Newer
Older
- CONFIG_FSL_DDR_BIST
Enable built-in memory test for Freescale DDR controllers.
- CONFIG_SYS_83XX_DDR_USES_CS0
Only for 83xx systems. If specified, then DDR should
be configured using CS0 and CS1 instead of CS2 and CS3.
- CONFIG_RMII
Enable RMII mode for all FECs.
Note that this is a global option, we can't
have one FEC in standard MII mode and another in RMII mode.
- CONFIG_CRC32_VERIFY
Add a verify option to the crc32 command.
The syntax is:
=> crc32 -v <address> <count> <crc32>
Where address/count indicate a memory area
and crc32 is the correct crc32 which the
area should have.
- CONFIG_LOOPW
Add the "loopw" memory command. This only takes effect if
the memory commands are activated globally (CONFIG_CMD_MEMORY).
Add the "mdc" and "mwc" memory commands. These are cyclic
"md/mw" commands.
Examples:
This command will print 4 bytes (10,11,12,13) each 500 ms.
This command will write 12345678 to address 100 all 10 ms.
This only takes effect if the memory commands are activated
[ARM, NDS32, MIPS, RISC-V only] If this variable is defined, then certain
low level initializations (like setting up the memory
controller) are omitted and/or U-Boot does not
relocate itself into RAM.
Normally this variable MUST NOT be defined. The only
exception is when U-Boot is loaded (to RAM) by some
other boot loader or by a debugger which performs
these initializations itself.
- CONFIG_SKIP_LOWLEVEL_INIT_ONLY
[ARM926EJ-S only] This allows just the call to lowlevel_init()
to be skipped. The normal CP15 init (such as enabling the
instruction cache) is still performed.
Set when the currently-running compilation is for an artifact
that will end up in the SPL (as opposed to the TPL or U-Boot
proper). Code that needs stage-specific behavior should check
this.
Set when the currently-running compilation is for an artifact
that will end up in the TPL (as opposed to the SPL or U-Boot
proper). Code that needs stage-specific behavior should check
this.
Ying Zhang
committed
- CONFIG_SYS_MPC85XX_NO_RESETVEC
Only for 85xx systems. If this variable is specified, the section
.resetvec is not kept and the section .bootpg is placed in the
previous 4k of the .text section.
- CONFIG_ARCH_MAP_SYSMEM
Generally U-Boot (and in particular the md command) uses
effective address. It is therefore not necessary to regard
U-Boot address as virtual addresses that need to be translated
to physical addresses. However, sandbox requires this, since
it maintains its own little RAM buffer which contains all
addressable memory. This option causes some memory accesses
to be mapped through map_sysmem() / unmap_sysmem().
- CONFIG_X86_RESET_VECTOR
If defined, the x86 reset vector code is included. This is not
needed when U-Boot is running from Coreboot.
- CONFIG_SYS_NAND_NO_SUBPAGE_WRITE
Option to disable subpage write in NAND driver
driver that uses this:
drivers/mtd/nand/raw/davinci_nand.c
Freescale QE/FMAN Firmware Support:
-----------------------------------
The Freescale QUICCEngine (QE) and Frame Manager (FMAN) both support the
loading of "firmware", which is encoded in the QE firmware binary format.
This firmware often needs to be loaded during U-Boot booting, so macros
are used to identify the storage device (NOR flash, SPI, etc) and the address
within that device.
Zhao Qiang
committed
- CONFIG_SYS_FMAN_FW_ADDR
The address in the storage device where the FMAN microcode is located. The
meaning of this address depends on which CONFIG_SYS_QE_FMAN_FW_IN_xxx macro
Zhao Qiang
committed
is also specified.
- CONFIG_SYS_QE_FW_ADDR
The address in the storage device where the QE microcode is located. The
meaning of this address depends on which CONFIG_SYS_QE_FMAN_FW_IN_xxx macro
3110
3111
3112
3113
3114
3115
3116
3117
3118
3119
3120
3121
3122
3123
3124
3125
3126
3127
3128
3129
3130
is also specified.
- CONFIG_SYS_QE_FMAN_FW_LENGTH
The maximum possible size of the firmware. The firmware binary format
has a field that specifies the actual size of the firmware, but it
might not be possible to read any part of the firmware unless some
local storage is allocated to hold the entire firmware first.
