i.MX Processors中的主题 Re: Help with Booting i.MX6 from NAND Flash

Help with Booting i.MX6 from NAND Flash

RobMauro — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 19:18:03 GMT

Has anyone booted the i.MX6 from NAND Flash? Any qualified flash devices? Any tips?

Re: Help with Booting i.MX6 from NAND Flash

austinf — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 20:09:04 GMT

We're using Micron MT29F32G08CBACAWP successfully. Make sure you're using the latest source release though.

Re: Help with Booting i.MX6 from NAND Flash

PradapRaj — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 06:59:01 GMT

We have used Toshiba's TC58NVG3S0FTA00 NAND with iMX6 and successfully booted...

Re: Help with Booting i.MX6 from NAND Flash

terry_lv — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 08:33:14 GMT

Pls use bootlets to program u-boot and uImage to nand.

Re: Help with Booting i.MX6 from NAND Flash

HuangShijie — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 09:32:47 GMT

Most of the NAND chips should be supported to NAND boot.

Please use the latest version kobs-ng to burn the u-boot to NAND.

Re: Help with Booting i.MX6 from NAND Flash

JimMalone — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 17:45:18 GMT

Hi Austin, PradapRaj,

The i.mx6 documentation does not seem clear to me when booting from NAND flash regarding loading u-boot. Did you have to use the SPL (secondary program loader) method that splits u-boot up into two images or a single u-boot method (standard method)? I am reading mixed information and am a bit confused.

I think that if u-boot is small enough to run in the internal RAM (OCRAM) of the i.MX6 then it does not need the SPL step. Is this correct thinking?

Thanks,

Jim

Re: Help with Booting i.MX6 from NAND Flash

terry_lv — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 02:10:19 GMT

Hi Jim,

I hasn't tried SPL before. We always use standard method for u-boot.

Yes, we can put u-boot to iram. There's a config named xxxx_iram_config which will boot from iram. Normally this config can help to check boot problems of ddr.

To put your u-boot binary to iram, the binary should be small enough to be put into iram free space.

The size of free space various in different patforms. You can ask us for the address range of iram free space.

Thanks

Terry

Re: Help with Booting i.MX6 from NAND Flash

FlorentAuger — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:43:41 GMT

Jim,

For most i.MX, the old fashion IPL/SPL NAND boot steps are automatically handled by the ROM code.

The ROM code initializes the destination memory such the SDRAM thanks to the DCD table, and copies the code to that destination (app_dest_ptr for i.MX using the flash header, or start address for those using the ImageVectorTable/boot data structures).

Size of the code is specified after the DCD in case of flash header, and in the boot data structure for i.MX using IVT.

To help the ROM code localize the necessary data for boot:

- i.MX25/35/51 uses flash header.

- i.MX50/53/6 uses IVT.

Florent

Re: Help with Booting i.MX6 from NAND Flash

JimMalone — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 23:35:12 GMT

Hi Shijie Huang,

Could you elaborate on how to use kobs-ng to burn u-boot to NAND?

It appears as thought kobs-ng does not copy the IVT out of the u-boot.bin and place it in the correct offset (for the i.mx6solo in my case) - (or I am totally missing it in the kobs-ng code which I have stepped through many times at this point). Is it correct to assume that if the FCB is located at 0x0 in the NAND, that the IVT should go in at 0x400 in this same block? I should mention that I am using a large flash (8K pages with 1MB erase blocks).

Any help would be much appreciated.

Re: Help with Booting i.MX6 from NAND Flash

dickginther — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 20:41:43 GMT

I am checking whether the latest release would support lower density (8Gb or 16Gb) SLC devices like the MT29F8G08ABACAWP?

Re: Help with Booting i.MX6 from NAND Flash

HuangShijie — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 02:31:16 GMT

I think the latest version does support this SLC.

you can test it.

thanks.

Huang Shijie

Re: Help with Booting i.MX6 from NAND Flash

HuangShijie — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 02:38:34 GMT

sorry for the later reply.

our mail system did not forward your reply to me.

The kobs-ng treats the uboot or kernel as a file, it just copies the whole u-boot.bin to the nand. The kobs-ng even does know what it copy. The FCB is located at 0x0. the kobs-ng does not know the IVT.

