U-Boot flashing utilities and kwboot binary

Update Jan 14, 2025

1 . If you are installing u-boot and Debian rootfs on Kirkwood boxes for the first time, you can use the latest flashing utilities on the rootfs itself. No need to download the binpack. But if you'd prefer to have a tool box just in case, then the binaries in the binpack will be handy to have. For kwboot, please download the latest kwboot binaries attached to this post.

2. I've attached the 2025.01-rc1 kwboot static binary (x86-64) to this post:

kwboot_2025.01-rc1_x86-64.tar.bz2
(kwboot version u-boot version 2025.01-rc1-ge61ea9f2e5d2-dirty)
sha256:
a63e93d76bafa01605dbed5e0d786e689187d3a85b8bcda153847406580e1f8d

After downloaded, you can extract and rename kwboot_2025.01-rc1_x86-64 to just kwboot.

Update Mar 02, 2024

1 . If you are installing u-boot and Debian rootfs on Kirkwood boxes for the first time, you can use the latest flashing utilities on the rootfs itself. No need to download the binpack. But if you'd prefer to have a tool box just in case, then the binaries in the binpack will be handy to have. For kwboot, please download the latest kwboot binary attached to this post.

2. I've attached the 2024.04 kwboot static binary (ARM) to this post (this kwboot binary can be run on any ARM box):

kwboot_static_2024.04-rc3
(kwboot version 2024.04-rc3-00001-g0861eab8ec-dirty)
md5:
a746d7346df1876933fe686894f2cf38 
sha256:
0d20e803462a4c4c82e1579251a4e6e26ae488dbf4f444b785c38de58f0143f3

After downloaded, you can rename kwboot_static_2024.04-rc3 to just kwboot.

Update Feb 29, 2024

1 . If you are installing u-boot and Debian rootfs on Kirkwood boxes for the first time, you can use the latest flashing utilities on the rootfs itself. No need to download the binpack. But if you'd prefer to have a tool box just in case, then the binaries in the binpack will be handy to have. For kwboot, please download the latest kwboot binary attached to this post.

2. I've attached the 2024.04 kwboot binary (ARM) here:

kwboot_2024.04-rc3 
(kwboot version 2024.04-rc3-00001-g0861eab8ec)
md5:
a86a783a5b7860397ef3fa6a98d031bf  kwboot_2024.04-rc3
sha256:
8ec524a1f5d7475b7df059e40366f3cbc7a94babf91db3c84e0faaae4cc1ab90  kwboot_2024.04-rc3

After downloaded, you can rename kwboot_2024.04-rc3 to just kwboot.

=======

While in stock OS, you can download the following binpack so that the normal tools for use in nand installation will be available in the system. Since Dropbox use https, you can download it to an USB stick on another Linux box and copy this tarball to the stock OS (I'll upload this to my available storage here so stock wget can be used, when I can).

Dowload at Dropbox
linux-tools-installation-bodhi.tar.gz
md5:
e58f442411eb35e641d40ea0577e00ff linux-tools-installation-bodhi.tar.gz
sha256:
88dfa8eadb319e2e286320643a654bf89bff0b0d450562fce09938e7f3b0007d linux-tools-installation-bodhi.tar.gz
Date: May 18 00:31 PST

This binpack contains these files:

tools/
tools/busybox
tools/e2fsck
tools/nanddump
tools/fw_printenv
tools/flash_erase
tools/nandwrite
tools/fw_env.config

Note that fw_printenv is the same binary as fw_setenv. And the fw_env.config should be in /etc so it can be used to set envs after you have installed new u-boot.

cd tools
ln -s fw_printenv fw_setenv
cp -a fw_env.config /etc/

You can execute these binaries directly, or copy them to /usr/loclal/bin or /usr/sbin in stock OS for later emergency use.

-bodhi
===========================
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Edited 18 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2025 07:12PM by bodhi.

I tried running mke2fs on my Pogoplug Pro (oxnas) with the stock os, and it doesn't seem to work. I did run "chmod 755 mke2fs", but the following error came up.

/tmp #  ./mke2fs -L rootfs -j /dev/sda1
./mke2fs: error while loading shared libraries: libext2fs.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
/tmp # ls

I haven't tried running any of the other tools yet.

bob Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I tried running mke2fs on my Pogoplug Pro (oxnas)
> with the stock os, and it doesn't seem to work. I
> did run "chmod 755 mke2fs", but the following
> error came up.
>
>

> /tmp #  ./mke2fs -L rootfs -j /dev/sda1
> ./mke2fs: error while loading shared libraries:
> libext2fs.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No
> such file or directory
> /tmp # ls
> 
>

>
> I haven't tried running any of the other tools
> yet.

