uBoot for Ix2-200

I was just wondering if anyone could give me any pointers or if someone that knows how, could tell me how to go about compileing a new uBoot for the iomega storecenter ix2-200.

I have it running arch linux and debian (whichever i want at the time) and can use the latest 3.10.10 kernel with device tree.

im just wondering what benefits there are to newer uBoot's and how do i compile a new uBoot and test it.

If there's any information i can supply to help i will do the best i can to provide it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/2013 10:12AM by Buttzy10169.

Buttzy10169,

Quote

I have it running arch linux and debian (whichever i want at the time) and can use the latest 3.10.10 kernel with device tree.

You are running a quite recent uBoot if you can run with 3.10.10 device tree. I don't see any benefit in updating uBoot. In the future, if you encounter any boot problem then you could try building newer uBoot.

Btw, which uBoot version you're running? Is this uBoot or some other version?

U-Boot 1.1.4 (Sep  8 2009 - 09:31:54) Marvell version: 3.4.14

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/2013 09:05PM by bodhi.

it looks right im not near the device at the minute so not fully sure if its the same.

its whatever the stock uboot is anyway. i build the kernel then append the dtb to it and compile the uimage and all seems to be fine.

was just curious as i like to have the latest and greatest on all my devices. i cant load the uimage and such from an ext4 volume though so wouldnt a new uboot help that? i do however just load them from the internal memory so they work that way. its just an annoying extra step that needs to be taken when installing a fresh system.

Buttzy10169 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> it looks right im not near the device at the
> minute so not fully sure if its the same.
>
> its whatever the stock uboot is anyway. i build
> the kernel then append the dtb to it and compile
> the uimage and all seems to be fine.
>
> was just curious as i like to have the latest and
> greatest on all my devices. i cant load the uimage
> and such from an ext4 volume though so wouldnt a
> new uboot help that? i do however just load them
> from the internal memory so they work that way.
> its just an annoying extra step that needs to be
> taken when installing a fresh system.

Yes. You're using a much older uBoot. The newer version will boot FDT kernel directly, no append needed. And it also suports lot more features. The first thing to look for is the board file and other files that consitute a patch for this ix2-200. I don't know if it's available anywhere, could be Iomega GPL download? without the patch, it won't be possible to build uBoot for your box.

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There is a gpl download for the ix2-200 from their support site:

https://lenovo-eu-en.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/26776

i think thats the source there i'm not sure as its been so long since i looked it up.
what would i be looking for in it to help me create a patch for uboot?
i dont have a jtag either so how do i test it from ram? i know there was something on this site about testing it that way before but havent been able to find it?

i might still have a copy of the origional device tree patch i submitted to the mainline kernel for the box would any of the information i need be in that?

theres also the origional patch that nigelr created for pre device tree kernels on his blog here:

http://blog.nobiscuit.com/2012/02/15/kernel-patch-to-support-leds-buttons-and-sensors/

i found the following uboot patches in that source im attaching them to the post there was 4 patches and this says i can only attach 3 files so im taring them. there is also 3 different uboot sources in seperate files iin the source code from above link i did not include them.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/2013 05:43AM by Buttzy10169.

Buttzy,

That patch does not look like anything that I'm familiar with. Except for
u-boot/board/oxnas/config-820.mk

For example, the kirkwood patch that I used in building the Goflex Net uBoot contains:

diff -Naur a/board/Seagate/goflexnet/goflexnet.c b/board/Seagate/goflexnet/goflexnet.c
diff -Naur a/board/Seagate/goflexnet/goflexnet.h b/board/Seagate/goflexnet/goflexnet.h
diff -Naur a/board/Seagate/goflexnet/kwbimage.cfg b/board/Seagate/goflexnet/kwbimage.cfg
diff -Naur a/board/Seagate/goflexnet/Makefile b/board/Seagate/goflexnet/Makefile
diff -Naur a/include/configs/goflexnet.h b/include/configs/goflexnet.h

Is the ix2-200 OXNAS variant (uname -a)?

If you don't have JTAG, should try to see if you can boot with UART. I don't know if OXNAS has similar capability, though. For kirkwood devices:
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,7852
If you can't boot with UART either, then there is no other way to test uBoot builds.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/04/2013 12:46AM by bodhi.

