u-boot and zImage

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originally posted by mfm@May 8 2006, 02:31 AM

hi,

following the hippo's buildroot, i got the zimage file.

in the other side, i have u-boot working from flash memory.

now, i am wondering if that's possible to download the zimage directly with u-boot.

<div align='right'><{post_snapback}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=15157)

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use tftp boot.

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originally posted by hippo+may 8 2006, 03:16 am--><div class='quotetop'>quote (hippo @ may 8 2006, 03:16 am)</div>

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<!--quotebegin-mfm@May 8 2006, 02:31 AM

hi,

following the hippo&#39;s buildroot, i got the zimage file.

in the other side, i have u-boot working from flash memory.

now, i am wondering if that&#39;s possible to download the zimage directly with u-boot.

<div align='right'><{post_snapback}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=15157)

--- quote end ---

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use tftp boot.

<div align='right'><{post_snapback}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=15164)</div>

[/b]

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Here I&#39;m talking about if I had to mkimage zImage or not.

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originally posted by hippo+may 8 2006, 03:57 am--><div class='quotetop'>quote (hippo @ may 8 2006, 03:57 am)</div>

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originally posted by mfm@may 8 2006, 09:46 am

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originally posted by hippo@may 8 2006, 03:16 am

<!--quotebegin-mfm@May 8 2006, 02:31 AM

hi,

following the hippo&#39;s buildroot, i got the zimage file.

in the other side, i have u-boot working from flash memory.

now, i am wondering if that&#39;s possible to download the zimage directly with u-boot.

<div align='right'><{post_snapback}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=15157)

--- quote end ---

--- Quote End ---

use tftp boot.

<div align='right'><{post_snapback}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=15164)</div>

[/b]

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Here I&#39;m talking about if I have to mkimage zImage or not.

<div align='right'><{post_snapback}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=15166)</div>

[/b]

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You&#39;d better write your questions more clearly. I misunderstand so many times. http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif

Don&#39;t mkimage, it is already compressed.

You should not want to write the zImage to flash with u-boot, either.

Put your zImage file in /tftpboot of your tftp server, and use,

tftpboot [loadAddress] zImage

where loadAddress is (your sdram address + boot link offset( default to 0x00800000) )

<div align='right'><{post_snapback}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=15169)</div>

[/b]

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Well, what I&#39;m trying to do is to program the flash with the kernel via u-boot, and since u-boot deals with the .img files so I guess I got to transform the zImage with mkimage before downloading it with tftpboot.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

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Why do you program the flash with u-boot? It is not the right way. Use the nios2-flash-programmer to program the flash.[/b]

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Cause I want to work only on linux and don&#39;t have the linux version for altera stuff (I&#39;m not going to reboot linux -windows all the time). Besides, I want to through that usb-blaster http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif

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You should use u-boot to download program via tftp to sdram and run. That should be most people want u-boot to do.[/b]

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And if I can do all that things with u-boot only, why bothering myself with other tools !

> Now, I am wondering if that&#39;s possible to download the zImage directly with u-boot.

You can download it, and program it in ram, but you can&#39;t boot it using bootm.

The &#39;bootm&#39; command requires a valid u-boot image.

> Don&#39;t mkimage zImage, it is already compressed.

Compression has absolutely _nothing_ to do with mkimage. The mkimage utility

is necessary to properly boot a kernel image using u-boot, regardless of whether

or not the kernel is compressed. mkimage simply adds (prepends) a header to the

kernel (or filesystem, or script, etc). The header contains information such as load

address, entrypoint address, a header CRC-32, data CRC-32, and yes ... a field

that indicates if the data (the kernel) is compressed.

When the kernel is compressed via the kernel build scripts, you should tell

mkimage that kernel has compression &#39;None&#39;.

> I guess I got to transform the zImage with mkimage before downloading it

> with tftpboot.

Correct.

> Why do you program the flash with u-boot? It is not the right way. Use the

> nios2-flash-programmer to program the flash

Don&#39;t be silly! Programming flash with u-boot is one of its most useful features.

It is perfectly appropriate (and correct) to do so -- especially when you do not

want to require xxxBlaster and an exposed JTAG header.

Additionally, if you load your flash image using TFTP, it is _much_, _much_ faster.

Furthermore, u-boot has been programming flash memory on more architectures

for a _much_ longer time than the "flash-programmer".

> You should use u-boot to download program via tftp to sdram and run. That

> should be most people want u-boot to do.

I have been working with u-boot for for well over 7 years now. I&#39;ve done at least a

dozen board ports using four different architectures. I can tell you from experience,

_most_ systems use u-boot to boot a kernel that is stored in flash. The TFTP feature

is used to perform field upgrades (and for testing during development).

> And if I can do all that things with u-boot only, why bothering myself with

> other tools !

Exactly! With u-boot you can do almost everything using something as primitive

as a UART interface and some cheap terminal software. Or as sophisticated as

loading and executing a script via NFS, that in turn loads a kernel image via

tftp that gets loaded into flash and eventually booted ... phew ;-)

Regards,

--Scott

Scott,

Thanks a lot. Now I learned more about u-boot. http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif

Could you give some sample scripts for daily usage of u-boot?

Do you use dhcp and nfs -root ?

Best regards,

Hippo

Hi Scott,

thanks a lot, that&#39;s really instructive http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif