Bootloader issues with SABRE iMX6Dl

[k2]

The board doesn't see the bootloader on the SD card. I followed the user guide instructions for setting up a bootable SD card. Is there some code onboard that has to change ? The board came with Android by mistake. It works fine with the Android. Our design is to use the linux. Im using the downloaded bootloader images freescale supplied.

[sinanakman]

FWIW, I am using the ToT mainline u-boot and flashing with seek=1 bs=1k so I am not sure what that no padding refers to. Let me know if you need more information.

[EdSutter]

Just a bit more regarding padding...

I spent a few days stumbling on this when using mainline uboot.

Refer to this thread for more info... https://community.freescale.com/thread/315097

Ed

[EdSutter]

Sinan,

Just curious, what is 'ToT' mainline?

Ed

[sinanakman]

Hi Ed, sorry for the acronyms. With ToT I refer to tip of the tree for the mainline git trees.

Thanks

Sinan Akman

[LeonardoSandova]

Correct. seek=1 bs=1k is fine, what I wrote is to omit the 'skip' parameter NOT the seek. More info on

uboot-imx.git - Freescale i.MX u-boot Tree

[VladanJovanovic]

Please send following info: what demo image are you using and exact command line you use to program u-boot to SD card.

And please check Linux User's Guide for info on programming bootloader/kernel/file system from command line in Linux.

[k2]

Heres what i tried.

We have the iMX6DL SABRE for Smart Devices board with a 10 in LCD.

i'm using the SD3 slot (J507) with SW6 settings of 2 & 7 = ON.

The linux commands i used are :

sudo dd if=u-boot-mx6dl-sabresd.bin of=/dev/sdb seek=2 skip=2 bs=512

the SD card is seen as sdb and sdb1 is the partition.

Kevin

[EdSutter]

A few thoughts...

1...

You may want to try to add "conv=fsync" to your dd line...

    sudo dd if=u-boot-mx6dl-sabresd.bin of=/dev/sdb seek=2 skip=2 bs=512 conv=fsync

2...

I wasted some time because I had an old (non-high-density) card reader

with a high-density card.  Make sure you're using a relatively new reader (or a low-density SD card).

Ed

[VladanJovanovic]

Agree with this, have seen some older SD card readers cause problems with SDHC cards. Please try with different SD card reader to see if it changes anything.

Other thing to try would be to dump /dev/sdb and make sure that bootloader is written correctly.

[sinanakman]

Hi Kevin, I have an sabre sd and I am running mainline u-boot without a problem. One thing you might want to keep an eye is, sabre sd will try to boot from the flash first. By holding certain buttons during boot you can force it to boot from SD. But the easiest is to wipe out what you have in the eMMC flash and when it fails to boot from there it will boot from your SD.

Hope this helps

Sinan Akman

[LeonardoSandova]

Which u-boot version are you using? 2013's u-boots are not padded, so they must be flash without the skip=2 and using the .imx binary. Also, As Ed metioned, make sure you sync.

[sinanakman]

Hi Leonardo, thanks for the nice summary below. I just realized that what you were asking me above, you were probably intending asking to Kevin. As you confirmed, with seek and without skip I run u-boot without a problem. I only use the mainline u-boot though.

Thanks

Sinan Akman

[AnsonHuang]

Hi, King

     You mean you are using i.MX6D SabreSD board or SabreAuto board? And it works fine booting up Android, but when you burn bootloader image to a SD card, it still boots up with Android? Please check the boot mode selection, make sure it boots up from the SD slot you want, and also make sure you have a bootable SD card, which means the uboot should write to the right place of SD card. Let me know you boot selection and uboot first, thanks.

[k2]

We have the iMX6DL SABRE Smart Devices board that comes with the 10 in. LCD. (1000 bucks/board).

It came with a an Android SD card image even thou we ordered LINUX.

So i'm stuck with being able to boot up Android using the Freescale supplied SD.

I followed the User Guide instructions to use the prebuilt images for u-boot and kernel for making a bootable SD card using the linux "dd" commands. Is there any special SW6 settings for booting to LINUX versus the Android ?

I dont see any documentation saying anything. I have (SW6) switches 2 and 7 - ON, rest OFF.

Its apparent that the bootloader isn't running. I'm monitoring the serial debug with minicom.

It works with Android but not with Linux u-boot. I've tried a bunch of different u-boot images. No luck.

So i'm looking for what i missed on this ?