Keath Milligan writes:
Keath> We are using several PQ2FADS-VR and MPC8272ADS boards for a Keath> Linux project and are experiencing a high occurrence of Keath> boards that get into a state where they will not boot or Keath> behave erratically during boot.
Keath> The symptoms are usually that board continually resets in Keath> u-boot. See below for output examples. In other cases, the Keath> system will get to the point of attempting to load a kernel, Keath> but will claim the checksum is bad, or will start booting the Keath> kernel and crash shortly thereafter.
Keath> When folks bring me systems in this state, my "fix" has been Keath> to replace the 8MB flash SIMM. This usually gets them going Keath> again, but I honestly don't think the SIMM is the real Keath> problem. I have one PQ2FADS board that I have put four Keath> different SIMMs in and can not get it to boot. In most other Keath> cases, I can take the "bad" SIMM, put it in another board, Keath> reprogram it and it will work again (for a while).
Keath> In all of these cases, we are using known good u-boots (built Keath> from unmodified 1.1.2 source for either the PQ2FADS or Keath> MPC8272ADS) and known good, tested kernels. Typically, users Keath> will have been working for weeks without a problem until they Keath> run into this.
MPC8272ADS is very unstable. We had to change three boards until we got one which can work for some time without random reboots. Try to get the board replaced by Freescale. PQ2FADS is much better though not perfect as you noted:) We've got PQ2FADS-ZU (not VR) which can work for weeks without reboots. First of all, I'd suggest checking the clocks. The MPC8280 erratum regarding MF>=3.5 is in many cases the source of the instability. Try to use MF<=3.