- CONFIG_SYS_QE_FMAN_FW_IN_NOR
Specifies that QE/FMAN firmware is located in NOR flash, mapped as
normal addressable memory via the LBC. CONFIG_SYS_FMAN_FW_ADDR is the
virtual address in NOR flash.
- CONFIG_SYS_QE_FMAN_FW_IN_NAND
Specifies that QE/FMAN firmware is located in NAND flash.
CONFIG_SYS_FMAN_FW_ADDR is the offset within NAND flash.
- CONFIG_SYS_QE_FMAN_FW_IN_MMC
Specifies that QE/FMAN firmware is located on the primary SD/MMC
device. CONFIG_SYS_FMAN_FW_ADDR is the byte offset on that device.
- CONFIG_SYS_QE_FMAN_FW_IN_REMOTE
Specifies that QE/FMAN firmware is located in the remote (master)
memory space. CONFIG_SYS_FMAN_FW_ADDR is a virtual address which
can be mapped from slave TLB->slave LAW->slave SRIO or PCIE outbound
window->master inbound window->master LAW->the ucode address in
master's memory space.
Freescale Layerscape Management Complex Firmware Support:
---------------------------------------------------------
The Freescale Layerscape Management Complex (MC) supports the loading of
"firmware".
This firmware often needs to be loaded during U-Boot booting, so macros
are used to identify the storage device (NOR flash, SPI, etc) and the address
within that device.
- CONFIG_FSL_MC_ENET
Enable the MC driver for Layerscape SoCs.
Freescale Layerscape Debug Server Support:
-------------------------------------------
The Freescale Layerscape Debug Server Support supports the loading of
"Debug Server firmware" and triggering SP boot-rom.
This firmware often needs to be loaded during U-Boot booting.
- CONFIG_SYS_MC_RSV_MEM_ALIGN
Define alignment of reserved memory MC requires
Reproducible builds
-------------------
In order to achieve reproducible builds, timestamps used in the U-Boot build
process have to be set to a fixed value.
This is done using the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment variable.
SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH is to be set on the build host's shell, not as a configuration
option for U-Boot or an environment variable in U-Boot.
SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH should be set to a number of seconds since the epoch, in UTC.
Building the Software:
======================
Building U-Boot has been tested in several native build environments
and in many different cross environments. Of course we cannot support
all possibly existing versions of cross development tools in all
(potentially obsolete) versions. In case of tool chain problems we
recommend to use the ELDK (see http://www.denx.de/wiki/DULG/ELDK)
which is extensively used to build and test U-Boot.
If you are not using a native environment, it is assumed that you
have GNU cross compiling tools available in your path. In this case,
you must set the environment variable CROSS_COMPILE in your shell.
Note that no changes to the Makefile or any other source files are
necessary. For example using the ELDK on a 4xx CPU, please enter:
$ CROSS_COMPILE=ppc_4xx-
$ export CROSS_COMPILE
Note: If you wish to generate Windows versions of the utilities in
the tools directory you can use the MinGW toolchain
(http://www.mingw.org). Set your HOST tools to the MinGW
toolchain and execute 'make tools'. For example:
$ make HOSTCC=i586-mingw32msvc-gcc HOSTSTRIP=i586-mingw32msvc-strip tools
Binaries such as tools/mkimage.exe will be created which can
be executed on computers running Windows.
U-Boot is intended to be simple to build. After installing the
sources you must configure U-Boot for one specific board type. This
make NAME_defconfig
where "NAME_defconfig" is the name of one of the existing configu-
rations; see boards.cfg for supported names.
Note: for some board special configuration names may exist; check if
additional information is available from the board vendor; for
instance, the TQM823L systems are available without (standard)
or with LCD support. You can select such additional "features"
when choosing the configuration, i. e.
make TQM823L_defconfig
- will configure for a plain TQM823L, i. e. no LCD support
make TQM823L_LCD_defconfig
- will configure for a TQM823L with U-Boot console on LCD
etc.
