User:RemDogKap/SandBox/Update XSPI Flash SPL and U-Boot
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The Star64 ships with an integrated 128 megabit (16 megabyte) xSPI NOR flash. Loaded on this flash from the factory is firmware called U-Boot and SPL but an old version designed for the StarFive VisionFive 2 SBC which may have incompatibilities with the Star64. The firmware on this flash is known as Das U-Boot, commonly just U-Boot which is an open-source primary boot loader. It performs similar functions to the BIOS on x86 platforms. The SPL or Secondary Program Loader is the software that loads U-Boot, which in turn loads the Linux kernel.
There are two main ways to update the xSPI flash. The first uses the flashcp command which requires the Star64 to first boot into an OS. This method may not work on older versions of [firmware, os, something else????]. The other method requires only the ability to load U-Boot and uses TFTP and the U-Boot tftpboot command.
Prerequisites
Required:
- Star64 SBC
- Computer running Linux, MacOS, or Windows
Possibly required:
- Ability to communicate over TTL (transistor to transistor logic) UART
- Ability to network the Star64 to a computer over ethernet
flashcp
First, connect to your Star64 over UART or with a mouse, keyboard, and monitor.
Next, install the mtd-utils package onto the Star64 if not already installed. This package is a set of tools that allow access to raw flash storage devices such as the xSPI flash. Also install wget if not already installed. These instructions assume that you are using the deb package manager.
$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install mtb-utils wget
Next, using wget download the .bin.normal.out SPL file and the .img U-Boot image onto the.
$ wget https://pine64.my-ho.st:8443/[fishwaldo SPL file goes here] $ wget https://pine64.my-ho.st:8443/[fishwaldo U-Boot image goes here]
Next, print out the list of MTD (Memory Technology Device) raw flash devices using cat.
$ cat /proc/mtd
The output should look something like this:
dev: size erasesize name mtd0: 00020000 00001000 "spl" mtd1: 00300000 00001000 "uboot" mtd2: 00100000 00001000 "data"
Finally, write the .bin.normal.out SPL file and the .img U-Boot image. to the respective partitions using flashcp, a command which writes to raw flash devices with more protections than dd.
$ flashcp -v [fishwaldo spl file name here].bin.normal.out /dev/${SPL Partition}
$ flashcp -v [fishwaldo uboot img file name here].img /dev/${U-Boot Partition}
Where ${SPL Partition} is the partition name found under the "dev" column for the row "spl" from the cat printout, in this case mtd0 and ${U-Boot Partition} is the partition name found under the "dev" column for the row "uboot" in the cat printout, in this case mtd1
At this point your xSPI flash has been rewritten and only a system restart is needed for the changes to take effect.
tftpboot
The tftpboot method uses a TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol, a protocol which allows for basic file transfer functionality without authentication) server to transfer the SPL file and U-Boot image from a host computer to the Star64 running U-Boot and using the tftpboot command and then written to flash using the sf command which is a U-Boot command used to access SPI flash.
Linux
First, on your computer (not the Star64) install a TFTP server and wget if you do not already have it.
$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install tftpd-hpa wget
Next, check that the TFPT server is running using systemctl.
$ sudo systemctl status tftpd-hpa
This should output somethng like
● tftpd-hpa.service - LSB: HPA's tftp server Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/tftpd-hpa; generated) Active: active (running) since Sat 2023-06-10 20:51:28 CDT; 17min ago Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8) Process: 1016 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/tftpd-hpa start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Tasks: 1 (limit: 2306) Memory: 588.0K CPU: 23ms CGroup: /system.slice/tftpd-hpa.service └─1023 /usr/sbin/in.tftpd --listen --user tftp --address :69 --secure /srv/tftp Jun 10 20:51:28 debian-bookworm systemd[1]: Starting tftpd-hpa.service - LSB: HPA's tftp server... Jun 10 20:51:28 debian-bookworm tftpd-hpa[1016]: Starting HPA's tftpd: in.tftpd. Jun 10 20:51:28 debian-bookworm systemd[1]: Started tftpd-hpa.service - LSB: HPA's tftp server.
