How to flash upgrade
Introduction
This guide describes
how to flash an ETRAX based product using the most commonly
used methods of flashing, all using an Ethernet network. The
methods described in this document can be divided into two
groups. One low level group containing methods suitable for
development and production. And one high level group suitable
for firmware upgrade of products on the field. The low level
group comprise the "Network boot mode" method while
the high level group comprise FTP and HTTP upgrading.
The instructions below will guide you
through how to flash an ETRAX based product. If you encounter
any problems read the theory chapter to get a better
understanding of the process. If that does not help consult
the dev-etrax mailing list.
Requirements
Please read the
SDK Organization
document.
-
Examples in this document assume that you have installed the
Developer Board/ Device Server SDK in a directory called
axis/devboard
in your home directory (the expression "~/axis/devboard"
will be used throughout this document). If this is not the
case, just keep it in mind and use your installation directory
instead of
~/axis/devboard
in the examples.
-
Text within angle brackets “<>” should be
read as a placeholder for something else, for example,
linux-<kernel
version> could be linux-2.6.12.
-
The developer
board/device server or a design based on an ETRAX chip
will be referred as "the target platform",
"the target system" or
simply "the target".
-
The PC running
Linux which usually has the SDK installed will be referred
as the "Linux host" or simply "the
host".
Network boot mode theory
Normally the target
platform boots from either NOR or NAND flash memory. However, most
ETRAX based designs have the opportunity to start the ETRAX
chip in one or more alternative bootstrap methods. The most
commonly used alternative is network bootstrapping that allows
the ETRAX chip to start from a specially formed Ethernet
packet. When the ETRAX chip
boot it scans a few pins to determine which bootstrap method
to use. How to alter these pins to get into the network boot
mode (or network bootstrap mode) is dependent on the design,
usually a button or a jumper exist for this purpose. The
normal procedure to set a target system in network boot mode is to press the
network boot button or close the network boot jumper while releasing
the reset button (or wile turning on the power) i.e. the boot
button must be kept down while the chip powers up.
A program is used on the host to control
the communication between the target and the host. This
program consist of two parts, one running on your Linux host
and one that is uploaded to and executed on the target. By setting up this client/server environment the
target system can be controlled which, for example, allows
for flash programming. This program is
distributed with the SDK and is named "etrax100boot"
for ETRAX 100LX based designs (which also involves all ETRAX
100LX MCM designs) and "etraxfsboot" for ETRAX FS
based designs.
Since the network bootstrap method use
raw Ethernet packages no IP or TCP has to be enabled on either
the host or the target. However, this also implies that the
packages used will be filtered when trying to pass a router.
As a consequence the network boot method will only work if the
host and the target are connected to the same network segment.
The "etrax<chip_version>boot"
program can do a few basic things. The most important features
are probably the ability to set registers, upload files, write
to flash memory, perform memory tests and so on. Generally you
will always have to set some registers before doing anything
else, for example, to use the SDRAM memory you will have to go
through the SDRAM configuration cycle by setting a few
registers. Figuring out how to do this is not easy, therefore
a script has been developed to extract the required parameters
from the firmware image produced by the SDK. This script
is named "boot_linux" for
for ETRAX 100LX based designs (which also involves all ETRAX
100LX MCM designs) and "boot_etraxfs" for ETRAX FS
based designs. The purpose of the script is to ease the
firmware flashing which by far is the most common reason for
using the network boot mode. Running the "boot_<linux/etraxfs>"
script will extract the required parameters from the firmware
image file and then run either the "etrax100boot" or
the "etraxfsboot" program with the appropriate
arguments. Below is a list of the most commonly used arguments
for the boot_<linux/etraxfs>" script.
-d <device>
The network interface to use, default is eth0.
-f
Save the whole firmware image to flash except the rescue partition.
-F
Save the whole firmware image to flash. NOTE that this will overwrite parameters stored in the
rescue partition such as the serial number/MAC address.
-h
Print help text (information on additional options not showed here)
-i <image>
The path and name of the image to use, default is fimage. -p
Print the resulting "etrax<chip_version>boot" command instead of executing
it.
Test a firmware image - using the network boot mode
This method allows a firmware image to be tested before
written to the flash memory. The firmware is uploaded to the
RAM and executed from there which implies that the firmware
stored in the flash is not affected. This process use the
~/axis/devboard/kimage
file that contain the kernel and the ROM file system.
