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Das U-Boot

Boot Terminology

Loader

Program that moves bits from non volatile memory to memory and then transfers CPU control to the newly loaded bits (executable) Program that loads the first program (the kernel) Persistent code that is already loaded on power-up Program that lets you choose the first program to load

Bootloader / Bootstrap

Boot PROM

Boot Manager

Whats a Loader?

A program that moves bits from flash or disk to memory and then transfers control to the newly loaded bits (executable).

memory loader bits flash cpu bits

Loading through Das U-boot

Reset

0x1000

SDRAM Memory
Kernel Root File-System

CPU

BMODE 00 ByPass PROM

0x20000000

ROM
Bootloader uboot

Bootloader uboot

Kernel Image Root File System

Optional compressed

Das U-Boot

The "Universal Bootloader" ("Das U-Boot") is a monitor/MicroOS program. Started in October of 1999 by Dan Malek, supported by Wolfgang Denk (Denx Engineering) as of July 2000 Free Software: full source code under GPL Hosted on SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/u-boot Production quality: Used as default boot loader by several board vendors Portable and easy to port and to debug Many supported architectures: PPC, ARM, MIPS, x86, m68k, NIOS, Microblaze, and Blackfin More than 216 boards supported by public source tree

Blackfin U-boot features

Where to get U-boot sources

User Interface (1)

U-Boot

uses a simple command line interface (CLI), usually over a serial console port. Two different command interpreters are available:
Simple

CLI Bourne compatible shell (HUSH shell from Busybox)

Configuration

parameters and commands / command sequences (scripts !) can be stored in "environment variables" which can be saved to non-volatile storage (flash, EEPROM, NVRAM, etc.)

User Interface (2)

U-Boot supports many different ways to load and boot an image. Serial Port: "loads" (S-Record), "loadb" (Kermit binary protocol) Ethernet: "tftp", "bootp", "dhcp", "nfs Harddisk, CDROM: "ide read" CompactFlash card etc.: "ide read" USB Mass Storage Device: "usb read" SCSI Disk and CDROM: "scsi read" NAND flash with JFFS2 filesystem: "nboot" Disk on Chip: "doc read" PCI Bus: copy Commands
Memory Commands Flash Memory Commands Execution Control Commands

Network Commands

Bootp Cdp dhcp loadb oads Nfs ping rarpboot tftpboot

Environment Variables Commands

Information Commands

Printenv saveenv Askenv setenv run Bootd

bdinfo coninfo flinfo iminfo imls help

Boot Image
Image:
Header

Actions:

+ Payload

test

Header:
Creation

Timestamp Data Load Address Entry Point Address Data CRC Checksum Operating System CPU architecture Image Type Compression Type Image Name
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CPU architecture and OS test checksum (optional) if compressed, uncompress copy to load address prepare boot arguments start at entry point

Image Types
Standalone OS

Programs

Kernel Images Images Images Images

RAMDisk Multi-File Firmware Script

files

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Configuring U-Boot
Configuration

depends on the combination of board and CPU type; all such information is kept in a configuration file "include/configs/<board_name>.h".
Example:

For a STAMP board, all configuration settings are in "include/configs/stamp.h".

For

all supported boards there are ready-to-use default configurations available; just type "make <board_name>_config".
Example:

For the STAMP board type:

cd u-boot make stamp_config

For

configuration details, check the U-Boot README and the Wiki docs.blackfin.uclinux.org

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Building U-Boot (1/2)

Building

U-Boot has been tested in x86 cross environments (running RedHat 6.x and 7.x Linux, SuSE 9.0 and 9.1 Linux on x86). is assumed that you have the GNU cross compiling tools available in your path and named with a prefix of bfin-elf". If this is not the case, you must change the definition of CROSS_COMPILE in Makefile.

It

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Building U-Boot (2/2)

U-Boot

is intended to be simple to build. After installing the sources you must configure U-Boot for one specific board type. This is done by typing: cd u-boot make clean; make mrproper make stamp_config make all should get some working U-Boot images ready for download to / installation on your system:
"u-boot.bin"

You

is a raw binary image "u-boot" is an image in ELF binary format "u-boot.srec" is in Motorola S-Record format
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U-Boot Source Code

Official

U-boot Source Code is at: Blackfin Branch is at:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/u-boot

Unofficial

http://blackfin.uclinux.org/projects/uboot533

U-Boot

uses a 3 level version number containing a version, a sub-version, and a patchlevel "U-Boot-2.34.5" means:
version

"2", sub-version "34", and patchlevel "4".

The patchlevel is used to indicate certain stages of development between released versions, i. e. officially released versions of U-Boot will always have a patchlevel of "0".
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More U-Boot information

The

U-Boot project is hosted at Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/u-boot is a pretty active u-boot-users mailing list.

