First, you will need a few things
- USB Flash Drive which will be erased, then set up with the Linux filesystem to put on the board
- Simple three wire Serial to Pin cable made with the instructions below
- Variable power supply
- Glomation 9G20i board
- Null modem serial cable to test final flashed board for proper operation
The serial connection for the debug port should be as following:
Serial port on PC side GESBC-9G20 P0
Pin 2 ------------------ Pin 2
Pin 3 ------------------ Pin 1
Pin 5 ------------------ Pin 3
Regards,
Glomation Customer Support
Basically, pin 3 on the 9G20 is common ground, and RX/TX are swapped coming from the PC.
Once this cable is made, hook it into the serial connection on the host PC, and setup minicom(or other serial program) for 1152000, 8N1, no hardware or software flow control. Pin one of Port P0 on the board should have a 1 printed next to it to indicate which wires go where. Turning on the board should go through uBoot and bott into the default kernel and filesystem. If this is enough - congratulations! Otherwise read onward for more nitty gritty details
THE ULTIMATE SETUP
- Build kernel 2.6.30 (or some other compatible kernel)
- Create a rootfilesystem and ramdisk .img file
- Copy kernel 2.6.30 to internal memory
- Flash .img filesystem onto USB flash drive
- Load custom filesystem, and settings to start this code on boot.
- Set uBoot to boot into the USB filesystem
- Copy filesystem from the stick to internal storage
- Reset uBoot settings to boot from internal storage
BUILDING THE KERNEL
If you wish to compile a kernel from source, this is what I did.
YOU NEED 32 BIT COMPATIBILITY LIBS OR A 32 BIT INSTALL TO DO THIS! OTHERWISE YOU WILL GET WEIRD (FILE DOES NOT EXIST) ERRORS
apt-get install libc6-i386 lib32gcc1 lib32z1 lib32stdc++6 ia32-libs
sudo apt-get install uboot-mkimage
sudo apt-get install ncurses-dev
Download kernel 2.6.30 from the following website and both patch sets (at91*.patch, .exp.4)
http://www.at91.com/linux4sam/bin/view/Linux4SAM/LinuxKernel#AT91_Linux_kernel_sources_summar
You will also need to download the compiler from
http://www.glomationinc.com/support.html
I personally used the toolchain from Generic-arm_gcc-4.2.3-glibc-2.3.3.tar.bz2, though the others may work as well.
KERNEL PATCHING AND BUILD
Put the patch files for the kernel in the root of the kernel tree (referred to here as $\$$KERNEL_ROOT), and make sure the gcc-arm executable is at the FRONT of your $\$$PATH variable
patch -p1 < 2.6.30-at91.patch
for p in 2.6.30-at91-exp.4/*; do patch -p1 < $\$$p ; done
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-unknown-linux-gnu- at91sam9g20ek_defconfig
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-unknown-linux-gnu- menuconfig
----> Device Drivers
----> GPIO Support
----> Press spacebar to enable /sys/class/gpio/
----> I2C Support
----> Change I2C Device interface from <M> (module) to <*>
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-unknown-linux-gnu- uImage
Once the kernel is compiled, it can be found at $\$$KERNEL_ROOT/arch/arm/boot/uImage
The following commands can also be used to open different visualizations of the same configuration
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-unknown-linux-gnu- config
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-unknown-linux-gnu- xconfig
BUILDING KERNEL MODULES
If later you need a kernel module (.ko) to put on the board, building a single module is fairly easy. For example, to build i2c-dev.ko
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-unknown-linux-gnu- drivers/i2c/i2c-dev.ko
To try to compile all modules, use:
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-unknown-linux-gnu- modules
If the module still won't build, and fails to build silently instead of barfing a compilation error, check that the config is set for module support (CONFIG_I2C=m) rather than builtin i2c
module support (CONFIG_I2C=y). This can be set in the curses configuration environment seen earlier, or directly in the kernel config file $\$$KERNEL_ROOT/.config
CREATION OF SYSTEM FILES
I took the install of debian-lenny (both the base ramdisk.gz file and the debian-arm-linux.tar.gz) from the Glomation website (http://www.glomationinc.com/support.html) and chopped out many things, primarily focusing on areas with high disk usage. manpages, /var/cache, /usr/share/, and locales were all removed to make space. Remember, the image needs to be combined with a ramdisk to work properly!
Have the ramdisk file unzipped THEN copy the base distro on top - doing it the other way will make the ramdisk files overwrite your configs and the system will not boot properly!
To look at the size of files, try using the command
sudo du -h --max-depth=0 *
I wiped out the following to reduce size:
var/cache/apt/
var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.us.debian
usr/share/locales *almost everything, used this command: sudo rm -rf $(ls | grep -v en | grep -v uk)
usr/share/info
usr/share/man
usr/share/man-db
usr/share/doc
Also had to change a few things to get everything working
mkdir -p var/cache/apt/archives/partial
Change etc/apt/sources.list to use archives.debian.org instead of ftp.us.debian
Edit /etc/network/interfaces to contain the following text:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
hwaddress ether (MAC address of your choice).
It is important to note that the first octet (XX:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY) of your MAC address must be even!
