Setup -- Preparing the DNP/9200 with DNP/EVA9 evaluation board for eCos Development
Overview
In a typical development environment, the DNP/9200 board boots from
the parallel NOR Flash and run the RedBoot ROM monitor directly. 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:
Configuration
Description
Use
File
ROM
RedBoot running from ROM
redboot_ROM.ecm
redboot_ROM.bin
RAM
RedBoot running from RAM
redboot_RAM.ecm
redboot_RAM.bin
ROMRAM
RedBoot running from RAM, but contained in the board's flash boot sector
redboot_ROMRAM.ecm
redboot_ROMRAM.bin
JTAG
RedBoot running from RAM, loaded via JTAG
redboot_JTAG.ecm
redboot_JTAG.bin
UBOOT
RedBoot running from RAM, loaded via U-Boot
redboot_UBOOT.ecm
redboot_UBOOT.bin
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.
The ample provision of RAM memory on the board allows the ROMRAM version of
RedBoot to be preferential to the standard ROM version which executes
directly from Flash. Alternatively, if the ROM version is to be chosen, then
the RAM version is provided to allow for updating the resident RedBoot
image in Flash. The JTAG version is only used if loading RedBoot into
RAM via a JTAG debugger or ICE. It is similar to the RAM version, but
loads at a lower address within RAM, and so can be used to in turn load eCos
applications, as if it is the normal resident boot monitor. The ELF format
image of this JTAG version of RedBoot can also be loaded and executed from
GDB using the Abatron BDI2000 bdiGDB support, to allow it to be
debugged. The UBOOT version may be used to load RedBoot into RAM using
the UBOOT bootloader. This is usually only used to then load a ROMRAM
executable for programming into flash. Like the JTAG version it loads
at a lower RAM address and can therefore be used to load RAM applications.
Initial Installation
The on-chip boot program on the AT91RM9200 is only capable of loading
programs into 12Kbytes of on-chip SRAM and is therefore quite
restrictive. Consequently two mechanisms are described below to
program RedBoot into Flash. The first requires a JTAG device while the
other makes use of the U-Boot bootloader that is shipped with the
board.
Method 1 - Program RedBoot into Flash with RAM RedBoot
loaded by JTAG
With this approach, the BDI2000 is used to load a RAM RedBoot image,
which can then in turn be used to load and program a ROMRAM RedBoot
image into Flash. In the following documentation it is assumed that the Abatron
BDI2000 is being used. For a different JTAG device, equivalent
operations will need to be performed.
There are three stages, firstly loading the RAM RedBoot image, then
initializing RedBoot's Flash configuration, and finally loading and
programming the ROMRAM RedBoot. First, however, we must set up the
BDI2000 and the board.
Preparing the Abatron BDI2000 JTAG debugger
The BDI2000 must first be configured to allow communication with
your local network, and configured with the parameters for interfacing
with the target board. The following steps should be followed:
Prepare a PC to act as a host PC and start a TFTP server on it.
Connect the Abatron BDI2000 JTAG debugger via both serial and ethernet
to the host PC and power it on. Use the serial cable supplied with the
BDI2000.
Install the Abatron BDI2000 bdiGDB support software on the host PC.
Locate the file bdi2000.dnp_sk23.cfg
within the eCos platform HAL package in the source repository. This
will be in the directory packages/hal/arm/arm9/dnp_sk23/VERSION/misc
relative to the root of your eCos installation.
Locate the file reg920t.def within the installation
of the BDI2000 bdiGDB support software.
Place the bdi2000.dnp_sk23.cfg in a location on the PC accessible
to the TFTP server. Later you will configure the BDI2000 to load this
file via TFTP as its configuration file.
Similarly place the file reg920t.def in a location
accessible to the TFTP server.
Open bdi2000.dnp_sk23.cfg in an editor such as
emacs or notepad and if necessary adjust the path of the
reg920t.def file in the [REGS]
section to match its location relative to the TFTP server root.
Install and configure the Abatron BDI2000 in line with the bdiGDB
instruction manual. Configure the BDI2000 to use the
bdi2000.dnp_sk23.cfg configuration file at the
appropriate point of this process.
Preparing the DNP/9200 with DNP/EVA9 evaluation board for programming
Follow the steps in this section in order to allow communication between
the board and the host PC, and between the board and the JTAG device.
First you must connect a null modem DB9 serial cable between COM1
on the board and a serial port on the host computer.
Start a suitable terminal emulator on the host computer such as
minicom or HyperTerminal.
Set the communication parameters to 115200 baud, 8 data bits,
no parity bit and 1 stop bit with no flow control.
Connect the board to your host PC's LAN with an Ethernet cable.
You should designate the board with a new Ethernet MAC address. The
RedBoot binary image contains a default address, but each board requires
its own unique address. It is advisable to mark each
board with its programmed MAC address for future identification.
Connect the board to the BDI2000 using a 20-pin ARM/Xscale cable
from the JTAG interface connector on the DNP/9200 to the Target A port on the
BDI2000. Since the JTAG connector on the DNP/9200 is non-standard,
this will require an adaptor cable.
