Uniflash AM3358 eMMC programming via USB

Hi Brown,

Uniflash does not support that. But please do refer these links for more info:

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/AM335x_CCS_Flashing_Tools_Guide

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/AM335x_Flash_Tool_User%27s_Guide

Regards,

Gautam

The links You provided are for Flashtool (http://www.ti.com/tool/FLASHTOOL). That one for sure does not have eMMC support - installed it, checked and last version for that tool is from 2011.

Uniflash is a different tool (http://www.ti.com/tool/uniflash) and according to this link:

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Sitara_Uniflash_Quick_Start_Guide#Flashing_a_Board_using_USB

"describes a process to program Flash memory (NAND, NOR, SPI, and eMMC) " so it should have eMMC support ...

Right now I am blocked at the step where the device should appear in the "Status view" - it does not. Don't know the reason (yet) - the network settings are fine, the device appears in the dev manager fine just does not get ip (tried with stopped firewall too).

Right now I am blocked at the step where the device should appear in the "Status view" - it does not. Don't know the reason (yet) - the network settings are fine, the device appears in the dev manager fine just does not get ip (tried with stopped firewall too).

Sorry Brown, not my area of expertise. Would like you to be patient, you'll surely be assisted by an expert. By the time if you end up finding a solution do let us know.

Regards,

Gautam

One of the cause is probably the windows - loads the driver too slow. By resetting the board from reset button and not from power/usb (I am using a BBB for testing)  - the device appears there and asks for the first file from the tftp server.

Don't know yet how I will fix this on a board with no reset button since the ROM code is fixed and I can't modify the delays there ...

Now I guess the creation of those four files will follow, the most undocumented is the sh script which does the actual copy to eMMC. Any example, advice is welcome ...

TY in advance :)

Brown, actually I've loaded images onto external sd card in BBB. Never used eMMC as I didn't want to disturb the default Angstrom image.

Yes, there does seem to be scripts to load images to eMMC; but have not used it and hence no comments :)

Regards,

Gautam

Brown,

It will flash your eMMC but this would require some effort.

Basically, the UniFlash support AM335x devices through loading a boot loader and a uboot onto the device, and then talk to the uboot through a debrick script, which basically instruct the device to grab a set of files from the host tftp to update itself. Therefore, as long as the uboot you are using can support eMMC flashing, it should be possible.

It is important to note that the board/setup you have also need to be able to boot from USB peripheral for this to be possible. And you should only use the Windows ver for production. The Linux version is for engineers to verify their package. It is relatively unstable due to the unreliable dependencies from ubuntu.

I advice you to try to do this manually first to test and debug on your setup, then write the debrick script that describes how to load your files to eMMC.

The debrick script have some degree of flexibility. You can ask the expert in the Sitara forum regarding the detail. Schulyer Patton is the author of the script format. He could help you with packaging the files when you are at that step.

Regards,

Victor

The board will have USB boot possibility so that is not a problem.

On Windows what is annoying: the board appears in the list only after a reset (from reset button).

The test board what I use is a Beagle Black which has USB boot capability - pressing the user boot button loads the usb network driver (if there is no sd card inserted), the driver is loaded on windows side but it appears in the uniflash list only after a reset. Probably is related to driver load speed in my Win7/64bit but that can't be changed since the first step is in the rom code ...

On Linux we tried with a simple dhcp and tftp server with the same setup like it does Uniflash and first step worked well (loading the SPL uboot).

Now we are at the step of the emmc programming - in theory that should be partitioned and formatted. The basic uboot can't do that and we can't write the emmc either as a whole image with 512M ram only on the board.

Fastboot can do a bit more but we could not managed to run it in SPL mode (yet). 

So right now we are searching for a uboot which really supports emmc (clean one, nothing preloaded).

Thank You for the feedback, it's really appreciated.

Brown,

Beaglebone black will boot into another rndis device after you load the uboot onto the device.

Try following the guide below, if you are stuck or having problem at a particular step, let me know. 

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Sitara_Uniflash_Quick_Start_Guide

I will ask around to see if we have an uboot that would support eMMC write on BBB. I think we only have one for the EVM, but let me confirm this. Meanwhile, you could make another thread in Sitara and beaglebone forums and ask if there's a ready to use uboot that write eMMC.

Regards,

Victor