Maybe you use the wrong u-boot.bin.

thanks

Huang Shijie

Re: Help with Booting i.MX6 from NAND Flash

JimMalone — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:38:52 GMT

Hi Huang,

The issue I did not understand was that the IVT was positioned at a relative 0x400 offset in the sector containing u-boot. The i.mx6 manuals do not make this clear and I was thinking the IVT had to be placed at an absolute address of 0x400 which would be in the same sector as the FCB.

I resolved my own confusion with trial and error.

Thanks

Re: Help with Booting i.MX6 from NAND Flash

visakh — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 13:54:46 GMT

Dear Huang,

Please provide the details regarding kobs-ng and how it can be used to flash the nand. I have an imx53 based custom board and i booted android in my board from sdcard. Now i want the board to boot from the nand flash. I tried mfg tool but it got some issues. what do you think is the best method to flash the nand?

Thank You

Re: Help with Booting i.MX6 from NAND Flash

HuangShijie — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 02:24:29 GMT

：） The best detail is in the kobs-ng's code.

You can use the "kobs-ng init -v uboot.bin" to burn the uboot to the /dev/mtd0.

The followings are just a summary about the kobs-ng's code:

[1] parse out the nand chip's geometry, such as page size,oob size.

[2] fill the FCB, and DBBT according the [1].

[3] writting the FCB/DBBT.

[4] writting the uboot.

Huang Shijie

Re: Help with Booting i.MX6 from NAND Flash

timharvey — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 14:10:10 GMT

Shijie Huang wrote:

Most of the NAND chips should be supported to NAND boot.

Please use the latest version kobs-ng to burn the u-boot to NAND.

I have not been able to find any reference of 'bootlets' code for imx6 - can you provide a reference or documentation?

Is there any support in Freescale's patched u-boot to program NAND in the fasion that kobs-ng does?

Thanks,

Tim

Re: Help with Booting i.MX6 from NAND Flash

jkobs2014 — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 01:29:20 GMT

If you could please post the "bootlets" program, and indicate why you think it is better than kobs-ng, that would be very helpful.

Re: Help with Booting i.MX6 from NAND Flash

vivekkaushik — Fri, 24 Apr 2015 08:59:00 GMT

Hello Everyone,

I am booting i.MX6SOLO from NAND in my custom design, but I have below requirement:

1. Want to Keep 2 copies of u-boot in NAND, 1st as an option to be able to modify any time, 2nd as an permanent backup to boot the board if something goes wrong with 1st copy or does not get update properly at the time of updation

Is there a way to achieve this?

Thanks and Regards

Vivek

Re: Help with Booting i.MX6 from NAND Flash

timharvey — Fri, 24 Apr 2015 13:09:19 GMT

Vivek,

If booting directly from NAND the IMX6 BOOT ROM will allow for multiple copies of the 'bootstream' in case bad blocks occur in the bootstream. Refer to Table 5-9 from the IMX6QDRM (BOOT_SEARCH_COUNT) and Chapter 8 (System Boot) for the flow of the BOOT ROM internal code. I'm not sure what you mean as your first option to modify at any time however.

Tim

Re: Help with Booting i.MX6 from NAND Flash

vivekkaushik — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 11:06:01 GMT

Hello Tim,

Thanks for providing the pointer to solution, below are the my points for elaborating my requirement and concern:

1. Its very good information about BOOT_SEARCH_COUNT, it means with those fuse setting IMX6 will search 2, 4 or 8 times (or 2, 4 or 8 locations of NAND) for u-boot, is my understanding correct?

2. Today I use "kobs-ng init --chip_0_device_path=/dev/mtd0" command for writing the first copy, I do not know how to write 2nd copy and to which location of NAND.

3. from "Option to modify I mean": from my 2 copies of u-boot, I will overwrite or modify only one copy, that at first partition of NAND i.e /dev/mtd0 (starting at 0x0 location of NAND). I will not overwrite 2nd copy of u-boot because as you said in case bad blocks occur or if during my overwriting/modification some things goes wrong then system should be able to boot from this 2nd copy.

Hope I am clear on my requirement and you can provide some support on achieving this feature.

Thanks and Regards

Vivek