Power up the DNP/EVA9 board. You should see the power LED and some of
the ethernet LEDs illuminate.
Connect to the BDI2000's CLI interface via TCP/IP on the standard
telnet port 23. The telnet application is suitable
for this. You should see usage information followed by the prompt:
Core#0>
Confirm correct connection with the BDI2000 with the reset
halt command as follows:
Locate the redboot_ROMRAM.bin image within the loaders subdirectory of the base of the eCos installation.
Copy the redboot_ROMRAM.bin file into a location on the host computer accessible
to its TFTP server.
Loading a RAM RedBoot
Locate the redboot_JTAG.bin image within the loaders subdirectory of the base of the eCos installation.
Copy the redboot_JTAG.bin file into a location on the
host computer accessible to its TFTP server.
With the BDI2000 telnet interface, execute the following command,
replacing /RBPATH with the location of the
redboot_JTAG.bin file relative to the TFTP server root directory:
Core#0>load 0x20010000 /RBPATH/redboot_JTAG.bin bin
Loading /RBPATH/redboot_JTAG.bin , please wait ....
Loading program file passed
Core#0>
Run the loaded RAM RedBoot:
Core#0>go 0x20010040
Core#0>
The terminal emulator connected to the serial debug port should
now have displayed the RedBoot banner and prompt similar to the
following:
+**Warning** FLASH configuration checksum error or invalid key
Use 'fconfig -i' to [re]initialize database
PHY: Davicom DM9161A
AT91RM9200 ETH: Waiting for link to come up.
AT91RM9200 ETH: 100Mb
... waiting for BOOTP information
Ethernet eth0: MAC address 00:23:31:37:00:1c
IP: 10.0.2.9/255.0.0.0, Gateway: 10.0.0.3
Default server: 10.0.1.2, DNS server IP: 10.0.0.1
RedBoot(tm) bootstrap and debug environment [RAM]
Non-certified release, version UNKNOWN - built 17:10:26, Jun 8 2006
Platform: DNP/9200 with DNP/EVA9 (ARM9)
Copyright (C) 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Copyright (C) 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 eCosCentric Limited
RAM: 0x20000000-0x20800000, [0x2002f2e0-0x207dd000] available
FLASH: 0x60000000-0x60ffffff, 128 x 0x20000 blocks
RedBoot>
In the above output, a local BOOTP/DHCP server was able to serve an
address to the device.
Note: It is also possible to use the RAM startup version of RedBoot and
the redboot_RAM.bin file instead of redboot_JTAG.bin above. If so,
then the address to the load command must be
0x20100000, as must be the address to the go
command.
RedBoot Flash configuration
The following steps describe how to initialize RedBoot's Flash configuration.
This must be performed when using a RAM RedBoot to program Flash.
Use the following command to initialize RedBoot's Flash
Information System (FIS):
RedBoot> fis init
About to initialize [format] FLASH image system - continue (y/n)? y
*** Initialize FLASH Image System
... Unlocking from 0x60fe0000-0x60ffffff: .
... Erase from 0x60fe0000-0x60ffffff: .
... Program from 0x207e0000-0x20800000 to 0x60fe0000: .
... Locking from 0x60fe0000-0x60ffffff: .
RedBoot>
Now configure RedBoot's Flash configuration with the command:
RedBoot> fconfig -i
Remember to substitute the appropriate MAC address for this board
at the appropriate step. If a BOOTP/DHCP server is not available,
then IP configuration may be set manually. The default server IP
address can be set to a PC that will act as a TFTP host for
future RedBoot load operations, or may be left unset. The
following gives an example configuration:
RedBoot> fconfig -i
Initialize non-volatile configuration - continue (y/n)? y
Run script at boot: false
Use BOOTP for network configuration: false
Gateway IP address: 192.168.7.11
Local IP address: 192.168.7.222
Local IP address mask: 255.255.255.0
Default server IP address: 192.168.7.9
Console baud rate: 115200
DNS server IP address: 192.168.7.11
Network hardware address [MAC]: 0x00:0x23:0x31:0x37:0x00:0x4e
GDB connection port: 9000
Force console for special debug messages: false
Network debug at boot time: false
Default network device: at91rm9200_eth
Update RedBoot non-volatile configuration - continue (y/n)? y
... Unlocking from 0x60fe0000-0x60ffffff: .
... Erase from 0x60fe0000-0x60ffffff: .
... Program from 0x207e0000-0x20800000 to 0x60fe0000: .
... Locking from 0x60fe0000-0x60ffffff: .
RedBoot>
Loading and programming the ROMRAM RedBoot
This section describes the steps required to load the ROMRAM RedBoot from the
TFTP server and program it into Flash.
