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OMAP4430 Pandaboard boot ROM issue with Symantec Ghost

Stephen Polkowski
Prodigy 50 points

Hello,

I have a problem with the BOOT rom code for the OMAP4430 pandaboard rev A2.  When I format a SDCARD with a FAT32 filesystem and I copy the MLO x-loader to the top directory, the pandaboard boots normally.   In other words, the Pandaboard BOOT rom finds the MLO file and then executes it.  On the serial port I see the TI splash message.

However, if I backup the SDCARD image using Symantec Ghost and then restore this image to another SDCARD, the new image will not boot on the Pandaboard.  The boot ROM code doesn't like the new SDCARD image.  Window and DOS are perfectly happy with the restored image, but the OMAP4430 Pandaboard Boot ROM isn't.

Symantec Ghost images work just fine with my BeagleBoard,  so I'm currious to what has changed in the OMAP4430 boot ROM code.  Symantec Ghost is a really useful tool for keeping track of various OS images.  

1)  Does the boot ROM code come from Pandaboard.org, or do they get it from TI?

2)  Is the source available?  I'm curious what image difference/check is causing the load to fail.

3)  I have a rev A2 pandaboard  (OMAP4430 ES2.1).  Is there any chance that the newest rev A4 pandabaord (OMAP4430 ES2.3)

has an updated / fixed ROM boot?  

Thanks you for your help.

Stephen

  • 0
    TI__Guru*** 125430 points

    Stephen Polkowski said:

    1)  Does the boot ROM code come from Pandaboard.org, or do they get it from TI?

    2)  Is the source available?  I'm curious what image difference/check is causing the load to fail.

    TI wrote all the ROM code but unfortunately it cannot be distributed.  Sorry, I realize it's a pain that the backups don't work!  I'm not sure exactly what changed that caused the issue.  Does the restored image mark the FAT32 partition as bootable?

     

    Stephen Polkowski said:

    3)  I have a rev A2 pandaboard  (OMAP4430 ES2.1).  Is there any chance that the newest rev A4 pandabaord (OMAP4430 ES2.3)

    has an updated / fixed ROM boot?  

    There were a few ROM tweaks, but it looks mostly related to properly supporting OFF mode so unfortunately I doubt that will fix the issue.

     

  • 0 in reply to Brad Griffis
    Prodigy 50 points

    Hi Brad,

    Thank you for the reply.  I really appreciate it.   Yes, the restored image is active.  I also understand that you can not distribute the BOOT rom source.  However, I could send you a two small image files of a boot disk and the Ghost restored boot disk.  I've already diffed them and there are a few differences, but it isn't clear to me what the BOOT rom cares about.

    Would you be interested in taking a peek?   

    Thanks,

    Stephen

     

  • 0 in reply to Stephen Polkowski
    TI__Guru*** 125430 points

    Can you just summarize the differences?  FYI, I'm not a boot ROM expert.  I've not even seen the code as a TI employee!

  • 0 in reply to Brad Griffis
    Prodigy 50 points

    Hi Brad,

    It is difficult for me to summarize the difference since I'm not that familiar with the MSDOS filesystem.  I will include the images in this email.  I'm including two text files.  The original/bootable disk image is called disk_boot.txt.  The non-bootable Ghost restored image is called disk_ghost.txt.  The text files can be converted to binary form by executing the following command in linux:  

    xxd -r disk_boot.txt > disk_boot.img

    xxd -r disk_ghost.txt > disk_ghost.img

    Either image can be restored to a SDCARD by running the following command in linux.  This example assumes your SDCARD is /dev/sdb.

    dd if=disk_boot.img of=/dev/sdb bs=512 count=720

    dd if=disk_ghost.img of=/dev/sdb bs=512 count=720  

    I've also included a diff of the two text files in disk_diff.txt.  It isn't clear to me what the problem is.  The first difference is that Ghost is moving the partitions around.

    Thanks,

    Stephen

    8512.disk_boot.txt

    4150.disk_ghost.txt

    6708.disk_diff.txt

     

  • 0 in reply to Stephen Polkowski
    TI__Expert 8055 points

    Stephen,

    One potential issue is that the ROM code only searches the first few sectors of the SD card for a valid bootable image (MLO).  If the files are copied over in a different order, the MLO may not be located in the first few sectors and thus wouldn't be detected, so you would not boot.

    Regards,

    Gina

  • 0 in reply to Gina Glaser
    TI__Genius 10545 points

    Stephen,

    By what i can remember by using "ghost /?" from command line you must see one option to backup entire partitions not only used space.

    I think that option is not available at UI, for FAT32 backup process is only for used space, for Linux partitions they do a full partition backup.

    and there are some other helpful options like changing the compression rate.