Finally, type "make all", and you should get some working U-Boot
images ready for download to / installation on your system:
- "u-boot.bin" is a raw binary image
- "u-boot" is an image in ELF binary format
- "u-boot.srec" is in Motorola S-Record format
By default the build is performed locally and the objects are saved
in the source directory. One of the two methods can be used to change
this behavior and build U-Boot to some external directory:
1. Add O= to the make command line invocations:
make O=/tmp/build distclean
make O=/tmp/build NAME_defconfig
make O=/tmp/build all
2. Set environment variable KBUILD_OUTPUT to point to the desired location:
export KBUILD_OUTPUT=/tmp/build
make distclean
make NAME_defconfig
make all
Note that the command line "O=" setting overrides the KBUILD_OUTPUT environment
variable.
Daniel Schwierzeck
committed
User specific CPPFLAGS, AFLAGS and CFLAGS can be passed to the compiler by
setting the according environment variables KCPPFLAGS, KAFLAGS and KCFLAGS.
For example to treat all compiler warnings as errors:
make KCFLAGS=-Werror
Please be aware that the Makefiles assume you are using GNU make, so
for instance on NetBSD you might need to use "gmake" instead of
native "make".
If the system board that you have is not listed, then you will need
to port U-Boot to your hardware platform. To do this, follow these
steps:
1. Create a new directory to hold your board specific code. Add any
files you need. In your board directory, you will need at least
the "Makefile" and a "<board>.c".
2. Create a new configuration file "include/configs/<board>.h" for
your board.
3. If you're porting U-Boot to a new CPU, then also create a new
directory to hold your CPU specific code. Add any files you need.
4. Run "make <board>_defconfig" with your new name.
5. Type "make", and you should get a working "u-boot.srec" file
to be installed on your target system.
6. Debug and solve any problems that might arise.
[Of course, this last step is much harder than it sounds.]
Testing of U-Boot Modifications, Ports to New Hardware, etc.:
==============================================================
If you have modified U-Boot sources (for instance added a new board
or support for new devices, a new CPU, etc.) you are expected to
provide feedback to the other developers. The feedback normally takes
the form of a "patch", i.e. a context diff against a certain (latest
official or latest in the git repository) version of U-Boot sources.
But before you submit such a patch, please verify that your modifi-
cation did not break existing code. At least make sure that *ALL* of
the supported boards compile WITHOUT ANY compiler warnings. To do so,
just run the buildman script (tools/buildman/buildman), which will
configure and build U-Boot for ALL supported system. Be warned, this
will take a while. Please see the buildman README, or run 'buildman -H'
for documentation.
See also "U-Boot Porting Guide" below.
Monitor Commands - Overview:
============================
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
bootz - boot zImage from memory
tftpboot- boot image via network using TFTP protocol
and env variables "ipaddr" and "serverip"
(and eventually "gatewayip")
tftpput - upload a file via network using TFTP protocol
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
sspi - SPI utility commands
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
nand - NAND memory operations (see doc/README.nand)
bdinfo - print Board Info structure
iminfo - print header information for application image
coninfo - print console devices and informations
ide - IDE sub-system
loop - infinite loop on address range
loopw - infinite write loop on address range
3339
3340
3341
3342
3343
3344
3345
3346
3347
3348
3349
3350
3351
3352
3353
3354
3355
3356
3357
3358
3359
3360
3361
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'
Monitor Commands - Detailed Description:
========================================
TODO.
For now: just type "help <command>".
Environment Variables:
======================
U-Boot supports user configuration using Environment Variables which
can be made persistent by saving to Flash memory.
Environment Variables are set using "setenv", printed using
"printenv", and saved to Flash using "saveenv". Using "setenv"
without a value can be used to delete a variable from the
environment. As long as you don't save the environment you are
working with an in-memory copy. In case the Flash area containing the
environment is erased by accident, a default environment is provided.
Some configuration options can be set using Environment Variables.
List of environment variables (most likely not complete):
bootargs - Boot arguments when booting an RTOS image
bootfile - Name of the image to load with TFTP
bootm_low - Memory range available for image processing in the bootm
command can be restricted. This variable is given as
a hexadecimal number and defines lowest address allowed
for use by the bootm command. See also "bootm_size"
environment variable. Address defined by "bootm_low" is
also the base of the initial memory mapping for the Linux
kernel -- see the description of CONFIG_SYS_BOOTMAPSZ and
bootm_mapsize.
bootm_mapsize - Size of the initial memory mapping for the Linux kernel.
