Future Designs LPC3250 u-boot installation

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Future Designs LPC3250 board u-boot installation (SD card boot method) ↑

The easiest way to boot u-boot is to put the u-boot.bin image for the Future Designs board in the root directory of a FAT formatted micro-SD card. Insert the card into the micro-SD slot on the Future Designs board. Connect a serial cable between the RS232 serial connector on the board and a PC. Start a terminal program such as TeraTerm? and setup the COM port connected to the board for 115.2K-8-N-1. Power up or reset the board and the S1L? prompt will appear. (You may need to press a key to get the the S1L? prompt.)

FDI3250 Kickstart v1.00
NAND Flash Initialized
Running Stage 1 Loader ...
Using default system configuration

Future Designs, Inc. DK-xTS-LPC3250 Board
Build date: Jul 20 2010 17:15:04
Autoboot in progress, press any key to stop

fdi>

To setup autoboot of the u-boot binary, use the S1L? 'aboot' command. For the Future Designs board, u-boot is loaded at address 0x81f80000. The 'aboot' command with the arguments listed in the output below setup the u-boot.bin file to load from the root directory of the SD card into address 0x81f80000 and then it will automatically start the loaded image at address 0x81f80000. The 'info' command can be used to verify autoboot is setup correctly.

fdi>aboot blk u-boot.bin raw 0x81f80000
Autoboot configuration updated

fdi>info
...
Autoboot source                  : Block : u-boot.bin
Autoboot image type              : RAW
Autoboot image load address      : 0x81f80000
Autoboot image execution address : 0x81f80000
...

fdi>

The prompt timeout should also be reduced to a few seconds with the 'prompt' command. The 'prompt' command can also be used to reset the default prompt text. The timeout for autoboot can be viewed with the 'info' command.

fdi>prompt fdi> 2

fdi>

Reset the board. The LPC32x0 will first boot the kickstart loader which in turn loads and starts S1L?. S1L? will then load u-boot from the micro-SD card into SDRAM and start it. The output after reset is shown below.

FDI3250 Kickstart v1.00
NAND Flash Initialized
Running Stage 1 Loader ...
Using default system configuration

Future Designs, Inc. DK-xTS-LPC3250 Board
Build date: Jul 20 2010 17:15:04
Autoboot in progress, press any key to stop


U-Boot 1.3.3 (Jul 20 2010 - 09:25:59)

DRAM:  32 MB
NAND:  256 MiB
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0
uboot>

Future Designs LPC3250 board u-boot installation (NAND FLASH boot method) ↑

u-boot can be programmed into NAND FLASH through S1L? andS1L can be setup to automatically boot u-boot from NAND FLASH. Connect a serial cable between the RS232 serial connector on the board and a PC. Start a terminal program such as TeraTerm? and setup the COM port connected to the board for 115.2K-8-N-1. Power up or reset the board and the S1L? prompt will appear. Press any key to get the the S1L? prompt.

FDI3250 Kickstart v1.00
NAND Flash Initialized
Running Stage 1 Loader ...
Using default system configuration

Future Designs, Inc. DK-xTS-LPC3250 Board
Build date: Jul 20 2010 17:15:04
Autoboot in progress, press any key to stop

fdi>

The u-boot binary needs to be loaded into memory before it can be burned into NAND FLASH. This can be done by loading u-boot from a micro-SD card or sending it via a terminal program as a binary file. For the micro-SD card approach, place the u-boot.bin in the root directory of an micro-SD card, insert the micro-SD card into the micro-SD slot on the board, and verify the file is there with the 'ls' command. Then load the file into address 0x81f80000 using the 'load' command. The 'info' command can be used to verify the image has been loaded into memory. Note that with the raw (binary) version of the 'load' command, a break has to be sent after the image has been transferred via the terminal program.

fdi>ls
 U-BOOT.BIN

fdi>load blk u-boot.bin raw 0x81f80000
File loaded successfully

fdi>info
...
File loaded in memory: Image
 Address                 : 0x81f80000
 Size of image (bytes)   : 122412
 Execution entry address : 0x81f80000
...

fdi>

If the u-boot.bin file is to be transferred via the terminal program, then a different variation of the 'load' command is used and the file then needs to be sent from the terminal program as a binary file with no transfer protocol. One the entire file has transferred to the board from the terminal program, a break needs to be sent from the terminal program to get back to the S1L? prompt.The 'info' command can be used to verify the image has been loaded into memory.

fdi>load term raw 0x81f80000
Starting terminal download, send break to stop
File loaded successfully

fdi>

After the file is loaded in memory, use the 'nsave' command to save the image into NAND FLASH. The image size and NAND FLASH blocks used for the image can be checked with the 'info' command.

fdi>nsave

fdi>info
...
FLASH image first block used  : 25
FLASH image blocks used       : 1
FLASH image sectors used      : 60
FLASH image size in bytes     : 122412
FLASH image load address      : 0x81f80000
FLASH image execution address : 0x81f80000
...

fdi>

To setup autoboot of the u-boot binary, use the S1L? 'aboot' command. For the Future Designs board, u-boot is loaded at address 0x81f80000. The 'aboot' command with the arguments listed in the output below setup NAND FLASH boot of the saved image into address 0x81f80000 and then it will automatically start the loaded image at address 0x81f80000. The 'info' command can be used to verify autoboot is setup correctly.

fdi>aboot flash raw 0x81f80000
Autoboot configuration updated

fdi>info
...
Autoboot source                  : FLASH
Autoboot image type              : RAW
...

fdi>

The prompt timeout should also be reduced to a few seconds with the 'prompt' command. The 'prompt' command can also be used to reset the default prompt text. The timeout for autoboot can be viewed with the 'info' command.

fdi>prompt fdi> 2

fdi>

Reset the board. The LPC32x0 will first boot the kickstart loader which in turn loads and starts S1L?. S1L? will then load u-boot from NAND FLASH into SDRAM and start it. The output after reset is shown below.

FDI3250 Kickstart v1.00
NAND Flash Initialized
Running Stage 1 Loader ...
Using default system configuration

Future Designs, Inc. DK-xTS-LPC3250 Board
Build date: Jul 20 2010 17:15:04
Autoboot in progress, press any key to stop


U-Boot 1.3.3 (Jul 20 2010 - 09:25:59)

DRAM:  32 MB
NAND:  256 MiB
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0
uboot>