SD controller now initialized; still need to read SD ID and perform data block transfer. Some questions on TFS and booting an application image

[Ed Sutter]

On 7/24/2015 9:07 AM, Gedare Bloom wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 24, 2015 at 8:08 AM, Ed Sutter <ed.sutter at alcatel-lucent.com> wrote:
> [...]
>> There are several configurations to consider here...
>>
>> 1. Don't use any FFS in uMon at all:
>>     uMon boots up, establishes connectivity with MMC and Ethernet and based
>> on
>>     the content of some area of raw MMC, it can either boot some
>> already-installed
>>     RTEMS application or it can look to the network for a network boot.  Once
>> RTEMS
>>     is running, it will have access to the MMC in whatever format it wants.
>>
> This option #1 is appealing from a simplicity point-of-view.
With that simplicity comes very little configurability, but maybe that's 
ok.  The value of
configurability depends on how much the base system is to be reused 
without rebuild.
If each new system can just rebuild/reconfigure the boot scheme to be 
specific to that
system, then there's no need for runtime configurability.
>> 2. Incorporate whatever FFS RTEMS will use into uMon:
>>     Since RTEMS already has some FFS-ish capabilities, just hook that same
>> code
>>     (or fragments of it) into uMon so that both the bootloader and app can
>> access
>>     all files easily.
>>
> What kind of files would be shared through this feature? I don't
> entirely buy the premise that sharing a FS between a bootloader and an
> application is a good idea. Is there a document I can read describing
> the philosophy? Are there some reasons like for debug or modifying the
> boot scripts (from within the application itself) that makes it
> sensible to do this kind of sharing? It seems more likely that a
> remote debug or upload engine would be used that can access the MMC
> directly.
It just allows the bootloader to come up and do some pre-Application 
stuff prior to
turning control over to it.  This was useful in eval boards (for 
example, Cogent) that
were not pre-determined to run a particular application or RTOS. For 
example, it would
give the user the option to run a memory test at startup prior to 
loading the application.
>> 3. Incorporate TFS in uMon by allocating some block of MMC to it:
>>     At startup, uMon initializes all periphery, and then has a section of MMC
>> that
>>     it sucks into RAM and then TFS is overlayed on that block of RAM.
>>     Then uMon can have its typical script driven bootup, and RTEMS can
>> optionally
>>     have access to that, while still using some other FFS for the MMC.
>>
> I understand the utility of the FS to enable uMon to use scripts,
> etc., but I don't buy that it is good to expose applications or even
> RTEMS to those internal details, or to expose the FFS to possible bugs
> in the application or RTEMS. Also, on reset the RAM FS has to be
> re-built, so if the FS is not shared there is no point in reserving
> that part of memory to preclude use by RTEMS/app, i.e. RTEMS should be
> able to "wipe" the RAM overlay that is built by uMon.
>
> But if good reasons for the sharing are proposed, I wouldn't be
> opposed to seeing the TFS implementation ported to RTEMS (with proper
> licensing). As it stands, however, I find it simpler to just ignore
> that region of the flash device (MMC) from within RTEMS.
RTEMS having access to TFS is always optional; the real point is that 
you give
uMon the flexibility to use TFS for scripts at boottime (still, 
optional).  The RTEMS
hook to uMon is either optional (at build time) or not even made 
available.  That's
your call.
A lot of the reason for the facility sharing hooks (between uMon & 
application) were
due to system limitations that generally speaking don't exist much 
anymore (except for
microcontrollers).

> IMHO, mode #3 is ideal because that philosophy can be applied to any system
> regardless of the memory configuration; however, I'd prefer that we get
> feedback
> It's a fine option, but I don't see how the memory configuration has
> anything to do with making this option better than the other two.
My point regarding the memory configuration was just to emphasize that 
TFS was really
made to run on NOR flash, but it can still be used with other memory 
configurations as long
as its ok to run from RAM (pumped from whatever non-volatile memory is 
used).   The
connection of RTEMS to TFS is still optional.

Seems to me this initial BBB port of uMon should be as versatile as 
possible; at least supporting
both a TFS and TFS-less boot strategy.  Having TFS in uMon does not 
imply that RTEMS has
to even know about it; its just an option.  That's why I suggest that 
Jarielle postpone any TFS
work till everything else is done, and we've had a chance to think 
through what you guys want
to hookup between the two (uMon and RTEMS).

The good news is there are a lot of options.
The bad news is there are a lot of options.

The decision you guys have to make is what options you want to make 
available to RTEMS
users.  Clearly you can just not provide the hook if that's a concern.

>
>> from some other RTEMS core developers to get thoughts on that.
>> Ed
>>
>>> Hi Ed and all:
>>>
>>> Initializing the SD controller on the AM335x took a bit longer than I
>>> expected which was mostly a result of encountering some issues with
>>> the SD controller initialization, specifically the clocks that are
>>> involved.
>>>
>>> Now that I was able to resolve the issues I was facing, I was able to
>>> initiate CMD0 (GO_IDLE_STATE), CMD8 (SEND_IF_COND), and CMD55
>>> (APP_CMD) and was able to receive appropriate responses from any
>>> arbitrary SD card that is connected.
>>>
>>> Right now I have the interface setup using 4-bit SD mode with the SD
>>> clock frequency set to 6MHz and currently operating on 3.0 V.
>>>
>>> Currently, I am looking into reading the ID register and to write and
>>> read to/from the SD card.  I suspect that this would be much easier
>>> now since the SD controller is set up properly already.
>>>
>>> As I am approaching in getting ready to integrate the SD code, i.e.
>>> establishing the necessary code to get the "sd" command working, I am
>>> also simultaneously looking into TFS.
>>>
>>> It looks like a RAM-based TFS would have to be set up as both the
>>> MMC/SD can not be accessed linearly.
>>>
>>> Once TFS is set up, I would say that the next step would be to have
>>> the ability to transfer an application image from the SD card into TFS
>>> for uMon to boot from or, if it's possible, to transfer a raw
>>> application image from SD into DDR3 and then pass control to the entry
>>> point of the application image.
>>>
>>> Am I approaching the idea of TFS and booting an application image
>>> correctly.
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> umon-devel mailing list
>>> umon-devel at rtems.org
>>> http://lists.rtems.org/mailman/listinfo/umon-devel
>>
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