AM625: Custom design - Troubleshooting a no boot issue

Jason Gauthier

Part Number: AM625
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: TPS65219

Hello,

I recently received my first batch of boards based. I based the design around spar001, and use a TPS65219 PMIC. I've had a few hardware issues I was able to resolve getting the PMIC up, and now the processor is starting to boot and I see the initial boot messages on the serial console.
But after a moment, the boot hangs ,and all I see is this:

U-Boot SPL 2025.01-00746-g25c84747e21d-dirty (Feb 13 2026 - 19:19:50 +0000)
SYSFW ABI: 4.0 (firmware rev 0x000b '11.2.5--v11.02.05 (Fancy Rat)')
Set clock rates for '/a53@0', CPU: 1250MHz at Speed Grade 'T'
SPL initial stack usage: 13424 bytes

After getting into the u-boot code, I discovered the hang is in mem_malloc_init(). The config option is set:

SYS_MALLOC_CLEAR_ON_INIT

void mem_malloc_init(ulong start, ulong size)

{

mem_malloc_start = (ulong)map_sysmem(start, size);

mem_malloc_end = mem_malloc_start + size;

mem_malloc_brk = mem_malloc_start;

#ifdef CONFIG_SYS_MALLOC_DEFAULT_TO_INIT

malloc_init();

#endif

printf("using memory 0x%x-0x%x for malloc()\n", (unsigned int)mem_malloc_start, (unsigned int)mem_malloc_end);

#if CONFIG_IS_ENABLED(SYS_MALLOC_CLEAR_ON_INIT)

memset((void *)mem_malloc_start, 0x0, size);

#endif

}

The bolded memset() function call hangs indefinitely.

I added some additional and debugging to this function and found that it always hangs around the 8K marker.

SPL initial stack usage: 13424 bytes
using memory 0x84000000-0x85000000 for malloc()
malloc size is: 16777216
clearing chunk: 0x84000000-0x840003ff (1024 bytes)
clearing chunk: 0x84000400-0x840007ff (1024 bytes)
clearing chunk: 0x84000800-0x84000bff (1024 bytes)
clearing chunk: 0x84000c00-0x84000fff (1024 bytes)
clearing chunk: 0x84001000-0x840013ff (1024 bytes)
clearing chunk: 0x84001400-0x840017ff (1024 bytes)
clearing chunk: 0x84001800-0x84001bff (1024 bytes)
clearing chunk: 0x84001c00-0x84001fff (1024 bytes)

I know I could change

SYS_MALLOC_CLEAR_ON_INIT, but I think this would eventually show itself as an issue later on, so I'd like to understand why it won't memset this memory.

My DDR4 chipset is MT40A1G16TB-062E_IT_F.

Thank you!

5 months ago

0 Jason Gauthier 5 months ago

Prodigy 180 points

I've added a loop before writing that executes a read over the same bank., And that also fails (freezes)

using memory 0x84000000-0x85000000 for malloc()
malloc size is: 16777216
reading range: 0x84000000-0x840003ff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84000400-0x840007ff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84000800-0x84000bff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84000c00-0x84000fff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84001000-0x840013ff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84001400-0x840017ff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84001800-0x84001bff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84001c00-0x84001fff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84002000-0x840023ff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84002400-0x840027ff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84002800-0x84002bff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84002c00-0x84002fff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84003000-0x840033ff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84003400-0x840037ff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84003800-0x84003bff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84003c00-0x84003fff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84004000-0x840043ff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84004400-0x840047ff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84004800-0x84004bff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84004c00-0x84004fff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84005000-0x840053ff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84005400-0x840057ff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84005800-0x84005bff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84005c00-0x84005fff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84006000-0x840063ff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84006400-0x840067ff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84006800-0x84006bff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84006c00-0x84006fff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84007000-0x840073ff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84007400-0x840077ff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84007800-0x84007bff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84007c00-0x84007fff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84008000-0x840083ff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84008400-0x840087ff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84008800-0x84008bff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84008c00-0x84008fff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84009000-0x840093ff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84009400-0x840097ff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84009800-0x84009bff (1024 bytes)
reading range: 0x84009c00-0x84009fff (1024 bytes)

0 Kallikuppa Sreenivasa 5 months ago in reply to Jason Gauthier

Processors

Processors forum

AM625: Custom design - Troubleshooting a no boot issue