booting C6A8168 EVM from SD card

Sorry, I have read the post Can't boot C6A8168 EVM board from SD card (http://e2e.ti.com/support/dsp/integra_dsparm/f/625/t/86416.aspx) and I have found the file mksdboot.sh. So now, I have understood how to create a boot SD card. But I am still wondering if it is possible to boot from NAND without the XDS560 emulator.

JS

Hi Jean,

you can boot from NAND without an emulator/debugger; you need to flash the NAND using Uboot itself. See my post for details:

http://e2e.ti.com/support/dsp/integra_dsparm/f/625/t/100154.aspx

By the way, please let me know if you get it working as I didn't and it would be good to know if someone else did!

Thanks,
Ralph

Ok. I am going to try and I will keep you posted.

Thanks,

JS

Hi,

There is something I definitively do not understand. At which moment do I am supposed to enter commands to be executed on the target ? At no time I can see this line where I could enter something :

TI8168_EVM#

Is it accessible from minicom ? I do not manage to make minicom work. And without it, i presume that I can't configure the NAND or anything else. And yet, at each tilme, I tried to follow the steps. For instance, after having executed the file setup.sh in the folder ti-ezsdk_c6a816x-evm_xx_xx_xx_xx : I do all the steps by keeping the standard parameters and at the end, I am asked :

 "Would you like to run the setup script now (y/n)? This requires you to connect"
 "the RS-232 cable between your host and EVM as well as your ethernet cable as"
 "described in the Quick Start Guide. Once answering 'y' on the prompt below"
 "you will have $timeout seconds to connect the board and power cycle it"
 "before the setup times out"

 "After successfully executing this script, your EVM will be set up. You will be "
 "able to connect to it by executing 'minicom -w' or if you prefer a windows host"
 "you can set up Tera Term as explained in the Software Developer's Guide."
 "If you connect minicom or Tera Term and power cycle the board Linux will boot."

I connect the cables, I press y, minicom is started (but stops at "Press CTRL-A Z for help on special keys"), I connect the EVM, my computer (host) detects an ethernet connection during 30 seconds (or so) then it stops, and nothing more. I think it must be because I have not plugged the SD card, but I am not sure. There is probably something I have not understood in the different steps of booting (I am new in developping such applications...). Anyway, fas I have explained in my precedent post, I have no SD card for the moment. Is it really impossible to work without it ?

I thought that booting on NAND, NOR or SPI were some alternatives for people who do not want to use the SD card.

 

Thanks.

JS

 

I really recommend that you read all the documents in the psp/docs folder in the EZSDK.

Yes, you must have the SD card plugged in when you turn the EVM on as it boots from this by default.

Ralph

Ralph, I have found a SD card and formated it as a boot SD by using mksdboot.sh. Finally, I managed to start the bootloader by booting on the SD card (switch3 = 10111). I have entered all these commands to flash my NAND : # mmc init # fatload mmc 0 0x81000000 u-boot.noxip.bin # nand erase 0x0 0x1c0000 # nandecc hw 2 # nand write.i 0x81000000 0x0 0x1c0000 # nandecc sw 0 I had the same logs as you and it did not work when I wanted to boot from NAND (the same problem you had). But what set me thinking was this log when erasing the NAND or writing on it : NAND erase: device 0 offset 0x0, size 0x1c0000 Skipping bad block at 0x00000000 Skipping bad block at 0x00020000 Skipping bad block at 0x00040000 Skipping bad block at 0x00060000 Skipping bad block at 0x00080000 Skipping bad block at 0x000a0000 Skipping bad block at 0x000c0000 Skipping bad block at 0x000e0000 Erasing at 0x1a0000 -- 100% complete. and NAND write: device 0 offset 0x0, size 0x1c0000 Skip bad block 0x00000000 Skip bad block 0x00020000 Skip bad block 0x00040000 Skip bad block 0x00060000 Skip bad block 0x00080000 Skip bad block 0x000a0000 Skip bad block 0x000c0000 Skip bad block 0x000e0000 1835008 bytes written: OK And it was the major difference between yihe's logs (in your post : http://e2e.ti.com/support/dsp/integra_dsparm/f/625/t/100154.aspx) and yours. I think that nothing was written in these 'bad blocks' and it was not possible to erase it. Finally, I found a solution on an other post (https://e2e.ti.com/support/dsp/integra_dsparm/f/625/p/101241/357554.aspx) and it is working for me. Instead of erasing the NAND with the command 'erase' (which do not affect bad blocks), I have totaly cleaned the NAND (including bad blocks) by using the command 'scrub'. For more informations, just type : TI8168_EVM#? nand So, to sum up, here are the commands I used : # mmc init # fatload mmc 0 0x81000000 u-boot.noxip.bin # nand scrub # nandecc hw 2 # nand write.i 0x81000000 0x0 0x1c0000 # nandecc sw 0 Now it works. Regards, JS