This variable is given as a hexadecimal number and it
defines the size of the memory region starting at base
address bootm_low that is accessible by the Linux kernel
during early boot. If unset, CONFIG_SYS_BOOTMAPSZ is used
as the default value if it is defined, and bootm_size is
used otherwise.
bootm_size - Memory range available for image processing in the bootm
command can be restricted. This variable is given as
a hexadecimal number and defines the size of the region
allowed for use by the bootm command. See also "bootm_low"
environment variable.
bootstopkeysha256, bootdelaykey, bootstopkey - See README.autoboot
updatefile - Location of the software update file on a TFTP server, used
by the automatic software update feature. Please refer to
documentation in doc/README.update for more details.
autoload - if set to "no" (any string beginning with 'n'),
"bootp" will just load perform a lookup of the
configuration from the BOOTP server, but not try to
load any image using TFTP
autostart - if set to "yes", an image loaded using the "bootp",
"rarpboot", "tftpboot" or "diskboot" commands will
be automatically started (by internally calling
"bootm")
If set to "no", a standalone image passed to the
"bootm" command will be copied to the load address
(and eventually uncompressed), but NOT be started.
This can be used to load and uncompress arbitrary
data.
fdt_high - if set this restricts the maximum address that the
flattened device tree will be copied into upon boot.
For example, if you have a system with 1 GB memory
at physical address 0x10000000, while Linux kernel
only recognizes the first 704 MB as low memory, you
may need to set fdt_high as 0x3C000000 to have the
device tree blob be copied to the maximum address
of the 704 MB low memory, so that Linux kernel can
access it during the boot procedure.
If this is set to the special value 0xFFFFFFFF then
the fdt will not be copied at all on boot. For this
to work it must reside in writable memory, have
sufficient padding on the end of it for u-boot to
add the information it needs into it, and the memory
must be accessible by the kernel.
fdtcontroladdr- if set this is the address of the control flattened
device tree used by U-Boot when CONFIG_OF_CONTROL is
defined.
i2cfast - (PPC405GP|PPC405EP only)
if set to 'y' configures Linux I2C driver for fast
mode (400kHZ). This environment variable is used in
initialization code. So, for changes to be effective
it must be saved and board must be reset.
initrd_high - restrict positioning of initrd images:
If this variable is not set, initrd images will be
copied to the highest possible address in RAM; this
is usually what you want since it allows for
maximum initrd size. If for some reason you want to
make sure that the initrd image is loaded below the
CONFIG_SYS_BOOTMAPSZ limit, you can set this environment
variable to a value of "no" or "off" or "0".
Alternatively, you can set it to a maximum upper
address to use (U-Boot will still check that it
does not overwrite the U-Boot stack and data).
For instance, when you have a system with 16 MB
RAM, and want to reserve 4 MB from use by Linux,
you can do this by adding "mem=12M" to the value of
the "bootargs" variable. However, now you must make
sure that the initrd image is placed in the first
12 MB as well - this can be done with
If you set initrd_high to 0xFFFFFFFF, this is an
indication to U-Boot that all addresses are legal
for the Linux kernel, including addresses in flash
memory. In this case U-Boot will NOT COPY the
ramdisk at all. This may be useful to reduce the
boot time on your system, but requires that this
feature is supported by your Linux kernel.
ipaddr - IP address; needed for tftpboot command
loadaddr - Default load address for commands like "bootp",
"rarpboot", "tftpboot", "loadb" or "diskboot"
loads_echo - see CONFIG_LOADS_ECHO
serverip - TFTP server IP address; needed for tftpboot command
bootretry - see CONFIG_BOOT_RETRY_TIME
bootdelaykey - see CONFIG_AUTOBOOT_DELAY_STR
bootstopkey - see CONFIG_AUTOBOOT_STOP_STR
ethprime - controls which interface is used first.
ethact - controls which interface is currently active.
For example you can do the following
=> setenv ethact FEC
=> ping 192.168.0.1 # traffic sent on FEC
=> setenv ethact SCC
=> ping 10.0.0.1 # traffic sent on SCC
ethrotate - When set to "no" U-Boot does not go through all
available network interfaces.