If the service is not running, try
$ sudo systemctl start tftpd-hpa
and check the status again. If it is still not running please join the #star64 channel in the Pine64 IRC, Discord, or Matrix.
Next, edit the configuration file for tftpd-hpa.
$ sudo nano /etc/default/tftpd-hpa
by default it should look like:
TFTP_USERNAME="tftp" TFTP_DIRECTORY="/srv/tftp" TFTP_ADDRESS=":69" TFTP_OPTIONS="--secure"
Change TFTP_DIRECTORY="/srv/tftp" to TFTP_DIRECTORY="/home/user/tftp_share". The final file should look like:
TFTP_USERNAME="tftp" TFTP_DIRECTORY="/home/user/tftp_share" TFTP_ADDRESS=":69" TFTP_OPTIONS="--secure"
After that, save and close the file then restart the TFTP server.
$ sudo systemctl restart tftpd-hpa
Next in your home directory (/home/user) create a folder called tftp_share
$ mkdir /home/user/tftp_share
In this folder, download the .bin.normal.out SPL file and the .img U-Boot image using wget.
$ cd /home/user/tftp_share $ wget https://pine64.my-ho.st:8443/[fishwaldo SPL file goes here] $ wget https://pine64.my-ho.st:8443/[fishwaldo U-Boot image goes here]
Now power on the Star64 and enter U-Boot. You may need to [press shift??? press any key????] during boot to enter U-Boot.
Once you are in the U-Boot shell set some environment variables.
First, set the IP address of your Star64 where ${IP Address} is the IP address you have chosen.
$ setenv ipaddr ${IP Address}
An example IP address would be
$ setenv ipaddr 192.168.1.158
Next set the IP address of your TFTP server. If you don't what the IP address of your TFTP server is you can see connected devices in your router configuration which can usually be accessed by typing in the IP address found on the router itself. In this case ${Server IP} refers to the IP address of your TFTP server.
# setenv serverip ${Server IP}
An example would be
$ setenv serverip 192.168.1.228
Note that it is important that the first three sets of numbers (in the examples 192.168.1) must be the same for your Star64 router, and TFTP server. The numbers may not be the same as in the example.
Ping the TFTP server from the Star64 to make sure the connection works where ${Server IP} refers to the IP address of your TFTP server.
$ ping ${Server IP}
Example:
$ ping 192.168.1.228
The result should look something like this:
To be filled in later
If ping fails, please try again or please join the #star64 channel in the Pine64 IRC, Discord, or Matrix for help.
Finally, it is time to update the xSPI flash.
First, initialize the flash with the sf probe command.
$ sf probe
The output should be something like:
To be filled in later
Next copy the SPL .bin.normal.out file to memory address 0xa0000000 from our TFTP server.
$ tftpboot 0xa0000000 ${serverip}:[name of fishwaldo spl file]
Where ${serverip} is the environment variable we set earlier, no need to change it.
Then use sf update to erase and update the SPI flash from memory. In this case we are copying from memory address 0xa0000000 which we wrote to earlier with an offset of 0x0. [what is $filesize???? does the user need to replace it, will it just work?????]
$ sf update 0xa0000000 0x0 $filesize
This should produce an output like:
To be filled in later
Next, copy the U-Boot .img binary to memory address 0xa0000000 from the TFTP server.
$ tftpboot 0xa0000000 ${serverip}:[name of fishwaldo uboot image]
Where ${serverip} is the environment variable we set earlier, no need to change it.
Finally, write the new U-Boot binary using sf update from memory address 0xa0000000 with an offset of 0x100000. [what is $filesize???? does the user need to replace it, will it just work?????]
$ sf update 0xa0000000 0x100000 $filesize
This should produce an output like:
To be filled in later
Reboot the Star64 and the changes should have taken effect.