3.1.1.4. SPI

This section documents how to write files to the SPI device and use it to load and then boot the Linux Kernel using a root filesystem also found on SPI. At this time, no special builds of U-Boot are required to perform these operations on the supported hardware. The table below however, lists builds that will also use the SPI flash for the environment instead of the default, which typically is NAND in AM57x and DRA7x EVMs, but in Keystone-2 EVMs, it is only NOR. Finally, for simplicity we assume the files are being loaded from an SD card. Using the network interface (if applicable) is documented above.

3.1.1.4.1. Writing to SPI from U-Boot

Note for AM57x and DRA7x platforms:

  • From the U-Boot build, the MLO.byteswap and u-boot.img files are the ones to be written.

  • We load all files from an SD card in this example but they can just as easily be loaded via network (documented above) or other interface that exists.

  • At this time the SPI mtd partition map has not yet been updated to include an example location for the device tree.

U-Boot # mmc rescan
U-Boot # sf probe 0
U-Boot # sf erase 0 +80000
U-Boot # fatload mmc 0 ${loadaddr} MLO.byteswap
U-Boot # sf write ${loadaddr} 0 ${filesize}
U-Boot # fatload mmc 0 ${loadaddr} u-boot.img
U-Boot # sf write ${loadaddr} 0x20000 ${filesize}
U-Boot # sf erase 80000 +${spiimgsize}
U-Boot # fatload mmc 0 ${loadaddr} zImage
U-Boot # sf write ${loadaddr} ${spisrcaddr} ${filesize}

Note for Keystone-2 (K2H/K/E/L/G) platforms:

  • From the U-Boot build, the u-boot-spi.gph file is the one to be written.

  • We load the file from a tftp server via netowrk in this example.

  • The series commands burns the u-boot image to the SPI NOR flash

U-Boot # env default -f -a
U-Boot # setenv serverip <ip address of tftp server>
U-Boot # setenv tftp_root <tftp root directory>
U-Boot # setenv name_uboot u-boot-spi.gph
U-Boot # run get_uboot_net
U-Boot # run burn_uboot_spi

3.1.1.4.2. Booting from SPI

Within the default environment for each board that supports SPI there is a boot command called spiboot that will automatically load the kernel and boot. For the exact details of each use printenv on the spiboot variable and then in turn printenv other sub-sections of the command. The most important variables here are spiroot and spirootfstype. For Keystone-2 platforms, it is configured to be ARM SPI boot mode using SW1 dip switch setting. Please refer to the Hardware Setup of each Keystone-2 EVM.