SUPPORT

Wed, 26 Jul 2000 22:40:31 +0200

• A running PPCBOOT with command overview

  ppcboot 0.9.0 (Apr 15 2001 - 20:28:15) Initializing... CPU: PPC823EZTnnB2 at 50 MHz: 16 kB I-Cache 8 kB D-Cache Board: TQM823LDBBA3.200 DRAM: 16 MB FLASH: 8 MB PCMCIA: 5.0V card found: ARGOSY PnPIDE D5 Bus 0: OK Device 0: Model: IBM-DSOA-20810 Serial #: 1R08RLJ463 Capacity: 775.2 MB = 0.8 GB In: serial Out: serial Err: serial Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0 => help go - start application at address 'addr' run - run commands in an environment variable bootm - boot application image from memory bootp - boot image via network using BootP/TFTP protocol tftpboot- boot image via network using TFTP protocol and env variables ipaddr and serverip rarpboot- boot image via network using RARP/TFTP protocol diskboot- boot from IDE devicebootd - boot default, i.e., run 'bootcmd' loads - load S-Record file over serial line loadb - load binary file over serial line (kermit mode) md - memory display mm - memory modify (auto-incrementing) nm - memory modify (constant address) mw - memory write (fill) cp - memory copy cmp - memory compare crc32 - checksum calculation base - print or set address offset printenv- print environment variables setenv - set environment variables saveenv - save environment variables to persistent storage protect - enable or disable FLASH write protection erase - erase FLASH memory flinfo - print FLASH memory information bdinfo - print Board Info structure iminfo - print header information for application image coninfo - print console devices and informations ide - IDE sub-system date - get/set date & time loop - infinite loop on address range mtest - simple RAM test icache - enable or disable instruction cache dcache - enable or disable data cache reset - Perform RESET of the CPU echo - echo args to console version - print monitor version help - print online help ? - alias for 'help' => loads ## Ready for S-Record download ... ~>hello_world.srec 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 [file transfer complete] [connected] ## Start Addr = 0x00040004 => go 40004 This is just a test. ## Starting application at 0x00040004 ... Hello World argc = 6 argv[0] = "40004" argv[1] = "This" argv[2] = "is" argv[3] = "just" argv[4] = "a" argv[5] = "test." argv[6] = "<NULL>" Hit any key to exit ... ## Application terminated, rc = 0x0 => flinfo Bank # 1: AMD AM29LV160B (16 Mbit, bottom boot sect) Size: 4 MB in 35 Sectors Sector Start Addresses: 40000000 (RO) 40008000 (RO) 4000C000 (RO) 40010000 (RO) 40020000 40040000 40060000 40080000 400A0000 400C0000 400E0000 40100000 40120000 40140000 40160000 40180000 401A0000 401C0000 401E0000 40200000 40220000 40240000 40260000 40280000 402A0000 402C0000 402E0000 40300000 40320000 40340000 40360000 40380000 403A0000 403C0000 403E0000 Bank # 2: AMD AM29LV160B (16 Mbit, bottom boot sect) Size: 4 MB in 35 Sectors Sector Start Addresses: 40400000 40408000 4040C000 40410000 40420000 40440000 40460000 40480000 404A0000 404C0000 404E0000 40500000 40520000 40540000 40560000 40580000 405A0000 405C0000 405E0000 40600000 40620000 40640000 40660000 40680000 406A0000 406C0000 406E0000 40700000 40720000 40740000 40760000 40780000 407A0000 407C0000 407E0000 => iminfo 40020000 40500000 ## Checking Image at 40020000 ... Image Name: 2.2.13 for NFS on TQM850L Image Type: PowerPC Linux Kernel Image (gzip compressed) Data Size: 381681 Bytes = 372 kB = 0 MB Load Address: 00000000 Entry Point: 0000000c Verifying Checksum ... OK ## Checking Image at 40500000 ... Image Name: 2.4.0-test5 850 NFS test-wd Image Type: PowerPC Linux Kernel Image (gzip compressed) Data Size: 428089 Bytes = 418 kB = 0 MB Load Address: 00000000 Entry Point: 00000000 Verifying Checksum ... OK => bootm 40500000 ## Booting Linux kernel at 40500000 ... Image Name: 2.4.0-test5 850 NFS test-wd Image Type: PowerPC Linux Kernel Image (gzip compressed) Data Size: 428089 Bytes = 418 kB = 0 MB Load Address: 00000000 Entry Point: 00000000 Verifying Checksum ... OK Uncompressing Kernel Image ... OK Linux version 2.4.0-test5 (wd@denx.local.net) (gcc version 2.95.2 19991024 (release)) #2 Wed Jul 26 21:19:54 MEST 2000 Boot arguments: root=/dev/nfs rw nfsroot=10.0.0.2:/LinuxPPC nfsaddrs=10.0. 0.98:10.0.0.2 On node 0 totalpages: 4096 zone(0): 4096 pages. zone(1): 0 pages. zone(2): 0 pages. Kernel command line: root=/dev/nfs rw nfsroot=10.0.0.2:/LinuxPPC nfsaddrs= 10.0.0.98:10.0.0.2 time_init: decrementer frequency = 187500000/60 Calibrating delay loop... 49.77 BogoMIPS Memory: 14904k available (808k kernel code, 340k data, 40k init) [c0000000 ,c1000000] Dentry-cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 2, 16384 bytes) Buffer-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes) Page-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes) Inode-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes) POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.3 Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039 NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0. NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0 IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 1024) Starting kswapd v1.7 CPM UART driver version 0.03 ttyS00 at 0x0280 is a SMC ttyS01 at 0x0380 is a SMC pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured eth0: CPM ENET Version 0.2, 00:d0:93:00:02:6c IP-Config: Guessing netmask 255.0.0.0 kmem_create: Forcing size word alignment - nfs_fh Looking up port of RPC 100003/2 on 10.0.0.2 Looking up port of RPC 100005/2 on 10.0.0.2 VFS: Mounted root (nfs filesystem). Freeing unused kernel memory: 40k init Stand-alone shell (version 2.1) > uname -a Linux 10.0.0.98 2.4.0-test5 #2 Wed Jul 26 21:19:54 MEST 2000 ppc unknown