Sorry for the formating. it was not my original text. I try again : Ralph, I have found a SD card and formated it as a boot SD by using mksdboot.sh. Finally, I managed to start the bootloader by booting on the SD card (switch3 = 10111). I have entered all these commands to flash my NAND : # mmc init # fatload mmc 0 0x81000000 u-boot.noxip.bin # nand erase 0x0 0x1c0000 # nandecc hw 2 # nand write.i 0x81000000 0x0 0x1c0000 # nandecc sw 0 I had the same logs as you and it did not work when I wanted to boot from NAND (the same problem you had). But what set me thinking was this log when erasing the NAND or writing on it : NAND erase: device 0 offset 0x0, size 0x1c0000 Skipping bad block at 0x00000000 Skipping bad block at 0x00020000 Skipping bad block at 0x00040000 Skipping bad block at 0x00060000 Skipping bad block at 0x00080000 Skipping bad block at 0x000a0000 Skipping bad block at 0x000c0000 Skipping bad block at 0x000e0000 Erasing at 0x1a0000 -- 100% complete. and NAND write: device 0 offset 0x0, size 0x1c0000 Skip bad block 0x00000000 Skip bad block 0x00020000 Skip bad block 0x00040000 Skip bad block 0x00060000 Skip bad block 0x00080000 Skip bad block 0x000a0000 Skip bad block 0x000c0000 Skip bad block 0x000e0000 1835008 bytes written: OK And it was the major difference between yihe's logs (in your post : http://e2e.ti.com/support/dsp/integra_dsparm/f/625/t/100154.aspx) and yours. I think that nothing was written in these 'bad blocks' and it was not possible to erase it. Finally, I found a solution on an other post (https://e2e.ti.com/support/dsp/integra_dsparm/f/625/p/101241/357554.aspx) and it is working for me. Instead of erasing the NAND with the command 'erase' (which do not affect bad blocks), I have totaly cleaned the NAND (including bad blocks) by using the command 'scrub'. For more informations, just type : TI8168_EVM#? nand So, to sum up, here are the commands I used : # mmc init # fatload mmc 0 0x81000000 u-boot.noxip.bin # nand scrub # nandecc hw 2 # nand write.i 0x81000000 0x0 0x1c0000 # nandecc sw 0 Now it works. Regards, JS

It makes no difference... Get to your magnifying glass !!

What is up for the formatting of the text on forums today removing all carriage returns? I can't set the font on my posts either. HOW ANNOYING!!!! ****************************************************************************************************** Thanks for the suggestion of using "nand scrub". It produced some results but still doesn't work. ****************************************************************************************************** When I boot my board now, it boots once from NAND correctly and every time thereafter instead of getting nothing in NAND mode I get this: ****************************************************************************************************** TI8168-GP rev 1.0 ****************************************************************************************************** ARM clk: 987MHz ****************************************************************************************************** DDR clk: 398MHz ****************************************************************************************************** I2C: ready ****************************************************************************************************** DRAM: 2 GiB ****************************************************************************************************** NAND: ****************************************************************************************************** and then it hangs. ****************************************************************************************************** Oh well, must be bad NAND flash after all. ****************************************************************************************************** Ralph

Where is downloadering the EZSDK for the C6A8168 EVM ??

Can you support the address where can downloader the right EZSDK for the C6A8168 EVM????

Thanks!!