Building U-Boot for Compulab's imx8mm-cl-iot-gate board

Building U-Boot for Compulab's imx8mm-cl-iot-gate board

[Fabio Estevam]

Hi Paul,

I am trying to build U-Boot 2021.07-rc5 for the
imx8mm-cl-iot-gate_defconfig target and I am following the imx8mm-evk
readme: doc/board/freescale/imx8mm_evk.rst for the build instructions
and this is the output:

make[1]: Nothing to be done for 'SPL'.
  BINMAN  all
Image 'main-section' is missing external blobs and is non-functional: blob-ext

Some images are invalid

This happens because I did not provide the fip.bin binary.

Is it OK if I remove the fip.bin entry like this? Would the board still boot?

--- a/arch/arm/dts/imx8mm-cl-iot-gate-u-boot.dtsi
+++ b/arch/arm/dts/imx8mm-cl-iot-gate-u-boot.dtsi
@@ -217,18 +217,6 @@
                                        };
                                };

-                               fip {
-                                       description = "Trusted Firmware FIP";
-                                       type = "firmware";
-                                       arch = "arm64";
-                                       compression = "none";
-                                       load = <0x40310000>;
-
-                                       fip_blob: blob-ext{
-                                               filename = "fip.bin";
-                                       };
-                               };
-
                                fdt {
                                        description = "NAME";
                                        type = "flat_dt";

Could you please let me know the process for generating fip.bin?

It would be nice to have a doc/board/compulab/imx8mm-iot-gate.rst
README file with these details. I can help with that but need your
help to clarify the generation of fip.bin.

Also, is it OK if I use the ATF firmware and LPDDR binaries version as
specified in doc/board/freescale/imx8mm_evk.rst ?

Thanks,

Fabio Estevam

Re: Building U-Boot for Compulab's imx8mm-cl-iot-gate board

[Paul Liu]

Hi Fabio,

Yes. It is able to not provide the fip,bin.
If you use bl31.bin as bl31.bin then fip.bin can be empty.
If you use bl2.bin as bl31.bin then you have to have the fip.

This depends on how TF-A are being built.
If you build TF-A without NEED_BL2=yes. Then you don't need the fip.bin.
If you build TF-A with NEED_BL2=yes. Then FIP is needed. And you have to
use bl2.bin generated by TF-A and rename it to bl31.bin. I think maybe I
can fix the README. If you can do that then that's perfect because my
English is always not very good. So that means I sometimes need more review
on my English sentences.

Yours,
Paul


On Thu, 1 Jul 2021 at 05:43, Fabio Estevam <festevam@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Paul,
>
> I am trying to build U-Boot 2021.07-rc5 for the
> imx8mm-cl-iot-gate_defconfig target and I am following the imx8mm-evk
> readme: doc/board/freescale/imx8mm_evk.rst for the build instructions
> and this is the output:
>
> make[1]: Nothing to be done for 'SPL'.
>   BINMAN  all
> Image 'main-section' is missing external blobs and is non-functional:
> blob-ext
>
> Some images are invalid
>
> This happens because I did not provide the fip.bin binary.
>
> Is it OK if I remove the fip.bin entry like this? Would the board still
> boot?
>
> --- a/arch/arm/dts/imx8mm-cl-iot-gate-u-boot.dtsi
> +++ b/arch/arm/dts/imx8mm-cl-iot-gate-u-boot.dtsi
> @@ -217,18 +217,6 @@
>                                         };
>                                 };
>
> -                               fip {
> -                                       description = "Trusted Firmware
> FIP";
> -                                       type = "firmware";
> -                                       arch = "arm64";
> -                                       compression = "none";
> -                                       load = <0x40310000>;
> -
> -                                       fip_blob: blob-ext{
> -                                               filename = "fip.bin";
> -                                       };
> -                               };
> -
>                                 fdt {
>                                         description = "NAME";
>                                         type = "flat_dt";
>
> Could you please let me know the process for generating fip.bin?
>
> It would be nice to have a doc/board/compulab/imx8mm-iot-gate.rst
> README file with these details. I can help with that but need your
> help to clarify the generation of fip.bin.
>
> Also, is it OK if I use the ATF firmware and LPDDR binaries version as
> specified in doc/board/freescale/imx8mm_evk.rst ?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Fabio Estevam
>