Load the RedBoot ROMRAM binary image from the TFTP server. Use the following
command, replacing 111.222.333.444 with the TFTP
server IP address (or domain name if a DNS server has been configured), and
/RBPATH with the location of the
redboot_ROMRAM.bin file relative to the TFTP server root
directory:
RedBoot> load -r -b %{freememlo} -h 111.222.333.444/RBPATH/redboot_ROMRAM.bin
Using default protocol (TFTP)
Raw file loaded 0x20030000-0x2004e91b, assumed entry at 0x20030000
RedBoot>
Finally install the loaded image into Flash:
RedBoot> fis create RedBoot
An image named 'RedBoot' exists - continue (y/n)? y
... Erase from 0x60000000-0x6003ffff: ..
... Program from 0x20030000-0x2004e91c to 0x60000000: .
... Locking from 0x60000000-0x6003ffff: ..
... Unlocking from 0x60fe0000-0x60ffffff: .
... Erase from 0x60fe0000-0x60ffffff: .
... Program from 0x21fe0000-0x22000000 to 0x60fe0000: .
... Locking from 0x60fe0000-0x60ffffff: .
RedBoot>
It is also possible to use the fis write command
to write the image into Flash, but if so, the relevant Flash blocks
must also be explicitly unlocked with the command:
RedBoot> fis unlock -f 0x60000000 -l 0x30000
The RedBoot installation is now complete. This can be tested by
powering off the board, disconnecting the JTAG, and then powering on
the board again. Output similar to the following should be seen on
the serial port. Verify the IP settings are as expected.
+PHY: Davicom DM9161A
AT91RM9200 ETH: 100Mb
... waiting for BOOTP information
Ethernet eth0: MAC address 00:23:31:37:00:1c
IP: 10.0.2.9/255.0.0.0, Gateway: 10.0.0.3
Default server: 10.0.1.2, DNS server IP: 10.0.0.1
RedBoot(tm) bootstrap and debug environment [ROMRAM]
Non-certified release, version UNKNOWN - built 18:10:00, Jun 8 2006
Platform: DNP/9200 with DNP/EVA9 (ARM9)
Copyright (C) 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Copyright (C) 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 eCosCentric Limited
RAM: 0x20000000-0x22000000, [0x2002ff78-0x21fdd000] available
FLASH: 0x60000000-0x60ffffff, 128 x 0x20000 blocks
RedBoot>
If it proves necessary to re-install RedBoot, this may be achieved by
repeating the above process. Alternatively, a new image may be downloaded and programmed into
flash more directly using RedBoot's own commands. See the RedBoot
documentation for details.
Method 2 - Program RedBoot into Flash with RAM Redboot
loaded by U-Boot
With this approach, the existing U-Boot bootloader is used to load
a RAM RedBoot which is then used to load and program a ROMRAM
RedBoot image to replace U-Boot in Flash. A JTAG debugger is not
needed for this method.
There are three stages, firstly loading the RAM RedBoot image, then
initializing RedBoot's Flash configuration, and finally loading and
programming the ROMRAM RedBoot. The first of these stages is described
here, the remaining two stages are identical to the equivalent stages
in Method 1, above.
Loading a RAM RedBoot
First you must connect a null modem DB9 serial cable between COM1
on the board and a serial port on the host computer.
Start a suitable terminal emulator on the host computer such as
minicom or HyperTerminal.
Set the communication parameters to 115200 baud, 8 data bits,
no parity bit and 1 stop bit with no flow control.
Connect the board to your host PC's LAN with an Ethernet cable.
You should designate the board with a new Ethernet MAC address. The
RedBoot binary image contains a default address, but each board requires
its own unique address. It is advisable to mark each
board with its programmed MAC address for future identification.
Locate the redboot_UBOOT.bin image within the loaders subdirectory of the base of the eCos installation.
Copy the redboot_UBOOT.bin file into a location on the
host computer accessible to its TFTP server.
Power up the DNP/EVA9 board. You should see the power LED and some of
the ethernet LEDs illuminate.
After a few seconds the following output should be seen on the serial
line. Hit a key to stop the auto boot:
U-Boot 1.1.2 (Dec 14 2005 - 13:12:14)
U-Boot code: 21F00000 -> 21F1666C BSS: -> 21F1AC44
RAM Configuration:
Bank #0: 20000000 32 MB
Flash: 16 MB
In: serial
Out: serial
Err: serial
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0
U-Boot>
Set up the environment of U-Boot to download the RAM
RedBoot. Users with access to a TFTP server should substitute their own IP address, TFTP server address and
netmask in the following commands:
Should it prove necessary to rebuild a RedBoot binary, this is done
most conveniently at the command line. The steps needed to rebuild the
the ROMRAM version of RedBoot for the DNP/9200 with DNP/EVA9 are:
$ mkdir redboot_dnp_sk23_romram
$ cd redboot_dnp_sk23_romram
$ ecosconfig new dnp_sk23 redboot
$ ecosconfig import $ECOS_REPOSITORY/hal/arm/arm9/dnp_sk23/VERSION/misc/redboot_ROMRAM.ecm
$ ecosconfig resolve
$ ecosconfig tree
$ make
At the end of the build the install/bin subdirectory should contain
the file redboot.bin.
The other versions of RedBoot - ROM, RAM, JTAG or UBOOT - may be similarly built by
choosing the appropriate alternative .ecm file.
