DRA829V: Enabling usb_ether in U-Boot

Bo Mellberg

Part Number: DRA829V
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: DRA829

Hello experts,

This document:

u-boot/doc/README.dfutftp at master · u-boot/u-boot · GitHub

describes how to use dfu tftp to quickly transfer large files over USB. It involves setting the env var ethact to usb_ether.

Is there a guide somewhere on how to perform this? No matter what settings I configure I don't get the usb_ether network device to appear:

In: serial@2800000
Out: serial@2800000
Err: serial@2800000
drivers/net/ti/am65-cpsw-nuss.c:905-am65_cpsw_probe_nuss() am65_cpsw_nuss ethernet@c000000: K3 CPSW: nuss_ver: 0x6BA01901 cpsw_ver: 0x6BA80101 ale_ver: 0x00294104 Ports:8 mdio_freq:1000000
Net: eth2: ethernet@c000000port@1, eth0: ethernet@c000000port@3, eth1: ethernet@c000000port@4 <--- usb_ether is missing here!
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0

I have tried to set these:

# Enable Ethernet over USB for fast dfu
CONFIG_USB_GADGET=y
CONFIG_SPL_USB_GADGET=y
CONFIG_USB_ETHER=y
CONFIG_SPL_USB_ETHER=y
CONFIG_SPL_ETH=y
CONFIG_SPL_NET=y
CONFIG_USB_ETH_RNDIS=y
CONFIG_SPL_USB_ETH_RNDIS=y
CONFIG_USBNET_DEV_ADDR="de:ad:be:ef:00:01"
CONFIG_USBNET_HOST_ADDR="de:ad:be:ef:00:00"

Best regards,

/Bo

over 1 year ago

0 Diwakar Dhyani over 1 year ago

TI__Guru 60795 points

Hi Bo

Currently this feature is not supported on SDK , may i know the need of this feature?

Regards
Diwakara

0 Bo Mellberg over 1 year ago in reply to Diwakar Dhyani

Intellectual 591 points

Hi Diwakara,

The reason for this request is to be able to transfer rootfs to the device faster than what is possible using standard dfu over usb.

In factory we will have > 4 minutes of programming if we can't solve this. Going to usb_ether would drastically minimize that time, using the same pins in the ICT test rig as normal dfu.

I can see that it is supported on other platforms.

Regards,

/Bo

0 Bo Mellberg over 1 year ago in reply to Diwakar Dhyani

Intellectual 591 points

Hi Diwakara,

The reason for this request is to be able to transfer rootfs to the device faster than what is possible using standard dfu over usb.

In factory we will have > 4 minutes of programming if we can't solve this. Going to usb_ether would drastically minimize that time, using the same pins in the ICT test rig as normal dfu.

I can see that it is supported on other platforms.

Regards,

/Bo

0 Diwakar Dhyani over 1 year ago in reply to Bo Mellberg

TI__Guru 60795 points

Hi Bo

Bo Mellberg said:
The reason for this request is to be able to transfer rootfs to the device faster than what is possible using standard dfu over usb.

Here transferring means you want to write the rootfs to emmc or what ?

Regards
Diwakar

0 Bo Mellberg over 1 year ago in reply to Diwakar Dhyani

Intellectual 591 points

Hi Diwakar,

Yes, exactly. We don't have access to ethernet in factory, so we need to transfer via USB.

Regards,

/Bo

0 Diwakar Dhyani over 1 year ago in reply to Bo Mellberg

TI__Guru 60795 points

Hi Bo

I think you can play with UMS command in uboot to mount the emmc on host PC , can you try that

ums 0 mmc 0

On DRA829 ums command so far works fine.

or may be this FAQ can help

[FAQ] TDA4VL: How to load kernel , dtb , filesystem from the USB device? - Processors forum - Processors - TI E2E support forums

Regards
Diwakar

0 Bo Mellberg over 1 year ago in reply to Diwakar Dhyani

Intellectual 591 points

Hi Diwakar,

Thanks for the tip. We are able to transfer the rootfs to emmc (240 MB) in 12 seconds now:

bomellberg@bosse-buildcom:~/se3linux/yocto-base/build/tmp/deploy/images/asp3$ time dd if=core-image-full-cmdline-asp3.ext4 of=/dev/sda1 bs=1M status=progress
229+1 records in
229+1 records out
240580608 bytes (241 MB, 229 MiB) copied, 11.8937 s, 20.2 MB/s

real 0m11.895s
user 0m0.000s
sys 0m0.479s

Unfortunately, since UMS is a continuous state that you set U-Boot in, we have no way of "moving forward" once the rootfs has been transferred. When using DFU, U-Boot automatically transitions, waiting for the next file or exits DFU "mode".

Is there a way of signalling to U-Boot to take it out of UMS mode, other than pressing CTRL-C on the debug port?

Best regards,

/Bo

0 Diwakar Dhyani over 1 year ago in reply to Bo Mellberg

TI__Guru 60795 points

Hi Bo

I am out of office please expect some delay,will try to respond you within mid of next week.

Regards

Diwakar

0 Diwakar Dhyani over 1 year ago in reply to Diwakar Dhyani

TI__Guru 60795 points

Hi Bo

Bo Mellberg said:
Is there a way of signalling to U-Boot to take it out of UMS mode, other than pressing CTRL-C on the debug port?

After flashing rootfs what is the need of continues booting ?

Else suggested to do reboot once you are done with flashing.

Regards
Diwakar

0 Bo Mellberg over 1 year ago in reply to Diwakar Dhyani

Intellectual 591 points

Hi Diwakar,

After flashing rootfs we have several other tasks that needs to be performed. We flash an stm32 side-cpu with a binary from the rootfs for example. It is important that we can come out of UMS mode.

Regards,

/Bo

0 Diwakar Dhyani over 1 year ago in reply to Bo Mellberg

TI__Guru 60795 points

Hi Bo

Can we just do the reboot and then do the other task without flashing the rootfs again.

Regards
Diwakar