19:01 <paowz> does any of you have ever flash u-boot as a bootloader?

19:45 <bengal> paowz: yes, I flashed u-boot

19:46 <paowz> bengal, you had some good results ? it works as expected ?

19:46 <bengal> I remember that the support was very basic, it was some months ago

19:47 <paowz> ok.. I mean, as long as it launches your kernel..

19:47 <bengal> anyway, you can always recover the board shorting the pins on nand

19:47 <paowz> yes indeed..

19:47 <paowz> what tool did you use to flash ? rkflashkit or upgrade_tool ??

19:48 <bengal> rkflashkit

19:48 <paowz> I'd like to understand how these tools know the flash address where to flash..

19:48 <bengal> if you want to try, there is a basic support for barebox (another bootloader similar to u-boot)

19:48 <bengal> (only as a second-stage bootloader)

19:48 <paowz> yep, I use barebox at work..

19:49 <paowz> I got interested into u-boot for the radxa mod..

19:51 <paowz> maybe you can help to find out why it is written not to flash the .bin at this page..

19:51 <paowz> http://wiki.radxa.com/Rock/U-Boot

19:51 <paowz> bengal: they say "DON'T FLASH IT"

19:51 <paowz> weird..

19:52 <bengal> I don't know

19:57 <bengal> paowz: http://pastebin.com/2fYGHV2S

19:57 <bengal> I don't remember if it could boot a kernel

19:59 <paowz> looks to be lot of errors around i2c

19:59 <paowz> it could not find partitions, apparently.. weird..

20:00 <paowz> and at the time you experimented that, you don't remember if you could actually start the kernel ?

20:01 <bengal> I was only looking at low level initialization, because I wanted to add it to barebox

20:01 <bengal> but then I found that it uses a binary blob for ddr initialization

20:04 <paowz> wow

20:05 <paowz> a binary blob.. hence, closed sources..

20:06 <paowz> interesting.. so you think, we're stuck with the proprietary bootloader from RockChip ?

20:10 <bengal> I think so

20:11 <bengal> until Rockchip decides to opensource the bootloader

20:11 <paowz> hmm..

20:11 <bengal> they started contributing to the linux kernel... maybe they will open the bootloader as well

20:11 <paowz> they started recently ?

20:12 <paowz> they wish to add their ARMv7 to mainline kernek ?

20:12 <paowz> *kernel

20:12 <bengal> a couple of months maybe

20:12 <paowz> very recent..

20:12 <paowz> question concerning flash tools.. where do they get flash addresses for flashing ?

20:13 <paowz> for instance, rkflashkit propose severals partitions, depending of your parameter files..

20:13 <paowz> does it mean it reads the file content to get to know the partitions addresses and sizes ?

20:14 <bengal> sorry, I don't know

20:16 <paowz> when I used to flash, I used to provide an address (whatever flash type you got, top-bottom or bottom-top)

20:17 <paowz> Loading partition information

20:17 <paowz> MACHINE_MODEL:radxa_rock

20:17 <paowz> MANUFACTURER:RADXA

20:17 <paowz> MAGIC: 0x5041524B

20:17 <paowz> MACHINE_ID:007

20:17 <paowz> ATAG: 0x60000800

20:17 <paowz> MACHINE: 3066

20:17 <paowz> CHECK_MASK: 0x80

20:17 <paowz> KERNEL_IMG: 0x60408000

20:17 <paowz> #RECOVER_KEY: 1,1,0,20,0

20:17 <paowz> #CMDLINE:console=ttyFIQ0,115200 console=tty0 root=/dev/block/mtd/by-name/linuxroot rw rootfstype=ext4 init=/sbin/init mac_addr=de:ad:de:ad:be:ef initrd=0x62000000,0x00800000 mtdparts=rk29xxnand:0x00008000@0x00002000(boot),-@0x0000A000(linuxroot)

20:17 <paowz> CMDLINE:console=ttyFIQ0,115200 console=tty0 root=/dev/block/mtd/by-name/linuxroot rw rootfstype=ext4 init=/sbin/init initrd=0x62000000,0x00800000 mtdparts=rk29xxnand:0x00008000@0x00002000(boot),0x00E00000@0x00A000(linuxroot)

20:17 <paowz> my guess is these tools get partition information by reading the partition containing parameter file..

20:18 <paowz> what if I wipe this partition..

20:18 <bengal> I suppose that uses kernel partitions specified in parameters file

20:19 <bengal> probably it's not a good idea to erase it :)

20:20 <paowz> it must be within one of these partitions..

20:20 <paowz> http://wiki.radxa.com/Rock/partitions

20:21 <paowz> rk29xxnand:0x00002000@0x00000000(parameter)

20:25 <paowz> yes.. apparently, parameter file is contained in the first partition referenced as "misc" by Radxa..

20:25 <paowz> this partition is being read by flash tools to get to know where to flash.

20:26 <paowz> and indeed, erasing it would be a bad idea..

20:26 <bengal> maybe the tool can always rewrite the parameter file

20:27 <bengal> at a fixed location

20:27 <paowz> I don't see this option in rkflashkit.. let me see in upgrade_tool..

20:29 <paowz> there is no such option to do so.. but you can achieve the same by using raw flashing..

20:29 <paowz> I mean WriteSector address, file blablabla..

20:30 <paowz> ..at 0x00002000, nowhere else..

20:43 <paowz> bengal: ok.. gotta go.. nice to talk with you ;) see ya !!

20:43 <bengal> hi paowz

20:43 <bengal> bye