Using the TAM3517 "Twister" Board with ELDK 5.0

Installation is a somewhat complicated procedure, as we will basically update all software components on the system, including the U-Boot boot loader and it's environment settings.

Note: This description assumes you are using the configuration of the =Twister+ board with a 17.8 cm (7") LCD panel. Other LCD panel will need both other DIP switch settings (SW3.1 ... SW3.3) and other software settings.

Download the SDCard Image

The demo image is currently available in the "beta-eldk/twister" directory of the DENX FTP server. Please contact DENX for access data.

$ ncftpget -u eldk-beta ftp://ftp.denx.de/twister/Twister-Demo-SDCard.img.gz
Password: ***********
Twister-Demo-SDCard.img.gz:                            638.74 MB    1.58 MB/s 

Install Root File System on SD-Card

• You need a Micro-SD-Card of at least 2 GB (or bigger). Attach it to your host using any suitable Micro-SD-Card reader.
• To find out as which device it was registered, run for example:

  $ dmesg | tail -40
  ...
  ... kernel: [576512.948487] sd 18:0:0:2: [sdh] 3862528 512-byte logical blocks: (1.97 GB/1.84 GiB)
  ... kernel: [576512.953356] sd 18:0:0:2: [sdh] Write Protect is off
  ... kernel: [576512.953363] sd 18:0:0:2: [sdh] Assuming drive cache: write through
  ... kernel: [576512.955979] sd 18:0:0:2: [sdh] Assuming drive cache: write through
  ... kernel: [576512.955986]  sdh:
  ... kernel: [576512.961490] sd 18:0:0:2: [sdh] Assuming drive cache: write through
  ... kernel: [576512.961495] sd 18:0:0:2: [sdh] Attached SCSI removable disk
  

  In this case the SD-Card has been registered as "sdh".
  
  WARNING: Be careful and double-check the data! Using the wrong device may corrupt your host computer's hard disk or destroy other important data!
  
  Note: Also make sure to use the whole device (i. e. "/dev/sdX") and not for example a partition on that device (like "/dev/sdX1" or so).
• Write image to SD-Card (double-check the output device name!):

  $ gzip -c -d <Twister-Demo-SDCard.img.gz | sudo dd bs=512k of=/dev/sdh 
  [sudo] password for wd: 
  

• Wait until the command completes. Depending on the speed of your system and your SD-Card this may take several minutes. Do not remove the SD-Card from the Reader before the command has completed and any LEDs or similar on your reader show that the SD-Card is no longer active.

Prepare "Twister" Board

• Make sure the "Twister" board is powered off.
• Insert the SD-Card with the demo image.
• Connect the serial console cable and the power supply to the "Twister" board as documented, and turn on the power.
• Press ENTER (or any other key) on your keyboard as soon as you see the initial start messages on th console, thus interrupting the boot procedure, so you can enter commands at the u-boot prompt.

Update the U-Boot boot loader

• Download the U-Boot binary image file "u-boot-32-256-nand-16.bin" from the FTP server. Depending on your download tool, make sure to use binary format for download.

  $ ncftpget -u eldk-beta ftp://ftp.denx.de/twister/u-boot-32-256-nand-16.bin
  

  Move the file to your TFTP server.
• Download the file into the RAM of your "Twister" board.
  Note: You will probably have to adjust the network related environment settings on your board, i. e. especially the environment variables "ipaddr", "serverip", and "netmask".

  TAM3517 # tftp 80100000 twister/u-boot-32-256-nand-16.bin
  smc911x: MAC 00:1f:7b:15:01:59
  smc911x: detected LAN9220 controller
  smc911x: phy initialized
  smc911x: MAC 00:1f:7b:15:01:59
  Using smc911x-0 device
  TFTP from server 192.168.1.1; our IP address is 192.168.20.29
  Filename 'twister/u-boot-32-256-nand-16.bin'.
  Load address: 0x80100000
  Loading: ########################################
  done
  Bytes transferred = 203480 (31ad8 hex)
  smc911x: MAC 00:1f:7b:15:01:59
  

• Update the U-Boot Image in NAND flash.
  WARNING: Be careful and double-check each command before executing it, and then check that no errors were reported. If needed, repeat all these steps from the beginning. Do not reset or turn off the board.

