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Das U-Boot
Boot Terminology

 Loader
 Program that moves bits from
non volatile memory to memory and then
transfers CPU control to the newly
“loaded” bits (executable)
 Bootloader / Bootstrap
 Program that loads the
“first program” (the kernel)
 Boot PROM
 Persistent code that is “already loaded”
on power-up
 Boot Manager
 Program that lets you choose
the “first program” to load

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What’s a Loader?

 A program that moves bits from flash or disk to memory and then
transfers control to the newly loaded bits (executable).

memory
loader
bits

flash
cpu

bits

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Loading through Das U-boot

SDRAM
SDRAM
Memory
Memory
Reset 0x1000
CPU
CPU
Kernel

Root
File-System

BMODE 00
ByPass PROM
0x20000000 ROM
ROM
Bootloader
uboot
Bootloader
uboot
Kernel
Image Optional
Root File compressed
System

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Das U-Boot
 The "Universal Bootloader" ("Das U-Boot") is a monitor/MicroOS program.

 Started in October of 1999 by Dan Malek, supported by Wolfgang Denk (Denx

Engineering) as of July 2000

 Free Software: full source code under GPL

 Hosted on SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/u-boot ·

 Production quality:
 Used as default boot loader by several board vendors ·

 Portable and easy to port and to debug

 Many supported architectures: PPC, ARM, MIPS, x86, m68k, NIOS, Microblaze,
and Blackfin
 More than 216 boards supported by public source tree

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Blackfin U-boot features

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Where to get U-boot sources

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User Interface (1)

 U-Boot uses a simple command line interface (CLI), usually over a

serial console port.
 Two different command interpreters are available:
 SimpleCLI ·
 Bourne compatible shell (HUSH shell from Busybox) ·

 Configuration parameters and commands / command sequences

(scripts !) can be stored in "environment variables" which can be
saved to non-volatile storage (flash, EEPROM, NVRAM, etc.)

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User Interface (2)
 U-Boot supports many different ways to load
and boot an image.
 Serial Port: "loads" (S-Record), "loadb"
(Kermit binary protocol)
 Ethernet: "tftp", "bootp", "dhcp", "nfs“
 Harddisk, CDROM: "ide read"
 CompactFlash card etc.: "ide read"
 USB Mass Storage Device: "usb read"
 SCSI Disk and CDROM: "scsi read"
 NAND flash with JFFS2 filesystem: "nboot"
 Disk on Chip: "doc read"
 PCI Bus: copy
 Commands
 Memory Commands  Network Commands  Environment Variables  Information Commands
 Flash Memory  Bootp Commands  bdinfo
Commands  Cdp  Printenv  coninfo
 Execution Control
 dhcp  saveenv
 loadb
 flinfo
Commands  Askenv
 oads  iminfo
 Nfs  setenv  imls
 ping  run  help
 rarpboot  Bootd
 tftpboot

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Boot Image

 Image:  Actions:
 Header + Payload  test CPU architecture and OS
 test checksum (optional)
 if compressed, uncompress
 Header:
 copy to load address
 Creation Timestamp  prepare boot arguments
 Data Load Address
 start at entry point
 Entry Point Address
 Data CRC Checksum
 Operating System
 CPU architecture
 Image Type
 Compression Type
 Image Name

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Image Types
Standalone Programs
OS Kernel Images
RAMDisk Images
Multi-File Images
Firmware Images
Script files

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Configuring U-Boot

 Configuration depends on the combination of board and CPU

type; all such information is kept in a configuration file
"include/configs/<board_name>.h".
 Example: For a STAMP board, all configuration settings are in
"include/configs/stamp.h".

 For all supported boards there are ready-to-use default

configurations available; just type "make
<board_name>_config".
 Example: For the STAMP board type:
cd u-boot
make stamp_config

 For configuration details, check the U-Boot README and the

Wiki – docs.blackfin.uclinux.org

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Building U-Boot (1/2)

 Building U-Boot has been tested in x86 cross environments

(running RedHat 6.x and 7.x Linux, SuSE 9.0 and 9.1 Linux on
x86).

 It is assumed that you have the GNU cross compiling tools

available in your path and named with a prefix of “bfin-elf". If
this is not the case, you must change the definition of
CROSS_COMPILE in Makefile.

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Building U-Boot (2/2)

 U-Boot is intended to be simple to build. After installing the

sources you must configure U-Boot for one specific board
type. This is done by typing:
cd u-boot
make clean; make mrproper
make stamp_config
make all

 You should get some working U-Boot images ready for

download to / installation on your system:
 "u-boot.bin" is a raw binary image
 "u-boot" is an image in ELF binary format
 "u-boot.srec" is in Motorola S-Record format

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U-Boot Source Code

 Official U-boot Source Code is at:

 http://sourceforge.net/projects/u-boot

 Unofficial Blackfin Branch is at:

 http://blackfin.uclinux.org/projects/uboot533

 U-Boot uses a 3 level version number containing a version, a

sub-version, and a patchlevel "U-Boot-2.34.5" means:
 version "2",
 sub-version "34", and
 patchlevel "4".

The patchlevel is used to indicate certain stages of

development between released versions, i. e. officially
released versions of U-Boot will always have a patchlevel of
"0".

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More U-Boot information

 The U-Boot project is hosted at Sourceforge:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/u-boot

 There is a pretty active u-boot-users mailing list.

