Difference between A13 Debian images

Started by cedrico, May 18, 2015, 06:21:37 PM

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cedrico

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering what the differences between the two A13 Debian images for the different RAM chips (Samsung and Hynix) are. I did a comparison between the two script.bin files and can't see any. I would like to adopt my current image for a board based on the Hynix RAM to a new one with the samsung chip.

Kind regards

Gerrit

I don't know if they are different, but if they are it would be in the kernel, moving uImage /lib/modules/ and /lib/firmware/ from the new to the current image should make it work

JohnS

I think it is u-boot that sets the timings.

John

cedrico

So far I have checked the following files which have something to do with the hardware initialisation:

512/script.bin
script.bin
uImage

These files are the same in both images. Script.bin contains the parameters for the kernel related to the RAM.

The Samsung image has the additional files boot.scr and boot.cmd with the same content except boot.scr contains non readable characters in the beginning of the file. In these files the kernel is loaded to 0x42000000 and another file "fdtfile" is loaded to 0x43000000. The problem is, that the variable for this file is not specified in these files or in another location in which uboot looks for files which are defining it's environment. Only place left where i can't look at would be hard compiled into the uboot and then there had to be made changes which are not documented.

To create the debian image, olimex has posted a description on the wiki page for the A13-SOM-* https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-bAEPML8fwla3NhVGdwbGthOXM/edit?pli=1
But it's one for the A13-micro-(som)? board.

The descriptions for it's bigger sibling, the a13-olinuxio seems more appropiate but it's wiki page or any linked description also doesn't contain hints about the differences to create a suitable image. The board has undergo the same RAM chip change.

Comparision of the content of the second partion show some differences but as far as i can tell are mostly new versions or some new userlands applications.

Gerrit

Quote from: cedrico on May 18, 2015, 06:21:37 PM
Hi everyone,

I'm wondering what the differences between the two A13 Debian images for the different RAM chips (Samsung and Hynix) are. I did a comparison between the two script.bin files and can't see any. I would like to adopt my current image for a board based on the Hynix RAM to a new one with the samsung chip.

Kind regards

Why are you wondering this, do you get errors, and so which errors ?

cedrico

#5
Quote from: Gerrit on May 19, 2015, 02:14:56 PM
Why are you wondering this, do you get errors, and so which errors ?

I bought two batches of these boards. The first had Hynix RAM and i have modifed and build my own debian from the documentation provided by Olimex and the sunxi community for it. It's stable und I'm are very happy with it.

The second batch has only Samsung chips and I have problems with it. Some boards will panic after some minutes, some will panic on boot and others have problems with the USB communication. The same image, SD card and also connected devices will run just fine with the ones based on Hynix RAM.

Then I saw the post regarding the different images in the wiki and since that I'm trying to find the difference to be able to get my image adopted to the new board.

Gerrit

If you want to compare u-boot you can copy them from the image or SD card with dd

http://linux-sunxi.org/Bootable_SD_card#Bootloader on this page you find a table which positions are reserved for it

dd of=sunxi-spl.bin if=${card} bs=1024 seek=8 count=24
dd of=u-boot.img if=${card} bs=1024 seek=40 count=512