IMX53 with Android bootup

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IMX53 with Android bootup

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AnuradhaNalge
Contributor I

I am using IMX53 EVK board.I want to use it for android development.

How to partition the SD card and use it for bootup. Is there any bin file available 

without partitioning the SD card. 

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mmaaxx
Contributor III

Thank you Lily, 

1. Do you know the part number of the switch that was not populated (I can order and solder it)?

2. I was thinking to put everything (bootloader, kernel, linux) to the flash drive and boot from it, but from your reply I feel like I would not be able to do this, right?

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LilyZhang
Contributor I
1. If you want to boot from SD, you can rework the board and set boot pins as "booting from SDHC3". 2. What kind of USB boot you are referring to? Usually USB boot talking into MX53 document refers to serial download mode via USB. This mode can be used to download images via USB.
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mmaaxx
Contributor III

I'm trying to boot imx53 START from either SD or the USB. Can't find a word in the manual saying how to 
do this, or if it's possible or not. It looks boot switches on my board are not populated.

 

>QS doesn´t have switches for choosing the boot mode (like SMD). The default for this board is boot 
from microSD slot.


So, this means, that the Board is always looking for the bootloader on the microSD? No easy way to boot 
it completely from USB?
Thanks for reply!

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AnuradhaNalge
Contributor I

Hi Daiane,

              Thank you for all the support. Today i got information from Freescale saying IMX53 EVK can't be used for Android development. Freescale or Adeno are not supporting this.I am trying to install LTIB and work with Linux.

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daiane_angolini
NXP Employee
NXP Employee

Do you have any CD?

 

Please, take a look on this file https://www.freescale.com/webapp/Download?colCode=L2.6.35_11.01_ER_SOURCE&appType=license&location=n...

 

Install LTIB and configure it to build EVK bootloader.

 

Don´t you have any pre-built binary you can use?

 

I cannot remember which Android version supported EVK. You will need to search for some old version.

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AnuradhaNalge
Contributor I
Where i can find EVK specific bootloader. Whether Android can be used on EVK board?
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daiane_angolini
NXP Employee
NXP Employee

It´s really important to use the right bootloader.

 

If you´re using EVK, please, use the EVK bootloader.

 

Do you want to boot Android on EVK? I think there is no supported version, any more. You can start booting pure linux, in order to see your board alive.



Anuradha Nalge said:

Thank you for the documents sharing. I followed the switch configuration as per the document. But no luck.The software is also different for QSB and EVK?? I am using i.MX53-QSB-Android-Release3.3 from Adeno website.Is this is the correct software? Thanks in advance.
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AnuradhaNalge
Contributor I
Thank you for the documents sharing. I followed the switch configuration as per the document. But no luck.The software is also different for QSB and EVK?? I am using i.MX53-QSB-Android-Release3.3 from Adeno website.Is this is the correct software? Thanks in advance.
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daiane_angolini
NXP Employee
NXP Employee

Yes. they are different. Please, take a look on documentation you got.

 

Look for this file: i.MX53_EVK_Linux_BSP_UserGuide.pdf it´s inside the tarball L2.6.35_11.05.01_ER_docs.tar.gz (please use your version instead).

 

Take it from your CD

 

 

Or file uboot_mx5x.pdf from https://www.freescale.com/webapp/Download?colCode=IMX53_QSB_1101_LINUXDOCS_BUNDLE&location=null&fpsp... I think.

Anuradha Nalge said:

Hi,

   Is IMX53 EVK and QSB are different?? I am using Imx53 EVK board. I am having three switches(SW1,SW2,SW3)

on the board. It is having two SD card slots one on top and one on the bottom.So i am looking for the configuration of

switches to boot from Slot1(SDcard slot on top).Please let me know. Thanks

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AnuradhaNalge
Contributor I

Hi,

   Is IMX53 EVK and QSB are different?? I am using Imx53 EVK board. I am having three switches(SW1,SW2,SW3)

on the board. It is having two SD card slots one on top and one on the bottom.So i am looking for the configuration of

switches to boot from Slot1(SDcard slot on top).Please let me know. Thanks.

Daiane Angolini said:

QS doesn´t have switches for choosing the boot mode (like SMD). The default for this board is boot from microSD slot.

 

At least, my QS board is this way.



Dylan said:

I made some progress with this yesterday.

u-boot.bin, uImage and uramdisk are written on to the SD card after the Master Boot Record (MBR) / partition table, and before the start of the first partition. They will not be visible in any of the partitions, but when the board is set to boot from the SD card it will find the bootloader after the MBR, which in turn will load the Kernel and the ramdisk.

 

I am using a different board so I don't know which switches are which, but the user guide mentions this:

 

i.MX53 SMD eMMC (SD Slot3) Boot

Switch

D1

D2

D3

D4

D5

D6

D7

D8

SW26

OFF

ON

OFF

OFF

ON

ON

ON

OFF

SW28

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

ON

 

i.MX53 SMD MMC/SD (Slot1) Boot

Switch

D1

D2

D3

D4

D5

D6

D7

D8

SW26

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

ON

OFF

SW28

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

 

I'm guessing that you are using Slot1 to boot? In which case it seems like all switches should be 0, except for D7 of SW26.