Thanks for reporting. Please let me know when you try other tools whether they work. For mke2fs, if you can, use another Linux box for it. I'll take a look in stock OS to see if this is already available.

-bodhi
===========================
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2016 04:05AM by bodhi.

I finished the Debian install with Qui's tutorial and his version of mke2fs worked well for me. I no longer am able to boot into the stock OS so I cannot test the other tools. However your tools work perfectly in Debian 7 and Debian 8. As a side note, wget in the stock OS doesn't support ssl, so if you can find a non secured webhost, that would make like easier for others in the future.

Thanks for providing them as well as all the other kernel and uboot work :)

hi,
i tried it on a fresh pogoplug pro with stock firmware.
/usr/bin # bzip2
bzip2: error while loading shared libraries: libbz2.so.1.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
/usr/bin # e2fsck
e2fsck: error while loading shared libraries: libext2fs.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
/usr/bin # mke2fs
mke2fs: error while loading shared libraries: libext2fs.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

others work fine.
jay

ps:
bzip2 was already present as link to dropbear...

Thanks jay!

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jay,

I've updated the tools, please download, try and report.

-bodhi
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hi,

for strange reasons i dont receive notifications from the forum anymore...
i will test the tools on a goflex net and the oxnas pogo pro tomorrow...

jay

Jay,

I've updated the tools binpack just now.

-bodhi
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2016 05:49PM by bodhi.

Hi bob,

I know it's a little bit more works to download it from a secure site such as Dropbox, but that's was my intention. At this day and age, I would only go to https site to download something. And to make it a little more secure, I've also intentionally kept the hash checksum for the download files on this site (but not providing it at Dropbox).

-bodhi
===========================
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hi bodhi,

> I've updated the tools binpack just now.

i saw, first you replaced the defective files with a busybox,
now you replaced the busynox and added an fsck.
a little script to build the symlinks of the incuded applets would be fine...

jay

re,
now i tested on a goflex net:
e2fsck works.
the busyboxes works both.
but the actual one lacks support of mke2fs while the former (smaller) did...

jay.

> but the actual one lacks support of mke2fs while
> the former (smaller) did...

Right! it did not work on all boxes (kirkwood and oxnas plugs), so I removed it.

To do that I'll need to compile e2fsprog as static bin. I think the binpack is good enough for installation now. When I have some free time I will recompile e2fsprog.

-bodhi
===========================
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re,
i also found that at the goflexnet there is the already elsewhere reported:
./fw_printenv: /lib/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.7' not found (required by ./fw_printenv)

jay

p.s. for me thats ok, i just wanted to report as asked...

jay Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> re,
> i also found that at the goflexnet there is the
> already elsewhere reported:
> ./fw_printenv: /lib/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.7'
> not found (required by ./fw_printenv)
>
> jay
>
> p.s. for me thats ok, i just wanted to report as
> asked...

Argh :) that fw_printenv is too new. I'll find another one.

-bodhi
===========================
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Binpack was updated.

-bodhi
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I've updated the first post to include the latest kwboot binary (ARM version).

-bodhi
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This is needed when kwboot comes from your distribution is not new enough, and deb-src build is too involved/does not work.

(make sure you have enough RAM and/or swap)

sudo apt install build-essential git bison flex libssl-dev libncurses-dev
git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/u-boot/u-boot.git
cd u-boot
make iconnect_defconfig
make tools-only

build result

$ file tools/kwboot
tools/kwboot: ELF 32-bit LSB pie executable, ARM, EABI5 version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib/ld-linux.so.3, BuildID[sha1]=2a733b1700e2d1f477e20920ab43e88eb685d0a9, for GNU/Linux 3.2.0, not stripped
$ tools/kwboot
kwboot version 2025.07-ge80998a77b97
Usage: kwboot [OPTIONS] [-b <image> | -D <image> | -b | -d ] [-B <baud> ] [-t] <TTY>

  -b <image>: boot <image> with preamble (Kirkwood, Avanta, Armada 370/XP/375/38x/39x)
  -D <image>: boot <image> without preamble (Dove)
  -b: enter xmodem boot mode
  -d: enter console debug mode
  -a: use timings for Armada XP
  -s <resp-timeo>: use specific response-timeout
  -o <block-timeo>: use specific xmodem block timeout

  -t: mini terminal

  -B <baud>: set baud rate

Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/2025 03:17PM by eno789.

Birian,

The kwboot binaries I've uploaded in the first post should work fine for all cases. If any version does not work for you, please report.

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The static linked one works well on all platforms.
I was just a little curious how to build the latest version myself.