Tips for adding support to latest uBoot when I have 1.1.1 level source

I have source code to an ancient uBoot version 1.1.1 I'd like to port this to the latest uboot, but I have no idea where to start and documentation on the uBoot site appears to be seriously out of date. I am an experienced C developer (over 20 years experience) and was a contributor to Linux back when m68k Macs were still a viable platform. I'd just like some pointers as I have not been able to decipher the structure of uboot (i.e. where to begin adding support).

Ray

Hi Ray,

I think you're approaching this at the wrong angle. Older u-boots patches are quite different from each others. So there is no point in starting from old u-boot. The patches usually were badly done (trust me, you'd want to curse when you read them :)) so it would introduce more uncertainty in understanding new u-boot. Ignore them until you need to read an old u-boot GPL to find certain info. Older and current u-boot architectures are quite different.

If you want to learn how to develop new u-boot, the best way is to study new u-boot code, and start modifying it. Once you get familiar with how u-boot is structured, and if you can modify it to remove/add features, then you can start developing new one using old u-boot patches.

So here is the one method: wait until somebody releases a new u-boot and find out what was added. The prime example is: I'm developing a new Cisco ON100-K9 u-boot for this community and the Linux community at large. When I push the code to my GitHub, you would go and fetch them, do a source diff between the branches or commits. Or if you're impatient, you would go to my GitHub and start diffing the branches to see what I did in developing the new HP T5325 u-boot, NSA310S u-boot, or NSA325 u-boot,....

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2016 03:54AM by bodhi.

I'm trying to create a uboot for my Kurobox-Pro. I accidentally overwrote mtd0, so if the device goes down I'm hosed as the binary image can't be found online! I have the original source code, but I have been unsuccessful in building it because it doesn't mention what tools were used or required and it fails to build with current tools. So I thought I would just add support to current uboot. There is apparently one Orion device supported by the current uboot source.

So I guess I'll start with looking at your commits for the HP T5325 and NSA units.

Thanks for the advice.

Ray

rayknight Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm trying to create a uboot for my Kurobox-Pro.
> I accidentally overwrote mtd0, so if the device
> goes down I'm hosed as the binary image can't be
> found online! I have the original source code,
> but I have been unsuccessful in building it
> because it doesn't mention what tools were used or
> required and it fails to build with current tools.

If you upload this source tarball to Dropbox I can take a look to see if I can build it.

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

And you should have backed up your NAND mtds before doing anything with it.

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

I don't have a dropbox account. However the source is available at http://downloads.buffalo.nas-central.org/KBPro_ARM9/GPL/source/u-boot.src.tar.gz Correct config is rd88f5182_NAS2_TINY_buffalo_hs_config.

I thought I was writing the mtd on another device and didn't realize my mistake until too late. Wrote a Dockstar uboot to my Kurobox-Pro instead of the intended Dockstar!

Ray

rayknight Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't have a dropbox account. However the
> source is available at
> http://downloads.buffalo.nas-central.org/KBPro_ARM
> 9/GPL/source/u-boot.src.tar.gz Correct config is
> rd88f5182_NAS2_TINY_buffalo_hs_config.
>
> I thought I was writing the mtd on another device
> and didn't realize my mistake until too late.
> Wrote a Dockstar uboot to my Kurobox-Pro instead
> of the intended Dockstar!
>
> Ray

I'll download and take a look.

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

@Ray,

There is a Release Notes in the tarball.

Quote

28-Feb-2006

Release notes for 88F5181 U-Boot, release: 1.10.8
============================================================================

Table of Contents
-----------------
1. Contents of Release
2. Supported boards
3. How to build U-Boot
4. Changes from Previous Releases
5. Known Issues
6. Disclaimer

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

Those are the directions I followed. Result from make is as follows:

