Flash Installation

This process makes use of the ETS software programmed into flash bank A in order to write RedBoot into flash bank B. To do this you will need to set up a TFTP server on a machine that is accessible from the development board.

Before downloading and programming the RedBoot image, ETS and the TFTP Bootloader must be configured. Full details for doing this are available in the documentation that accompanies the board. The following steps should be read in conjunction with that.

The first step is to connect an RS232 cable between the upper of the SDK7780 serial ports and the host PC. Next start a terminal emulation application such as HyperTerminal or minicom on the host PC and set the serial communication parameters to 115200 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit (8N1) and no flow control (handshaking). Also connect an ethernet cable that is on the same network as the TFTP server.

Apply power to the SDK7780 and press the power button. The board should boot automatically into ETS and after an initial report of the board configuration should display the ETS MAIN MENU. Select option 2 Boot Configuration Menu and then option 1 Change Configuration. Now select option 1 TFTP and accept the default 5s delay. Check that SW4-4&5 are off and answer Y to the remaining questions. Once the process is finished, reset the board to restart.

On restart the board will boot into the TFTP Boot Loader after a 5s delay. It will immediately drop into a configuration dialog. Decide whether to use DHCP or static IP. Static IP is recommended for which you will need to enter this board's IP address and that of the TFTP server. For the kernel filename enter redboot.bin; answer Y to download to flash bank B; enter B for the file format; accept the default load address; answer N for the disk image and command line; enter F to select the flash boot option and Y for SW4-4 state. The output should look something like this:

Press 'SPACE Bar' key or wait for 5 seconds to enter TFTP Boot Loader.

Press any other key to start ETS.


Starting TFTP Boot Loader...

Renesas SDK7780 (Little Endian Mode)
SH TFTP Bootloader Version 2.30
   Copyright (C) 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
   Copyright (C) 2004 Renesas Technology Europe Limited

This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under
under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1 or later.

Platform MAC Address - 0000:87D6:3EB2

No configuration found in flash, entering setup...

Setup TFTP Bootloader Configuration:

At any prompt press 'Enter' to leave unchanged or 'Esc' key to quit.

Use DHCP to setup network?(Default=Static IP)[Y/N]: n

Enter board IP address [NNN.NNN.NNN.NNN]         : 10.0.3.2
Enter server IP address [NNN.NNN.NNN.NNN]        : 10.0.1.2
Enter kernel (user program) filename             : redboot.bin
Download to flash Bank B?(Default=Bank A) [Y/N]  : y
Download file format Binary/S-record? [B/S]      : b
Binary load address [default=H'88210000]         :
Load a disk image? [Y/N]                         : n
Setup kernel command line? [Y/N]                 : n
Boot option: TFTP, Flash, Don't Boot(TFTP Bootloader Main Menu)? [T/F/N]: f

Is flash Bank A write protect switch SW4-4 = 'OFF'? [Y/N] : y

Updating Boot Flash - Do not switch-off, reset or disconnect until complete.
Please wait, saving the new Boot configuration...

Successfully saved new TFTP Bootloader configuration.



TFTP Bootloader Main Menu
-------------------------
  1. Boot from network
  2. Boot from flash
  3. Boot from FAT32 format MMC card
  4. Load program into flash
  5. Display configuration
  6. Change configuration
Command:>

The bootloader will now drop into its main menu. We are now ready to download and program the RedBoot image. Locate the file redboot_ROM.bin in the release loaders directory and copy it to the TFTP server's directory naming it redboot.bin. At the TFTP bootloader select option 4 which should it to fetch the redboot.bin file from the server. Answer Y for the SW4-5 state and wait for the flash to be written. The output should look something like this:

TFTP Bootloader Main Menu
-------------------------
  1. Boot from network
  2. Boot from flash
  3. Boot from FAT32 format MMC card
  4. Load program into flash
  5. Display configuration
  6. Change configuration
Command:>4
Board IP address : 10.0.3.2
Server IP address: 10.0.1.2
Downloading redboot.bin to flash bank B
Downloaded 175144 bytes, crc 471083609

Is flash Bank B write protect switch SW4-5 = 'OFF'? [Y/N] : y
Flash: S29GL256M (67108864 bytes)
Sectors: 1024 (131072 bytes each)
Writing to flash...
b 00000001 add A4000000

Toggle flash bank select switch to boot from bank B

TFTP Bootloader Main Menu
-------------------------
  1. Boot from network
  2. Boot from flash
  3. Boot from FAT32 format MMC card
  4. Load program into flash
  5. Display configuration
  6. Change configuration
Command:>

Toggle SW4-1 to select bank B for booting and reset the board. The following output should appear:

+**Warning** FLASH configuration checksum error or invalid key
Use 'fconfig -i' to [re]initialize database
Ethernet eth0: MAC address 00:00:d6:87:b2:3e
IP: 10.0.2.4/255.0.0.0, Gateway: 10.0.0.3
Default server: 0.0.0.0

RedBoot(tm) bootstrap and debug environment [ROM]
Non-certified release, version UNKNOWN - built 13:52:55, Jan 22 2007

Platform: Renesas SDK7780 (SH7780)
Copyright (C) 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Copyright (C) 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 eCosCentric Limited

RAM: 0x88000000-0x8a000000, [0x8800b758-0x89fc1000] available
FLASH: 0x80000000-0x83ffffff, 512 x 0x20000 blocks
RedBoot>

At this stage the RedBoot flash management initialization has not yet happened so the warning about the configuration checksum error is expected. To perform this initialization use the fis init -f command:

RedBoot> fis init -f
About to initialize [format] FLASH image system - continue (y/n)? y
*** Initialize FLASH Image System
... Erase from 0x83fe0000-0x83ffffff: .
... Program from 0x89fd0000-0x89ff0000 to 0x83fe0000: .
RedBoot>

At the end, the block of flash at location 0x83FE0000 holds information about the various flash blocks, allowing other flash management operations to be performed.

Flash Configuration

The next step is to set up RedBoot's non-volatile configuration values:

RedBoot> fconfig -i
Initialize non-volatile configuration - continue (y/n)? y
Run script at boot: false
Use BOOTP for network configuration: true
Default server IP address:
Console baud rate: 115200
DNS server IP address:
Set eth0 network hardware address [MAC]: false
GDB connection port: 9000
Force console for special debug messages: false
Network debug at boot time: false
Update RedBoot non-volatile configuration - continue (y/n)? y
... Erase from 0x83fe0000-0x83ffffff: .
... Program from 0x89fd0000-0x89ff0000 to 0x83fe0000: .
RedBoot>

For most of these configuration variables, the default value is correct, although you may wish to provide a default server used for TFTP retrieval, and default DNS server. If there is no suitable BOOTP or DHCP service running on the local network then BOOTP should be disabled and, instead, RedBoot will prompt for a fixed IP address, netmask, and addresses for the local gateway and DNS server.

Once you have set appropriate RedBoot flash configuration values you may reset the board. When RedBoot issues its prompt, it is ready to accept connections from sh-elf-gdb, allowing applications to be downloaded and debugged. Connections can be made via either serial port, or by TCP to port 9000 (or an alternative port if manually set by the fconfig command).

Occasionally it may prove necessary to update the installed RedBoot image. This can be done simply by repeating the above process by toggling SW4-1 back to boot ETS and the TFTP bootloader. Alternatively, the existing RedBoot install can be used to load the RAM-resident version in which case the standard RAM RedBoot build can be used. See the RedBoot documentation for instruction on how to do this.