Re: [ECOS] RedBoot necessary for porting ecos?

[Michael Jones <mjones@linear.com>]

Lukas,

I just went through the newbie problems, so I'll give some advice. I am not an expert, but I can tell you my thoughts based on my newbie experience.

RedBoot is basically a program that runs in the target device's flash, and loads an application over some serial device and then becomes a GDB server. In this case, RedBoot is an eCos application just like the application you are debugging.

The issues with using RedBoot are that the application being debugged can corrupt RedBoot, and RedBoot uses up memory that the application could use. I managed to get this to work on a K60, which is also CortexM3, but eventually I decided to use a JTAG debugger instead. I found the experience using JTAG much better. However, if you need to debug over an ethernet, RedBoot could do it.

For JTAG, find the openocd website and find it's pdf manual. In that manual is a list of supported JTAG devices. Then look in its script files to see if there is a script for your target, JTAG device, etc. Once you are satisfied, buy the JTAG device. I used one from Amontec. If you choose that, my blog post explains how to compile openocd and deal with drivers for the JTagKey (on linux).

Once openocd is running and connected to the target, GDB will debug using an IP address and port. Openocd is basically a GDB server that talks to JTAG.

You can also buy more expensive solutions based on ethernet that have GDB servers built in, but JTAG is a reasonable place to start.

I also use Eclipse, but that took a bit of effort. But I did post a blog on how I did it if you want to try it. Using Eclipse does not give you a task aware debugger, because neither does GDB. But you can eventually purchase a task aware debugger if you need one.

Mike

On Jan 10, 2013, at 5:55 PM, Lukas Riezler <lukas.riezler@gmx.net> wrote:

> Hello everyone!
> 
> First I have to say, that I'm quite new in microcontroller theme (and my english is not so good).
> But I'm interested to get ecos run on my IAR-EvalBoard with CortexM3 (FM3).
> I've read a lot of stuff but though I have some elementary questions:
> 
> - is it a requirement to work with RedBoot or is it also possible to port ecos without using RedBoot?
> - I know that RedBoot is based on the ecos-HAL. Does it mean, if I port RedBoot to my target, that I can use later the same HAL-Code for ecos?
> 
> With kind regards,
> Lukas R. 
> 
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