Re: Instructions for upgrading U-boot on Marvell OpenRD "Base" computer?
On Jun 2, 2015, at 9:15 AM, Martin Michlmayr <tbm@cyrius.com> wrote:
> * Rick Thomas <rbthomas@pobox.com> [2015-05-31 19:11]:
>> I’ve got an old Marvell OpenRD Base computer that I’d like to install Debian Jessie on.
>>
>> I believe that I’ll need to up-grade the u-boot on it to handle new features in the Jessie kernel.
>
> I haven't had an OpenRD in years but back then I always used the
> original u-boot without any problems. Why do you think a new u-boot
> is required for jessie? Have you tried it and things are not working?
>
> (After jessie, the kernel has been converted to DTB, but flash-kernel
> already appends the correct DTB.)
>
>> 1) Where to get a suitable u-boot image? (Will the one at
>> https://people.debian.org/~tbm/u-boot/2014.10+dfsg1-4/openrd_ultimate/
>> work?
>
> No, the Ultimate and Base are different. I just checked and I was
> going to say that there's support for the Base in DENX. However, I
> noticed that even the Ultimate target was removed in Debian's u-boot
> recently:
> http://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/collab-maint/u-boot.git/commit/debian/targets?id=ea2f6ce84b7788cda2cb7deb29690cb368451e8c
>
> So if you want to work out why it doesn't build and whether it boots,
> I'm sure Vagrant Cascadian would be interested in hearing from you;
> but it's probably easier to stay with the original u-boot unless that
> has problems.
>
Thanks for the reply, however discouraging!
Currently, I’m running Wheezy on the Base and its sister Ultimate.
I haven’t tried Jessie since the formal release, but I will do that and report back soon. I gather from what you say about DTB that that transition does not depend on U-Boot? So I should be able to upgrade to and beyond Jessie without problems?
The problem I’m having with Wheezy that makes me think it would be interesting to try a later U-Boot is that the original Marvell U-Boot (from 2009) is balky when booting from USB hard disks and doesn’t support booting from SD at all. If I could boot from SD, I would put /boot there and everything else on the USB disk. As it is, whenever I need to reboot the machine (I’m using it for experimentation, so that happens fairly often.) I need to log in to the serial console so I can watch and restart if booting from the hard drive fails. (Sometimes it fails in a way that requires actual physically re-setting the Base or even power-cycling it, but that’s a different story.)
Can you tell me what the most recent U-Boot version is that actually does support the OpenRD Base? If there is such a thing, do you have a suggested procedure for doing the upgrade?
> Unfortunately, it seems there aren’t many OpenRD users left.
Yes, I noticed. The web site “openrd.org” now belongs to the Open Road Motorcycle Club. Maybe it’s time to move on… The Cubox devices look interesting!
>
> --
> Martin Michlmayr
Enjoy!
Rick
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