This guide explains how to create a bootable SD card for the phyCORE-AM65x Development Kit using Linux. You will need the following to complete these instructions:

  • SDHC SD card, at least 4GB for PHYTEC's TISDK release images
  • Linux Host PC or Virtual Machine
    • Ubuntu 16.04 LTS recommended
    • SD card reader

Creating a bootable SD card requires an SD card reader operational under Linux to format and access the Linux partition of the card. If you do not have SD card access under Linux then copying the bootloader and mounting the root filesystem on SD/MMC card will not be possible.

Pre-built images are available on PHYTEC's Artifactory. If you have built your own images, then the images are located in: <YOCTO_DIR>/build/arago-tmp-external-linaro-toolchain/deploy/images/<MACHINE>/

Note that the names of the images differ between releases. YOCTO_IMAGE in the instructions below refers to the Yocto image name that was used to build the image, and YOCTO_MACHINE refers to the machine that was selected to build the image. Refer to the "Built Images" section of the Quickstart pertaining to the specific release you are using for clarification on image names.

Boot switches on phyCORE-AM65x Development Kit will have to be set in order to specify the location of the primary bootloader. See this link for more details (Boot Switch).

Step-by-step guide

  • Download pre-built images for the latest BSP release

  • Download TI create-sdcard.sh script which will be used to partition your SD card

    For more information regarding the script, see: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Processor_SDK_Linux_create_SD_card_script

  • From Terminal, navigate to the directory containing the create-sdcard.sh script (the command below assumes your default download directory is Downloads). 

    Host (Ubuntu)

    cd Downloads
    CODE

  • Add executable permissions to the create-sdcard.sh script. 

    Host (Ubuntu)

    chmod +x create-sdcard.sh
    CODE
  • 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.sh
    CODE

  • Select the drive corresponding to the SD card

    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: 1
    CODE

  • Enter 2 for the number of partitions

     Expand to view the Example Output

    Example 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: done
    CODE


  • Enter n when asked to continue. Files will be copied 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] : n
    CODE


  • 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 the bootloaders (u-boot and system firmware) to the boot partition

    Host (Ubuntu)

    cp tiboot3.bin tispl.bin u-boot.img sysfw.itb /media/<username>/boot/ && sync
    CODE

  • Use the terminal to extract the filesystem to the root partition. The filesystem includes the Linux kernel.

    Host (Ubuntu)

    sudo tar -xf tisdk-rootfs-image-am65xx-phycore-kit.tar.xz -C /media/<username>/rootfs/ && sync
    CODE

  • Unmount the partitions and remove the SD card

    Host (Ubuntu)

    umount /media/<username>/boot /media/<username>/rootfs
    CODE
  • You SD card should now be ready to boot your hardware into Linux.

Updating Individual Parts of a Bootable SD Card

This section describes the process for updating individual components of an SD Card if you already have one that has been formatted as described above.

 Click here to expand...

Once the SD card has been formatted, you may update the kernel, root filesystem, and U-Boot files individually.

Bootloader (U-Boot and System Firmware)

 Click here to expand...

  1. Remove the existing U-Boot images:

    Host (Ubuntu)

    rm /media/<username>/boot/tiboot3.bin && sync
rm /media/<username>/boot/tispl.bin && sync
rm /media/<username>/boot/u-boot.img && sync
rm /media/<username>/boot/sysfw.itb && sync
    CODE

  2. Copy the new images to the boot partition of the SD card:

    Host (Ubuntu)

    cp tiboot3.bin tispl.bin u-boot.img sysfw.itb /media/<username>/boot/ && sync
    CODE

Root File System

 Click here to expand...

  1. If replacing the root filesystem, remove the existing: 

    Host (Ubuntu)

    sudo rm -rf /media/<username>/rootfs/* && sync
    CODE

  2. Load the new filesystem to the rootfs partition on the SD card: 

    Host (Ubuntu)

    sudo tar -xf tisdk-rootfs-image-am65xx-phycore-kit.tar.xz -C /media/<username>/rootfs/ && sync
    CODE

Linux Kernel

If you do not need to update your Linux kernel or device tree images, this step should be skipped. The root file system already contains the kernel and default device tree images in its boot subdirectory.

 Click here to expand...

  1. Remove the existing Linux kernel and device tree images: 

    Host (Ubuntu)

    sudo rm /media/<username>/rootfs/boot/Image && sync
sudo rm /media/<username>/rootfs/boot/k3-am65xx-phycore-kit.dtb && sync
    CODE

  2. Load the new Linux kernel and device tree images to the boot subdirectory on the root file system partition of the SD card. Note that U-Boot expects the kernel to be named Image and the default device tree image image to be named k3-am65xx-phycore-kit.dtb: 

    Host (Ubuntu)

    sudo cp Image /media/<username>/rootfs/boot/ && sync
sudo cp k3-am65xx-phycore-kit.dtb /media/<username>/rootfs/boot/ && sync
    CODE