[Gta04-owner] u-boot problems

[Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Hi,

Am 26.06.2014 um 03:56 schrieb Benjamin Deering:

> 
> Hello all,
> 
> I stopped goofing around with gyros and tried to install the latest kernel.  In order to take
> advantage of devicetree, I needed to upgrade u-boot. so I got u-boot.bin from http://download.goldelico.com/gta04/20140610-GTA04-beta-3.15.0-wheezy-7.5/
> 
> and tried to flash it with
> 
> flash_eraseall /dev/mtd1;
> nandwrite -p u-boot.bin /dev/mtd1

Please never try to flash u-boot from the kernel. The boot system and the kernel use different (and incompatible) ECC formats for nand flash.

> This booted to a white screen, so I made an sd card of the hw-validation image and booted from that, got a red screen and u-boot was restored.
> 
> This time I got u-boot.flash from the same site and tried to flash that.  

There is no need to flash it manually. The hw-validation image does that automatically while showing the red screen.

> My gta04 is now just showing a black screen.  I do see 'Das U-Boot' if I boot while connected to USB, so I dont think I broke any hardware.
> 
> Am I correct that I need to load u-boot over serial now?

Not necessarily.

Please boot/power on the hw-validation SD card with the AUX/User button pressed. This should force the Boot ROM to read everything from the SD card.

>  I don't have a serial cable and shipping would be prohibitively expensive to order one from GDC.  Is it correct that I need these: http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?mpart=0006660013&vendor=900 <http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?mpart=0006660013&vendor=900> and this: http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?vendor=0&keywords=51021-0800 <http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?vendor=0&keywords=51021-0800> (along with some more wire and a db9 connector) to make one?

Yes, they look as being the right one (PicoBlade).

But I can send you the precrimped cable end (or even the full cable) as a simple registered airmail letter, saving high shipment cost...

http://shop.goldelico.com/wiki.php?page=GTA04%3ARS232

BR,
Nikolaus