AM625: Falcon boot on SDK9.2

Tony Tang

Part Number: AM625

Tool/software:

In the SDK10.x 3.1.1.4, noted Falcon boot is not supported.

But 4.1.11.2 introduced falcon boot.

Is Falcon boot supported or not? which is wrong? can somebody correct it on-line? no need to wait next release to correct.

3 months ago

0 Andreas Dannenberg 3 months ago

TI__Guru 61726 points

Hi Tony,

I can see how this may not be very clear so let me add some background here. Traditionally the term "Falcon Boot Mode" comes from and involves using U-Boot SPL as the first stage (and only) bootloader; which is something we don't officially support out-of-the box with our SDK. However there's nothing technical preventing one from bringing this up and enabling this; and in fact quite a few customers have done it I think. There's a couple of E2E threads on this topic on how to do it.

Then, we do have an optimized boot flow that involves the MCU+ SDK's SBL bootloader to boot up a Linux system, which we are also started calling "Falcon Boot". And this is something we do support as part of the SDK offering.

Regards, Andreas

0 Tony Tang 3 days ago in reply to Andreas Dannenberg

TI__Mastermind 27121 points

Hi Andreas,

I am back to hands on Falcon boot on SDK10. some questions:

#1. Don't use Linux SDK tiboot3.bin for Falcon boot? instead with SBL of MCU SDK?

#2. Take SD boot as example, which file is the SBL image to boot with? need to rename to tiboot3.bin? mcu sdk did not clear stated.

#3. Generated Linux Applimage follow steps in this section:

https://software-dl.ti.com/mcu-plus-sdk/esd/AM62X/10_00_00_14/exports/docs/api_guide_am62x/TOOLS_BOOT.html#LINUX_APPIMAGE_GEN_TOOL

need to rename linux.appimage.hs_fs to tispl.bin to copy to sd card boot partition?

#4. I boot with the tiboot3.bin and linux.appimage.hs_fs or rename to tispl.bin, just got below log:

#5 Does below FAQ still workable to implement falcon boot on SDK9.2 or SDK10?

https://e2e.ti.com/support/processors-group/processors/f/processors-forum/1205638/faq-am625-how-to-boot-from-r5-u-boot-spl-directly-into-the-linux-kernel-skipping-a53-spl-and-a53-u-boot-falcon-mode

my customer make it work with SDK8.3 and SDK8.6, hope use the same approach, but got error:

0 Andreas Dannenberg 2 days ago in reply to Tony Tang

TI__Guru 61726 points

Tony Tang said:
#1. Don't use Linux SDK tiboot3.bin for Falcon boot? instead with SBL of MCU SDK?

The `tiboot3.bin` name is what the ROM is looking for in MMC/SD filesystem boot mode; this file needs to be provided no matter the SDK. All our SDKs will generate this file.

Tony Tang said:
#2. Take SD boot as example, which file is the SBL image to boot with? need to rename to tiboot3.bin? mcu sdk did not clear stated.

In the current MCU+ SDKs the `tiboot3.bin` files that are generated are suitable for booting on HS-FS device variants as-is. These files should be identical to the corresponding `*.hs_fs.tiimage`. On the other hand, if you have a GP device (rare use case, only for older boards/devices, as those are generally not available), the files you would use for booting are called `*.tiimage` (without the `hs_fs` path component). But to boot you'd rename the file to `tiboot3.bin`.

Tony Tang said:
#3. Generated Linux Applimage follow steps in this section:

https://software-dl.ti.com/mcu-plus-sdk/esd/AM62X/10_00_00_14/exports/docs/api_guide_am62x/TOOLS_BOOT.html#LINUX_APPIMAGE_GEN_TOOL

need to rename linux.appimage.hs_fs to tispl.bin to copy to sd card boot partition?

Falcon boot with MCU+ SDK doesn't support file-system type boot, so what you are asking does not apply. Only the following 3 boot methods are supported:

OSPI NOR
OSPI NAND
eMMC (raw)

In all cases the app image will be loaded in a raw-fashion from the boot media, from a specified offset.

Tony Tang said:
#5 Does below FAQ still workable to implement falcon boot on SDK9.2 or SDK10?

https://e2e.ti.com/support/processors-group/processors/f/processors-forum/1205638/faq-am625-how-to-boot-from-r5-u-boot-spl-directly-into-the-linux-kernel-skipping-a53-spl-and-a53-u-boot-falcon-mode

my customer make it work with SDK8.3 and SDK8.6, hope use the same approach, but got error:

No this FAQ no longer applies to newer SDKs.

Let me ping Bin to chime in here; he's been handling selected Falcon boot scenarios in the context of newer SDKs, perhaps he has some pointer if you want to do filesystem-type boot.

Regards, Andreas

0 Bin Liu 1 day ago in reply to Tony Tang

TI__Guru*** 147106 points

Hi Tony,

You mentioned MCU+ SDK SBL, but the customer doesn't intend to use SBL for falcon boot, correct?

Tony Tang said:
#5 Does below FAQ still workable to implement falcon boot on SDK9.2 or SDK10?

https://e2e.ti.com/support/processors-group/processors/f/processors-forum/1205638/faq-am625-how-to-boot-from-r5-u-boot-spl-directly-into-the-linux-kernel-skipping-a53-spl-and-a53-u-boot-falcon-mode

my customer make it work with SDK8.3 and SDK8.6, hope use the same approach, but got error:

SDK9.2/10 U-Boot has moved to use BINMAN to generate FIT image instead using k3-image-gen package, but the procedure in this FAQ in theory should still applicable, but more steps/patches might be needed for SDK10 U-Boot though due to FIT component memory layout changes.

I haven't done any falcon boot test with SDK9.2/10, so would have to test it on my side to see what else is needed on top of the FAQ.

Can you please share the customer's atf-tee-dm-kernel-fdt.its file if the customer made any modification from the version in the FAQ? so that I have a starting point.

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AM625: Falcon boot on SDK9.2