HOWTO U-Boot

From NAS-Central Buffalo - The Linkstation Wiki

Revision as of 02:39, 5 July 2006

WARNING! THE NIJINO U-BOOT BOOTLOADER IS NOT FULLY TESTED. ALTHOUGH IT HAS BEEN INSTALLED SUCCESSFULLY ON BOTH STANDARD AND HG KUROBOXES, THERE HAS BEEN AT LEAST ONE KUROBOX BRICKED. THINK LONG AND HARD BEFORE PERFORMING THIS MODIFICATION. A BRICKED KUROBOX REQUIRES JTAG ACCESS TO REPAIR AND IS NOT COVERED UNDER THE KUROBOX WARRANTY

Introduction

The U-Boot project for the Kurobox is something that the community was waiting for since a long time ! Nijino was the first one to provide a patch to adapt U-Boot to the Kurobox architecture and specifications ! It'll allow you to boot from a kernel on the hard drive, thing that was not possible since the buffalo's boot was only booting from the kernel in flash (that is a 2.4.17 kernel version).

Known functions and limitations

Functions :

• Will boot a kernel image in uImage format stored on a HDD
• Will boot in EM (Emergency Mode) if pressing red button at bootup just after the HDD light stop blinking (The EM mode take around 2 minutes to start for me, so don't worry if after few seconds you still can't ping your Kurobox)

Limitations :

• This version of U-Boot comes with no support for ethernet, so for now booting or connecting to u-boot from network is impossible. According to the Nijino, the author of the patch, Ethernet driver implementation will not be easy, so we may never see this function in our Kuroboxes !

Building the Linux kernel in U-Boot format

To be able to build a kernel in uImage format, you'll need mkimage tool that is built when compiling U-Boot (check #Building_your_own_U-Boot_binary if you want to build it). You can download a compiled version of this tool here. Just download it, chmod 0755 it and move the file to /usr/bin. Now to compile the kernel, follow the usual way :

export ARCH=ppc
make menuconfig
make oldconfig

and then instead of the make vmlinux, do a

make uImage

it'll create a uImage file there : arch/ppc/boot/images/uImage, so after kernel compilation, do a

cp arch/ppc/boot/images/uImage /boot/

then follow with module compilation and installation as usual

make modules
sudo make modules_install

To help people, i built some kernels in uImage format :

• Kernel 2.6.17.1 for standard Kurobox
• Kernel 2.6.17.1 for Kurobox HG

just get the file according to the Kurobox you have and "tar xzf" it from root (/)

Flash U-Boot on your Kurobox

WARNING! There is a possibility that you could brick your NAS with these instructions. Please make sure that you read the entire page carefully. The Kurobox and Kurobox HG use a different U-Boot flash image. If the wrong image is written to the flash memory, your Kurobox will not boot up.

I have built both the Standard and HG version of the patched U-Boot (1.1.4) using gcc version 4.1.2 20060613 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-5). These flash images are configured to load the kernel image from /boot/uImage on hda1.

Standard Kurobox

This is for the standard Kurobox only !!!! For Kurobox HG, check #Kurobox_HG !!!

This is for the standard Kurobox only !!!! For Kurobox HG, check #Kurobox_HG !!!

This is for the standard Kurobox only !!!! For Kurobox HG, check #Kurobox_HG !!!

This is for the standard Kurobox only !!!! For Kurobox HG, check #Kurobox_HG !!!

Kernel 2.4.x for standard Kurobox only

Boot your kernel as usual and download the U-Boot version for standard Kurobox :

http://www.kurobox.com/sylver/u-boot/u-boot-1.1.4-kurobox.tar.gz

untar it and check the checksum :

> tar xzf u-boot-1.1.4-kurobox.tar.gz
> cksum u-boot.bin
1870540566 164676 u-boot.bin

If all is ok, flash the boot !

dd if=u-boot.bin of=/dev/fl2 bs=1k

Make sure the boot is ok in flash :

> cmp u-boot.bin /dev/fl2
cmp: EOF on u-boot.bin

Make sure you have a valid /boot/uImage in hda1 and reboot ;)

reboot

If it doesn't work :

• Your Kurobox is now a brick, only JTAG will allow to restore it
• The kernel in /boot/uImage is incorrect, try forcing booting kernel in flash using the red button

Kernel 2.6.x for standard Kurobox only

WARNING : Process is harder when using a 2.6.x kernel ! If you're not sure, just get back to 2.4.x kernel !

Boot your kernel as usual and download the U-Boot version for standard Kurobox :

wget http://www.kurobox.com/sylver/u-boot/u-boot-1.1.4-kurobox.tar.gz

untar it and check the checksum :

> tar xzf u-boot-1.1.4-kurobox.tar.gz
> cksum u-boot.bin
1870540566 164676 u-boot.bin

If all is ok, check your flash mapping : it should be

> cat /proc/mtd
dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 00300000 00010000 "mtd_firmimg"
mtd1: 00070000 00010000 "mtd_bootcode"
mtd2: 00010000 00010000 "mtd_status"
mtd3: 00080000 00010000 "mtd_conf"
mtd4: 00400000 00010000 "mtd_allflash"
mtd5: 000f0000 00010000 "mtd_data"

or

> cat /proc/mtd
dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 00400000 00010000 "mtd_allflash"
mtd1: 00300000 00010000 "mtd_firmimg"
mtd2: 00070000 00010000 "mtd_bootcode"
mtd3: 00010000 00010000 "mtd_status"
mtd4: 00080000 00010000 "mtd_conf"

The right place to flash is mtd_bootcode, so you'll have to flash the u-boot.bin to /dev/mtdblock1 or to /dev/mtdblock2 ! So depending of the result of the previous command, do a

dd if=u-boot.bin of=/dev/mtdblock1 bs=1k

or a

dd if=u-boot.bin of=/dev/mtdblock2 bs=1k

Make sure the boot is ok in flash :

> cmp u-boot.bin /dev/mtd1
cmp: EOF on u-boot.bin

or

> cmp u-boot.bin /dev/mtd2
cmp: EOF on u-boot.bin

Make sure you have a valid /boot/uImage in hda1 and reboot ;)

reboot

If it doesn't work :

• Your Kurobox is now a brick, only JTAG will allow to restore it
• The kernel in /boot/uImage is incorrect, try forcing booting kernel in flash using the red button

Kurobox HG

This is for the Kurobox HG only !!!! For standard Kurobox, check #Standard_Kurobox !!!

