Niagara 510: Updating x-loader and u-boot
Overview
- The Broadcom SOC uses a first stage boot loader called x-loader and this is called as soon as the unit powers on.
- x-loader then calls and runs the second stage boot loader u-boot
- x-loader exists on the first partition of the SD card
- u-boot exists on the second partition (FAT FS) of the SD card
Updating x-loader
x-loader is provided with the IM510 SDK (version 2.3 in this case):
Jons-MacBook-Air-2:~ Jon$ cd Downloads/N511_Sdk23
Jons-MacBook-Air-2:N511_Sdk23 Jon$ tree
.
├── Binaries
│ ├── n511_225_xload.bin # <-- This is the x-loader image
│ ├── n511_225_xload_38400.bin # <-- This is the same with serial set to 38400 baud
│ ├── n511_23_u-boot.bin
│ ├── n511_23_u-boot_38400.bin
│ ├── nae_app_N511_23
│ ├── netos_N511_23.elf
│ ├── vmlinux_N511_23
│ ├── xlp8xx-linux.dtb_N511_23
│ └── xlp8xx-netos.dtb_N511_23
├── Kconfig
├── Patches
│ ├── X.patch
│ ├── lib.patch
│ ├── sysconfig.patch
│ ├── u-boot.patch
│ └── xloader.patch
├── README
├── build.sh
├── init
├── nae.c
└── nlm_xlp_evp_N511_defconfigIdentify the SD card (using lsblk in this case):
[root@localhost ~]# lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 1.8T 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 500M 0 part /boot
└─sda2 8:2 0 1.8T 0 part
├─VolGroup-lv_root (dm-0) 253:0 0 50G 0 lvm /
├─VolGroup-lv_swap (dm-1) 253:1 0 31.5G 0 lvm [SWAP]
└─VolGroup-lv_home (dm-2) 253:2 0 1.8T 0 lvm /home
sde 8:64 1 1.9G 0 disk # <-- This is the SD card
├─sde1 8:65 1 155.9M 0 part
└─sde2 8:66 1 1.7G 0 partUse dd to write the x-loader image to the sd card.
NB - use the disk identifier, not the partition number in the "of=" argument:
[root@localhost ~]# dd if=n511_225_xload.bin of=/dev/sde seek=2
229+1 records in
229+1 records out
117440 bytes (117 kB) copied, 0.0861841 s, 1.4 MB/s