In file included from /media/Development/Arm/Devices/KuroBox_Pro/u-boot/board/mv88fxx81/osServices/uboot/mvOsUboot.h:79:0,
                 from /media/Development/Arm/Devices/KuroBox_Pro/u-boot/board/mv88fxx81/osServices/mvOs.h:106,
                 from /media/Development/Arm/Devices/KuroBox_Pro/u-boot/board/mv88fxx81/Board/Nflash/mvNflashHwIf.c:64:
/media/Development/Arm/Devices/KuroBox_Pro/u-boot/board/mv88fxx81/Board/Nflash/mvNflashHwIf.c: In function ‘mvNflash16bitDataSet’:
/media/Development/Arm/Devices/KuroBox_Pro/u-boot/board/mv88fxx81/Board/Nflash/mvNflashHwIf.c:228:52: error: lvalue required as increment operand
         MV_MEMIO16_WRITE(DATA_CMD, *((MV_U16*)pSrc)++);
                                                    ^
/media/Development/Arm/Devices/KuroBox_Pro/u-boot/board/mv88fxx81/osServices/uboot/ArchARM/mvUbootArm.h:52:64: note: in definition of macro ‘MV_MEMIO16_WRITE’
     ((*((volatile unsigned short*)(addr))) = ((unsigned short)(data)))
                                                                ^
/media/Development/Arm/Devices/KuroBox_Pro/u-boot/board/mv88fxx81/Board/Nflash/mvNflashHwIf.c: In function ‘mvNflash16bitDataGet’:
/media/Development/Arm/Devices/KuroBox_Pro/u-boot/board/mv88fxx81/Board/Nflash/mvNflashHwIf.c:294:25: error: lvalue required as increment operand
         *((MV_U16*)pDst)++ = MV_MEMIO16_READ(DATA_CMD);
                         ^
/media/Development/Arm/Devices/KuroBox_Pro/u-boot/config.mk:175: recipe for target '/media/Development/Arm/Devices/KuroBox_Pro/u-boot/board/mv88fxx81/Board/Nflash/mvNflashHwIf.o' failed
make[1]: *** [/media/Development/Arm/Devices/KuroBox_Pro/u-boot/board/mv88fxx81/Board/Nflash/mvNflashHwIf.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/media/Development/Arm/Devices/KuroBox_Pro/u-boot/board/mv88fxx81/db88f5181'
Makefile:171: recipe for target 'board/mv88fxx81/db88f5181/libdb88f5181.a' failed
make: *** [board/mv88fxx81/db88f5181/libdb88f5181.a] Error 2

Ray

-------------------------------
Mod edit: use code tags



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/24/2016 02:51PM by bodhi.

rayknight Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm trying to create a uboot for my Kurobox-Pro.
> I accidentally overwrote mtd0, so if the device
> goes down I'm hosed as the binary image can't be
> found online!

you tried asking this guy if he can clone his device's uboot for you? http://www.cyrius.com/debian/orion/buffalo/kuroboxpro/

I have the same issue with old U-Boot. I do not brick my device but, i can't make right u-boot for my device.
I have a WD Sharespace which is compatible to 88f5181 board as on topicstarter.
GPL consist u-boot 1.1.1 sources but during make it fails because of pretty old gcc descriptors used.

make[1]: Entering directory '/srv/gpl_src/package/u-boot/u-boot-1.1.1/examples'
arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc: error: unrecognized command line option ‘-mshort-load-bytes’
arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc: error: unrecognized command line option ‘-mapcs-32’
arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc: error: unrecognized command line option ‘-mshort-load-bytes’
arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc: error: unrecognized command line option ‘-mapcs-32’

and at the end it fails with

arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc -g  -Os   -fno-strict-aliasing  -fno-common -ffixed-r8 -mshort-load-bytes -msoft-float -D__KERNEL__ -DTEXT_BASE=0x00f10000 -I/srv/gpl_src/package/u-boot/u-boot-1.1.1/include -fno-builtin -ffreestanding -nostdinc -isystem /usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabi/4.9/include -pipe  -DCONFIG_ARM -D__ARM__ -mapcs-32 -march=armv5 -g  -Os   -fno-strict-aliasing  -fno-common -ffixed-r8 -mshort-load-bytes -msoft-float -D__KERNEL__ -DTEXT_BASE=0x00f10000 -I/srv/gpl_src/package/u-boot/u-boot-1.1.1/include -fno-builtin -ffreestanding -nostdinc -isystem /usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabi/4.9/include -pipe  -DCONFIG_ARM -D__ARM__ -mapcs-32 -march=armv5 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -c -o stubs.o stubs.c
arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc: error: unrecognized command line option ‘-mshort-load-bytes’
arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc: error: unrecognized command line option ‘-mapcs-32’
arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc: error: unrecognized command line option ‘-mshort-load-bytes’
arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc: error: unrecognized command line option ‘-mapcs-32’
/srv/gpl_src/package/u-boot/u-boot-1.1.1/config.mk:175: recipe for target 'stubs.o' failed
make[1]: *** [stubs.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/srv/gpl_src/package/u-boot/u-boot-1.1.1/examples'
Makefile:162: recipe for target 'examples' failed
make: *** [examples] Error 2

My wish to make new u-boot supporting ext4 and larger than 2Tb HDDs.
But i stuck at the begining.