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News: Glomation introduces new GECM-9G25 SODIMM system on module

[nickludlam]

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• Hero
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Hi,
I want to get the Atmel SAM-BA tool working with the GESBC-9G20, so I can rescue the board in the case of a bad kernel written to flash, but so far I cannot get it working. Can someone correct me if these steps are wrong?

1) Close jumper S1
2) Connect the bottom USB port to a Windows PC (at this point, the board powers on)
3) Connect the normal PSU
4) Run SAM-BA and attempt to connect to the board

Am I right in thinking that no special drivers are needed when connecting over USB to the board?

[admin]

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DO NOT USE SAM-BA to update the Linux kernel unless the board is unbootable.

The U-boot has commands to easily update kernel.  Please see the user's manual on how to update the kernel.

The jumper S1 is to tell the bootstrap code to erase the first sector of NAND FLASH so it will appear to be a blank FLASH chip.  The processor ROM will then try to boot from USB device port.  The USB device port is J17, a 5 pin header on the left side of the GESBC-9G20 board.  The SAM-BA software must be installed.

[nickludlam]

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Thanks very much for the info. Out of interest, why do you recommend not using SAM-BA, apart from u-boot being more convenient? Is there some sort of risk with SAM-BA?

[nickludlam]

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I've now got SAM-BA to recognise the board, which is good news. I'd like to go through this process once, just in case the regular route of using u-boot goes wrong. I want to be able to rescue the board from being bricked.

Now if I've already booted the board with S1 closed, have I effectively wiped the NAND?  Is there an image I can get to upload into the NAND to get the board working again?

Thanks

[nickludlam]

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Ok I've resurrected my board with the following steps:

1. Install SAM-BA 1.10 from http://www.at91.com/linux4sam/bin/view/Linux4SAM/SoftwareTools

2. Download http://glomationinc.com/Support/9G20/GESBC-9G20-Files.zip and copy all of the files into \Program Files\ATMEL Corporation\SAM BA v2.10\

3. Connect the PC to the 9G20 board via J17, and power on

4. Edit the GESBC-9G20_load.bat, and change "\usb\ARM0" to "com6" (or whatever com port the board appears as). Also, change "sam-ba.exe" to "sam-ba_cdc.exe".

5. Run cmd.exe as an Administrator, and cd to \Program Files\ATMEL Corporation\SAM BA v2.10\

6. Run the GESBC-9G20_load.bat and wait

[aadelgadov]

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Hi nickludlam,

I learned about SAM-BA some days ago. I used it to load u-boot because my boards came with windowsCE loaded from factory.

The problem I have now is after using SAM-BA only the u-boot got loaded to the SBC but kernel and file system are not.

Did you loaded kernel and file system following steps described on GESBC-9G20 manual? if so, what addresses did you use?

Thanks in advance for your time.

ad.

Ok I've resurrected my board with the following steps:

1. Install SAM-BA 1.10 from http://www.at91.com/linux4sam/bin/view/Linux4SAM/SoftwareTools

2. Download http://glomationinc.com/Support/9G20/GESBC-9G20-Files.zip and copy all of the files into \Program Files\ATMEL Corporation\SAM BA v2.10\

3. Connect the PC to the 9G20 board via J17, and power on

4. Edit the GESBC-9G20_load.bat, and change "\usb\ARM0" to "com6" (or whatever com port the board appears as). Also, change "sam-ba.exe" to "sam-ba_cdc.exe".

5. Run cmd.exe as an Administrator, and cd to \Program Files\ATMEL Corporation\SAM BA v2.10\

6. Run the GESBC-9G20_load.bat and wait

[admin]

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The factory default NAND FLASH usage is,
0x0 ~ 0x20000 for boot strap code
0x20000 ~ 0x60000 for U-boot
0x60000 ~ 0x80000 for U-boot enviornment storage.
0x100000 ~ 0x400000 for Linux kernel storage
0x400000 ~ end of the FLASH as root file system

The NAND FLASH can be partitioned any other scheme as long as the kernel knows the partition.  The U-boot bootargs can be used to pass NAND partition or the kernel configuration command line argument can be used to make the NAND partition.