 

Anuradha Nalge said:


When i am copying Uboot.bin and Uimage using dd utility it is saying copied but i am not able to see them in SD card.

Download the u-boot image:
sudo dd if=u-boot.bin of=/dev/sdb bs=1K skip=1 seek=1; sync

Where this will be stored?

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daiane_angolini
NXP Employee
NXP Employee

QS doesn´t have switches for choosing the boot mode (like SMD). The default for this board is boot from microSD slot.

 

At least, my QS board is this way.



Dylan said:

I made some progress with this yesterday.

u-boot.bin, uImage and uramdisk are written on to the SD card after the Master Boot Record (MBR) / partition table, and before the start of the first partition. They will not be visible in any of the partitions, but when the board is set to boot from the SD card it will find the bootloader after the MBR, which in turn will load the Kernel and the ramdisk.

 

I am using a different board so I don't know which switches are which, but the user guide mentions this:

 

i.MX53 SMD eMMC (SD Slot3) Boot

Switch

D1

D2

D3

D4

D5

D6

D7

D8

SW26

OFF

ON

OFF

OFF

ON

ON

ON

OFF

SW28

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

ON

 

i.MX53 SMD MMC/SD (Slot1) Boot

Switch

D1

D2

D3

D4

D5

D6

D7

D8

SW26

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

ON

OFF

SW28

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

 

I'm guessing that you are using Slot1 to boot? In which case it seems like all switches should be 0, except for D7 of SW26.

 

Anuradha Nalge said:


When i am copying Uboot.bin and Uimage using dd utility it is saying copied but i am not able to see them in SD card.

Download the u-boot image:
sudo dd if=u-boot.bin of=/dev/sdb bs=1K skip=1 seek=1; sync

Where this will be stored?

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daiane_angolini
NXP Employee
NXP Employee


Comments in line.


Anuradha Nalge said:

Hi Daiane,

        I am able to partition my SD card as per user guide. But i am having the leftover part as unallocated.Will that create any problem. All the memory available on SD card need to be partitioned?? 

 

Off couse not. But, you will lose SDCard memory for what?

Partition Type/Index

Name

Start Offset

Size

File System

Content

N/A

BOOT

0

10 MB

N/A

bootloader/kernel/uramdiskimages

Primary 1

MEDIA

11 MB

User Defined

VFAT. Mount as /sdcards

Media file storage

Primary 2

SYSTEM

follow MEDIA

>= 200 MB

EXT4. Mount as /system (with read only)

Android system bin/libs(system.img)

Logic 5 (Extended 3)

DATA

follow SYSTEM

> 200 MB

EXT4. Mount as /data

Android data (e.g. installed app)

Logic 6 (Extended 3)

CACHE

follow DATA

> 10 MB

EXT4. Mount as /cache

Android cache

Primary 4

RECOVERY

follow CACHE

> 20 MB

EXT4. Mount as / in recovery mode

Root file system for recovery mode (recovery.img)


 

When i am copying Uboot.bin and Uimage using dd utility it is saying copied but i am not able to see them in SD card.

Download the u-boot image:
sudo dd if=u-boot.bin of=/dev/sdb bs=1K skip=1 seek=1; sync

Where this will be stored?

 

[Daiane] At the first "unalocated partition" that 10M, with 1K offset. I use this command to copy u-boot-no-padding, is you´re using u-boot (with 1K padding you should use another command line, take a look on User Guide)

 

Finally after connecting the SD card in imx53 board and power on there is no communication between hyper terminal and imx53.Without this i can't set the environmental variables for Uboot.What are the switch configurations(Sw1,Sw2,Sw3) to boot from SD card. What is the software version to be used for making the board up with prebuilt images. 

 

[Daiane] That´s right, you should take care of that u-boot binary you copy to SDCard (and where). In this case, the boot sequence did not found the u-boot binary. Please, copy u-boot again. 

 

i am using i.MX53-QSB-Android-Release3.3 from Adeno website.Is this is the correct software? Thanks in advance.

 

[Daiane] Yes.

 

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Dylan
Contributor I

I made some progress with this yesterday.

u-boot.bin, uImage and uramdisk are written on to the SD card after the Master Boot Record (MBR) / partition table, and before the start of the first partition. They will not be visible in any of the partitions, but when the board is set to boot from the SD card it will find the bootloader after the MBR, which in turn will load the Kernel and the ramdisk.

