Booting off eMMC u-boot issues

Not sure if it's relevant at all, but using SDK 5.7 I was able to get the following output :

U-Boot SPL 2013.01.01 (Apr 24 2014 - 15:14:39)
musb-hdrc: ConfigData=0xde (UTMI-8, dyn FIFOs, bulk combine, bulk split, HB-ISO Rx, HB-ISO Tx, SoftConn)
musb-hdrc: MHDRC RTL version 2.0
musb-hdrc: setup fifo_mode 4
musb-hdrc: 28/31 max ep, 16384/16384 memory
USB Peripheral mode controller at 47401000 using PIO, IRQ 0
musb-hdrc: ConfigData=0xde (UTMI-8, dyn FIFOs, bulk combine, bulk split, HB-ISO Rx, HB-ISO Tx, SoftConn)
musb-hdrc: MHDRC RTL version 2.0
musb-hdrc: setup fifo_mode 4
musb-hdrc: 28/31 max ep, 16384/16384 memory
USB Host mode controller at 47401800 using PIO, IRQ 0
OMAP SD/MMC: 0
mmc_send_cmd : timeout: No status update
reading u-boot.img
spl: error reading image u-boot.img, err - -1
### ERROR ### Please RESET the board ###

When booting off the SD card, if I enter U-boot there I tried the following commands:

U-Boot# mmc list
OMAP SD/MMC: 0
 OMAP SD/MMC: 1
U-Boot# mmc dev
mmc0 is current device
U-Boot# mmc dev 1
Card did not respond to voltage select!
mmc1(part 0) is current device

U-boot# mmc part

##Unknown partition table

Hi Anthony,

The pins you use for MMC1 boot are correct. These pins are initialized by the ROM code when MMC1 boot mode is selected. Does booting start from the eMMC (MLO stage) or nothing happens at all?

Thank you Biser,

It does seem that MLO is being found on the boot partition I created. The output is as follows:

U-Boot SPL 2013.01.01 (Apr 16 2014 - 11:53:24)
musb-hdrc: ConfigData=0xde (UTMI-8, dyn FIFOs, bulk combine, bulk split, HB-ISO Rx, HB-ISO Tx, SoftConn)
musb-hdrc: MHDRC RTL version 2.0
musb-hdrc: setup fifo_mode 4
musb-hdrc: 28/31 max ep, 16384/16384 memory
USB Peripheral mode controller at 47401000 using PIO, IRQ 0
musb-hdrc: ConfigData=0xde (UTMI-8, dyn FIFOs, bulk combine, bulk split, HB-ISO Rx, HB-ISO Tx, SoftConn)
musb-hdrc: MHDRC RTL version 2.0
musb-hdrc: setup fifo_mode 4
musb-hdrc: 28/31 max ep, 16384/16384 memory
USB Host mode controller at 47401800 using PIO, IRQ 0
OMAP SD/MMC: 0
spl: fat register err - -1
### ERROR ### Please RESET the board ###

Using a different MLO I have also gotten it to say it is finding u-boot but never does..

And just to clarify, that is the output when I have no SD card in and the system is booting of the eMMC

Hi Anthony,

Please let us know how you partitioned the eMMC.

Best regards,
Miroslav

Thank you for your help Miroslav .

On this eMMC there are 3 devices that show up. There is /dev/mmcblk1

/dev/mmcblk1boot0 and

/dev/mmcblk1boot1

Both boot devices are only 1 mb. At first I did not touch them and write 3 partitions to /dev/mmcblk1, one of them being 74.03 MB for the boot partition in fat 32 lba and the other two being ext3. The then tried compiling u-boot MLO and uImage and copying them into the boot partition and power cycled the unit and that is how I got the output I posted.

