From martinjonestechnology@googlemail.com Wed Jun 08 14:32:10 2011 Received: from mail-fx0-f44.google.com ([209.85.161.44]) by stoneboat.aleph1.co.uk with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_ARCFOUR_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1QUIrd-0003Hy-Ls for balloon@balloonboard.org; Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:32:10 +0100 Received: by fxm15 with SMTP id 15so376638fxm.31 for ; Wed, 08 Jun 2011 06:31:59 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=googlemail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:sender:message-id:date:from:organization :user-agent:mime-version:to:cc:subject:references:in-reply-to :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=eoclE6nV9HQXvBqjiVsvymWmHpo/FF79W4gPrRAEoCg=; b=UhUeUKMfp39GNl9FhEiOLBVnHy8/Xko8WP7U6rHvpsTv8Fd2F5RaBL/5BfRw7fcTB2 RQLXUocVABURonTB+ZMwH2w1KCB6kUR32LVB6OPNLHUeDNvRP+MpyEY2flvtQmVN7h8e jU+5vU5aXdQUdXajLigijZHDaH0O2l1TuFJBE= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=googlemail.com; s=gamma; h=sender:message-id:date:from:organization:user-agent:mime-version:to :cc:subject:references:in-reply-to:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; b=Sk8YG7kp+7dKSu73J1+my3rPmoAhYjCrXpZRGYfzHiZLXHm03ESY6gu+RZS1RFjT3p pB2zPdRyPijXzeO6AvmL2WobXY2UAc1dduaPPSgvNQhWDeCKGHCtHqkOMYsnlcEUimlk NT5kyikMM2ewBTR7FdTN4fvQfhNm9YYOJ8uIM= Received: by 10.223.100.15 with SMTP id w15mr2623436fan.11.1307539919825; Wed, 08 Jun 2011 06:31:59 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [10.11.65.251] (chello062178181011.17.14.vie.surfer.at [62.178.181.11]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id l26sm234755fam.21.2011.06.08.06.31.58 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=OTHER); Wed, 08 Jun 2011 06:31:58 -0700 (PDT) Sender: Chris Jones Message-ID: <4DEF79C8.1030400@martin-jones.com> Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2011 15:31:52 +0200 From: Chris Jones Organization: Martin-Jones Technology Ltd User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.17) Gecko/20110414 Thunderbird/3.1.10 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Patrick Doyle References: <20110608012636.GV5028@dream.aleph1.co.uk> <4DEF6824.3060402@martin-jones.com> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-SA-Exim-Connect-IP: 209.85.161.44 X-SA-Exim-Mail-From: martinjonestechnology@googlemail.com X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.5 (2008-06-10) on stoneboat.aleph1.co.uk X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.6 required=4.5 tests=BAYES_00,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_LOW, SPF_PASS autolearn=ham version=3.2.5 X-SA-Exim-Version: 4.2.1 (built Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:14:11 +0000) X-SA-Exim-Scanned: Yes (on stoneboat.aleph1.co.uk) Cc: balloon@balloonboard.org Subject: Re: [Balloon] Accessing NOR flash from Linux X-BeenThere: balloon@balloonboard.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.11 Precedence: list List-Id: Balloon List List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2011 13:32:10 -0000 On 08/06/2011 14:43, Patrick Doyle wrote: > I think I'll go down the path of enabling access to the FPGA partition > of the NOR flash... at least until the "too hard" LED turns on. Then > I'll start looking at the bbl path recommended by Wookey. I'm > avoiding the bbl path right now because my USB<->RS232 converter only > works natively on my MacBook, and I deemed it more difficult (and less > fun) to figure out how to make bbl run on the MacBook, than it would > be to go hack kernel code. Don't worry too much about bbl. Clever and useful though it is, it's a wrapper round existing procedures using the serial port and JTAG ports mostly. My world suffers from sufficient dependency rot that I often find it easier to work with the bare metal - see below. My favourite ways of programming the NOR Flash: - serial into the bootldr with 'load flash 0x.....' and an XMODEM transfer. Pretty slow at 115kbaud but simple and reliable. - if the wind's blowing in the right direction, OpenOCD to talk to the JTAG port on the Balloon and program the NOR Flash that way. Quicker, capable of 20kbytes/sec or more, but requires more complex hardware and software. Both of these should work without too much grief on the Mac. I've used them both, though I've found USB-serial adapters on my Mac to be less than perfect. Chris -- Chris Jones - chris@martin-jones.com Martin-Jones Technology Ltd c/o Element Energy Ltd Twenty Station Road, Cambridge, CB1 2JD, UK Phone +44 (0) 1223 655611 Fax +44 (0) 870 112 3908