Re: Building U-Boot for Compulab's imx8mm-cl-iot-gate board

[Fabio Estevam]

Hi Paul,

On Thu, Jul 1, 2021 at 12:45 PM Paul Liu <paul.liu@linaro.org> wrote:

> Hi Fabio,
>
> Yes. It is able to not provide the fip,bin.
> If you use bl31.bin as bl31.bin then fip.bin can be empty.
> If you use bl2.bin as bl31.bin then you have to have the fip.
>
> This depends on how TF-A are being built.
> If you build TF-A without NEED_BL2=yes. Then you don't need the fip.bin.
> If you build TF-A with NEED_BL2=yes. Then FIP is needed. And you have to use bl2.bin generated by TF-A and rename it to bl31.bin. I think maybe I can fix the README. If you can do that then that's perfect because my English is always not very good. So that means I sometimes need more review on my English sentences.

Thanks for the clarification.

I can work on creating a README file for this board after I manage to boot it.

What is the process of flashing the flash.bin and u-boot.itb binaries
to the eMMC?

Do you use the uuu tool? If so, what is the  uuu_script script that you use?

Thanks,

Fabio Estevam

Re: Building U-Boot for Compulab's imx8mm-cl-iot-gate board

[Paul Liu]

Hi Fabio,

We have dfu_alt_info set. So that we can capsule update from UEFI.
First, "setenv -e -nv -bs -rt -v OsIndications =0x04"
And then we can "efidebug capsule update -v ${loadaddr}".

To make the capsule binary, we need to create a capsule1.itb with the
following content:
/dts-v1/;

/ {
       description = "Automatic U-Boot environment update";
       #address-cells = <2>;

       images {
               flash-bin {
                       description = "U-Boot binary on SPI Flash";
                       data = /incbin/("flash.bin");
                       compression = "none";
                       type = "firmware";
                       arch = "arm64";
                       load = <0>;
                       hash-1 {
                               algo = "sha1";
                       };
               };
               u-boot-itb {
                       description = "U-Boot binary";
                       data = /incbin/("u-boot.itb");
                       compression = "none";
                       type = "firmware";
                        arch = "arm64";
                       load = <0>;
                       hash-1 {
                               algo = "sha1";
                       };
               };
       };
};

And then "./tools/mkimage -f capsule1.its capsule1.itb"
"./tools/mkeficapsule --fit capsule1.itb --index 1 capsule1.bin"

And we can tftp the capsule1.bin to ${loadaddr} and then use the capsule
update.

Yours,
Paul


On Fri, 2 Jul 2021 at 00:39, Fabio Estevam <festevam@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Paul,
>
> On Thu, Jul 1, 2021 at 12:45 PM Paul Liu <paul.liu@linaro.org> wrote:
>
> > Hi Fabio,
> >
> > Yes. It is able to not provide the fip,bin.
> > If you use bl31.bin as bl31.bin then fip.bin can be empty.
> > If you use bl2.bin as bl31.bin then you have to have the fip.
> >
> > This depends on how TF-A are being built.
> > If you build TF-A without NEED_BL2=yes. Then you don't need the fip.bin.
> > If you build TF-A with NEED_BL2=yes. Then FIP is needed. And you have to
> use bl2.bin generated by TF-A and rename it to bl31.bin. I think maybe I
> can fix the README. If you can do that then that's perfect because my
> English is always not very good. So that means I sometimes need more review
> on my English sentences.
>
> Thanks for the clarification.
>
> I can work on creating a README file for this board after I manage to boot
> it.
>
> What is the process of flashing the flash.bin and u-boot.itb binaries
> to the eMMC?
>
> Do you use the uuu tool? If so, what is the  uuu_script script that you
> use?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Fabio Estevam
>

Re: Building U-Boot for Compulab's imx8mm-cl-iot-gate board

[Fabio Estevam]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your response.