 

I am using a different board so I don't know which switches are which, but the user guide mentions this:

 

i.MX53 SMD eMMC (SD Slot3) Boot

Switch

D1

D2

D3

D4

D5

D6

D7

D8

SW26

OFF

ON

OFF

OFF

ON

ON

ON

OFF

SW28

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

ON

 

i.MX53 SMD MMC/SD (Slot1) Boot

Switch

D1

D2

D3

D4

D5

D6

D7

D8

SW26

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

ON

OFF

SW28

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

OFF

 

I'm guessing that you are using Slot1 to boot? In which case it seems like all switches should be 0, except for D7 of SW26.

 

Anuradha Nalge said:


When i am copying Uboot.bin and Uimage using dd utility it is saying copied but i am not able to see them in SD card.

Download the u-boot image:
sudo dd if=u-boot.bin of=/dev/sdb bs=1K skip=1 seek=1; sync

Where this will be stored?

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AnuradhaNalge
Contributor I

Hi Daiane,

        I am able to partition my SD card as per user guide. But i am having the leftover part as unallocated.Will that create any problem. All the memory available on SD card need to be partitioned?? 

Partition Type/Index

Name

Start Offset

Size

File System

Content

N/A

BOOT

0

10 MB

N/A

bootloader/kernel/uramdiskimages

Primary 1

MEDIA

11 MB

User Defined

VFAT. Mount as /sdcards

Media file storage

Primary 2

SYSTEM

follow MEDIA

>= 200 MB

EXT4. Mount as /system (with read only)

Android system bin/libs(system.img)

Logic 5 (Extended 3)

DATA

follow SYSTEM

> 200 MB

EXT4. Mount as /data

Android data (e.g. installed app)

Logic 6 (Extended 3)

CACHE

follow DATA

> 10 MB

EXT4. Mount as /cache

Android cache

Primary 4

RECOVERY

follow CACHE

> 20 MB

EXT4. Mount as / in recovery mode

Root file system for recovery mode (recovery.img)


 

When i am copying Uboot.bin and Uimage using dd utility it is saying copied but i am not able to see them in SD card.

Download the u-boot image:
sudo dd if=u-boot.bin of=/dev/sdb bs=1K skip=1 seek=1; sync

Where this will be stored?

 

Finally after connecting the SD card in imx53 board and power on there is no communication between hyper terminal and imx53.Without this i can't set the environmental variables for Uboot.What are the switch configurations(Sw1,Sw2,Sw3) to boot from SD card. What is the software version to be used for making the board up with prebuilt images. 

 

i am using i.MX53-QSB-Android-Release3.3 from Adeno website.Is this is the correct software? Thanks in advance.

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daiane_angolini
NXP Employee
NXP Employee


Tell us what are making you sad.

 

What´s the error you´ve been facing?

Past here the procedure you´ve beem following.

 

 


Dylan said:

Struggling with the same thing, except for the IMX51 EVK.

 

The user guide specifies the size (in megabytes) of the partitions. When fdisk asks for the final sector / cylinder of a partition, you can specify the size in megabytes by entering +50M to create a 50 megabyte partition for example.

 

I *think* I am creating the partitions correctly, but trying to format them and copy the images onto them has been giving me a lot of grief.

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daiane_angolini
NXP Employee
NXP Employee

 

It´s my 4G sdcard. I have one 1G sdcard that I "part" the same way. I always use gparted, because I get confused with fdisk, because my system is based on proportion, not size.

 

I always take first 20M (gray on picture) for MBR+u-boot+uImage+uramdisk. 

 

My next step is to take 1/4 for the first partition - FAT

more 1/4 for first ext4 partition - system

more 1/4 for extended partition - 1/2 and 1/2 each ext4 inside it

 

and, everything else (another 1/4) for last ext4 partition.

 

Even then I have this sdcard partition, my Ubuntu detects every partition (and mount it automaticaly). Please, make sure your ubuntu create /dev/sdX even if ubuntu cannot mount it on /media. You can dmesg and see if it´s right.

 

Try to not recreate MBR (partition table).

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AnuradhaNalge
Contributor I

Hi Dylan,

         I am able to partition the SD card with Gparted. But after disconnecting and connecting it back Ubuntu is not

detecting the SD card. How to resolve this problem. If i format SD card in windows then it is detected in Ubuntu.For flashing the images there is a script available in 3.3 release.

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Dylan
Contributor I

Struggling with the same thing, except for the IMX51 EVK.

 

The user guide specifies the size (in megabytes) of the partitions. When fdisk asks for the final sector / cylinder of a partition, you can specify the size in megabytes by entering +50M to create a 50 megabyte partition for example.

 

I *think* I am creating the partitions correctly, but trying to format them and copy the images onto them has been giving me a lot of grief.

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AnuradhaNalge
Contributor I

Thank you Daiane. I tried that option. But in the user guide the size of each partition is not clearly given.

If i tried with approx calculation it is throwing errors. Could you please let me know the size of each partition in terms of sectors. 

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daiane_angolini
NXP Employee
NXP Employee
You can follow the partition table on User Guide. You can use gparted instead of fdisk
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