[ECOS] loading and executing an ELF image from flash.

[ECOS] loading and executing an ELF image from flash.

[David Ho]

Hi,

Thanks so much for all the help, I now have redboot running on my
custom board with flash support.

The next step, which is one of my main objective is to be able to load
an ELF image from flash   to the corresponding RAM regions and have
redboot jump to the right entry point specified in the ELF header.

I tried a simple _fis create_ of the ELF image to flash, but when I
did _fis load_ all it did was load the ELF image as is to RAM _Mem
addr_.  Is there currently a way to load an ELF image correctly?

Thanks, David

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[ECOS] Re: loading and executing an ELF image from flash.

[David Ho]

The reason I need to load an ELF image is because we have both
internal RAM and external RAM in our system and we would like to place
code in the critical path in internal RAM for faster access and leave
the non-critical code in external RAM.

Because the two regions cannot be made contiguous, I cannot load it as
one binary image.

Thanks, David

On 7/7/06, David Ho <davidkwho@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Thanks so much for all the help, I now have redboot running on my
> custom board with flash support.
>
> The next step, which is one of my main objective is to be able to load
> an ELF image from flash   to the corresponding RAM regions and have
> redboot jump to the right entry point specified in the ELF header.
>
> I tried a simple _fis create_ of the ELF image to flash, but when I
> did _fis load_ all it did was load the ELF image as is to RAM _Mem
> addr_.  Is there currently a way to load an ELF image correctly?
>
> Thanks, David
>

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[ECOS] Re: loading and executing an ELF image from flash.

[David Ho]

These are the commands I used.  I don't have ethernet btw, transfer
done over xmodem.

load -r -b 0xc000 -m xmodem -c 0
fis create RedBoot[RAM] -e 0xc040
fis load RedBoot[RAM]

David

On 7/7/06, David Ho <davidkwho@gmail.com> wrote:
> The reason I need to load an ELF image is because we have both
> internal RAM and external RAM in our system and we would like to place
> code in the critical path in internal RAM for faster access and leave
> the non-critical code in external RAM.
>
> Because the two regions cannot be made contiguous, I cannot load it as
> one binary image.
>
> Thanks, David
>
> On 7/7/06, David Ho <davidkwho@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Thanks so much for all the help, I now have redboot running on my
> > custom board with flash support.
> >
> > The next step, which is one of my main objective is to be able to load
> > an ELF image from flash   to the corresponding RAM regions and have
> > redboot jump to the right entry point specified in the ELF header.
> >
> > I tried a simple _fis create_ of the ELF image to flash, but when I
> > did _fis load_ all it did was load the ELF image as is to RAM _Mem
> > addr_.  Is there currently a way to load an ELF image correctly?
> >
> > Thanks, David
> >
>

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Re: [ECOS] Re: loading and executing an ELF image from flash.

[Gary Thomas]

David Ho wrote:
> The reason I need to load an ELF image is because we have both
> internal RAM and external RAM in our system and we would like to place
> code in the critical path in internal RAM for faster access and leave
> the non-critical code in external RAM.
> 
> Because the two regions cannot be made contiguous, I cannot load it as
> one binary image.
> 
> Thanks, David
> 
> On 7/7/06, David Ho <davidkwho@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Thanks so much for all the help, I now have redboot running on my
>> custom board with flash support.
>>
>> The next step, which is one of my main objective is to be able to load
>> an ELF image from flash   to the corresponding RAM regions and have
>> redboot jump to the right entry point specified in the ELF header.
>>
>> I tried a simple _fis create_ of the ELF image to flash, but when I
>> did _fis load_ all it did was load the ELF image as is to RAM _Mem
>> addr_.  Is there currently a way to load an ELF image correctly?
>>
>> Thanks, David
>>
> 

There currently isn't a way to do this directly using the FIS commands.
That said, the new 'load' command structure can easily be extended for
any media, so it wouldn't be too hard to extend RedBoot to be able to
do something like this:
   RedBoot> lo -m flash image.elf

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Thomas                 |  Consulting for the
MLB Associates              |    Embedded world
------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: [ECOS] Re: loading and executing an ELF image from flash.

[David Ho]

> There currently isn't a way to do this directly using the FIS commands.
> That said, the new 'load' command structure can easily be extended for
> any media, so it wouldn't be too hard to extend RedBoot to be able to
> do something like this:
>    RedBoot> lo -m flash image.elf

Thanks to the invaluable guidance, I was able to get ELF booting from
flash fairly easily.

I guess this could be extended to an explicit flash address, but I
will allow other brave souls to tackle that issue.  I have the code
available and I can fix it up if others are interested.

David

RedBoot> load -r -b 0x10000000 -m xmodem -c 0
CRaw file loaded 0x10000000-0x1001931a, assumed entry at 0x10000000
xyzModem - CRC mode, 807(SOH)/0(STX)/0(CAN) packets, 1 retries
RedBoot> fis create -b 0x10000000 -l 0x1931a -e 0x0 RedBoot2
** WARNING: RAM address: 0x10000000 may be invalid
   valid range is 0x00000000-0x00040000
... Erase from 0x00420000-0x00440000: ..
... Program from 0x10000000-0x1001931a at 0x00420000: ..
... Erase from 0x007e0000-0x007f0000: .
... Program from 0x00030000-0x00040000 at 0x007e0000: .
... Program from 0x0003000a-0x0003000c at 0x007e000a: .
RedBoot> fis list
Name              FLASH addr  Mem addr    Length      Entry point
RedBoot           0x00400000  0x00400000  0x00020000  0x00000000
RedBoot2          0x00420000  0x10000000  0x00020000  0x00000000
RedBoot config    0x007D0000  0x007D0000  0x00001000  0x00000000
FIS directory     0x007E0000  0x007E0000  0x00010000  0x00000000
Redundant FIS     0x007F0000  0x007F0000  0x00010000  0x00000000
RedBoot> x -b 0x420000
00420000: 7F 45 4C 46 01 01 01 61  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |.ELF...a........|
00420010: 02 00 28 00 01 00 00 00  40 00 00 10 34 00 00 00  |..(.....@...4...|
RedBoot> load -m fis Redboot2
RedBoot> go
+
RedBoot(tm) bootstrap and debug environment [RAM]
Non-certified release, version UNKNOWN - built 13:33:43, Jul 21 2006

Platform: NMX SATMODEM (ARM7TDMI)
Copyright (C) 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Red Hat, Inc.

RAM: 0x00000000-0x00040000, [0x100121e8-0x00040000] available
     0x10000000-0x10100000, [0x10000000-0x10100000] available

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