It just stays at the currently selected interface.
netretry - When set to "no" each network operation will
either succeed or fail without retrying.
When set to "once" the network operation will
fail when all the available network interfaces
are tried once without success.
Useful on scripts which control the retry operation
themselves.
npe_ucode - set load address for the NPE microcode
silent_linux - If set then Linux will be told to boot silently, by
changing the console to be empty. If "yes" it will be
made silent. If "no" it will not be made silent. If
unset, then it will be made silent if the U-Boot console
is silent.
tftpsrcp - If this is set, the value is used for TFTP's
tftpdstp - If this is set, the value is used for TFTP's UDP
destination port instead of the Well Know Port 69.
tftpblocksize - Block size to use for TFTP transfers; if not set,
we use the TFTP server's default block size
tftptimeout - Retransmission timeout for TFTP packets (in milli-
seconds, minimum value is 1000 = 1 second). Defines
when a packet is considered to be lost so it has to
be retransmitted. The default is 5000 = 5 seconds.
Lowering this value may make downloads succeed
faster in networks with high packet loss rates or
with unreliable TFTP servers.
tftptimeoutcountmax - maximum count of TFTP timeouts (no
unit, minimum value = 0). Defines how many timeouts
can happen during a single file transfer before that
transfer is aborted. The default is 10, and 0 means
'no timeouts allowed'. Increasing this value may help
downloads succeed with high packet loss rates, or with
unreliable TFTP servers or client hardware.
vlan - When set to a value < 4095 the traffic over
Ethernet is encapsulated/received over 802.1q
bootpretryperiod - Period during which BOOTP/DHCP sends retries.
Unsigned value, in milliseconds. If not set, the period will
be either the default (28000), or a value based on
CONFIG_NET_RETRY_COUNT, if defined. This value has
precedence over the valu based on CONFIG_NET_RETRY_COUNT.
The following image location variables contain the location of images
used in booting. The "Image" column gives the role of the image and is
not an environment variable name. The other columns are environment
variable names. "File Name" gives the name of the file on a TFTP
server, "RAM Address" gives the location in RAM the image will be
loaded to, and "Flash Location" gives the image's address in NOR
flash or offset in NAND flash.
*Note* - these variables don't have to be defined for all boards, some
boards currently use other variables for these purposes, and some
boards use these variables for other purposes.
Image File Name RAM Address Flash Location
----- --------- ----------- --------------
u-boot u-boot u-boot_addr_r u-boot_addr
Linux kernel bootfile kernel_addr_r kernel_addr
device tree blob fdtfile fdt_addr_r fdt_addr
ramdisk ramdiskfile ramdisk_addr_r ramdisk_addr
The following environment variables may be used and automatically
updated by the network boot commands ("bootp" and "rarpboot"),
depending the information provided by your boot server:
bootfile - see above
dnsip - IP address of your Domain Name Server
dnsip2 - IP address of your secondary Domain Name Server
gatewayip - IP address of the Gateway (Router) to use
hostname - Target hostname
ipaddr - see above
netmask - Subnet Mask
rootpath - Pathname of the root filesystem on the NFS server
serverip - see above
There are two special Environment Variables:
serial# - contains hardware identification information such
as type string and/or serial number
ethaddr - Ethernet address
These variables can be set only once (usually during manufacturing of
the board). U-Boot refuses to delete or overwrite these variables
once they have been set once.
Further special Environment Variables:
ver - Contains the U-Boot version string as printed
with the "version" command. This variable is
readonly (see CONFIG_VERSION_VARIABLE).
Please note that changes to some configuration parameters may take
only effect after the next boot (yes, that's just like Windoze :-).
Callback functions for environment variables:
---------------------------------------------
For some environment variables, the behavior of u-boot needs to change
when their values are changed. This functionality allows functions to
3626
3627
3628
3629
3630
3631
3632
3633
3634
3635
3636
3637
3638
3639
3640
3641
3642
3643
3644
3645
3646
3647
be associated with arbitrary variables. On creation, overwrite, or
deletion, the callback will provide the opportunity for some side
effect to happen or for the change to be rejected.
The callbacks are named and associated with a function using the
U_BOOT_ENV_CALLBACK macro in your board or driver code.
