NetDCU14/Linux development state and releases

  • Multi-Platform Linux V2.0


    We have uploaded a new Linux version to our server. This is the first Multi-Platform Linux Release that supports several boards at the same time. At the moment these are the boards based on Samsung S5PV210 SoC: armStoneA8, NetDCU14 and PicoMOD7A. In the future more boards and also different architectures will be added to this Multi-Platform Release.


    This release is based on an earlier version that was only available on armStoneA8. Therefore the Release Notes below show the modifications in relation to this armStoneA8 version.


    In the download area on our website you'll find two tar archives:


    multiplatform-linux-f+s-V2.0.tar.bz2
    This is the main release itself containing all sources, the binary images, the documentation and the toolchain.


    sd-card-V2.0.tar.bz2
    If you copy the contents of this archive to an SD card, you can install our precompiled standard system in a very straightforward and comfortable way on the board. The SD card archive is meant for people who just want to try a release first without having to download the quite large main archive. Its content is also contained in the main release archive, so if you want to download the main archive anyway, you don't need to bother with the SD card archive.


    These tar archives are compressed with bzip2. So to see the files, you first have to unpack the archives

    Code
    1. tar jxvf multiplatform-linux-f+s-V2.0.tar.bz2


    This will create a directory multiplatform-linux-f+s-V2.0 that contains all the files of the release.


    Please read the file doc/MultiPlatform-Linux-FirstSteps.pdf. It lists the meaning of all files and shows how to install and use everything.



    Release Notes for Multi-Platform Linux V2.0


    This is a major release with lots of changes. It is the first release that supports several boards at once. The boards that are supported through all levels (NBoot, U-Boot, Linux Kernel, BuildRoot) are:


    armStoneA8, NetDCU14, PicoMOD7A


    Please note that you have to update NBoot first to be able to use the automatic installation process described in the FirstSteps document.


    Here is a list of the most noticeable changes in this release.


    NBootV210 (V18) (21.11.2012)
    Supported boards: armStoneA8, NetDCU14, PicoMOD7A


    Changes in V18

    • 0001421: [NBoot] Add ubotv210.nb0 as possible load source
    • 0001428: [NBoot] Ram test not working for 512 MB version
    • 0001426: [NBoot] Small change in SDHC clock calculation


    Changes in V17

    • 0001405: [NBoot] PM7A: Detect config jumper UARTSEL
    • 0001404: [NBoot] Enable QoS_fast for memory access


    Changes in V16

    • 0001367: [NBoot] Always detects digital RGB interface


    Changes in V15

    • 0001166: [NBoot] ND14: Some config pins are not configured with pull down
    • 0001167: [NBoot] Add support for PicoMOD7A
    • 0001182: [NBoot] wrong PCB revision displayed
    • 0001278: [NBoot] If started from SD card, run actions.txt automatically if it exists.
    • 0001280: [NBoot] Add empty commands '\r' and '\n' to re-display menu
    • 0001070: [NBoot] Add support for nanoRISC
    • 0001069: [NBoot] Add support for 512MB NAND flash



    U-Boot V2.0 (20.11.2012, based on u-boot-2012.07)
    Supported boards: PicoMOD6, PicoCOM3, armStoneA8, NetDCU14, PicoMOD7A


    • Rebase to u-boot-2012.07
    • Add support for PicoMOD7A
    • New environment variables 'platform' and 'arch' that contain the current board type and architecture
    • Completely new FAT/VFAT implementation (write support still missing)
    • New wildcard module to allow for '*' and '?' in path and file names; currently only working in combination with FAT (fatls, fatload)
    • Improve output of device descriptions (indendation, interface)
    • Patch serial port in zImage (use by zImage decompressor), so the same zImage can be used on boards with different default serial port
    • Allow different ECC modes by virtually splitting NAND; one for NBoot, one for the rest; remove old nboot protection as the new scheme allows a more generic protection per device
    • Fix ecc.bytes and ecc.layout->eccbytes settings
    • Allow a dynamic environment size depending on NAND blocksize
    • Reduce environment size on large NAND blocksizes
    • Allow different default mtdparts sizes depending on NAND blocksize
    • Allow using '.' as default argument in commands with addresses or bootfiles; it is replaced by $(loadaddr) or $(bootfile) respectively
    • Combine PicoMOD6 and PicoCOM3 to a common fss3c64xx platform
    • Bring fss3c64xx in line with fss5pv210 platform
    • Allow board specific default serial port, set sercon variable to it
    • Improve serial driver for S3C64XX to allow CONFIG_SERIAL_MULTI
    • Use ttySACx (instead of s5p_uartx) as name for serial devices
    • Fix early access to serial port
    • Fix serial download
    • Fix generic SDHC driver on S5P
    • Add similar SDHC infrastructure for S3C64XX as for S5P and switch from F&S NBoot MMC driver to generic SDHC driver
    • Add commands update and install to manually trigger installation
    • Improve update command, unused arguments can be skipped with '.'
    • Use NetLoop() instead of netboot_common() for network update/install
    • Allow board specific defaults for updcheck/instcheck
    • Change environment to use new bootz command for loading zImages
    • Remove support to access single files within UBIFS and JFFS2 images
    • Enable device tree support and fdt command
    • Enable unzip command
    • Disable bootelf, bootvx and itest commands
    • Add new default variables bootnfsdhcp, bootubidhcp, bootjffs2dhcp; if called with run, Linux initializes the network devices with DHCP
    • Fix bootcmd to load to dynamic loadaddr instead of fix 0x41000000
    • Fix ethernet settings for boards with more than one port
    • RTC: remove reading of alarm values, they are not used anyway



