kobol-wiki/docs/spi.md

Hardware

System-On-Module used by Helios4 provide an SPI NOR flash Winbond W25Q32 connected to SPI bus 1 Chip Select 0.

By default, Helios4 configured to boot from microSD card. To boot from SPI NOR flash (after writing U-Boot into SPI NOR flash), please change Boot Mode DIP switch SW1 to:

Build U-Boot for SPI NOR flash

Refer to U-Boot page to build the image.

!!! info Prebuilt SPI image of U-Boot 2013.01 can be downloaded from here.

Write U-Boot to SPI NOR flash

Prerequisites

1. Access to Helios4 Serial Console. Please refer to Install page for instructions.

2. Bootable U-Boot on microSD card.

Generic Linux

!!! info Concurrent access on SPI NOR and SATA drive can lead to unstable SATA. The following instructions has taken this issue into consideration and workaround it by disabling the SATA temporary.

1. Put u-boot binaries on home folder and rename it as u-boot-spi.bin.

2. Download boot_spi_en.scr from here and put it to /boot/ and then reboot the system

sudo wget https://wiki.kobol.io/files/software/boot_spi_en.scr -O /boot/boot_spi_en.scr
sudo reboot

!!! info Source code of boot_spi_en.scr can be downloaded from here

3. Switch to Helios4 serial console. Press any key to cancel the autoboot and execute these commands

setenv script_name "/boot/boot_spi_en.scr"
stage_boot mmc_scr

It will boot to Linux with modified device tree.

4. Log in to Helios4, verify whether mtdblock0 is exist using lsblk

lsblk
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
mtdblock0    31:0    0    4M  0 disk
mmcblk0     179:0    0 14.9G  0 disk
└─mmcblk0p1 179:1    0 14.8G  0 part /

5. Write the u-boot to SPI flash using this command

sudo dd if=~/u-boot-spi.bin of=/dev/mtdblock0

6. Set DIP switches SW1 to SPI Boot

and reboot the system. Observe the boot message on serial console, it should display

BootROM - 1.73
Booting from SPI flash

Armbian

!!! info Preliminary

1. Open /boot/armbianEnv.txt and modify spi_workaround="on"

2. Reboot the system to apply the change

3. Login to the system and run

sudo nand-sata-install

4. Select option 5 Install the bootloader to SPI Flash

Set Up U-Boot Environment

!!! info The prebuilt SPI image has been configured to automatically run /boot/boot.scr and /boot.scr on microSD or USB drive. There is no need to set up u-boot environment to boot Armbian.

Add U-Boot ENV variables to prevent U-Boot to relocate fdt and initrd into RAM address that is not accessible by kernel, and set the correct device tree name for Helios4 board

setenv fdt_high 0xffffffff
setenv initrd_high 0xffffffff
setenv fdtfile armada-388-helios4.dtb
saveenv

• To automatically boot Linux on microSD card

setenv bootargs '${console} root=/dev/mmcblk0p1 rootwait'
setenv bootcmd 'ext2load mmc 0:1 ${kernel_addr_r} /boot/zImage; ext2load mmc 0:1 ${ramdisk_addr_r} /boot/uInitrd; ext2load mmc 0:1 ${fdt_addr} /boot/dtb/${fdtfile}; bootz ${kernel_addr_r}  ${ramdisk_addr_r} ${fdt_addr}'
saveenv

• To automatically boot Linux on USB drive (assume UUID=1234)

setenv bootargs '${console} root=UUID=1234 rootwait'
setenv bootcmd 'ext2load usb 0:1 ${kernel_addr_r} /boot/zImage; ext2load usb 0:1 ${ramdisk_addr_r} /boot/uInitrd; ext2load usb 0:1 ${fdt_addr} /boot/dtb/${fdtfile}; bootz ${kernel_addr_r}  ${ramdisk_addr_r} ${fdt_addr}'
saveenv

Moving Rootfs to Other Device

Please refer to Armbian page to move the rootfs from microSD to USB using nand-sata-install utility.