These callbacks are associated with variables in one of two ways. The
static list can be added to by defining CONFIG_ENV_CALLBACK_LIST_STATIC
in the board configuration to a string that defines a list of
associations. The list must be in the following format:
entry = variable_name[:callback_name]
list = entry[,list]
If the callback name is not specified, then the callback is deleted.
Spaces are also allowed anywhere in the list.
Callbacks can also be associated by defining the ".callbacks" variable
with the same list format above. Any association in ".callbacks" will
override any association in the static list. You can define
CONFIG_ENV_CALLBACK_LIST_DEFAULT to a list (string) to define the
".callbacks" environment variable in the default or embedded environment.
If CONFIG_REGEX is defined, the variable_name above is evaluated as a
regular expression. This allows multiple variables to be connected to
the same callback without explicitly listing them all out.
The signature of the callback functions is:
int callback(const char *name, const char *value, enum env_op op, int flags)
* name - changed environment variable
* value - new value of the environment variable
* op - operation (create, overwrite, or delete)
* flags - attributes of the environment variable change, see flags H_* in
include/search.h
The return value is 0 if the variable change is accepted and 1 otherwise.
Command Line Parsing:
=====================
There are two different command line parsers available with U-Boot:
the old "simple" one, and the much more powerful "hush" shell:
Old, simple command line parser:
--------------------------------
- supports environment variables (through setenv / saveenv commands)
- several commands on one line, separated by ';'
- variable substitution using "... ${name} ..." syntax
- special characters ('$', ';') can be escaped by prefixing with '\',
for example:
setenv bootcmd bootm \${address}
- You can also escape text by enclosing in single apostrophes, for example:
setenv addip 'setenv bootargs $bootargs ip=$ipaddr:$serverip:$gatewayip:$netmask:$hostname::off'
- similar to Bourne shell, with control structures like
if...then...else...fi, for...do...done; while...do...done,
until...do...done, ...
- supports environment ("global") variables (through setenv / saveenv
commands) and local shell variables (through standard shell syntax
"name=value"); only environment variables can be used with "run"
command
General rules:
--------------
(1) If a command line (or an environment variable executed by a "run"
command) contains several commands separated by semicolon, and
one of these commands fails, then the remaining commands will be
executed anyway.
(2) If you execute several variables with one call to run (i. e.
calling run with a list of variables as arguments), any failing
command will cause "run" to terminate, i. e. the remaining
variables are not executed.
Note for Redundant Ethernet Interfaces:
=======================================
Some boards come with redundant Ethernet interfaces; U-Boot supports
such configurations and is capable of automatic selection of a
"working" interface when needed. MAC assignment works as follows:
Network interfaces are numbered eth0, eth1, eth2, ... Corresponding
MAC addresses can be stored in the environment as "ethaddr" (=>eth0),
"eth1addr" (=>eth1), "eth2addr", ...
If the network interface stores some valid MAC address (for instance
in SROM), this is used as default address if there is NO correspon-
ding setting in the environment; if the corresponding environment
variable is set, this overrides the settings in the card; that means:
o If the SROM has a valid MAC address, and there is no address in the
environment, the SROM's address is used.
o If there is no valid address in the SROM, and a definition in the
environment exists, then the value from the environment variable is
used.
o If both the SROM and the environment contain a MAC address, and
both addresses are the same, this MAC address is used.
o If both the SROM and the environment contain a MAC address, and the
addresses differ, the value from the environment is used and a
warning is printed.
o If neither SROM nor the environment contain a MAC address, an error
is raised. If CONFIG_NET_RANDOM_ETHADDR is defined, then in this case
a random, locally-assigned MAC is used.
If Ethernet drivers implement the 'write_hwaddr' function, valid MAC addresses
will be programmed into hardware as part of the initialization process. This
may be skipped by setting the appropriate 'ethmacskip' environment variable.
The naming convention is as follows:
"ethmacskip" (=>eth0), "eth1macskip" (=>eth1) etc.
Image Formats:
==============
U-Boot is capable of booting (and performing other auxiliary operations on)
images in two formats:
New uImage format (FIT)
-----------------------
Flexible and powerful format based on Flattened Image Tree -- FIT (similar
to Flattened Device Tree). It allows the use of images with multiple
components (several kernels, ramdisks, etc.), with contents protected by
SHA1, MD5 or CRC32. More details are found in the doc/uImage.FIT directory.
