Setting up emmc to work with new board

[amberworth]

Trying to bring up a new board (to get to a u-boot prompt).

Initially tried using uuu -b emmc <our bin-flash> generated using Yocto after porting files from the RPA file for the board/ddr combo.

We get the following on the host running uuu:

\image>uuu -v -b emmc imx-boot-imx8mn-ddu-sd.bin-flash_evk
uuu (Universal Update Utility) for nxp imx chips -- libuuu_1.4.149-6-gd82f8f1

Build in config:
        Pctl     Chip            Vid     Pid     BcdVersion
        ==================================================
        SDPS:    MX8QXP          0x1fc9  0x012f  [0x0002..0xffff]
        SDPS:    MX8QM           0x1fc9  0x0129  [0x0002..0xffff]
        SDPS:    MX8DXL          0x1fc9  0x0147
        SDPS:    MX28            0x15a2  0x004f
        SDPS:    MX815           0x1fc9  0x013e
        SDPS:    MX865           0x1fc9  0x0146
        SDPS:    MX8ULP          0x1fc9  0x014a
        SDPS:    MX8ULP          0x1fc9  0x014b
        SDP:     MX7D            0x15a2  0x0076
        SDP:     MX6Q            0x15a2  0x0054
        SDP:     MX6D            0x15a2  0x0061
        SDP:     MX6SL           0x15a2  0x0063
        SDP:     MX6SX           0x15a2  0x0071
        SDP:     MX6UL           0x15a2  0x007d
        SDP:     MX6ULL          0x15a2  0x0080
        SDP:     MX6SLL          0x1fc9  0x0128
        SDP:     MX7ULP          0x1fc9  0x0126
        SDP:     MXRT106X        0x1fc9  0x0135
        SDP:     MX8MM           0x1fc9  0x0134
        SDP:     MX8MQ           0x1fc9  0x012b
        SDPU:    SPL             0x0525  0xb4a4  [0x0000..0x04ff]
        SDPV:    SPL1            0x0525  0xb4a4  [0x0500..0x9998]
        SDPU:    SPL             0x0525  0xb4a4  [0x9999..0x9999]
        SDPU:    SPL             0x3016  0x1001  [0x0000..0x04ff]
        SDPV:    SPL1            0x3016  0x1001  [0x0500..0x9998]
        FBK:                     0x066f  0x9afe
        FBK:                     0x066f  0x9bff
        FB:                      0x0525  0xa4a5
        FB:                      0x18d1  0x0d02
        FB:                      0x3016  0x0001

Run built-in script:

uuu_version 1.2.39

# @_flash.bin            | bootloader
# @_image   [_flash.bin] | image burn to emmc, default is the same as bootloader

# This command will be run when i.MX6/7 i.MX8MM, i.MX8MQ
SDP: boot -f imx-boot-imx8mn-ddu-sd.bin-flash_evk

# This command will be run when ROM support stream mode
# i.MX8QXP, i.MX8QM
SDPS: boot -f imx-boot-imx8mn-ddu-sd.bin-flash_evk

# These commands will be run when use SPL and will be skipped if no spl
# SDPU will be deprecated. please use SDPV instead of SDPU
# {
SDPU: delay 1000
SDPU: write -f imx-boot-imx8mn-ddu-sd.bin-flash_evk -offset 0x57c00
SDPU: jump
# }

# These commands will be run when use SPL and will be skipped if no spl
# if (SPL support SDPV)
# {
SDPV: delay 1000
SDPV: write -f imx-boot-imx8mn-ddu-sd.bin-flash_evk -skipspl
SDPV: jump
# }

FB: ucmd setenv fastboot_dev mmc
FB: ucmd setenv mmcdev ${emmc_dev}
FB: ucmd mmc dev ${emmc_dev}
FB: flash bootloader imx-boot-imx8mn-ddu-sd.bin-flash_evk
FB: ucmd if env exists emmc_ack; then ; else setenv emmc_ack 0; fi;
FB: ucmd mmc partconf ${emmc_dev} ${emmc_ack} 1 0
FB: Done


Wait for Known USB Device Appear...
New USB Device Attached at 1:1
1:1>Start Cmd:SDPS: boot -f imx-boot-imx8mn-ddu-sd.bin-flash_evk
5%1:1>Fail HID(W):LIBUSB_ERROR_TIMEOUT(1.035s)

On the serial port, watching the process we get:

U-Boot SPL 2021.04-5.10.35-2.0.0+gc604cd7739 (Dec 13 2021 - 16:42:58 +0000)
DDRINFO: start DRAM init
DDRINFO: DRAM rate 3200MTS
Training FAILED

This looked to me like the DDR is not being configured properly.  So I used the Config Tools for iMX (v10.0) DDR tool and the RPA for the memory with the board to try testing the memory configuration.

The Fimware Init and Operational tests are passing fine.

I then rebuilt u-boot-imx with the files produced using the DDR tool and tried to use the uuu manufacturing tool to load the image.

The board is giving me the same failures.

1. How should we directly load the emmc of the new board with the uuu manufacturing tool? 
2. Is there an additional configuration step need somewhere to configure the system to use the DDR4 memory on the board? (How do you configure the emmc so that the system can boot to u-boot with a custom board?)
3. Since the Config Tools for iMX DDR tool is able to read and write, is there a way to leverage this to write an inital u-boot to the board?

[nxf63675 · Accepted solution]

Hi @amberworth,

As for your questions:

1. How should we directly load the emmc of the new board with the uuu manufacturing tool? 

Please refer to the document I sent you directly could help you, but as the way you are doing seems correct.

2. Is there an additional configuration step need somewhere to configure the system to use the DDR4 memory on the board? (How do you configure the emmc so that the system can boot to u-boot with a custom board?)

Take a look on the next document, can give you an Idea on how to do it.

https://community.nxp.com/t5/i-MX-Processors-Knowledge-Base/i-MX8-Boot-process-and-creating-a-bootab...

3. Since the Config Tools for iMX DDR tool is able to read and write, is there a way to leverage this to write an inital u-boot to the board?

Unfortunate no, as the tool just write and read from the DDR and not for the eMMC or SD memory.

There is other way to build the DDR source code, using the DDR tool, you can find all the info on the next link, in the case you one give it a try:

i.MX 8M Family DDR Tool Release - NXP Community

Regards,

Israel.

[amberworth]

We were able to successfully load and boot the board using the MScale tool in the referenced link.