    Linux Kernel V2.0 (22.11.2012, based on linux-3.3.7)
    Supported boards: armStoneA8, NetDCU14, PicoMOD7A


    • Add support for PicoMOD7A, default console on ttySAC2
    • Add support for NetDCU14, default console on ttySAC1, 2nd CAN
    • Completely new touch driver with down-force evaluation and far lessjitter; tuning parameters can be set via Kconfig (make menuconfig) and /sys/devices/platform/s3c64xx-ts/
    • Activate Atmel mXT I2C capacitive touchscreen and add configuration
    • Add support for FocalTouch FT5x06 series touch controllers
    • Set default display configuration for Chi Mei G070Y2-L01 (800x480)
    • Add default and maximum bpp to generic LCD configuration
    • Fix CAN interrupt handling that could cause a system hang
    • Improve CAN performance by setting maximum possible SPI speed
    • Move platform dependent code from s5p-sgtl5000.c to mach-*
    • Modify zImage decompressor code to allow default serial port (console) to be patched by U-Boot at runtime
    • armStoneA8: Fix missing SPI0 device
    • Fix bad maximum speed computation for SPI
    • Enable SPIDEV in the default config (required for userspace SPI)
    • armStoneA8/NetDCU14: Block I2C0 if SPI0 is running and vice versa
    • Modify packet buffer out threshold for USB EHCI on S5P
    • Fix non running RTC due to missing base clock
    • Fix clocks and GPIO configuration for UARTs
    • Enable SYSVIPC in default config (required for shared memory accesses, e.g. in the X-Server)
    • Add optional device fs_phkmem to allow setting HW registers of the SOC from userspace



    BuildRoot V2.0 (22.11.2012, based on buildroot-2012.08)
    Supported Boards: armStoneA8, NetDCU14, PicoMOD7A, PicoCOM4


    • Rebase to buildroot-2012.08, this updates lots of packages
    • Add support for PicoMOD7A
    • Add support for NetDCU14
    • Add support for PicoCOM4
    • Move F&S specific stuff from target/device/f+s to board/f+s
    • Remove JFFS2 from the set of automatically generated filesystem images
    • [STD] Add openssh, x11vnc, xhost, input-tools, input-event-daemon
    • Update to busybox-1.20.x, this adds the command lsof
    • Add support for Atmel mXT and FocalTech FT5x06 series capacitive touch controllers (via I2C)



    Toolchain
    The toolchain remained unchanged



    Documentation

    • New MultiPlatform-Linux-FirstSteps.pdf document



    Your F&S Support Team

    F&S Elektronik Systeme GmbH
    As this is an international forum, please try to post in English.
    Da dies ein internationales Forum ist, bitten wir darum, Beiträge möglichst in Englisch zu verfassen.

  • Please note that all information that is common for all supported boards of Multi-Platform Linux can be found in the common Linux section Linux and Applications. That's bugs, announcements and general information. So if you are looking for solutions to your problems, please also have a look there. Only things that are really NetDCU14 specific are reported here in this section.


    If you're opening a new topic, please try to use the appropriate section, too. If you can't determine if it is board specific or not, better post it here in the board specific section. If this proves to be wrong and it is a more generic issue, don't bother, we will move the topic to the common section.


    Thanks.


    Your F&S Support Team

    F&S Elektronik Systeme GmbH
    As this is an international forum, please try to post in English.
    Da dies ein internationales Forum ist, bitten wir darum, Beiträge möglichst in Englisch zu verfassen.