Old uImage format
-----------------
Old image format is based on binary files which can be basically anything,
preceded by a special header; see the definitions in include/image.h for
details; basically, 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, RTEMS, INTEGRITY;
Currently supported: Linux, NetBSD, VxWorks, QNX, RTEMS, LynxOS,
INTEGRITY).
* Target CPU Architecture (Provisions for Alpha, ARM, Intel x86,
IA64, MIPS, NDS32, Nios II, PowerPC, IBM S390, SuperH, Sparc, Sparc 64 Bit;
Currently supported: ARM, Intel x86, MIPS, NDS32, Nios II, PowerPC).
* Compression Type (uncompressed, gzip, bzip2)
* 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 U-Boot should support any OS or standalone application
easily, the main focus has always been on Linux during the design of
U-Boot.
U-Boot 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 several 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 dependent stuff are done by U-Boot
- 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.
Porting Linux to U-Boot based systems:
---------------------------------------
U-Boot cannot save you from doing all the necessary modifications to
configure the Linux device drivers for use with your target hardware
(no, we don't intend to provide a full virtual machine interface to
Linux :-).
But now you can ignore ALL boot loader code (in arch/powerpc/mbxboot).
Just make sure your machine specific header file (for instance
include/asm-ppc/tqm8xx.h) includes the same definition of the Board
Information structure as we define in include/asm-<arch>/u-boot.h,
and make sure that your definition of IMAP_ADDR uses the same value
as your U-Boot configuration in CONFIG_SYS_IMMR.
Note that U-Boot now has a driver model, a unified model for drivers.
If you are adding a new driver, plumb it into driver model. If there
is no uclass available, you are encouraged to create one. See
doc/driver-model.
Configuring the Linux kernel:
-----------------------------
No specific requirements for U-Boot. Make sure you have some root
device (initial ramdisk, NFS) for your target system.
Building a Linux Image:
-----------------------
With U-Boot, "normal" build targets like "zImage" or "bzImage" are
not used. If you use recent kernel source, a new build target
"uImage" will exist which automatically builds an image usable by
U-Boot. Most older kernels also have support for a "pImage" target,
which was introduced for our predecessor project PPCBoot and uses a
100% compatible format.
Example:
make TQM850L_defconfig
3862
3863
3864
3865
3866
3867
3868
3869
3870
3871
3872
3873
3874
3875
3876
3877
3878
3879
3880
3881
3882
3883
3884
3885
3886
make oldconfig
make dep
make uImage
The "uImage" build target uses a special tool (in 'tools/mkimage') to
encapsulate a compressed Linux kernel image with header information,
CRC32 checksum etc. for use with U-Boot. This is what we are doing:
* build a standard "vmlinux" kernel image (in ELF binary format):
* convert the kernel into a raw binary image:
${CROSS_COMPILE}-objcopy -O binary \
-R .note -R .comment \
-S vmlinux linux.bin
* compress the binary image:
gzip -9 linux.bin
* package compressed binary image for U-Boot:
mkimage -A ppc -O linux -T kernel -C gzip \
-a 0 -e 0 -n "Linux Kernel Image" \
-d linux.bin.gz uImage
The "mkimage" tool can also be used to create ramdisk images for use
with U-Boot, either separated from the Linux kernel image, or
combined into one file. "mkimage" encapsulates the images with a 64
byte header containing information about target architecture,
operating system, image type, compression method, entry points, time
stamp, CRC32 checksums, etc.
"mkimage" can be called in two ways: to verify existing images and
print the header information, or to build new images.
In the first form (with "-l" option) mkimage lists the information
contained in the header of an existing U-Boot image; this includes
checksum verification:
tools/mkimage -l image
-l ==> list image header information
The second form (with "-d" option) is used to build a U-Boot image
from a "data file" which is used as image payload:
tools/mkimage -A arch -O os -T type -C comp -a addr -e ep \
-n name -d data_file image
-A ==> set architecture to 'arch'
-O ==> set operating system to 'os'
-T ==> set image type to 'type'
-C ==> set compression type 'comp'
-a ==> set load address to 'addr' (hex)
-e ==> set entry point to 'ep' (hex)
-n ==> set image name to 'name'
-d ==> use image data from 'datafile'
Right now, all Linux kernels for PowerPC systems use the same load
address (0x00000000), but the entry point address depends on the
kernel version:
- 2.2.x kernels have the entry point at 0x0000000C,
- 2.3.x and later kernels have the entry point at 0x00000000.