• Image formats

  The "boot" commands of this monitor operate on "image" files which can be basicly anything, preceeded by a special header; see the definitions in include/image.h for details; basicly, the header defines the following image properties:

  • Target Operating System (Provisions for OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD, 4.4BSD, Linux, SVR4, Esix, Solaris, Irix, SCO, Dell, NCR, VxWorks, LynxOS, pSOS, QNX; Currently supported: Linux)
  • Target CPU Architecture (Provisions for Alpha, ARM, Intel x86, IA64, MIPS, MIPS, PowerPC, IBM S390, SuperH, Sparc, Sparc 64 Bit; Currently supported: PowerPC)
  • Compression Type (Provisions for uncompressed, gzip, bzip2; Currently supported: uncompressed, gzip)
  • Load Address
  • Entry Point
  • Image Name
  • Image Timestamp

  The header is marked by a special Magic Number, and both the header and the data portions of the image are secured against corruption by CRC32 checksums.

• Linux Support

  Although PPCBOOT should support any OS or standalone application easily, Linux has always been in the focus during the design of PPCBOOT.

  PPCBOOT includes many features that so far have been part of some special "boot loader" code within the Linux kernel. Also, any "initrd" images to be used are no longer part of one big Linux image; instead, kernel and "initrd" are separate images. This implementation serves serveral purposes:

  • the same features can be used for other OS or standalone applications (for instance: using compressed images to reduce the Flash memory footprint)
  • it becomes much easier to port new Linux kernel versions because lots of low-level, hardware dependend stuff are done by PPCBOOT
  • the same Linux kernel image can now be used with different "initrd" images; of course this also means that different kernel images can be run with the same "initrd". This makes testing easier (you don't have to build a new "zImage.initrd" Linux image when you just change a file in your "initrd"). Also, a field-upgrade of the software is easier now.

PLAN	Wed, 26 Jul 2000 22:40:31 +0200

The Embedded PowerPC Linux Boot Project (PPCBOOT) has implemented a common and easily extensible boot program for embedded devices. The entire project source code is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL), and takes advantage of an open development process at SourceForge.net, the highly popular portal of open source software development.

In the embedded world it is very important to provide a flexible way of configuring the system environment. Accordingly one of the project's primary goals is to achieve a very flexible way of configuring PPCBOOT. Developers must be able to decide which components are really needed within the actual target system.

It is also important to auto-detect hardware components at runtime, for example RAM or flash memory size or CPU type, in order to allow flexible extension of PowerPC hardware to be possible without need to change the code.

