Setup
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Setup — Preparing the SD-L137 board for eCos Development

Overview

In a typical development environment, the SD-L137 board boots from the SPI NOR and runs the RedBoot ROM monitor from SDRAM. eCos applications are configured for RAM startup and then downloaded and run on the board via the debugger arm-eabi-gdb. Preparing the board therefore usually involves programming a suitable RedBoot image into flash memory.

The following RedBoot configurations are supported:

ConfigurationDescriptionUseFile
ROMRedBoot loaded from SPI NOR flash to SDRAMredboot_ROM.ecmredboot_ROM.img

For serial communications, all versions run with 8 bits, no parity, and 1 stop bit at 115200 baud. RedBoot also supports ethernet communication and flash management.

Note that the use of the term ROM for the initial RedBoot configuration is a historical accident. RedBoot actually runs from SDRAM after being loaded there from NOR flash by the first three bootloaders. The use of ROM for this configuration is intended to indicate that it initializes the microprocessor and board peripherals, as opposed to the RAM configuration which assumes that this has already been done.

Initial Installation

Installation involves writing an image to the start of the serial flash. This image contains the AIS script interpreted by the primary bootloader, the secondary and tertiary bootloaders, and a RedBoot executable. A suitable image redboot.img is provided with the release or can be rebuilt using the instructions below.

There are two ways of writing the image. The first is to use a dedicated utility such as TI's Serial Boot and Flash Loading Utility for OMAP-L137. The second is to set up a JTAG emulator. This can then be used to run a RAM-resident RedBoot which will allow the flash to be programmed. The recommended JTAG emulator is the Ronetix PEEDI, but other JTAG emulators will involve a similar setup.

[Caution]Caution

The L137 powers up with the ARM processor disabled, and the ARM does not start up until the primary bootloader has executed the AIS script and the secondary bootloader has run to completion. Until that time it will not be possible to attach a PEEDI or other ARM JTAG emulator. If a bogus image is programmed into the flash such that the AIS script or secondary bootloader are missing or corrupt, it will not be possible to recover the board via JTAG. Recovery should still be possible by using the TI utilities and uart2.

Programming RedBoot into SPI NOR flash using the TI Flash Utility

The following gives the steps needed to program RedBoot into the SPI NOR Flash using TI's Serial Boot and Flash Loading Utility for OMAP-L137. This tool and it's associated documentation can be found on the TI wiki http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Serial_Boot_and_Flash_Loading_Utility_for_OMAP-L137 page.

A RedBoot image file has been provided that combines the required L137 AIS script, DSP and ARM bootloaders, along with RedBoot itself. The redboot_ROM.img file can be found in the loaders/sd_l137 subdirectory of your eCosPro installation. The basic bootloader installation process is to set the board into a bootstrap update mode, use the TI utility to download and write the provided image to the flash, and then restore the board to normal operational mode.

  1. Install the TI tools on your workstation.
  2. Make a note of the boards current SW2 BOOT switch pin configuration and then configure SW2 to enable bootstrap update mode. The required pin configuration for your specific board revision can be found in the TI documentation. For example, on revision "C" and later boards: pin 7 ON, pin 2 OFF, pin 1 ON, pin 0 OFF, pin 3 OFF.
  3. Connect a serial cable between the board's DB9 serial connector and the host PC. Run a serial terminal emulator (Putty, Hyperterm or minicom) on the host, connecting at 115200 baud 8N1 with no flow control. When the board is reset you should see "BOOTME" output on the serial line.

  4. Use the TI sfh_OMAP-L137 utility to install the redboot_ROM.img on the board. You will need to modify the example command sfh_OMAP-L137 -p com2 -flash_noubl redboot_ROM.img used in the example output below, substituting "com2" with the serial port corresponding to your setup, and by adding appropriate path prefixes to sfh_OMAP-L137 and redboot_ROM.img corresponding to their installed location on your workstation.

    Once the flash utility starts running you will need to reset the board almost immediately as directed by the utility. Until you do this the benign message "(Serial Port): Read error! (The operation has timed out.)" will be output continously.

    You will also need to be patient as the initial "Loading section..." phase can take many minutes to complete with no obvious output or other signs of life. 

    C:>sfh_OMAP-L137 -p com2 -flash_noubl redboot_ROM.img
-----------------------------------------------------
   TI Serial Flasher Host Program for OMAP-L137
   (C) 2010, Texas Instruments, Inc.
   Ver. 1.67
-----------------------------------------------------


      [TYPE] Single boot image
[BOOT IMAGE] redboot_ROM.img
    [TARGET] OMAPL137_v2
    [DEVICE] SPI_MEM

Attempting to connect to device com4...
Press any key to end this program at any time.

