[U-Boot] SD card support for U-boot 1.3.4

Hello All,
I am a new user of U-boot and Linux. Please bear with me. I have Atmel AT91SAM9263-EK (ARM based) and have U-boot 1.3.4 running on it. Currently U-boot, Linux Kernel and jffs2 root filesystem, all are in NAND flash and work fine. We need to boot the evaluation kit from SD Card.
1. Does U-boot 1.3.4 supprt SD Card? If not, how can I make it supprot SD Card or do I need more recent versions of U-boot? 2. Once SD card is supported by U-boot, how can I make it boot Linux and load root filesystem from SD card.
Help will be greatly appreciated. Many Thanks for your time and help.
Jimmy.

Jimmy Shergill wrote:
Hello All,
I am a new user of U-boot and Linux. Please bear with me. I have Atmel AT91SAM9263-EK (ARM based) and have U-boot 1.3.4 running on it. Currently U-boot, Linux Kernel and jffs2 root filesystem, all are in NAND flash and work fine. We need to boot the evaluation kit from SD Card.
- Does U-boot 1.3.4 supprt SD Card? If not, how can I make it supprot SD
Card or do I need more recent versions of U-boot? 2. Once SD card is supported by U-boot, how can I make it boot Linux and load root filesystem from SD card.
Help will be greatly appreciated. Many Thanks for your time and help.
Please beware this is omap specific. On omap, the sd card is partitioned to have a fat partition and then a ext2/3 partition. The kernel is filed called 'uImage' in the fat partition. The rootfs is on the 2nd ext2/3 parition
By ext2/3 I mean whatever you want it to be usually I use ext3 but have in the past used ext2.
The environment I use is
----
bootdelay 10 bootargs console=ttyS3,115200n8 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rw rootdelay=1 init=/sbin/init bootcmd mmcinit; fatload mmc 1 81000000 uImage; bootm 81000000
----
root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 = the root partition, likely you need to change this
Depending on your vintage of u-boot your mmc init command may be 'mmcinit' or maybe 'mmc init'. If you do not have an mmc init command, likely you are in trouble and should look at the latest release of u-boot.
Tom
Jimmy.
U-Boot mailing list U-Boot@lists.denx.de http://lists.denx.de/mailman/listinfo/u-boot

Dear Jimmy Shergill,
In message a9bbcd260912011250n52ee1943o4b114d78049ed04e@mail.gmail.com you wrote:
I am a new user of U-boot and Linux. Please bear with me. I have Atmel AT91SAM9263-EK (ARM based) and have U-boot 1.3.4 running on it. Currently U-boot, Linux Kernel and jffs2 root filesystem, all are in NAND flash and work fine. We need to boot the evaluation kit from SD Card.
U-Boot 1.3.4 is well over a year old. Please do yourself (and us) a favour and update. There is little general interest if feature X is working or available in such ancient versions. Please use current code instead.
Best regards,
Wolfgang Denk

On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 5:56 PM, Wolfgang Denk wd@denx.de wrote:
Dear Jimmy Shergill,
In message a9bbcd260912011250n52ee1943o4b114d78049ed04e@mail.gmail.com you wrote:
I am a new user of U-boot and Linux. Please bear with me. I have Atmel AT91SAM9263-EK (ARM based) and have U-boot 1.3.4 running on it. Currently U-boot, Linux Kernel and jffs2 root filesystem, all are in NAND flash and work fine. We need to boot the evaluation kit from SD Card.
U-Boot 1.3.4 is well over a year old. Please do yourself (and us) a favour and update. There is little general interest if feature X is working or available in such ancient versions. Please use current code instead.
Thanks for your reply. As suggested, I have downloaded version 2009.08 and built it like this (please tell me if thats correct)
# make at91sam9263ek_config ... with environment variable in SPI DATAFLASH CS0 Configuring for at91sam9263ek board... # make all CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-linux-gnueabi-
I do have u-boot.bin now. My next questions are: 1. Can I just rename it boot.bin and put it in the root folder of SD card and try to use it on the board? I am confused by the message after make at91sam9263ek_config command. Does it mean it can be used only with Dataflash card or I can use it in SD card too.
2. I am using bootstrap from Atmel's http://www.at91.com/linux4sam/bin/view/Linux4SAM/AT91Bootstrap . The bootstraps are only available for DataFlash and Nand Flash. Please advise, which bootstrap do I use to have bootstrap and U-boot on SD Card only.
Thanks for your help, friends.

Dear Jimmy Shergill,
In message a9bbcd260912020831n4254a317ycc7582165d8f6cba@mail.gmail.com you wrote:
Thanks for your reply. As suggested, I have downloaded version 2009.08 and built it like this (please tell me if thats correct)
# make at91sam9263ek_config ... with environment variable in SPI DATAFLASH CS0 Configuring for at91sam9263ek board... # make all CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-linux-gnueabi-
This is one of the valid ways to compile U-Boot.
I do have u-boot.bin now. My next questions are:
...and your "u-boot.bin" is configured for the "at91sam9263ek" target, with environment variables in SPI DATAFLASH CS0.
- Can I just rename it boot.bin and put it in the root folder of SD card
You can do this, but ...
and try to use it on the board? I am confused by the message after make
...I don;t think it will do what you expect.
at91sam9263ek_config command. Does it mean it can be used only with Dataflash card or I can use it in SD card too.
Note that there are several configurations of U-Boot available for this board (see Makefile):
... 2808 at91sam9263ek_norflash_config \ 2809 at91sam9263ek_norflash_boot_config \ 2810 at91sam9263ek_nandflash_config \ 2811 at91sam9263ek_dataflash_config \ 2812 at91sam9263ek_dataflash_cs0_config \ 2813 at91sam9263ek_config : unconfig ...
You probably want to read the AT91SAM9263EK entry in the documentation (file doc/README.at91).
- I am using bootstrap from Atmel's
http://www.at91.com/linux4sam/bin/view/Linux4SAM/AT91Bootstrap . The bootstraps are only available for DataFlash and Nand Flash. Please advise, which bootstrap do I use to have bootstrap and U-boot on SD Card only.
Maybe there is no such option available for this board?
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Best regards,
Wolfgang Denk
participants (3)
-
Jimmy Shergill
-
Tom
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Wolfgang Denk