Another project goal is to support many standard off-the-shelf boards, in order to help speed up the development process at the beginning of new projects.

Future plans

Support for other devices such as USB or FireWire will also be implemented in the future, given sufficient interest.

It is expected that the PowerPC Linux community will contribute code to PPCBOOT, to extend its functionality with many new useful features.

The "mini application" feature

An interesting feature of PPCBOOT is the "standalone application" capability, which allows the inclusion of standalone application programs that are launched by PPCBOOT. For example, special diagnostic tools might be used to verify that system hardware is functioning as expected prior to booting Linux. In this manner, the standalone application feature of PPCBOOT could be used to replace "good old boot monitors".

Another interesting use of the standalone application capability could be to simplify the process of porting to new hardware -- because PPCBOOT does NOT need Linux. Consequently, it is possible to develop a driver for PPCBOOT first, and then use it with minor modification under Linux. In this process, the default Linux development tools (e.g. gcc and binutils) are used, so there is no need to learn special tools or techniques.

One reason the standalone appication feature is expected to be popular is that it is easy to implement. It is not necessary to worry about the environment; simply write the code, flash it together with PPCBOOT, and test it.

DOWNLOAD

Sun, 7 Jan 2001 18:52:43 +0100

ftp://ftp.denx.de/pub/ppcboot/ppcboot-2.0.0.tar.bz2

To extract the archive use the following syntax:
bzip2 -cd ppcboot-1.2.0.tar.bz2 | tar xf -

NOTE:
The PPCBoot project has been discontinued. For new versions of the code please check with the "U-Boot" project at sourceforge, see http://sourceforge.net/projects/u-boot/

CVS	Sat, 10 Jun 2000 01:10:03 +0200

This project's SourceForge CVS repository can be checked out through anonymous (pserver) CVS with the following instruction set. The module you wish to check out must be specified as the modulename. When prompted for a password for anonymous, simply press the Enter key.

cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ppcboot.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ppcboot login

cvs -z6 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ppcboot.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ppcboot co -P ppcboot

Updates from within the module's directory do not need the -d parameter.

Browse the CVS repository

BUGS	Sat, 16 Sep 2000 18:38:25 +0200

Nothing special to say here at the moment. To report bugs use the SourceForge's own bug tracking system.

Submit a new bug.

AUTHORS

Wed, 26 Jul 2000 22:40:31 +0200

This project base on the initial work from Magnus Damm called 8xxROM. I have had to rename it to PPCBOOT because SourceForge does not allow any names that start with a digit.
Thanks goes to all the people in the linuxppc-embedded mailing-list, especially to Dan Malek and his creat work on the Embedded PowerPC support in the Linux kernel.

People contribute to the PPCBOOT project :

• Andre Beaudin - PCMCIA, Ethernet, TFTP
• Raphael Bossek - 8xxROM 0.3.0
• David Brown - Extension to 8xxROM 0.3.0
• Conn Clark - ESTEEM192E support
• Magnus Damm - 8xxrom
• Wolfgang Denk - PPCBOOT initial version, continuing maintenance
• Dan A. Dickey - FADS Support
• Dave Ellis - EEPROM Speedup, SXNI855T port
• Marius Groeger - MBX Support, board specific function interface, EST SBC8260 support
• Yoo. Jonghoon - RPXlite Support
• Anne-Sophie Harnois - Walnut405 Support
• Dan Malek - FADSROM, the grandfather of all of this
• Jay Monkman - EST SBC8260 support
• Stefan Roese - IBM PPC401/403/405GP Support; Windows environment support
• Neil Russell - Author of LiMon-1.4.2, which contributed some ideas
• Paolo Scaffardi - FADS823 configuration, MPC823 video support, I2C, wireless keyboard, lots more
• Rob Taylor - MBX860T and Sandpoint8240 Support
• Christian Vejlbo - FADS860T ethernet support

MAILING-LIST

Mon, 12 Mar 2001 21:05:44 +0100

Following mailing list archives are available at the moment :

• ppcboot-users
• ppcboot-announce (read-only!)
• ppcboot-internal (for project members only!)

LINKS

Sat, 16 Sep 2000 18:38:25 +0200

• http://www.linuxdevices.com/
• http://www.denx.de/
• http://www.solutions4linux.de/powerpc.html
• http://bdm4gdb.sourceforge.net/
• http://lists.linuxppc.org/lists/linuxppc-embedded