CCS UniFlash tool v3.1 for Linux host

Mark,

I will check with the author to see if they have a similar one for Linux.

John

Mark,

Currently we don't have an user guide for this on Linux. The Linux ver is used by our dev's to quickly try out the package they have created, not demanded by customers in production. The production facilities are all using and demanding the windows tool to my knowledge.

We were pulled into some other high priority projects so this user guide was never put together. Also, the linux version is less powerful than the windows version due to limitations and instability with the OS. You can only program 1 device at a time.

What is your customer looking for here? A tool for the production environment or just some tool to load the device flash during development?

Victor

Hi Victor,

Actually, the Linux BSP developer requested the Linux version of the UniFlash v3.1 tool just so that he wouldn't need to go back & forth between his Linux PC & his Windows PC. It is ok for him use his Windows PC to use the UniFlash tool. It just won't be as convenient for him. The customer is planning to use the Sitara UniFlash v3.1 to boot from USB0 & program the NOR flash (p/n S29GL256S90DHI02) on their board. This will be used during system development, but also they plan to use it for production programming as well.

Is this currently possible with Uniflash tool? Who is the appropriate contact for questions/issues?

The customer has an aggressive development schedule & they will need this programming capability very quickly.

Thx,

Mark

Mark,

I can answer your questions.

If you are just loading one device at a time, you can use this on Linux, for the most part the USB load would work, but rarely it gets into problematic state due to the Ubuntu not updating network interface correctly. 

You would definitely want to use the windows ver for production, as it is much more stable and you can plug in multiple devices at the same time and each gets flashed simultaneously.

To setup it on linux, you would need a tftp server and isc-dhcp-server, and setup static IPs for the board just like the Windows. It is pretty manual. Also, there is NO DEDICATED COMMAND LINE MODE. Since it is build on top of the system command line utilities.

basically the following steps:

1. setup a tftp server and tftp home folder with the files you want to flash

I took a look at the tool again, we do supply our own modified opentftp so you don't have to setup tftp explicitly

2. set static IP for the network interface, USB or LAN etc

3. install isc-dhcp-server and setup its config file to monitor USB or LAN etc

4. install uniflash and use it in similar fashion like the windows version

As you can see, the real flashing is done by the tftp and dhcp servers. On windows we provide these servers, on Linux it is provided by the OS. We are handling the config on the IP ranges and adding hooks to the syslog to monitor their output to display as progress. 

Victor

Hi Victor,

Can please send me the steps to generate the NOR boot images in linux.

I will try to flash it over Uniflash tool from windows machine.

I am following the link http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Sitara_Uniflash_Quick_Start_Guide but not able to find which all finds needed and how to generate those for NOR boot.

Rgds,

chandra

chandra,

You will need to ask in the Sitara forum, they are the expert in creating the img files. This is just the flash loading tool forum/thread. 

Victor