[U-Boot] U-Boot on IMX.51 EVK

[Thomas Besemer]

Hi Stefano -

Thanks for your very quick response to my posting.  I'm going to follow up
just for informational purposes, as I was able to get Freescale SDK (LTIB)
Kernel to boot find with current U-Boot.



> >   - Should above "raw" load from SD work?  Probably my preference, but
> have
> > an open mind.
>
> It should work, but I admit I tested booting from partitions and from
> network. Your assumption that CRC is ok let me think that there should
> be no problem to read the kernel from the SD card, even in raw mode.
>
> You could verify if your kernel boots independently from storage. Try to
> load the kernel from net instead from SD.
>

Looks like the problem I was having is the Freescale SDK (LTIB) had a
.config file that ended up with the wrong load address; was picking up the
MX53 (0x70008000 versus 0x90008000) load/build addys.  Don't know why it
ever worked....  I hacked the right address into Makefile.boot, and comes up
fine.  Basic regression testing shows no issues right now.

I was also able to boot over network without issues.

I don't install uImage on a partition, rather, hand install it on SD card
with DD, and then load with this:

  bootcmd_mmc=run bootargs_base bootargs_mmc; mmc read 0 ${loadaddr} 0x800
0x1800;bootm

 Just pulls from an offset in SD card.  Works fine.



>
> >   - The Freescale supplied SDK applies over 100 patches to the 8/09
> release
> > of U-Boot; wondering how many made it into current version of U-Boot, and
> > how much I should care.
>
>
> Rather if they are not pushed to this ML, they cannot be integrated in
> the official releases. However, are you sure they are related to the
> i.MX51 ? Most of them are probably related to other processors.
>

I spot checked this; yes, a lot of patches for other processors.  I'm going
to spot check the key ones for MX51, and if I see needed installs (that are
missing), will do, and provide a clean patch set to this ML (with comment
tied back to the original FS patch set I found needs in).


>
> > End game:
> >
> >   - Get the Splash Screen working on imx.51 EVK.
>
>
> As reference, take a closer look at the vision2 board. The IPU driver
> was ported from Freescale's 2.6.31 linux exactly for this goal. The
> splashimage is shown with the help of the "preboot" variable, because
> the image is stored on a device not directly addressable (SPI-Flash for
> vision2).  It is the same for the mx51evk, because the image must be
> loaded (in raw mode or from a partition) from the SD card.
>
> >  I will provide patch set
> > back to mailing list once I do.  I will derive from vision2 board.
>
> There is already some work on this issue. A patchset was already sent to
> ML, but it requires changes to be included. You could use it as starting
> point ;-).
>
> http://www.mail-archive.com/u-boot@lists.denx.de/msg41631.html
>
> Technically, the actual IPU drive in u-boot supports only diu0 (required
> by the vision board). So changes are minimal in the IPU driver itself.
> However, please read the whole discussion on ML, so you can find which
> are the open points to be fixed.
>
>
Looked briefly at this list; thanks.  I'm going to move forward now to get
IPU support going on EVK with both display ports so that Splash Screen works
on both.

I will post a clean patch set back to ML as I go on (or if I have trouble,
explain what I am seeing).  I'll try to keep my work clean, so it does not
interfere with mainline development, possibly setting up environment
variables to pick output channel.

Thanks again for fast response.

Regards,

tom