[U-Boot] u-boot not working on Atmel ATNGW100 (AVR32)

[Andreas Bießmann]

Dear Sven,

Am 11.10.2011 18:15, schrieb Sven Schnelle:
> On 10/11/2011 03:52 PM, Andreas Bießmann wrote:
>> Dear Sven,
>>
>> Am Di 11 Okt 2011 15:37:29 CEST schrieb Sven Schnelle:
>>> On 10/11/2011 03:28 PM, Andreas Bießmann wrote:
>>>> Dear Sven,
>>>>
>>>> Am Di 11 Okt 2011 15:23:00 CEST schrieb Andreas Bießmann:
>>>>> Dear Sven,
>>>>>
>>>>> Am 11.10.2011 15:06, schrieb Sven Schnelle:

<snip>

>> Maybe have a look for
>> http://distribute.atmel.no/tools/opensource/avr32-gcc/ (the script
>> should build a uclibc toolchain) to get another toolchain.
>> I had a short look for these patches some days ago cause we are hunting
>> another maybe toolchain related problem. AFAIK there are some different
>> linker settings. The avr32-linux toolchain does set the processor to
>> ap7000 (is it -m?) but the avr32-elf (which uses newlib) does not set
>> ap7000 as default. Maybe this could be the solution for your problem.
> 
> I downloaded the avr32-buildroot, and had it built a
> gcc-4.2.4/binutils-2.18 toolchain, and the u-boot built with that
> version works. so this looks indeed like a toolchain issue.
> 
> It's quite interesting that the original atmel toolchain fails, as i've
> chosen this one to be one the safe side, but obviously this wasn't a
> good idea.

Well, the AP7000 is a obsolete device. Linux on AVR32 is not longer
supported officially.
Unfortunately Atmel has some special behaviour to the open source
community. AVR32 is still not an official gcc port and I can not see any
effort to get it in, same for libc, binutils, a.s.o.

But you can build a linux toolchain out of the official atmel patches by
using the script from
http://distribute.atmel.no/tools/opensource/avr32-gcc/. I guess their
'official' toolchain (which is a newlib one targeted on avr32 ucX
devices) is also built with this script.
I did use the patches from this site to build my own toolchain some days
ago and can confirm that a
'avr32-unknown-linux-gcc-4.4.3-uclibc-0.9.32-binutils-2.20.1'-toolchain
can successfully build u-boot for avr32.

If you like to play around avr32 is ok, but if you do some serious
things and like to stick at atmel I recommend to switch to sam9 devices
soon. There are also some interesting devices from other vendors:
plugcomputer, beagle, ... to name just two large device families
available for hobbyists.

best regards

Andreas Bießmann