CREATING A .IMG FILE
Now that there is a rootfilesystem and a ramdisk, we need to create a .img file for this filesystem. Begin by creating a blank file, with no filesytem or structure with the following command:
dd if=/dev/zero of=root.img bs=1024000 count=128
This will create a 128 MB blank file - for different file sizes change the value for count. Now that a blank file has been created, we need to put a filesystem in place over the top of that blank structure using mke2fs - I choose to use ext2 due to its compatibility with most linux distributions.
mke2fs -t ext2 root.img
Now mount this file to a directory (such as /mnt) using
mount -o loop root.img /mnt
Copy all the files created during the previous step to /mnt, then unount using
umount /mnt
Finally, zip the image to create a bootable initrd.img
gzip -c root.img > initrd.img
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/make-a-img-file-for-custom-livecd-dd-also-how-to-make-your-system-very-small-441412/
SETTING UP USB DRIVE WITH EXISTING .IMG FILE
Now, perform the next steps on the computer of your choice. You will probably want that computer to have a serial connector, but USB to Serial adapters may work. Run the command
dmesg
and look for output with [sdx], where x is some letter between a and z. It will sometimes take a second for the usb to be recognized, try dmesg again if you don't see it the first time.
WARNING! The next step will remove all the files from the flash drive - make sure there is nothing you hold dear/
sudo mkfs.ext2 /dev/sdx1
sudo dd if=rootfs.img of=/dev/sdx1This will take some time, but once it is done there should be a bootable linux filesystem on your flash drive
LOAD UP
To load the kernel, you will need the host PC to be running a TFTP daemon. There is information at the link below on how to set one up
http://www.davidsudjiman.info/2006/03/27/installing-and-setting-tftpd-in-ubuntu/
Once tftpd is running, put the kernel image in the tftpd directory on the host PC (in my case, /tftpboot), then enter uBoot on the microcontroller by pressing Enter at the "Press any key to stop autoboot". Once in uBoot, run the following commands to load the kernel into temporary memory, where SERVER_IP should be replaced by the IP of the computer running tftpd.
The uImage file used below can have any name on the tftp server, but the name after "t 0x21000000" must match the filename on the server.
set serverip SERVER_IP
You will have to CTRL-C the t command - the board does not have an IP yet! But when you dhcp it will get the image for you also.
t 0x21000000 uImage
dhcp
Once the kernel image is loaded into temorary memory, run these commands to erase the existing kernel, and copy in the new.
nand erase 0x100000 0x200000
nand write.jffs2 0x21000000 0x100000 0x200000
Plug the USB drive into the board, and set the boot device to USB using this line:
set bootargs console=ttyS0,115200 root=/dev/sda1 rootfstype=ext2 mtdparts=atmel_nand:1M(bootloader),3M(kernel),-(rootfs) rootdelay=10
If you want to erase the existing filesystem:
nand erase 0x400000 0x7c00000
Now boot into the USB filesystem
boot
Use these commands on the board to copy from the USB drive to the jffs memory
mount -t jffs2 /dev/mtdblock2 /mnt
cd /
for i in bin boot dev etc home lib media opt root sbin selinux srv usr var; do cp -a $\$$i /mnt; done
for i in mnt proc sys tmp; do mkdir /mnt/$i; done
Finally, change bootdevice back to /dev/mtdblock2, and you can also remove the rootdelay for faster boot. Use printenv to see what uBoot settings are currently being used. Remember to saveenv if you make changes.
To boot from jump drive
set bootargs console=ttyS0,115200 root=/dev/sda1 rootfstype=ext2 mtdparts=atmel_nand:1M(bootloader),3M(kernel),-(rootfs) rootdelay=10
To boot from flash once FS is installed, and see output over debug serial
set bootargs console=ttyS1,115200 root=/dev/mtdblock2 rootfstype=jffs2 mtdparts=atmel_nand:1M(bootloader),3M(kernel),-(rootfs)
Final configuration to see output and login, etc. over regular serial connector
set bootargs console=ttyS1,115200 root=/dev/mtdblock2 rootfstype=jffs2 mtdparts=atmel_nand:1M(bootloader),3M(kernel),-(rootfs)
FINALIZATION OF OUR REALIZATION
Next it will be necessary to boot into the device, connect ethernet, install dropbear(ssh client), and set ssh and login passwords.
apt-get update
apt-get install dropbear
I had some issues with serial login using /etc/shadow and ssh using /etc/passwd or vice-versa. Quick solution was to set both the same.
echo -e "password\npassword" | passwd
echo root:password | chpasswd
Make sure the /etc/inittab has a getty setting for both debug serial and for actual serial
T0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 115200 vt100
T1:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS1 115200 vt100
USING APT-GET ON THE BOARD
There are two ways to apt-get when the main filesystem is jffs2. One way is to mount ram as a tmpfs
mount -t tmpfs none /var/cache/apt
mkdir -p /var/cache/apt/archives/partial
apt-get update ; apt-get install <package-name>
umount /var/cache/apt
Unfortunately, this is not always big enough. I was forced to mount a USB stick as /var/cache/apt
mount -t ext2 /dev/sda1 /var/cache/apt
mkdir -p /var/cache/apt/archives/partial
apt-get update ; apt-get install <package-name>
umount /var/cache/apt
ENABLING i2c
For communicating with other hardware, a protocol known is i2c is often used. There is an excellent walkthrough for another Glomation board below, but the basics of it for me were to compile the kernel with builtin i2c support, then create the i2c device using mknod /dev/i2c-0 c 89 0
One can install i2c-tools using apt-get to use i2cget, i2cset, and i2cdetect for troubleshooting.
For example, i2cdetect 0x00 will show all i2c devices connected to i2c-0.
Walkthrough with another board
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-kernel-70/i2c-character-device-file-not-created-in-linux-2-6-24-on-at91sam9263ek-677375/
Simple i2c code
http://e2e.ti.com/support/dsp/davinci_digital_media_processors/f/100/t/8508.aspx
Further links on GPIO and i2c
http://glomation.net/smf/index.php/topic,1335.0.html
https://www.ridgerun.com/developer/wiki/index.php/How_to_use_GPIO_signals
http://glomation.net/smf/index.php?action=printpage;topic=27.0
http://glomation.net/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=27.0;attach=20