On Thu, Jul 1, 2021 at 6:38 PM Paul Liu <paul.liu@linaro.org> wrote:
>
> Hi Fabio,
>
> We have dfu_alt_info set. So that we can capsule update from UEFI.
> First, "setenv -e -nv -bs -rt -v OsIndications =0x04"
> And then we can "efidebug capsule update -v ${loadaddr}".
>
> To make the capsule binary, we need to create a capsule1.itb with the following content:
> /dts-v1/;
>
> / {
>        description = "Automatic U-Boot environment update";
>        #address-cells = <2>;
>
>        images {
>                flash-bin {
>                        description = "U-Boot binary on SPI Flash";
>                        data = /incbin/("flash.bin");
>                        compression = "none";
>                        type = "firmware";
>                        arch = "arm64";
>                        load = <0>;
>                        hash-1 {
>                                algo = "sha1";
>                        };
>                };
>                u-boot-itb {
>                        description = "U-Boot binary";
>                        data = /incbin/("u-boot.itb");
>                        compression = "none";
>                        type = "firmware";
>                         arch = "arm64";
>                        load = <0>;
>                        hash-1 {
>                                algo = "sha1";
>                        };
>                };
>        };
> };
>
> And then "./tools/mkimage -f capsule1.its capsule1.itb"
> "./tools/mkeficapsule --fit capsule1.itb --index 1 capsule1.bin"
>
> And we can tftp the capsule1.bin to ${loadaddr} and then use the capsule update.

In my case, I have the original U-Boot 2020.04 version from Compulab
on the IoT Gateway board.

Would it be possible to run a patch like this
https://pastebin.com/raw/Rq1Yv6ka

And then just load flash.bin via TFTP and flash it to offset 33K of the eMMC?

Would that work?

Thanks,

Fabio Estevam

Re: Building U-Boot for Compulab's imx8mm-cl-iot-gate board

[Paul Liu]

Hi Fabio,

It might work. But why? I mean the imx8mm-evk has already switched to
binman on the mainline.
So we should do the same. If you can't get into U-boot prompt using binman
I can give you more detailed information.

Yours,
Paul



On Wed, 11 Aug 2021 at 07:13, Fabio Estevam <festevam@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Paul,
>
> Thanks for your response.
>
> On Thu, Jul 1, 2021 at 6:38 PM Paul Liu <paul.liu@linaro.org> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Fabio,
> >
> > We have dfu_alt_info set. So that we can capsule update from UEFI.
> > First, "setenv -e -nv -bs -rt -v OsIndications =0x04"
> > And then we can "efidebug capsule update -v ${loadaddr}".
> >
> > To make the capsule binary, we need to create a capsule1.itb with the
> following content:
> > /dts-v1/;
> >
> > / {
> >        description = "Automatic U-Boot environment update";
> >        #address-cells = <2>;
> >
> >        images {
> >                flash-bin {
> >                        description = "U-Boot binary on SPI Flash";
> >                        data = /incbin/("flash.bin");
> >                        compression = "none";
> >                        type = "firmware";
> >                        arch = "arm64";
> >                        load = <0>;
> >                        hash-1 {
> >                                algo = "sha1";
> >                        };
> >                };
> >                u-boot-itb {
> >                        description = "U-Boot binary";
> >                        data = /incbin/("u-boot.itb");
> >                        compression = "none";
> >                        type = "firmware";
> >                         arch = "arm64";
> >                        load = <0>;
> >                        hash-1 {
> >                                algo = "sha1";
> >                        };
> >                };
> >        };
> > };
> >
> > And then "./tools/mkimage -f capsule1.its capsule1.itb"
> > "./tools/mkeficapsule --fit capsule1.itb --index 1 capsule1.bin"
> >
> > And we can tftp the capsule1.bin to ${loadaddr} and then use the capsule
> update.
>
> In my case, I have the original U-Boot 2020.04 version from Compulab
> on the IoT Gateway board.
>
> Would it be possible to run a patch like this
> https://pastebin.com/raw/Rq1Yv6ka
>
> And then just load flash.bin via TFTP and flash it to offset 33K of the
> eMMC?
>
> Would that work?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Fabio Estevam
>

Re: Building U-Boot for Compulab's imx8mm-cl-iot-gate board

[Fabio Estevam]

Hi Paul,

On Tue, Aug 10, 2021 at 10:06 PM Paul Liu <paul.liu@linaro.org> wrote:
>
> Hi Fabio,
>
> It might work. But why? I mean the imx8mm-evk has already switched to binman on the mainline.
> So we should do the same. If you can't get into U-boot prompt using binman I can give you more detailed information.