(AIS Parse): Read magic word 0x41504954.
(AIS Parse): Waiting for BOOTME... (power on or reset target now)
(Serial Port): Read error! (The operation has timed out.)
(AIS Parse): BOOTME received!
(AIS Parse): Performing Start-Word Sync...
(AIS Parse): Performing Ping Opcode Sync...
(AIS Parse): Processing command 0: 0x58535901.
(AIS Parse): Performing Opcode Sync...
(AIS Parse): Loading section...
(AIS Parse): Loaded 14912-Byte section to address 0x80000000.
(AIS Parse): Processing command 1: 0x58535901.
(AIS Parse): Performing Opcode Sync...
(AIS Parse): Loading section...
(AIS Parse): Loaded 784-Byte section to address 0x80004240.
(AIS Parse): Processing command 2: 0x58535901.
(AIS Parse): Performing Opcode Sync...
(AIS Parse): Loading section...
(AIS Parse): Loaded 32-Byte section to address 0x80004550.
(AIS Parse): Processing command 3: 0x58535901.
(AIS Parse): Performing Opcode Sync...
(AIS Parse): Loading section...
(AIS Parse): Loaded 20-Byte section to address 0x80004590.
(AIS Parse): Processing command 4: 0x58535906.
(AIS Parse): Performing Opcode Sync...
(AIS Parse): Performing jump and close...
(AIS Parse): AIS complete. Jump to address 0x800034C0.
(AIS Parse): Waiting for DONE...
(AIS Parse): Boot completed successfully.

Waiting for SFT on the OMAP-L137...

Flashing application redboot_ROM.img (206288 bytes)

 100% [ ¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦ ]
                  Image data transmitted over UART.

 100% [ ¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦ ]
                   Application programming complete


Operation completed successfully.

  5. Power off the board and restore the SW2 BOOT switch to it's normal "RUN" configuration. Power on the board again and you should see the following output on the serial port from RedBoot. 

    +**Warning** FLASH configuration checksum error or invalid key
Use 'fconfig -i' to [re]initialize database
Ethernet eth0: MAC address 00:0e:99:03:13:ee
IP: 10.1.1.147/255.255.255.0, Gateway: 10.1.1.241
Default server: 0.0.0.0

RedBoot(tm) bootstrap and debug environment [ROM]
eCosCentric certified release, version v3_1_10 - built 11:59:59, Jun 23 2011

Copyright (C) 2000-2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Copyright (C) 2003-2011 eCosCentric Limited
RedBoot is free software, covered by the eCos license, derived from the
GNU General Public License. You are welcome to change it and/or distribute
copies of it under certain conditions. Under the license terms, RedBoot's
source code and full license terms must have been made available to you.
Redboot comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.

Platform: Spectrum Digital OMAP-L137 Evaluation Module (ARM9)
RAM: 0xc0000000-0xc4000000 [0xc003be80-0xc3fed000 available]
FLASH: 0x70000000-0x703fffff, 64 x 0x10000 blocks

RedBoot>

    The flash configuration warning is expected. The ethernet MAC address will have come from the serial EEPROM on the I2C0 bus. The IP and gateway addresses will have been provided by a BOOTP (DHCP) server.

  6. Run the following command to initialize RedBoot's flash file system and flash configuration: 

    RedBoot> fis init
About to initialize [format] FLASH image system - continue (y/n)? y
*** Initialize FLASH Image System
... Erase from 0x703f0000-0x703fffff: .
... Program from 0xc3ff0000-0xc4000000 to 0x703f0000: .
RedBoot> fis list
Name              FLASH addr  Mem addr    Length      Entry point
RedBoot           0x70000000  0x70000000  0x00040000  0x00000000
FIS directory     0x703F0000  0x703F0000  0x0000F000  0x00000000
RedBoot config    0x703FF000  0x703FF000  0x00001000  0x00000000
RedBoot>

    If desired the fconfig settings can be initialized at this time using the fconfig -i command. Most of the settings relate to ethernet, for example the IP address that RedBoot should use.

  7. The RedBoot installation is now complete. The board is now ready for development using arm-eabi-gdb, RedBoot's gdb stubs, and eCos applications configured for RAM startup.

Programming RedBoot into NOR flash using the PEEDI

The following gives the steps needed to program RedBoot into the SPI NOR Flash using the PEEDI. The basic process is to load and run a copy of RedBoot, then use that to initialize the flash, download the full image including the AIS script and bootloaders, and write this image to the flash.

  1. Set up the PEEDI as described in the Ronetix documentation. The peedi.sd_l137.cfg file in the platform HAL's misc subdirectory contains the required hardware initialization support. Other parts of this file will need to be edited, for example the license key details.
  2. Connect a serial cable between the boards DB9 serial connector and the host PC. Run a serial terminal emulator (Hyperterm or minicom) on the host, connecting at 115200 baud 8N1 with no flow control.

  3. Use arm-eabi-gdb to run the redboot.elf executable from the loaders/sd_l137 subdirectory of your eCosPro installation. Substitute the appropriate TCP/IP address and port number corresponding to your PEEDI setup. 

    $ arm-eabi-gdb --quiet <path>/redboot.elf
(gdb) target remote peedi:9000
Remote debugging using peedi:9000
0xffff0000 in ?? ()
(gdb) load
Loading section .rom_vectors, size 0x40 lma 0xc0008000
Loading section .text, size 0x1a078 lma 0xc0008040
Loading section .rodata, size 0x3fac lma 0xc00220b8
Loading section .data, size 0xd2b4 lma 0xc0026064
Start address 0xc0008040, load size 176920
Transfer rate: 34 KB/sec, 13609 bytes/write.
(gdb) continue
Continuing.

