boot I've build from the 
> sources found
> > in pogoplug-u-boot-1.1.4.pp2.0.tar.bz2 pogoplug published 
> after I asked
> > for the GPL-sources used in the DockStar. This works but doesn't the
> > load the kernel. I'm not really interested the pogoplug 
> kernel, but for
> > completness this is where the pogoplug u-boot I've build from their
> > sources stops:
> >
> > NAND read: device 0 offset 0x100000, size 0x300000
> >
> > reading NAND page at offset 0x100000 failed
> > 3145728 bytes read: ERROR
> > ## Booting image at 00800000 ...
> > Bad Magic Number
> >
> > So nand read.e fails. I've build pogoplugs u-boot with the following
> > commands:
> >
> > PATH=$PATH:/home/aholler/gcc/bin make mrproper
> > PATH=$PATH:/home/aholler/gcc/bin make redstone_config
> > PATH=$PATH:/home/aholler/gcc/bin make
> >
> > Anyway, that error currently isn't of interest for me, the resulted
> > u-boot is enough for trying to load and execute an u-boot 
> build from the
> > sources at denx.de.
> >
> > To build such an u-boot, I've modified
> > board/Marvell/sheevaplug/config.mk to have a TEXT_BASE = 
> 0x01600000 (for
> > testing by loading it to RAM).

This will not help much

> >
> > Than I've modified the values kwbimage.cfg to be same as those I've
> > found dramregs_pp128_A.txt in pogoplug-u-boot-1.1.4.pp2.0.tar.bz2.

Sounds good

> >
> > Compilation was done with
> >
> > PATH=$PATH:/home/aholler/gcc/bin make mrproper 
> USE_PRIVATE_LIBGCC=yes
> > CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-linux-gnueabi-
> > PATH=$PATH:/home/aholler/gcc/bin make sheevaplug_config
> > USE_PRIVATE_LIBGCC=yes CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-linux-gnueabi-
> > PATH=$PATH:/home/aholler/gcc/bin make u-boot.kwb 
> USE_PRIVATE_LIBGCC=yes
> > CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-linux-gnueabi-
> >
> > After loading the resulting u-boot.bin with
> > tftp 0x01600000 u-boot.bin
> > and starting it with
> > go 0x01600000

This will not work since this interface is used for application execution.

on Kirkwood, internal BootROM will start "boot from configured media" on Power on reset only to read kirkwood boot image header and that too from 0x0 address, so you must need to put uboot image at 0x0 in NAND Flash

Or use JTAG to download u-boot.bin to RAM and then start execution.

> >
> > just nothing happens. No single char appears over the serial, just
> > nothing. I've even tried it without CONFIG_CMD_NAND, but 
> the results are
> > the same: nothing visible happens. Even the led doesn't change (it's
> > still blinking orange).
> >
> > I would appreciate any help. ;)

This is new board with NEW DRAM and new configuration,
Kwbimage.cfg file will be used to create target u-boot.kwb.
I strongly recommend to use JTAG tool for ex. openOCD 

The best approach should be-
Use openocd, get some JTAG tool (ex. Amontec)
Prepare script to configure DRAM and some other CPU register as provided in kwbimage.cfg
Load u-boot elf through JTAG
Debug with dgb/led/uart
Prepare nice and clean patches if you want to mainline them

Good luck

Regards..
Prafulla . .

> >
> > My next step will be to use the led for simplified 
> debugging (in absence
> > of a JTAG) for finding out, how far the initialization will come.
> >
> > Kind regards,
> >
> > Alexander Holler
> 
>