BootloaderUpdate

Updating X-Loader and U-Boot using flash-kernel

For OMAP boards we allow the user to update the X-Loader and/or U-Boot files on the boot partition. The original boot-files are put there at image creation time but can be changed at any time.

This is seldom required but if a new U-Boot or X-Loader package is made available in the archives the user will be notified and will be able to update them.[TODO document notification method when it is implemented]

Example usage

Default invocation

The path to the files needed for the current board are figured out and used

$sudo flash-kernel --update-bootloader Using u-boot partition: /dev/mmcblk0p1 /usr/lib/x-loader/omap4430panda/MLO is already installed in the boot partition. /usr/lib/u-boot/omap4_panda/u-boot.bin is already installed in the boot partition.

This shows the tool did not update anything as the boot loader is the same as the user was trying to flash (md5sum matches)

Explicit bootfile path

Usually one should use the package in the archives, but if for some reason you want to update to a specific MLO (X-Loader) or u-boot.bin you can pass the path to the tool. Any arguments after --update-bootloader will be considered file paths and copied to the boot partition.

$sudo flash-kernel --update-bootloader /path/to/MLO /path/to/u-boot.bin

Problems

If the board does not boot after the update, you need to fix the VFAT boot partition using another machine by copying the .bak files over the newly written ones or by putting any known good files on it.

File bug reports on the flash-kernel package

ARM/BootloaderUpdate (last edited 2011-02-11 11:48:42 by 188-24-89-79)