Anthony, I haven't tried with SDK version 06.00.00.00, but I verified that the following steps work with SDK version 07.00.00.00:

1. Boot the device from the SD card.

2. ssh into the board:
# ssh root@<your_device_ip_address>

3. The eMMC is /dev/mmcblk1. Format it this way:
3.01. fdisk /dev/mmcblk1
3.02. o - this clears the existing partitions
3.03. p - this lists all partition tables on the card (there should be none)
3.04. n - create a new partition
3.05. p - primary partition
3.06. 1 - partition number
3.07. 2048 - default value for the first sector
3.08. +16M - last sector / partition size
3.09. t - change the partition type (select partition 1)
3.10. e - change tha partition type to "W95 FAT16 (LBA)"
3.11. a - set the bootable flag for the selected partition (1)
3.12. n - create a new partition
3.13. p - primary partition
3.14. 2 - partition number
3.15. hit Enter to choose the default (next available) value for the first sector
3.16. hit Enter to choose the default (last) value for the last sector
3.17. p - this lists all partition tables on the card (there should be two)
3.18. w - write all the above changes to disk
3.19. umount /dev/mmcblk1p1; mkfs.vfat -F 16 /dev/mmcblk1p1 - format the first partition
3.20. umount /dev/mmcblk1p2; mkfs.ext4 /dev/mmcblk1p2 - format the second partition

4. Copy the {MLO,u-boot.img,uEnv.txt} files to the first partition:
# mkdir boot
# mount /dev/mmcblk1p1 boot
# cp {MLO,u-boot.img,uEnv.txt} boot
# umount boot

5. Copy the root file system to the second partition:
# mkdir root
# mount /dev/mmcblk1p2 root
# tar -xf tisdk-rootfs-image-am335x-evm.tar.gz -C root
# umount root

6. Shutdown the BBB, remove the SD card and start it from the eMMC.

I assume this would be almost the same with SDK 06.00.00.00, except that maybe you should write your custom uEnv.txt file with a custom uenvcmd command. Please let me know about your progress.

Best regards,
Miroslav

Thank you Miroslav. I went through the steps you posted exactly and power cycled the unit. I used the same MLO u-boot as before and I ended up getting the same exact output as above. I'm guessing that means its just a matter of correctly compiling u-boot and the kernel then?

I have a beaglebone around so I decided to try to use its MLO and u-boot files to see if I would get different results. It seems to correctly identify the eMMC and if I stop autoboot I can do

mmc dev 1

mmc part

and it lists the two partitions correctly. I went into SDK 7 and compiled the default u-boot configuration (from top directory "make u-boot-spl"), then compiled the default kernel and copied them into the eMMC boot partition the same way you described. This is the output, hanging at  starting kernel.

U-boot output:

U-Boot 2013.10 (Apr 29 2014 - 12:46:59)

I2C:   ready
DRAM:  256 MiB
NAND:  0 MiB
MMC:   OMAP SD/MMC: 0, OMAP SD/MMC: 1
*** Error - No Valid Environment Area found
*** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment

Net:   <ethaddr> not set. Validating first E-fuse MAC
cpsw, usb_ether
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0
mmc0 is current device
Scanning mmc 0...
** File not found /boot/zImage **
mmc0 is current device
SD/MMC found on device 0
reading uEnv.txt
** Unable to read file uEnv.txt **
** File not found /boot/zImage **
mmc1(part 0) is current device
SD/MMC found on device 1
reading uEnv.txt
** Unable to read file uEnv.txt **
4117616 bytes read in 590 ms (6.7 MiB/s)
** File not found /boot/undefined **
Kernel image @ 0x80200000 [ 0x000000 - 0x3ed470 ]

Starting kernel ...


I will try to use SDK 6 as I had the same "starting kernel" hanging when I used an SD card with a kernel from SDK 7.

Does u-boot getting this far mean that my partitioning is correct? I figure since it has to be finding MLO and u-boot it must be in the right direction..

Anthony Jarmolowicz said:

Does u-boot getting this far mean that my partitioning is correct? I figure since it has to be finding MLO and u-boot it must be in the right direction..

Yes, your system does load the MLO, u-boot.img and zImage files, so it seems like the partitioning is OK.

Why is the uEnv.txt file not found? Is it not present?

Please post your U-Boot variables.

Also please let me know if you have the device tree file your board need inside <rootfs_partition>/boot/ (this is relevant only for SDK 07.00.00.00).

