AM1808 Flash User Guide

Thanks. That's exactly what I needed.

Following the the link for the AM18x Flash tool's user guide, the first line says: 

"In future releases AM18x supported will be inlcuded in the Flash Tool "

This referrs back to the Flash v1.3 users guide. 

Which "Furture releases" is it referring to?

Will this flash tool work for the AM1808 development we are currenlty working on?

The important issue is whether the AM1808 is support with the Flash Tool v1.3. We need to know this as we need USB firmware upgrade (not serial link like AM18x Flash Tool).

If it is supported, then we also need to know whether this tool only supports some types of boot memory, for example NAND flash and not SD card boot.

Can we leave Nand off the board, boot from SD card, and upgrade via USB. 

Any additional infomation is greatly appreciated.

We need to know before we run ahead and leave NAND flash off the board.

Thanks

Jamie:

There is actually no plan to support AM18x or any ARM9 based processors with the Flash Tool that

currenly works on Cortex-A8 devices such as AM35x / AM37x / DM37x / OMAP35xx.

The latest user guide for Flash Tool is here:

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Flash_v1.5_User_Guide

For AM18x we will continue to provide the sfh_x.exe program.

Regards,

Michael T

Just to be clear,

Michael T said:

For AM18x we will continue to provide the sfh_x.exe program.

This flash tool does not support USB. Correct?

The wiki page, http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/AM18x_Flash_Tool_User%27s_Guide , has been updated to indicate this.

Thanks 

SFH uses UART only.

Regards,

Michael T

This leads to my next question.

If the AM1808 can't boot from SD Card, only NAND or SPI Flash, then what do end users do for field upgradeability?

Example:  We write an application for host PC that talks to specific USB device (ie AM1808 device) to send it package which an app on the embedded linux box will unpack, write to filesystem (SD Card or NAND flash), then reboot?

How do people allow for full kernel updates at the user level (not developers).

We need to have kernel upgradeability in the event the system needs a significant update?

Jamie:

SD Card boot is one of the standard boot modes for AM1808.

Flash Tool supports UART and USB peripheral boot modes - but that program is only compatible

with OMAP3 derivatives with Cortex-A8 ARM processor (AM35x / AM37x / DM37x and OMAP35xx).

SFH provides flash programming of SPI or NAND flash via UART peripheral boot.

If your system has an SD Card slot, you can load MLO, u-boot and kernel onto SD Card

using a USB SD Card Reader from Linux host and boot target from that.

U-boot (or kernel) commands can be used to program NAND  provided that

your NAND device is supported by the NAND drivers in U-Boot or kernel.

Regards,

Michael T

Regards,

Michael T

PS: Please mark this post as answered via the Verify Answer button below if you think it answers your question.  Thanks!

Jamie Maxwell said:

This leads to my next question.

If the AM1808 can't boot from SD Card, only NAND or SPI Flash, then what do end users do for field upgradeability?

Example:  We write an application for host PC that talks to specific USB device (ie AM1808 device) to send it package which an app on the embedded linux box will unpack, write to filesystem (SD Card or NAND flash), then reboot?

 

How do people allow for full kernel updates at the user level (not developers).

We need to have kernel upgradeability in the event the system needs a significant update?

There seems to be some confusion on this.  The AM1808 device runs a ROM boot loader upon reset.  That ROM boot loader cannot currently boot from an SD card on its own. There must be some other non-volatile storage, such as SPI Flash, NAND FLash or NOR Flash, to contain the lowest-level code that will run.  this will typically be some secondary loader, like u-boot for instance.  u-boot is perfectly capable of booting Linux from a partitoned SD card.  Linux running on the AM1808 will be perfectly capable of modifying the SD card contents, including upgrading the kernel or ramdisk image (or whatever - there are a lot of scenarios for what Linux runs, where it gets the root file system from, etc.).  But, as or right now, you will still some other flash to hold the lowest level boot loader that the ROM of the device loads.

Hopefully that explanation didn't confuse things more.

Regards, Daniel

Hi,

I am working on AM1808 processor, I used NAND flash in our design which is micron 2Gb part:MT29F2G08ABAEAWP-IT:E TR

Also i am using SPI flash in my design. I would like to use NAND flash for only my root filesystem. Can i have steps how to convert Filesys in to JFFS2

and how it can be done in AM1808. what are the steps i need to do, Also suggest me any setting required in ubl, u-boot or uImage ?

Thanks,
Francis