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Booting Linux kernel using U-Boot for L137 EVM

Hi,

I'm following the instructions given at this link to set up tftp for booting Linux kernel for L137. 

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Booting_Linux_kernel_using_U-Boot#SPI_Flash

For Step 4, Setup the EVM IP address.  I want to use static IP address, this is the instruction:

U-Boot> setenv ipaddr <static ip address>


Here, is the <static ip address> the IP address of EVM or host computer? If it's the IP address of EVM, how can I find it? Thanks.




  • Sean,

    ipaddr corresponds to the target(EVM) IP address.The serverip should be the IP address of the host machine that has the TFTP server running on it. This address (serverip) is the only one that needs to be set explicitly if are using the command "dhcp" in your bootcmd or bootargs.  The command "dhcp" will automatically set the value of ipaddr if the dhcp/tftp is successful.Try just setting serverip. The bootargs will run the command "dhcp" to get the ip address for the target.  The "dhcp" command will not only set IP addresses but also transfer the uImage file via TFTP if there are no issue with other network settings.

    Hope this helps

    Regards,

    Rahul

  • Rahul,

    I used DHCP setting before and it didn't work.  I don't know if it's because of my host computer's hardware/software or not.  The phenomenon seems like the EVM is waiting for some kind of acknowledgement from the host computer.  Apparently it didn't receive the ACK so it times out.  The message is something like

    BOOTP Broadcast 1

    BOOTP Broadcast 2

    ...

    I also tried to ping the host computer from the EVM, the ping didn't receive any response from the host. 

    My host computer is a Windows 7 PC, and I installed VMware Player via which I runUbuntu. I connected EVM directly to the NIC of the computer.

    When I ping the host computer, I tried two different server IP addresses.  One got from Windows 7, and the other one got from Ubuntu.  Neither of them worked.

  • Forgot to ask:

    Can I use static IP address for setting up the EVM board?  If it's Okay, how can I find this IP address?

  • The dhcp command assumes that there is a DHCP server on the network to serve IP addresses. The command also tries to start a bootp session with a bootp server for the linux kernel. If you were using DHCP, set "autoload" to "no" to skip the bootp.

    printenv
    setenv autoload no
    dhcp
    printenv

    If all is working, ipaddr, serverip, netmask, gatewayip, etc. will be initialized.

    But you want to use static IP. That's a totally manually process. You choose an IP address that you know that nobody else is using on the same network. The number is up to you. Minimally, set ipaddr and serverip. Setting netmask is probably a good thing too.

    I not sure if ping works if your EVM does not have an IP address. Note that the EVM does not have ping daemon running in the background. You are not likely to ping the EVM. There are few cases where the EVM is TFTPing something and responds to the ping as a side-effect.

    Linux running on Windows via a virtual machine can be problematic. There are numerous threads on this forum about problems with TFTP and NFS servers running on VMWare and VirtualBox.