Since the kimage does not include the writeable jffs2 partition
there must be a valid firmware image
stored in the flash to use this method. Since
the firmware is not written to the flash this method is
recommended during development as it is considerably faster
than other methods.
- Enter the SDK root directory
'cd
~/axis/devboard/'
- Source the "init_env" file to append the the
path to the tools. (This step is only required if the
"init_env file have not been sourced in the shell
before.)
'. init_env' or 'source init_env'
- Set the target system in network boot mode.
- As root execute the "boot_linux" script for ETRAX 100LX based designs
or the "boot_etraxfs" script for ETRAX FS based
designs.
'boot_<linux/etraxfs> -i kimage'
Flash upgrade - using the network boot mode
This method write the firmware image to
the flash memory on the target system. Observe that
this method will overwrite the configuration files in the /etc directory,
which will affect, e.g., network settings.
- Enter the SDK root directory
'cd
~/axis/devboard/'
- Source the "init_env" file to append the the
path to the tools. (This step is only required if the
"init_env file have not been sourced in the shell
before.)
'. init_env' or 'source init_env'
- Set the target system in network boot mode.
- As root execute the "boot_linux" script for ETRAX 100LX based designs
or the "boot_etraxfs" script for ETRAX FS based
designs.
'boot_<linux/etraxfs> -f'
The "-f" option as used above overwrite the whole
flash except for the rescue partition that include important
parameters. However, if the product has a empty flash or for
some other reason requires that the whole flash is (re)written
use "-F" instead of "-f". NOTE that
using "-F" will overwrite, e.g., the serial/MAC
number, consequently it is not recommended to use
"-F" unless you know what you are doing.
The network interface card on the Linux
host must be specified unless the card that is connected to
the target system is "eth0", which is the default. You specify
this by adding the -d <ethX> option to the
boot_<linux/etraxfs> script where "X" is the
interface number.
FTP and HTTP upgrading - Theory
Upgrading the flash using FTP or HTTP requires that the
target system is up and running. Moreover, the target system
has to be accessible over an TCP/IP network and it must have
the appropriate software, supporting this upgrade method,
running.
The vftpd FTP server shipped in the SDK has two virtual
targets. This implies that if you upload a file to that target
the vftpd server will start the flash progress instead of
storing the file. The two available targets are
"flash" and "flash_all". The
"flash" target will replace the kernel and root
partition while the "flash_all" target will flash
everything except the rescue partition that include parameters
such as the serial number/MAC address.
The boa HTTP server shipped in the SDK comes with a CGI plug-in
that allows uploading and writhing of an firmware image though
a browser.
In both the FTP and HTTP case an application named flash
reside on the target system. This Linux application performs
the actual writing of the flash memory. Both the FTP or HTTP
server use this application.
Flash upgrade - using
FTP
To flash your board
using ftp start up a text based ftp program such as
ftp in GNU/Linux. Login and execute the "put
fimage flash" command. This
will upload the fimage to the
developer board and flash it. When finished with flashing the
board will reboot with the new image.
Example:
$ ftp 192.168.0.90
Connected to 192.168.0.90.
220 Axis Developer Board 82+/83+ release 2.00 (Jun 15 2005)
ready.
Name (192.168.0.90:karljope):
root
331 User name okay, need password.
Password: pass
230 User logged in, proceed.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> binary
200 Command okay.
ftp> put
fimage flash
local: fimage remote: flash
200 Command okay.
150-Shutting down processes.
Preparing system for upgrade ...
Entering run level 4 ...
Waiting for processes to be stopped in
runlevel 4 ...
... waiting ...
... waiting ...
In run level 4.
Stopping remaining processes.
sending TERM signal ...
All processes stopped.
The file system will be upgraded after reboot.
Unmounting file system /var
...
Unmounting file system /mnt/flash
...
File systems successfully shut down.
150 Opening data connection.
214-Virtual target execution.
Receiving new firmware ...
Erasing old file system ...
1%
.
.
100%
Loading new file system ...
1%
.
.
100%
The system upgrade completed
successfully.
The unit will now reboot.
To continue, please connect to the unit again.
There may be a short delay before the new connection is
accepted.
This connection will now close.
214 Virtual target exit.
8388632 bytes sent in 3.68 secs
(2229.1 kB/s)
ftp>
Serial flashing
As mentioned above the
ETRAX chip
supports several bootstrapping methods. One of these are the
serial bootstrapping. Serial flashing is not described in this
document but there exists an excellent Windows application,
developed by Indunet, which you can read more about
here.
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