Create a Bootable SD card
We recommend following these steps using a browser on your Ubuntu Virtual Machine! This will ensure that the files you download are easily accessible in the VM. If you have a shared folder setup between your Host and Guest OS then this is not necessary.
This guide explains how to create a bootable SD card for the phyCORE-AM57x development kit using Linux. You will need the following to complete these instructions:
Requirements
- SDHC SD card, at least 8GB for PHYTEC's TISDK release image
- Linux Host PC or Virtual Machine
- Ubuntu 16.04 LTS recommended
- SD card reader (operational under Linux)
- Pre-built Binary Images
If you have built your own images by following the BSP Development Guide, then the images are located in: $YOCTO_DIR/build/arago-tmp-external-linaro-toolchain/deploy/images/<MACHINE>/
Flashing the SD Card
- Download the pre-built Pre-built Binaries for the latest BSP release.
Download TI's create-sdcard.sh script which will be used to partition your SD card
TI's create-sdcard.sh script will be built with the BSP by default. The script can be found in the PSDK tarball (processor-sdk-linux-image-am57xx-phycore-kit.tar.xz) which is also deployed automatically. For more information regarding the script, see: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Processor_SDK_Linux_create_SD_card_script
From the Terminal, navigate to the directory containing the create-sdcard.sh script (the command below assumes your default download directory is Downloads).
Host (Ubuntu)
cd ~/DownloadsCODEAdd executable permissions to the create-sdcard.sh script.
Host (Ubuntu)
chmod +x create-sdcard.shCODE- Connect the SD card to the host PC
From a terminal run the SD card partition script with root permissions
Host (Ubuntu)
sudo ./create-sdcard.shCODESelect the drive corresponding to the SD card. In this case the SD Card was sdc which was selected by entering a 1.
Example Output
################################################################################ This script will create a bootable SD card from custom or pre-built binaries. The script must be run with root permissions and from the bin directory of the SDK Example: $ sudo ./create-sdcard.sh Formatting can be skipped if the SD card is already formatted and partitioned properly. ################################################################################ Available Drives to write images to: # major minor size name 1: 8 32 7761920 sdc Enter Device Number or n to exit: 1CODEEnter 2 for the number of partitions
Expand to view the Example OutputExample Output
################################################################################ Number of partitions needed [2/3] : 2 Now partitioning sdc with 2 partitions... ################################################################################ Now making 2 partitions ################################################################################ 1024+0 records in 1024+0 records out 1048576 bytes (1.0 MB) copied, 0.913801 s, 1.1 MB/s Disk /dev/sdc doesn't contain a valid partition table DISK SIZE - 7948206080 bytes Checking that no-one is using this disk right now ... OK Disk /dev/sdc: 966 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track sfdisk: ERROR: sector 0 does not have an msdos signature /dev/sdc: unrecognized partition table type Old situation: No partitions found New situation: Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0 Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System /dev/sdc1 * 0+ 8 9- 72261 c W95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/sdc2 10 965 956 7679070 83 Linux /dev/sdc3 0 - 0 0 0 Empty /dev/sdc4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty Successfully wrote the new partition table Re-reading the partition table ... If you created or changed a DOS partition, /dev/foo7, say, then use dd(1) to zero the first 512 bytes: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/foo7 bs=512 count=1 (See fdisk(8).) ################################################################################ Partitioning Boot ################################################################################ mkfs.fat 3.0.26 (2014-03-07) mkfs.fat: warning - lowercase labels might not work properly with DOS or Windows ################################################################################ Partitioning rootfs ################################################################################ mke2fs 1.42.9 (4-Feb-2014) Filesystem label=rootfs OS type: Linux Block size=4096 (log=2) Fragment size=4096 (log=2) Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks 480496 inodes, 1919767 blocks 95988 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user First data block=0 Maximum filesystem blocks=1967128576 59 block groups 32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group 8144 inodes per group Superblock backups stored on blocks: 32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632 Allocating group tables: done Writing inode tables: done Creating journal (32768 blocks): done Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: doneCODEEnter n when asked to continue. We will copy the necessary files to the partitions manually.
Example Output
################################################################################ Partitioning is now done Continue to install filesystem or select 'n' to safe exit **Warning** Continuing will erase files any files in the partitions ################################################################################ Would you like to continue? [y/n] : nCODE- Mount the newly created partitions. This can be done in Ubuntu by clicking boot and root in the file browser.
Use the terminal to copy U-Boot and MLO to the boot partition (be sure to replace <user> accordingly for your system):
Host (Ubuntu)
cp u-boot.img /media/<user>/boot/u-boot.img && sync cp MLO /media/<user>/boot/MLO && syncCODEUse the terminal to extract the filesystem to the root partition. The filesystem includes the Linux kernel.
sudo tar -Jxf tisdk-rootfs-image-am57xx-phycore-kit.tar.xz -C /media/<user>/rootfs && syncCODEUnmount the partitions and remove the SD card
Host (Ubuntu)
umount /media/<user>/boot /media/<user>/rootfsCODE- You SD card should now be ready to boot your hardware into Linux.
Updating Individual Parts of the SD Card
Once the SD card has been formatted and flashed the first time, you may update the kernel, root filesystem, and U-Boot images individually. This will be necessary to do throughout development as you modify individual components to suit your application requirements.
Root Filesystem
Delete the contents of the current root filesystem:
Host (Ubuntu)
sudo rm -rf /media/<user>/rootfs/*CODEExtract the new filesystem to the SD Card:
Host (Ubuntu)
sudo tar -Jxf tisdk-rootfs-image-am57xx-phycore-kit.tar.xz -C /media/<user>/rootfs && syncCODE
Linux Kernel
The root filesystem tarball already contains a default kernel and default dtb files in its /boot directory.
Remove the existing Linux kernel and device tree image pertaining to your SOM (in this example we will assume the SOM is the standard kit option PCM-057-41300111I):
Host (Ubuntu)
sudo rm /media/<user>/rootfs/boot/zImage sudo rm /media/<user>/rootfs/boot/am5728-phycore-kit-41300111i.dtbCODE
You may notice that the /boot directory contains many dtb files for various SOM configurations. This is because the EEPROM on the phyCORE-AM57x SOM is used to help select which device tree should be used at boot. This strategy allows for the use of a single software image to support all phyCORE-AM57x variants.
For more information on this EEPROM mechanism, checkout Using the PHYTEC EEPROM Flashtool.
Load the new Linux kernel and device tree images to the SD Card. Note that u-boot expects the kernel to be named zImage and the standard SOM dtb file to be named am5728-phycore-kit-41300111i.dtb:
Host (Ubuntu)
sudo cp zImage /media/<user>/rootfs/boot/zImage && sync sudo cp am5728-phycore-kit-41300111i.dtb /media/<user>/rootfs/boot/am5728-phycore-kit-41300111i.dtb && syncCODE
Bootloader
Remove the existing U-Boot and MLO images:
Host (Ubuntu)
rm /media/<user>/boot/u-boot.img rm /media/<user>/boot/MLOCODECopy the new images to the SD Card:
Host (Ubuntu)
cp u-boot.img /media/<user>/boot/u-boot.img && sync cp MLO /media/<user>/boot/MLO && syncCODE