Best regards,
Miroslav

Yes I was not putting a uEnv.txt on the boot partition. I was not using one on the SD card so I thought it's not needed but now I created one. Also, I extracted the SDK 7 filesystem tarball on  (copied from /filesystem/tisdk-rootfs-image-am335x-evm.tar.gz) and looked under boot directory, it appears the device tree files are there:

am335x-bone.dtb
am335x-boneblack.dtb
am335x-evm.dtb
am335x-evmsk.dtb
devicetree-zImage-am335x-bone.dtb
devicetree-zImage-am335x-boneblack.dtb
devicetree-zImage-am335x-evm.dtb
devicetree-zImage-am335x-evmsk.dtb
vmlinux-3.12.10-ti2013.12.01
zImage

This is the uEnv.txt file I created based on the default one in the u-boot wiki:

mmcrootfstype=ext3 rootwait                                          
bootargs=console=ttyO0,115200n8 root=/dev/mmcblk1p2 mem=256M rootwait
bootcmd=mmc rescan; fatload mmc 1 0x82000000 zImage; bootm 0x82000000
uenvcmd=boot

Upon which I get the following output on power cycle:

U-Boot 2013.10 (Apr 29 2014 - 16:32:09)

I2C:   ready
DRAM:  256 MiB
NAND:  0 MiB
MMC:   OMAP SD/MMC: 0, OMAP SD/MMC: 1
*** Error - No Valid Environment Area found
*** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment

Net:   <ethaddr> not set. Validating first E-fuse MAC
cpsw, usb_ether
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0
mmc0 is current device
Scanning mmc 0...
** File not found /boot/zImage **
mmc1(part 0) is current device
SD/MMC found on device 1
reading uEnv.txt
181 bytes read in 4 ms (43.9 KiB/s)
Loaded environment from uEnv.txt
Importing environment from mmc ...
Running uenvcmd ...
reading zImage
3987344 bytes read in 526 ms (7.2 MiB/s)
Wrong Image Format for bootm command
ERROR: can't get kernel image!
mmc1(part 0) is current device
SD/MMC found on device 1
reading uEnv.txt
181 bytes read in 3 ms (58.6 KiB/s)
Loaded environment from uEnv.txt
Importing environment from mmc ...
Running uenvcmd ...
reading zImage
3987344 bytes read in 526 ms (7.2 MiB/s)
Wrong Image Format for bootm command
ERROR: can't get kernel image!
Booting from nand ...

no devices available

no devices available
Bad Linux ARM zImage magic!
U-Boot#

Here is the results of printenv:

