Update bitstream and kernel in flash from Linux : A clean way to generate binary file

Hi all,

I wish to update my entire system from a running Linux by changing Flash content : changing bitstream and kernel.

My flash is partitioned with 2 area : bitstream (4MB ) and kernel (4MB ).

My main issue is that using altera tools to convert sof2flash and elf2flash I do not have intermediary files : raw binary files that I can write to my flash using

cp <file> /dev/mtdX

I only get srec files that are not usable from Linux to Flash my external memory (as far as I know, but maybe there is a tool to write srec files from nios2-linux)

Ok I have already binary file : the .sof and my zImage but :

• sof2flash adds (or remove) some headers and configure bitstream loading mode : in my case active parallel

• elf2flash adds a bootloader before my zImage

So I need to pass through sof2flash and elf2flash. Unfortunately those software does not provide binary format of the generated files ....

So the most automated way I found is to :

1. Flash my board using Altera tools (elf2flash, sof2flash and nios2-flash-programmer)

2. Read back partitions from flash using

   nios2-flash-programmer -B <ADD>+<SIZE> -R zImage.tmp --base=0x08000000

3. use srec_cat

   srec_cat -output zImage.bin -binary zImage.tmp

Doing this I have a zImage.bin adapted to my Flash with a bootloader inside.

I can also dump the flash from linux and then transfer it using ftp but I cannot automate the process easily.

Does someone has a better solution ??

Best regards