u-boot Firmware Guide for La Frite AML-S805X-AC

loverpi

The boot priority of La Frite is as follows: SPI then eMMC. The boot ROM of the SoC will try to load the u-boot binary from those two locations. We will refer to the u-boot binary as firmware. You can find the latest firmware for La Frite here.
The current version of the firmware shipping with La Frite's SPI NOR is is u-boot 2020.04 release. The next firmware update is expected to be u-boot 2020.10.
u-boot is configured to load from the first FAT32 or ext2/3/4 partition on the eMMC and then USB drives. If it fails to find the necessary boot files, it will attempt to boot from TFTP server configured by DHCP.

1. Attempts to read secondary device tree from first partition with the path dtb/libre-computer/aml-s805x-ac/platform.dtb
2. Attempts to read primary device tree from the first partition with the path dtb/amlogic/meson-gxl-s805x-libretech-ac.dtb
3. Attempts to read boot animation from first partition with the path boot.bmp
4. Attempts to read u-boot script from first partition with the path boot.scr
5. Attempts to read and boot the EFI bootloader from first partition with the path EFI/boot/BOOTAA64.EFI

You can override the u-boot behavior by creating boot.scr with your own script.

To interrupt the normal boot process and enter the u-boot command line, tap ESC after power on. From there you can manually enter u-boot commands.
For example, you can create an extlinux.conf in the path extlinux/extlinux.conf and then run `run boot_extlinux` to load it and boot Linux that way.

Memory layout for La Frite is as follows:

• 01000000 16M 512K TEXTBASE
• 01080000 16.5M 111.5M pxdfile_addr_r
• 08000000 128M 32K scriptaddr
• 08008000 128M+32K 480K fdt_addr_r
• 08080000 128.5M 127.5M kernel_addr_r
• 10000000 256M 48M kernel_comp_addr_r
• 13000000 304M ramdisk_addr_r

kg5bve

What keyboard type does the U-Boot on the La Frite require. U-Boot recognizes the ESC key, the Return key, and letters, but does not recognize the arrows or NUM Lock. When U-Boot goes through all boot attempts and stops at the prompt, all my keyboard keys work.
Is there a default keyboard type that U-Boot is requiring to use the eMMC as USB for flashing?
Charles, KG5BVE

loverpi

@kg5bve Standard US keyboard.

Mark_Birss

I am also unable to use arrow keys ? Is the selection highlighted when you use the arrow keys ? Can you provide a picture ? 

Ok, latest rc5 u-boot firmware update fixed the issue for me.
http://share.loverpi.com/board/libre-computer-project/libre-computer-board/aml-s805x-ac/firmware/u-boot-2019-04-r5.bin

http://share.loverpi.com/board/libre-computer-project/libre-computer-board/aml-s805x-ac/firmware/u-boot-2019-04-r5.scr

1) Download the firmware file (.bin) and update script (.scr).
2) Insert USB drive or card reader that is formatted as FAT32 or EXT2/3/4.
3) Copy the firmware file and update script to the device.
4) Rename the .scr file to "boot.scr" without quotes.
5) Eject the drive from your computer and plug it into La Frite.
6) Power on La Frite and it will start updating the firmware.
7) Do not power off La Frite until the firmware update is complete!

This will not overwrite the firmware if the firmware is the same so it is safe to run multiple times.

MrMoke

The instructions here did not work for me.  Everything was okay up to #6) but at that point the firmware did not update it simply booted into the OS installed on the eMMC.  However, upon reboot I was able to hit <Esc> and get the u-boot menu.  From there I selected 'Boot USB' which allowed it to find the boot.scr script on the USB drive and start the firmware update, easy peasy

iwamatsu

Hi,

The contents of the latest vertsion of scr file (u-boot-2021-07-r1.scr) care incorrect.

Since it is a script that refers to u-boot-2020-07-r7.bin, it always fails.

astrofahrer

Hi
I would love to install the recent firmware update 2021-07-r1. But when the system finds the file, after selecting USB booting, it returns the error "incorrect file". Please advise

miguelagve

astrofahrer said:

Hi
I would love to install the recent firmware update 2021-07-r1. But when the system finds the file, after selecting USB booting, it returns the error "incorrect file". Please advise

I believe there's an issue with the u-boot-20201-07-r1.scr file. It hasn't been properly updated and it is still looking for the file u-boot-2020-07-r7.bin rather than u-boot-2021-07-r1.bin. I did the update using LOST and it went flawless, so I'll do it that way if I were you. If you're using an older firmware without LOST, I'll upgrade to u-boot-2020-07-r7.bin first and then use it to get the latest version.
You could also modify the .scr file yourselft, but I can't warrantee that'll work correctly

astrofahrer

miguelagve : Amazing ! thanks for the hint, I was not aware of LOST for La Frite. Updating the firmware and installing Ubuntu was just straightforward.
Actually, I got stuck after correcting the flawed boot.scr file and recomputing the SHA as u-boot hung up due to a 'wrong CRC' and I could not figure out where to store the modified SHA file.
Thanks again for your help , very much appreciated....... 

nermachine

I was getting problems and cannot get this to work. part of the error is "did not respond to voltage select" and "could not access storage"  Does anyone know what might be casuing this. If I try to boot an image. the screen goes black but the screen does not shut off it is just outputting a blank screen,
Thanks a mellion,
Barry