I believe i did try the uart booting before but it did not work the uboot version is to old its 1.11 i think.

this it it on nas central:

http://iomega.nas-central.org/wiki/Category:Ix2-200

so im not sure if its an oxnas varient. If it helps at all when i install arch linux i use the openrd instructions and image.

the board is identified in uboot as:

MARVELL BOARD: RD-88F6281A LE

the standard reference board i think.

Buttzy,

It's a Kirkwood. So the patch is a wrong one.

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I know its a kirkwood i just have no idea how to go about patching / modifying a new uboot to work with it.

so im trying to supply all the information i come across so someone that knows how can help me figure out what i need to change or modify.

after searching through the uboot sources iv found the attached files they sound like they match my device but someone more knowledgeable than me would need to take a look.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/04/2013 03:54PM by Buttzy10169.

Buttzy,

I did some work on my ix2-200.
This thread is quite old but I am afraid the snail mail mode lenovo now force upon us to get the gpl code might not include the u-boot code (as I downloaded the online code they provide for newer device and find no u-boot source code within them).
I would be interested in the u-boot sources you grabbed if you still own them.

I am after board/mv_feroceon/mv_kw/
I got this path from https://github.com/niamster/uboot-marvell-openrd-ultimate/commits/master that holds the GPL code from Marvell for RD-6281A which match our board.
Somewhat Marvell customizes in a way that does not follow u-boot structure.

Technically I debug my test code with kwboot ... which is tricky on our device.
This required soldering a few pins on the ix2-200 board then plugging a 3.3V ttl serial converter.
Then ... ix2-200 Bootrom 1.11 does not play perfectly with kwboot:
- one have to start kwboot one second after ix2-200 is powered (too early and ix2-200 ... and too late the vanilla marvell u-boot take precedence°.
- and I have to close picocom, that is all other serial console, else I get tons of '+' instead of '.' when kwboot loads the u-boot via the serial console. Then when it completes loading nothing happens.

As of now I found that the reference board for our device was in mainline u-boot (rd6182a.c) and matches uboot.tar.gz patches you sent.
It is likely the source have the directory board/mv_feroceon/Mv_kw (Marvell Feroceon boards, KW family) .
The full u-boot sources would be perfect (now that I got the upstream Marvell sources) as there are a few config files in other directories.

The u-boot.patches.tar.gz contained only the 4 files for oxynas likely an iomega home media device.

Hello,
I am interested also in helping compiling new u boot for old ix2-200.
I have uart working but not tested kwboot yet.
And I found in my archives an old source file EMCLifeline-3.1.12-GPL.zip

How could we work together on this?

mostly I reverted:

commit 47b87d2eedcdf7be821247e570128664709844d4
Author: Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org>
Date:   Sun Aug 30 19:19:26 2015 -0600

    arm: Remove rd6281a board
    
    This board has not been converted to generic board by the deadline.
    Remove it.

which is our board. To me it requires no conversion to generic board except back then a flag telling it was ready.

I did it above denx, that is upstream. Not such a good idea ... as the egiga0 network interface driver was rewritten
and fail on me.
The egiga1 works so I can dhcp/ping/... but still egiga0 failure slow down the boot process quite a bit.
( the issue with egiga0 mv88e61xx does not affect bohdi source as no rebase happened since this change ).

Find attached my patch against denx upstream. MInd it cope with latest changes that switched quite a few #define to Kconfig options.
Then I stripped most of my latest test, including hardcoded most of my u-boot env (ethaddr, eth1addr both at the same value + ethprime and ethact at "egiga1" a value) and loading initrd.

Right now I am toying with the idea to migrate this device to Openvault. But I will not devote another big slice of time to it until a few weeks.
I will attempt to port this revert/patch to bohdi u-boot-kirkwood this week but do not take my word :)

If you could share the EMCLifeline-3.1.12-GPL.zip ( Dropbox or google drive or another we we could sort out in PM ) I would take a look and check if we need the polarity fix from marvel patch (mvEthE6161SwitchBasicInit in board/mv_feroceon/USP/ethswitch/mvSwitch.c of board/mv_feroceon/USP/ethswitch/mvSwitch.c) for egiga0 to stop slowing down boot.

Ok I will share file in Dropbox in PVT.

Thanks I got it.
I confirm the u-boot patches are in EMCLifeline-GPL-Bellagio-patch.zip\EMCLifeline-GPL-Bellagio\Lifeline_OSSKit\u-boot not in EMCLifeline-3.1.12-GPL.zip.

I did a quick review and the three u-boot folders have implementations for the ix2.
The early ones have the code hooked in sheevaplug, then in Marvel own hooks.
As a side note, the u-boot patches dates back to January and February 2012.