There The

Mailing list archive can be viewed at sourceforge.net http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/u-boot-users/ DENX U-Boot and Linux Guide is a Wiki based documentation documenting U-Boot and its interaction with Linux. It can be viewed (and improved) at www.denx.de. The whole DULG web packed into a single HTML page or a PDF file is also available (PowerPC is the example) current README file can be viewed through viewcvs at sourceforge.net

The

The

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Backup slides

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Das U-Boot
Introduction Porting

Guide Directory Structure

Material

in this presentation is taken from the project README file, and from http://www.denx.de/twiki/bin/view/UBootdoc/Presentation and http://www.denx.de/twiki/bin/view/DULG/Manual

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Supported Platforms
Architecture PPC Processor 5xx 5xxx 8xx 824x 826x 85xx 7xx/74xx 4xx ARM StrongARM ARM720T ARM92xT Number of Boards 2 6 71 15 26 3 11 38 5 3 11 MIPS64 NIOS32 Microblaze Blackfin BF533/BF535 x86 m68k MIPS32 Architecture ARM (cont) Processor S3C44B0 AT91RM9200 XScale SC520 Coldfire 4Kc Au1x00 5Kc Number of Boards 1 1 8 2 2 2 3 1 3 1 3

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Das U-boot Design Principles

Easy

to port to new architectures, new processors, and new boards Easy to debug: serial console output as soon as possible Features and commands configurable As small as possible As reliable as possible

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Image Support
Although

U-Boot can support any OS or standalone application, the main focus has always been on Linux during the design of U-Boot. includes many features that so far have been part of some special "boot loader" code within the Linux kernel. Also, any "initrd" images to be used are no longer part of one big Linux image; instead, kernel and "initrd" are separate images.

U-Boot

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U-Boot Basic Command Set (1/4)

Information Commands
bdinfo - print Board Info structure coninfo - print console devices and informations flinfo - print FLASH memory information iminfo - print header information for application image imls - list all images found in flash help - print online help

Flash Memory Commands

cp - memory copy (program flash) flinfo - print FLASH memory information erase - erase FLASH memory protect - enable or disable FLASH write protection

Execution Control Commands

autoscr - run script from memory bootm - boot application image from memory bootelf - Boot from an ELF image in memory bootvx - Boot vxWorks from an ELF image go - start application at address 'addr'

Memory Commands
base - print or set address offset crc32 - checksum calculation cmp - memory compare cp - memory copy md - memory display mm - memory modify (auto-incrementing) mtest - simple RAM test mw - memory write (fill) nm - memory modify (constant address) loop - infinite loop on address range

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U-Boot Basic Command Set (2/4)

Network Commands
bootp - boot image via network using BOOTP/TFTP protocol cdp - Perform Cisco Discovery Protocol network configuration dhcp - invoke DHCP client to obtain IP/boot params loadb - load binary file over serial line (kermit mode) loads - load S-Record file over serial line nfs - boot image via network using NFS protocol ping - send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to network host rarpboot- boot image via network using RARP/TFTP protocol tftpboot- boot image via network using TFTP protocol

Environment Variables Commands

printenv- print environment variables saveenv - save environment variables to persistent storage askenv - get environment variables from stdin setenv - set environment variables run - run commands in an environment variable bootd - boot default, i.e., run 'bootcmd'

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U-Boot Basic Command Set (3/4)

Filesystem Support (FAT, cramfs, JFFS2, Reiser)
chpart - change active partition fsinfo - print information about filesystems fsload - load binary file from a filesystem image ls - list files in a directory (default /) fatinfo - print information about filesystem fatls - list files in a directory (default /) fatload - load binary file from a dos filesystem nand - NAND flash sub-system reiserls- list files in a directory (default /) reiserload- load binary file from a Reiser filesystem

Special Commands
i2c - I2C sub-system doc - Disk-On-Chip sub-system dtt - Digital Thermometer and Themostat eeprom - EEPROM sub-system fpga - FPGA sub-system ide - IDE sub-system kgdb - enter gdb remote debug mode diskboot- boot from IDE device icache - enable or disable instruction cache dcache - enable or disable data cache diag - perform board diagnostics (POST code) log - manipulate logbuffer pci - list and access PCI Configuraton Space regdump - register dump commands usb - USB sub-system sspi - SPI utility commands

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U-Boot Basic Command Set (4/4)

Miscellaneous Commands

bmp - manipulate BMP image data date - get/set/reset date & time echo - echo args to console exit - exit script kbd - read keyboard status in - read data from an IO port out - write datum to IO port reset - Perform RESET of the CPU sleep - delay execution for some time test - minimal test like /bin/sh version - print monitor version wd - check and set watchdog ? - alias for 'help'

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