  TAM3517 # nandecc sw
  SW ECC selected
  

  TAM3517 # nand erase ${uboot_nand_addr} 40000
  
  NAND erase: device 0 offset 0x80000, size 0x40000
  Erasing at 0xa0000 -- 100% complete.
  OK
  

  TAM3517 # nand write 80100000 ${uboot_nand_addr} 100000
  
  NAND write: device 0 offset 0x80000, size 0x100000
   1048576 bytes written: OK
  

Adjust the U-Boot environment settings

• Download the script "env-demo.img" with environment settings from the FTP server. Depending on your download tool, make sure to use binary format for download.

  $ ncftpget -u eldk-beta ftp://ftp.denx.de/twister/env-demo.img
  

  Move the file to your TFTP server.
• Download the file into the RAM of your "Twister" board

  TAM3517 # tftp 80100000 twister/env-demo.img
  

• Execute the script image and save the results:

  TAM3517 # source 80100000
  ## Executing script at 80100000
  

  TAM3517 # saveenv
  Saving Environment to NAND...
  Erasing Nand...
  Erasing at 0x180000 -- 100% complete.
  Writing to Nand... done
  

• Power off the "Twister" board.

Select the target environment

The SDCard contains support for three different target environments:

1. Ångström distribution for embedded devices like handhelds, set top boxes and network-attached storage devices
2. Android smartphone operating system
3. ELDK 5.0 Sato mobile target environment based on the GNOME Mobile and Embedded stack.

• To select the target environment, please set DIP switch SW3 as follows:

  Switch	0	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1
  Ångström	off	ON	off	off	off	off	off	off	off	ON
  Android	off	ON	off	off	off	ON	off	off	off	ON
  ELDK 5.0	off	ON	off	off	ON	off	off	off	off	ON

  SW3.1 ... SW3.4: select display type
  SW3.5 ... SW3.7: select target environment
  SW3.8: select auto-update mode
  SW3.9 ... SW3.0: select root file system location (NAND, MMC or NFS)
• Power on the "Twister" board and boot into the selected environment.
• Log in on the serial console port as "root" (no password required)

Using the ELDK Environment

• The ELDK environment is primarily oriented for a touch screen operated device. Normally such devices do not show a cursor. For easier testing you can attach a USB keyboard and/or mouse, and to be able to use the mouse the cursor has be enabled. [This can be easily changed.]
• If you find your touch screen is operating not reliably, you may want to recalibrate it. Log in on the serial console port as "root" (no password needed) and enter the following commands:

  root@twister:~# /etc/init.d/xserver-nodm stop
  root@twister:~# ts_calibrate
  

  Press the crosshairs (in the 4 corners, then in the middle) on the LCD to calibrate the touch. It is recommended to do this carefully, using a suitable pin to allow for exact input. If you pressed a bad location, just complete the sequence and then re-run the "ts_calibrate" command. Once completed, restart the GUI:

  root@twister:~# /etc/init.d/xserver-nodm start
  

• If you "Twister" board is connected to a network, it will try to auto-configure using DHCP. If you have a working DHCP server, you can log in over the network using ssh. To find out the assigned IP address you can run the following command on the serial console port:

  root@twister:~# ifconfig
  eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1F:7B:15:01:59  
            inet addr:192.168.5.218  Bcast:192.168.255.255 Mask:255.255.0.0
            inet6 addr: fe80::21f:7bff:fe15:159/64 Scope:Link
            UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
            RX packets:186 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
            TX packets:104 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
            collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
            RX bytes:18149 (17.7 KiB)  TX bytes:20407 (19.9 KiB)
            Interrupt:57 
  
  eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1F:7B:15:01:58  
            UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
            RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
            TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
            collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
            RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
            Interrupt:67 
  ...
  

  Here the network cable was attached to the left Ethernet connector (interface eth0). It was assigned IP address 192.168.5.218. We can login over the network like this:

  $ ssh root@192.168.5.218  
  ...
  root@192.168.5.218's password: 
  root@twister:~# 
  

  Just press enter when prompted for the password.

Enjoy exploring the new ELDK demo on the "Twister" board.