Thanks a lot. I will take another stab in a few monthes (I will receive my replacement NAS around october but might do a few test beforehand).

Just seeing these messages now.

Unfortunatly I have long since bricked my ix2-200 and thrown it in the bin. I also either lost or possibly deleted all the sources I had for it. (unless they are burried in a corner of my new server / nas somewhere)

Hi guys,
I am working on an "old" IX2-200 for a friend and would also be in need of the Source Code.
Can someone help me out?

I do not really feel inclined to give Lenovo 10,-USD for GPL Sources on a CD.

Big thanks in advance!

Hi ingmar!

Good to see you posting again :)

Please someone upload the GPL for ingmar.

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Well, time's the only issue- Otherwise I would post more often.

Do I really need to pay Lenovo for that code?
Nobody around, who still has the source backed up somewhere?

ingmar_k Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well, time's the only issue- Otherwise I would
> post more often.
>
> Do I really need to pay Lenovo for that code?
> Nobody around, who still has the source backed up
> somewhere?


I've PM prahal and arvati, but has not got any answer yet.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2017 04:17PM by bodhi.

Done. I sent a PM to ingmar with a private share.
Where would I upload it to the public : gpl.nas-central.org/IOMEGA/ ?

PS: I admit I left the u-boot port aside since I found out that user space EMCLifeline (in fact Intel "Helena Island") was tightly bound to the u-boot customization.
I was unable at that time to get egiga0 ok with the new u-boot driver for the ethernet mv88e61xx.c .
I postponed further code to when the new NAS is ready (Helios 4 + drives).

kwboot : requires to "wait 1 second for u-boot to warmup before running kwboot" (thanks to https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,7852,31082#msg-31082 ) .
On my side I learned that one ought not to run picocom in parallel to kwboot ... else kwboot upload has errors "+" instead of "." and ends up freezing.

Thanks for uploading prahal!

> On my side I learned that one ought not to run
> picocom in parallel to kwboot ... else kwboot
> upload has errors "+" instead of "." and ends up
> freezing.

Indeed! kwboot is a serial console terminal by itself (after loading u-boot image). So running picocom along side would interfere with it, and there is no reason to do so.

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Big THANKS to all who helped!
If this works, the friend I am doing this for, will be quite happy.

Sorry guys I was out until today

Below is my old Pvt message with original files :

Link to dropbox folder: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mmusif2qx682ykc/AAAgBH1Pjo21LgvtWvMnpz_ma?dl=0

Hope it helps anything, I did not find anything about uboot at EMCLifeline-3.1.12-GPL.zip.

But it has something at: EMCLifeline-GPL-Bellagio-patch.zip\EMCLifeline-GPL-Bellagio\Lifeline_OSSKit\u-boot

How are this development today?
Is there any way to help or test?

arvati,

> How are this development today?
> Is there any way to help or test?

I'm not sure when I have time to get to working on u-boot for this box.

Perhaps prahal has made some progress since last time, we'd want to know about:
https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,13441,41949#msg-41949

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Hi Prahal,

You mentioned that you soldered some pins on the board... I bricked totally my ix2-200 by installing debian on it, and init-ramfs erased totally uboot with a wrong configuration. I remember that there is 2 serials on that board, one external, connected to the 4 pins serial, and one internal, connected to the 88F6281. Wondering how to revive that box, with the initial upload of uboot, maybe with kwboot: maybe jtag would allow me to access the uart, as the serial pins are not accessible at first from the uart ?

didierw,

> You mentioned that you soldered some pins on the
> board... I bricked totally my ix2-200 by
> installing debian on it, and init-ramfs erased
> totally uboot with a wrong configuration. I
> remember that there is 2 serials on that board,
> one external, connected to the 4 pins serial, and
> one internal, connected to the 88F6281. Wondering
> how to revive that box, with the initial upload of
> uboot, maybe with kwboot: maybe jtag would allow
> me to access the uart, as the serial pins are not
> accessible at first from the uart ?

Based on what prahal said above,
https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,13441,35235#msg-35235

If you find the 4 pin serial are just holes then you can just connect serial console temporarily with 3 wires. If they are solder buttons, then you can either use small clothes pins to push them in (I've done this on other boxes before). However, if you can solder now, then, by all means do that.

This box can be unbricked using kwboot with serial console. No need for JTAG yet.

-bodhi
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