So a typical call to build a U-Boot image would read:
-> tools/mkimage -n '2.4.4 kernel for TQM850L' \
> -A ppc -O linux -T kernel -C gzip -a 0 -e 0 \
> -d /opt/elsk/ppc_8xx/usr/src/linux-2.4.4/arch/powerpc/coffboot/vmlinux.gz \
3932
3933
3934
3935
3936
3937
3938
3939
3940
3941
3942
3943
3944
3945
3946
3947
3948
3949
3950
3951
3952
3953
3954
> examples/uImage.TQM850L
Image Name: 2.4.4 kernel for TQM850L
Created: Wed Jul 19 02:34:59 2000
Image Type: PowerPC Linux Kernel Image (gzip compressed)
Data Size: 335725 Bytes = 327.86 kB = 0.32 MB
Load Address: 0x00000000
Entry Point: 0x00000000
To verify the contents of the image (or check for corruption):
-> tools/mkimage -l examples/uImage.TQM850L
Image Name: 2.4.4 kernel for TQM850L
Created: Wed Jul 19 02:34:59 2000
Image Type: PowerPC Linux Kernel Image (gzip compressed)
Data Size: 335725 Bytes = 327.86 kB = 0.32 MB
Load Address: 0x00000000
Entry Point: 0x00000000
NOTE: for embedded systems where boot time is critical you can trade
speed for memory and install an UNCOMPRESSED image instead: this
needs more space in Flash, but boots much faster since it does not
need to be uncompressed:
-> gunzip /opt/elsk/ppc_8xx/usr/src/linux-2.4.4/arch/powerpc/coffboot/vmlinux.gz
-> tools/mkimage -n '2.4.4 kernel for TQM850L' \
> -A ppc -O linux -T kernel -C none -a 0 -e 0 \
> -d /opt/elsk/ppc_8xx/usr/src/linux-2.4.4/arch/powerpc/coffboot/vmlinux \
3959
3960
3961
3962
3963
3964
3965
3966
3967
3968
3969
3970
3971
3972
3973
3974
3975
3976
3977
3978
3979
3980
> examples/uImage.TQM850L-uncompressed
Image Name: 2.4.4 kernel for TQM850L
Created: Wed Jul 19 02:34:59 2000
Image Type: PowerPC Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
Data Size: 792160 Bytes = 773.59 kB = 0.76 MB
Load Address: 0x00000000
Entry Point: 0x00000000
Similar you can build U-Boot images from a 'ramdisk.image.gz' file
when your kernel is intended to use an initial ramdisk:
-> tools/mkimage -n 'Simple Ramdisk Image' \
> -A ppc -O linux -T ramdisk -C gzip \
> -d /LinuxPPC/images/SIMPLE-ramdisk.image.gz examples/simple-initrd
Image Name: Simple Ramdisk Image
Created: Wed Jan 12 14:01:50 2000
Image Type: PowerPC Linux RAMDisk Image (gzip compressed)
Data Size: 566530 Bytes = 553.25 kB = 0.54 MB
Load Address: 0x00000000
Entry Point: 0x00000000
The "dumpimage" is a tool to disassemble images built by mkimage. Its "-i"
option performs the converse operation of the mkimage's second form (the "-d"
option). Given an image built by mkimage, the dumpimage extracts a "data file"
from the image:
tools/dumpimage -i image -T type -p position data_file
-i ==> extract from the 'image' a specific 'data_file'
-T ==> set image type to 'type'
-p ==> 'position' (starting at 0) of the 'data_file' inside the 'image'
Installing a Linux Image:
-------------------------
To downloading a U-Boot image over the serial (console) interface,
you must convert the image to S-Record format:
objcopy -I binary -O srec examples/image examples/image.srec
The 'objcopy' does not understand the information in the U-Boot