This is for the Kurobox HG only !!!! For standard Kurobox, check #Standard_Kurobox !!!

This is for the Kurobox HG only !!!! For standard Kurobox, check #Standard_Kurobox !!!

This is for the Kurobox HG only !!!! For standard Kurobox, check #Standard_Kurobox !!!

Kernel 2.4.x for Kurobox HG only

Boot your kernel as usual and download the U-Boot version for Kurobox HG :

http://www.kurobox.com/sylver/u-boot/u-boot-1.1.4-kuroboxhg.tar.gz

untar it and check the checksum :

> tar xzf u-boot-1.1.4-kurobox.tar.gz
> cksum u-boot.bin
2604640296 164676 u-boot.bin

If all is ok, flash the boot !

dd if=u-boot.bin of=/dev/fl2 bs=1k

Make sure the boot is ok in flash :

> cmp u-boot.bin /dev/fl2
cmp: EOF on u-boot.bin

Make sure you have a valid /boot/uImage in hda1 and reboot ;)

reboot

If it doesn't work :

• Your Kurobox is now a brick, only JTAG will allow to restore it
• The kernel in /boot/uImage is incorrect, try forcing booting kernel in flash using the red button

Kernel 2.6.x for Kurobox HG only

WARNING : Process is harder when using a 2.6.x kernel ! If you're not sure, just get back to 2.4.x kernel !

Boot your kernel as usual and download the U-Boot version for Kurobox HG :

wget http://www.kurobox.com/sylver/u-boot/u-boot-1.1.4-kuroboxhg.tar.gz

untar it and check the checksum :

> tar xzf u-boot-1.1.4-kurobox.tar.gz
> cksum u-boot.bin
2604640296 164676 u-boot.bin

If all is ok, check your flash mapping : it should be

> cat /proc/mtd
dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 00300000 00010000 "mtd_firmimg"
mtd1: 00070000 00010000 "mtd_bootcode"
mtd2: 00010000 00010000 "mtd_status"
mtd3: 00080000 00010000 "mtd_conf"
mtd4: 00400000 00010000 "mtd_allflash"
mtd5: 000f0000 00010000 "mtd_data"

or

> cat /proc/mtd
dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 00400000 00010000 "mtd_allflash"
mtd1: 00300000 00010000 "mtd_firmimg"
mtd2: 00070000 00010000 "mtd_bootcode"
mtd3: 00010000 00010000 "mtd_status"
mtd4: 00080000 00010000 "mtd_conf"

The right place to flash is mtd_bootcode, so you'll have to flash the u-boot.bin to /dev/mtdblock1 or to /dev/mtdblock2 ! So depending of the result of the previous command, do a

dd if=u-boot.bin of=/dev/mtdblock1 bs=1k

or a

dd if=u-boot.bin of=/dev/mtdblock2 bs=1k

Make sure the boot is ok in flash :

> cmp u-boot.bin /dev/mtd1
cmp: EOF on u-boot.bin

or

> cmp u-boot.bin /dev/mtd2
cmp: EOF on u-boot.bin

Make sure you have a valid /boot/uImage in hda1 and reboot ;)

reboot

If it doesn't work :

• Your Kurobox is now a brick, only JTAG will allow to restore it
• The kernel in /boot/uImage is incorrect, try forcing booting kernel in flash using the red button

Linkstation

No Uboot for Linkstation yet, some guys are working on that ! check on linkstationwiki for any update !

Building your own U-Boot binary

First of all, there is some problems while trying to compile U-Boot 1.1.4 with Make v3.81 ! Install Make 3.80 before trying to compile U-Boot !

• Get Nijino patch :

wget http://homepage2.nifty.com/nijino/library/u-boot-1.1.4_kurobox.patch.bz2

• Get U-Boot 1.1.4 source code from a mirror and apply the patch

wget http://surfnet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/u-boot/u-boot-1.1.4.tar.bz2
tar xfz u-boot-1.1.4.tar.gz && cd u-boot-1.1.4
bzip2 -dc ../u-boot-1.1.4_kurobox.patch.bz2 | patch -Np1

• Configure U-Boot for your target :

Kurobox

make KUROBOX_config

Kurobox HG

make KUROBOX_HG_config

• Build U-Boot

make

• Copy mkimage to /usr/bin (needed to build kernel images for U-Boot

cp tools/mkimage /usr/bin/mkimage
chmod 0755 /usr/bin/mkimage

You now have an u-boot.bin file, just follow this article to flash it in your Kurobox !

Nijino added a tool to check if built u-boot.bin is the good one !

wget http://homepage2.nifty.com/nijino/kurobox/uboot_check.c
gcc -o uboot_check uboot_check.c
./uboot_check

It'll tell you if the u-boot.bin is the good one for your Kurobox (just to be sure)

References

• Nijino's page with his patch and instructions (in Japanese)