 The Mailing list archive can be viewed at sourceforge.net

http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/u-boot-users/

 The DENX U-Boot and Linux Guide is a Wiki based documentation

documenting U-Boot and its interaction with Linux. It can be viewed (and
improved) at www.denx.de. The whole DULG web packed into a single
HTML page or a PDF file is also available (PowerPC is the example)

 The current README file can be viewed through viewcvs at

sourceforge.net
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 Backup slides

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Das U-Boot

 Introduction
 Porting Guide
 Directory Structure

 Material in this presentation is taken from the project

README file, and from
http://www.denx.de/twiki/bin/view/UBootdoc/Presentation and
http://www.denx.de/twiki/bin/view/DULG/Manual
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Supported Platforms

Number of Number of
Architecture Processor Architecture Processor
Boards Boards
PPC 5xx 2 ARM (cont) S3C44B0 1
  5xxx 6   AT91RM9200 1
  8xx 71   XScale 8
  824x 15 x86 SC520 2
  826x 26 m68k Coldfire 2
  85xx 3 MIPS32 4Kc 2
  7xx/74xx 11   Au1x00 3
  4xx 38 MIPS64 5Kc 1
ARM StrongARM 5 NIOS32   3
  ARM720T 3 Microblaze   1
  ARM92xT 11 Blackfin BF533/BF535 3

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Das U-boot Design Principles

 Easy to port to new architectures, new processors, and new

boards
 Easy to debug: serial console output as soon as possible ·
 Features and commands configurable ·
 As small as possible ·
 As reliable as possible

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Image Support

 Although U-Boot can support any OS or standalone

application, the main focus has always been on Linux during
the design of U-Boot.

 U-Boot includes many features that so far have been part of

some special "boot loader" code within the Linux kernel.
Also, any "initrd" images to be used are no longer part of one
big Linux image; instead, kernel and "initrd" are separate
images.

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U-Boot Basic Command Set (1/4)
Information Commands
 bdinfo - print Board Info structure ¨
 coninfo - print console devices and
informations
 flinfo - print FLASH memory information
 iminfo - print header information for
application image
 imls - list all images found in flash
 help - print online help
Memory Commands
 base - print or set address offset
 crc32 - checksum calculation
 cmp - memory compare
 cp - memory copy
 md - memory display
 mm - memory modify (auto-incrementing)
 mtest - simple RAM test
 mw - memory write (fill)
 nm - memory modify (constant address)
 loop - infinite loop on address range
 Flash Memory Commands
 cp - memory copy (program flash)
 flinfo - print FLASH memory information
 erase - erase FLASH memory
 protect - enable or disable FLASH write
protection
Execution Control Commands
 autoscr - run script from memory
 bootm - boot application image from
memory
 bootelf - Boot from an ELF image in
memory
 bootvx - Boot vxWorks from an ELF image
 go - start application at address 'addr'

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U-Boot Basic Command Set (2/4)
Network Commands Environment Variables Commands
 bootp - boot image via network using  printenv- print environment variables
BOOTP/TFTP protocol  saveenv - save environment variables to
 cdp - Perform Cisco Discovery Protocol persistent storage
network configuration  askenv - get environment variables from
 dhcp - invoke DHCP client to obtain stdin
IP/boot params  setenv - set environment variables
 loadb - load binary file over serial line  run - run commands in an environment
(kermit mode) variable
 loads - load S-Record file over serial line  bootd - boot default, i.e., run 'bootcmd'
 nfs - boot image via network using NFS
protocol
 ping - send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to
network host
 rarpboot- boot image via network using
RARP/TFTP protocol
 tftpboot- boot image via network using
TFTP protocol

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U-Boot Basic Command Set (3/4)
Filesystem Support (FAT, cramfs, JFFS2,
Reiser)
 chpart - change active partition
 fsinfo - print information about
filesystems
 fsload - load binary file from a filesystem
image
 ls - list files in a directory (default /)
 fatinfo - print information about filesystem
 fatls - list files in a directory (default /)
 fatload - load binary file from a dos
filesystem
 nand - NAND flash sub-system
 reiserls- list files in a directory (default /)
 reiserload- load binary file from a Reiser
filesystem
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 Special Commands
 i2c - I2C sub-system
 doc - Disk-On-Chip sub-system
 dtt - Digital Thermometer and Themostat
 eeprom - EEPROM sub-system
 fpga - FPGA sub-system
 ide - IDE sub-system
 kgdb - enter gdb remote debug mode
 diskboot- boot from IDE device
 icache - enable or disable instruction cache
 dcache - enable or disable data cache
 diag - perform board diagnostics (POST
code)
 log - manipulate logbuffer
 pci - list and access PCI Configuraton
Space
 regdump - register dump commands
 usb - USB sub-system
 sspi - SPI utility commands
U-Boot Basic Command Set (4/4)
Miscellaneous Commands
 bmp - manipulate BMP image data ¨
 date - get/set/reset date & time ¨
 echo - echo args to console ¨
 exit - exit script ¨
 kbd - read keyboard status ¨
 in - read data from an IO port ¨
 out - write datum to IO port ¨
 reset - Perform RESET of the CPU ¨
 sleep - delay execution for some time ¨
 test - minimal test like /bin/sh ¨
 version - print monitor version ¨
 wd - check and set watchdog ¨
 ? - alias for 'help' ¨

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