Hello, I'm inviting you to try this wonderfull bootloader named Barebox (here (http://barebox.org)). I added the nios2 arch to the project some times ago and now, we have some nios2 drivers availables: - altera uart, - jtag uart, - altera tse, - altera spi, Of course, others drivers are availables (nor, nand,...). I made a short tutorial/introduction to the usage of barebox with a neek board on my website: www.elec4fun.fr (http://www.elec4fun.fr) Enjoy :)

--- Quote Start --- Hello, I'm inviting you to try this wonderfull bootloader named Barebox (here (http://barebox.org)). I added the nios2 arch to the project some times ago and now, we have some nios2 drivers availables: - altera uart, - jtag uart, - altera tse, - altera spi, Of course, others drivers are availables (nor, nand,...). I made a short tutorial/introduction to the usage of barebox with a neek board on my website: www.elec4fun.fr (http://www.elec4fun.fr) Enjoy :) --- Quote End --- Thanks a lot, I will try this.

Hi, I wake up this old introduction thread because I face some issue using barebox on a brand new Cyclone V DK dev board. I using Quartus 12.1 Web edition tools on a Centos 6.3 32bit linux workstation. I manage to compile barebox (version 2013.02) for this dev board, and download it on the board. Nios2 design include altera_tse IP, JTAG UART (and UART) and other IP (DDR3 ...). I can download barebox elf on the board, and start it It works ! I can see the prompt, and execute some commands. But few things are not working as expected. The most annoying is network. DevKit is connected to a Gigabit network with a working DHCP server. With default factory, board is working correctly, i.e. board update portal receive IP and is reachable over network. I enable altera_tse in barebox driver (via make menuconfig). At barebox prompt, command dhcp show a serie of Timeout. On the board, 1Gb LED is on, by I don't see any activity on RX and TX LED. If I set a static IP, ping command is also on timeout. First investigation shows something wrong on PHY init (or at least, no PHY init). Maybe this part is missing. On another hand, I try lwip library (thanks to BillA), and the basic example is working on the same design (i.e., DHCP, and basic http server running). Any suggestion would be greatly appreciate. Regards, Christophe

Hi, I'm glad to hear you are giving barebox a try ! I took a look at the schematics of your board and it seems the PHY is at address 0. Did you change the PHY address while declaring the device in your board file ? Reading the driver code makes me think we should do something when the PHY is not detected (either auto-detect or at least print something). Franck.

Hi, Thanks Franck for your response (and for your work on Barebox / Nios 2). I already change PHY address to 0 (or -1), else, I got an error about unknown PHY id. We have made some progress. According to the design, we have to use dedicated memory descriptor. So, I complete in generic.c (well, a copy for this file for the DK board) the description, (tse_mac) with a new entry. Now, I can see TX LED activity, but, unfortunatly, server don't seems to proceed the Frame (maybe the frame is wrong, and dropped). I enable trace in barebox altera_tse driver. I see several sgdma TX. First one has status 0xC, and following have 0x1C, until timeout. I'll try to dump packet, and check if it's correct. Edit : In MAC Registers about status, aAlignmentErrors increase (when server perform a broadcast ping). Packet dump shows something similare. To be Continue. Regards, Christophe

Hi, Have you made some progress so far ? Franck.

U-Boot v2 aka Barebox | Altera Community

16 Replies

Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
13 years ago
Indeed, we now have dt support in Barebox.

We should add the device tree support to the nios arch. I'll do that when I have time (or you ? :)).

Franck.
Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
13 years ago
Nice suggestion, but as you guess, I'm new in embedded developpement, and I just discover devicetree feature.

Also, I can send you my minor update of altera_tse driver. I don't know (I mean, howto) push it back to barebox project.

Regards,
Christophe
Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
13 years ago
I'd be happy to merge your changes.

Check your PM.

Franck.

Altera_Forum

Honored Contributor

13 years ago

Hi Franck,

Email send. Thanks.

On another side, I face a new trouble.

After fixing nios_sopc.h, barebox start, and I reach the prompt.

But shortly after, without notice, an exception is raised.


barebox@generic:/ iomem
0x00000000 - 0xffffffff (size 0x00000000) iomem
  0xc4000000 - 0xc41fffff (size 0x00200000) ssram0
  0xc5200000 - 0xc527ffff (size 0x00080000) onchip0
  0xc8000000 - 0xcfffffff (size 0x08000000) ram0
    0xcff30000 - 0xcff3ffff (size 0x00010000) stack
    0xcff40000 - 0xcff9ffff (size 0x00060000) malloc space
    0xcffa0000 - 0xcffeb7cb (size 0x0004b7cc) barebox
    0xcffeb7cc - 0xcffedd6b (size 0x000025a0) barebox data
    0xcffedd6c - 0xcfff3227 (size 0x000054bc) bss
  0xe0000000 - 0xe3ffffff (size 0x04000000) cfi_flash0
  0xe5000000 - 0xe5001fff (size 0x00002000) altera_tse0
  0xe5003000 - 0xe50033ff (size 0x00000400) altera_tse0
  0xe5003400 - 0xe500343f (size 0x00000040) altera_tse0
  0xe5003440 - 0xe500347f (size 0x00000040) altera_tse0
  0xe6000080 - 0xe600009f (size 0x00000020) altera_serial_jtag0
  0xe60000a0 - 0xe60000bf (size 0x00000020) altera_serial0
  0xe60000c0 - 0xe60000df (size 0x00000020) altera_serial1
barebox@generic:/
*** ERROR: unimplemented instruction @ c350fb40
# ## ERROR# ## Please RESET the board# ##

First, this never happen with our previous MPU design.

Second, It don't seems to occur when I "place" barebox at bottom of DDR3 (above 0xc8000000).

Third, instruction @ XXXX is random.

I give a look at nios2/lib/clock.c, and everything seems Ok. But I notice important side effect when I try some minor change on this file.

Linux kernel still running nicely.

Regards,

Christophe

Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
13 years ago
Hi,

You should try to remove the more driver you can to check if one of them can cause this problem.

Franck.
Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
13 years ago
Hi,

After investigation, I found that exception raise come from __muldi3 and other operand operation. (_mult is used by cyc2ns()).

Maybe it's not only barebox related issue, but when barebox is on top on ddr3 space (our range ddr3 is 0x800 0000 to 0xfff ffff), this exception occurs randomly (but at least 10s after starting).
Another strange fact is, clock_source function are based on uint64_t, and exception seems to come form __multdi3, which is long long typed !

In fact, this exception doesn't occur with the same Nios2 design without MMU and Linux (with MMU).

Regards,
Christophe

FPGA : Cyclone V Altera DevKit
Tools : Quartus 12.1 WebEdition

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U-Boot v2 aka Barebox

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