arch=arm
baudrate=115200
board=am335x
board_name=A335BONE
board_rev=00A6
boot_fdt=try
boot_targets= mmc0 nand
bootargs=console=ttyO0,115200n8 root=ubi0:rootfs rw ubi.mtd=NAND.file-system,2048 rootfstype=ubifs rootwait=1
bootcmd=mmc rescan; fatload mmc 1 0x82000000 zImage; bootm 0x82000000
bootcmd_mmc0=setenv devnum 0; setenv rootpart 2; run mmc_boot;
bootcmd_nand=run nandboot;
bootcmd_usb=setenv devnum 0; run usb_boot;
bootdelay=3
bootdir=/boot
bootenv=uEnv.txt
bootfile=zImage
bootpart=1:2
console=ttyO0,115200n8
cpu=armv7
devnum=0
devtype=mmc
dfu_alt_info_emmc=rawemmc mmc 0 3751936
dfu_alt_info_mmc=boot part 0 1;rootfs part 0 2;MLO fat 0 1;MLO.raw mmc 100 100;u-boot.img.raw mmc 300 400;spl-os-args.raw mmc 80 80;spl
-os-image.raw mmc 900 2000;spl-os-args fat 0 1;spl-os-image fat 0 1;u-boot.img fat 0 1;uEnv.txt fat 0 1
dfu_alt_info_nand=NAND.SPL part 0 1;NAND.SPL.backup1 part 0 2;NAND.SPL.backup2 part 0 3;NAND.SPL.backup3 part 0 4;NAND.u-boot-spl-os pa
rt 0 5;NAND.u-boot part 0 6;NAND.u-boot-env part 0 7;NAND.u-boot-env.backup1 part 0 8;NAND.kernel part 0 9;NAND.rootfs part 0 10
dfu_alt_info_ram=kernel ram 0x80200000 0xD80000;fdt ram 0x80F80000 0x80000;ramdisk ram 0x81000000 0x4000000
eth1addr=c4:ed:ba:85:80:cf
ethact=cpsw
ethaddr=c4:ed:ba:85:80:ce
fdt_high=0xa0000000
fdtaddr=0x80F80000
fdtfile=undefined
filesize=3cd790
findfdt=if test $board_name = A335BONE; then setenv fdtfile am335x-bone.dtb; fi; if test $board_name = A335BNLT; then setenv fdtfile am
335x-boneblack.dtb; fi; if test $board_name = A33515BB; then setenv fdtfile am335x-evm.dtb; fi; if test $board_name = A335X_SK; then se
tenv fdtfile am335x-evmsk.dtb; fi; if test $fdtfile = undefined; then echo WARNING: Could not determine device tree to use; fi;
importbootenv=echo Importing environment from mmc ...; env import -t $loadaddr $filesize
loadaddr=0x80200000
loadbootenv=load mmc ${mmcdev} ${loadaddr} ${bootenv}
loadfdt=load mmc ${bootpart} ${fdtaddr} ${bootdir}/${fdtfile}
loadimage=load mmc ${bootpart} ${loadaddr} ${bootdir}/${bootfile}
loadramdisk=load mmc ${mmcdev} ${rdaddr} ramdisk.gz
mmc_boot=setenv devtype mmc; if mmc dev ${devnum}; then run mmcargs;run scan_boot; run mmcboot;setenv mmcdev 1; setenv bootpart 1:2; ru
n mmcboot;fi
mmcargs=setenv bootargs console=${console} ${optargs} root=${mmcroot} rootfstype=${mmcrootfstype}
mmcboot=mmc dev ${mmcdev}; if mmc rescan; then echo SD/MMC found on device ${mmcdev};if run loadbootenv; then echo Loaded environment f
rom ${bootenv};run importbootenv;fi;if test -n $uenvcmd; then echo Running uenvcmd ...;run uenvcmd;fi;if run loadimage; then run mmcloa
dos;fi;fi;
mmcdev=1
mmcloados=run mmcargs; if test ${boot_fdt} = yes || test ${boot_fdt} = try; then if run loadfdt; then bootz ${loadaddr} - ${fdtaddr}; e
lse if test ${boot_fdt} = try; then bootz; else echo WARN: Cannot load the DT; fi; fi; else bootz; fi;
mmcroot=/dev/mmcblk1p2 ro
mmcrootfstype=ext3 rootwait
mtdids=nand0=nand.0
mtdparts=mtdparts=nand.0:128k(NAND.SPL),128k(NAND.SPL.backup1),128k(NAND.SPL.backup2),128k(NAND.SPL.backup3),256k(NAND.u-boot-spl-os),1
m(NAND.u-boot),128k(NAND.u-boot-env),128k(NAND.u-boot-env.backup1),8m(NAND.kernel),-(NAND.rootfs)
nandargs=setenv bootargs console=${console} ${optargs} root=${nandroot} rootfstype=${nandrootfstype}
nandboot=echo Booting from nand ...; run nandargs; nand read ${fdtaddr} NAND.u-boot-spl-os; nand read ${loadaddr} NAND.kernel; bootz ${
loadaddr} - ${fdtaddr}
nandroot=ubi0:rootfs rw ubi.mtd=NAND.file-system,2048
nandrootfstype=ubifs rootwait=1
netargs=setenv bootargs console=${console} ${optargs} root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=${serverip}:${rootpath},${nfsopts} rw ip=dhcp
netboot=echo Booting from network ...; setenv autoload no; dhcp; tftp ${loadaddr} ${bootfile}; tftp ${fdtaddr} ${fdtfile}; run netargs;
 bootz ${loadaddr} - ${fdtaddr}
nfsopts=nolock
partitions=uuid_disk=${uuid_gpt_disk};name=rootfs,start=2MiB,size=-,uuid=${uuid_gpt_rootfs}
ramargs=setenv bootargs console=${console} ${optargs} root=${ramroot} rootfstype=${ramrootfstype}
ramboot=echo Booting from ramdisk ...; run ramargs; bootz ${loadaddr} ${rdaddr} ${fdtaddr}
ramroot=/dev/ram0 rw ramdisk_size=65536 initrd=${rdaddr},64M
ramrootfstype=ext2
rdaddr=0x81000000
rootpart=2
rootpath=/export/rootfs
scan_boot=echo Scanning ${devtype} ${devnum}...; for prefix in ${bootdir}; do for script in ${bootfile}; do run script_boot; done; done
;
script_boot=if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${rootpart} ${loadaddr} ${bootdir}/${bootfile}; then run findfdt; load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${
rootpart} ${fdtaddr} ${bootdir}/${fdtfile};fi;
soc=am33xx
spiargs=setenv bootargs console=${console} ${optargs} root=${spiroot} rootfstype=${spirootfstype}
spiboot=echo Booting from spi ...; run spiargs; sf probe ${spibusno}:0; sf read ${loadaddr} ${spisrcaddr} ${spiimgsize}; bootz ${loadad
dr}
spibusno=0
spiimgsize=0x362000
spiroot=/dev/mtdblock4 rw
spirootfstype=jffs2
spisrcaddr=0xe0000
static_ip=${ipaddr}:${serverip}:${gatewayip}:${netmask}:${hostname}::off
stderr=serial
stdin=serial
stdout=serial
uenvcmd=boot
usb_boot=setenv devtype usb; run usb_init; if usb dev 0; then run usbargs;run scan_boot; bootz ${loadaddr} - ${fdtaddr}; fi
usb_init=usb start 0;
usbargs=setenv bootargs console=${console} ${optargs} root=${usbroot} rootfstype=${usbrootfstype}
usbnet_devaddr=c4:ed:ba:85:80:cf
usbroot=/dev/sda2 rw
usbrootfstype=ext3 rootwait
vendor=ti
ver=U-Boot 2013.10 (Apr 29 2014 - 16:32:09)

Environment size: 5568/131067 bytes
U-Boot#

Just to be clear I am still trying everything in SDK 7.

After doing some searching, I found this thread which suggests I could just need to compile my kernel with a loadaddress header

http://e2e.ti.com/support/dsp/omap_applications_processors/f/42/t/309128.aspx

I used the command

make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- LOADADDR=0x82000000 zImage

with both 82000000 and 80008000 which was the value in the kernel wiki.. but no luck, still the same result    

hi All,

any luck ?

i am facing same probelm

here is my log

SD/MMC found on device 1
reading uEnv.txt
71 bytes read in 3 ms (22.5 KiB/s)
Loaded environment from uEnv.txt
Importing environment from mmc ...
4117600 bytes read in 237 ms (16.6 MiB/s)
** File not found /boot/undefined **
Kernel image @ 0x80200000 [ 0x000000 - 0x3ed460 ]

Starting kernel ...

regards

Nagendra

Nagendra - in your case, you are not getting the name of the device tree file. The environment variable fdtfile is set to 'undefined' until you 'run findfdt'. After that fdtfile should have a valid value.

Steve K.

Any error related to

** File not found /boot/undefined **

indicates that this file has been mentioned in the uEnv.txt in /media/boot partition of the SD card.

This file is required in the file system partition in the /media/rootfs and in the folder "boot" inside this partition on the SD card.

This is relevant to any file error you get on the u-boot console. Solution is to copy the file mentioned in error to the respective location.

Else the error could be in the mapping of SD card partition address specified in the loadaddr in uEnv.txt for /media/boot partition. This is rare as the settings are inside closed git repository, unless tweaked.

Note: There is another uEnv.txt file present in the /boot directory of the /media/rootfs partition. Which is quite confusing.

Hi Anthony,

Can you please explain as to how did you exactly write those 3 partitions.

What commands did you use. I have the same tyrpe of paritions but fdisk just hangs.

Regards,

Preetam