The reason I removed binman support was only for debugging purposes,
as I don't plan to use fip.bin.

I would appreciate it if you could share more detailed information on
how to flash mainline U-Boot on a IoT Gateway
board that contains the original U-Boot 2020.04 version from Compulab.

Thanks,

Fabio Estevam

Re: Building U-Boot for Compulab's imx8mm-cl-iot-gate board

[Fabio Estevam]

Hi Paul,

On Tue, Aug 10, 2021 at 10:33 PM Fabio Estevam <festevam@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Paul,
>
> On Tue, Aug 10, 2021 at 10:06 PM Paul Liu <paul.liu@linaro.org> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Fabio,
> >
> > It might work. But why? I mean the imx8mm-evk has already switched to binman on the mainline.
> > So we should do the same. If you can't get into U-boot prompt using binman I can give you more detailed information.
>
> The reason I removed binman support was only for debugging purposes,
> as I don't plan to use fip.bin.

Even if I keep binman support and only remove fip.bin to prevent the
build failure like this:
https://pastebin.com/raw/FZ7D0rK0

I still cannot boot:

    U-Boot SPL 2021.07-00001-g54086b3f1019-dirty (Aug 10 2021 - 18:39:22 -0300)
    DDRINFO: Cfg attempt: [ 1/6 ]
    DDRINFO(M): mr5-8 [ 0xff000010 ]
    DDRINFO(T): mr5-8 [ 0x5000010 ]
    resetting ...

    U-Boot SPL 2021.07-00001-g54086b3f1019-dirty (Aug 10 2021 - 18:39:22 -0300)
    DDRINFO: Cfg attempt: [ 2/6 ]
    DDRINFO(M): mr5-8 [ 0xff000010 ]
    DDRINFO(T): mr5-8 [ 0x1061010 ]
    resetting ...

    U-Boot SPL 2021.07-00001-g54086b3f1019-dirty (Aug 10 2021 - 18:39:22 -0300)
    DDRINFO: Cfg attempt: [ 3/6 ]
    DDRINFO(M): mr5-8 [ 0xff000010 ]
    DDRINFO(T): mr5-8 [ 0xff000010 ]
    Normal Boot
    WDT:   Not starting
    Trying to boot from MMC2

Could you confirm whether U-Boot 2021.07 boots for you?

Any ideas, please?

Thanks

Re: Building U-Boot for Compulab's imx8mm-cl-iot-gate board

[Fabio Estevam]

On Wed, Aug 11, 2021 at 8:31 AM Fabio Estevam <festevam@gmail.com> wrote:

> I still cannot boot:
>
>     U-Boot SPL 2021.07-00001-g54086b3f1019-dirty (Aug 10 2021 - 18:39:22 -0300)
>     DDRINFO: Cfg attempt: [ 1/6 ]
>     DDRINFO(M): mr5-8 [ 0xff000010 ]
>     DDRINFO(T): mr5-8 [ 0x5000010 ]
>     resetting ...
>
>     U-Boot SPL 2021.07-00001-g54086b3f1019-dirty (Aug 10 2021 - 18:39:22 -0300)
>     DDRINFO: Cfg attempt: [ 2/6 ]
>     DDRINFO(M): mr5-8 [ 0xff000010 ]
>     DDRINFO(T): mr5-8 [ 0x1061010 ]
>     resetting ...
>
>     U-Boot SPL 2021.07-00001-g54086b3f1019-dirty (Aug 10 2021 - 18:39:22 -0300)
>     DDRINFO: Cfg attempt: [ 3/6 ]
>     DDRINFO(M): mr5-8 [ 0xff000010 ]
>     DDRINFO(T): mr5-8 [ 0xff000010 ]
>     Normal Boot
>     WDT:   Not starting
>     Trying to boot from MMC2
>
> Could you confirm whether U-Boot 2021.07 boots for you?

Harald and I found the problem: it is related to ATF.

These extra patches were missing in our ATF build:
https://github.com/compulab-yokneam/meta-bsp-imx8mm/tree/iot-gate-imx8-dev/recipes-bsp/imx-atf/compulab/imx8mm

After applying them, the board boots fine with mainline U-Boot.

I will send a patch documenting the procedure to make it easier for other users.

Thanks,

Fabio Estevam