    Address 0xffff0000 corresponds to the ARM reset vector. At this point the primary and secondary bootloaders have run and the processor would be about to start the tertiary bootloaders, but the PEEDI will have halted the processor and run its hardware initialization macro instead. RedBoot will start running after the continue command, and the following should be sent out of the serial line. 

    +**Warning** FLASH configuration checksum error or invalid key
Use 'fconfig -i' to [re]initialize database
Ethernet eth0: MAC address 00:0e:99:03:13:ee
IP: 10.1.1.147/255.255.255.0, Gateway: 10.1.1.241
Default server: 0.0.0.0

RedBoot(tm) bootstrap and debug environment [ROM]
eCosCentric certified release, version v3_1_10 - built 11:59:59, Jun 23 2011

Copyright (C) 2000-2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Copyright (C) 2003-2011 eCosCentric Limited
RedBoot is free software, covered by the eCos license, derived from the
GNU General Public License. You are welcome to change it and/or distribute
copies of it under certain conditions. Under the license terms, RedBoot's
source code and full license terms must have been made available to you.
Redboot comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.

Platform: Spectrum Digital OMAP-L137 Evaluation Module (ARM9)
RAM: 0xc0000000-0xc4000000 [0xc003cbd8-0xc3fed000 available]
FLASH: 0x70000000-0x703fffff, 64 x 0x10000 blocks
RedBoot>

    The flash configuration warning is expected at this stage. The ethernet MAC address will have come from the serial EEPROM on the I2C0 bus. The IP and gateway addresses will have been provided by a BOOTP server.

  4. Run the following command to initialize RedBoot's flash file system and flash configuration: 

    RedBoot> fis init
About to initialize [format] FLASH image system - continue (y/n)? y
*** Initialize FLASH Image System
... Erase from 0x703f0000-0x703fffff: .
... Program from 0xc3ff0000-0xc4000000 to 0x703f0000: .
RedBoot> fis list
Name              FLASH addr  Mem addr    Length      Entry point
RedBoot           0x70000000  0x70000000  0x00040000  0x00000000
FIS directory     0x703F0000  0x703F0000  0x0000F000  0x00000000
RedBoot config    0x703FF000  0x703FF000  0x00001000  0x00000000
RedBoot>

    If desired the fconfig settings can be initialized at this time using the fconfig -i command. Most of the settings relate to ethernet, for example the IP address that RedBoot should use.

  5. Next the full RedBoot image should be loaded into RAM. 

           RedBoot> load -r -m y -b %{freememlo}
       C

    From the terminal emulator upload the redboot.img file from the loaders/sd_l137 directory using Y-Modem protocol. When the upload is complete you should see something similar to the following output. 

    CRaw file loaded 0xc003cc00-0xc006ff27, assumed entry at 0xc003cc00
xyzModem - CRC mode, 1641(SOH)/0(STX)/0(CAN) packets, 3 retries
RedBoot>

  6. Now program the image to flash: 

    RedBoot> fis create RedBoot
An image named 'RedBoot' exists - continue (y/n)? y
... Erase from 0x70000000-0x7003ffff: .....
... Program from 0xc003cc00-0xc006ff27 to 0x70000000: .....
... Erase from 0x703f0000-0x703fffff: .
... Program from 0xc39f0000-0xc3a00000 to 0x703f0000: .
RedBoot>

  7. The RedBoot installation is now complete. Terminate the arm-eabi-gdb session by hitting ctrl-C and then running the quit command. Detach the PEEDI and power cycle the board. RedBoot should now start running after the primary, secondary and tertiary bootloaders and output a banner similar to the one above. The board is now ready for development using arm-eabi-gdb, RedBoot's gdb stubs, and eCos applications configured for RAM startup.

    If it proves necessary to re-install RedBoot, this may be achieved by repeating the serial download and fis create parts of the above process. It is not necessary to reinitialize the FIS and fconfig.

Rebuilding RedBoot

Should it prove necessary to rebuild a RedBoot binary, this is done most conveniently at the command line. The steps needed to rebuild the ROM version of RedBoot for this board are: 

$ mkdir redboot_sdl137_rom
$ cd redboot_sdl137_rom
$ ecosconfig new sd_l137 redboot
$ ecosconfig import $ECOS_REPOSITORY/hal/arm/arm9/sd_l137/VERSION/misc/redboot_ROM.ecm
$ ecosconfig resolve
$ ecosconfig tree
$ make

At the end of the build the install/bin subdirectory should contain the files redboot.elf and redboot.img. redboot.elf can be executed on the board using arm-eabi-gdb and a JTAG emulator. redboot.img is an image containing the AIS script for the primary bootloader, the secondary and tertiary bootloaders, and RedBoot. It is this image which should be programmed into flash to install or update RedBoot.

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