RN204 U-Boot boot issue (1 reply)

Preface, I am a newbie and am looking for some help with U-Boot. I have a little knowledge of programming. I know the ‘environment variables’ are just global constants that the program ‘U-Boot’ uses to process conditions. I have been reading on http://www.denx.de/ and a few other websites. One site https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/handy-u-boot-trick shows block diagram ‘x-loader – u-boot.bin – interruption – u-boot shell --or-- no interruption – execute bootcmd.
I have a Netgear NAS that does not boot correctly. I know the hardware is fine.
Here is the issue - with usb-serial attachment I am able to connect. If I interrupt the boot process and from the U-Boot command line and I type in ‘boot’, the unit comes up normally and I can access it. If I don’t interrupt the boot it goes into another state and I cannot access.
My question is what is U-Boot doing? What is it setting NAS up for? I have looked at some environment prints from a Buffalo NAS (which usually boots from the 1st harddrive) and compared it to my environment variables to see the differences. Not sure how U-Boot is handling things. I know U-Boot is basically bootstrap software to load up operating systems. If you need full environment printout I can supply.

U-Boot 2013.10-alpine_db-1.49 (Dec 21 2017 - 13:28:18)

Here is excerpts from my environment:

bootcmd=run odmbootseq;
odmbootseq=run odmbootargs; run odmbootusb; run odmbootfirmware; failure;
odmbootargs=setenv bootargs pci=pcie_bus_perf console=ttyS0,115200 $reasonargs $bootargsextra ; printenv bootargs
reasonargs=reason=normal
bootargsextra=bdtype=rn204
odmbootusb=usb start;fatload usb 0 $loadaddr NTGR_USBBOOT_INFO.txt;if test $? -eq 0; then run odmbootbackusb;fi;
loadaddr=0x08000000
loadaddr_dt=0x07000000
loadaddr_fs=0x8800000
loadaddr_payload=0x08000004
loadaddr_rootfs_chk=0x07000000
nand_pt_addr_al_boot=0x0
nand_pt_addr_fs=0x01000000
nand_pt_addr_kernel=0x00400000
nand_pt_addr_kernel_1=0x00400000
nand_pt_addr_kernel_2=0x00a00000
nand_pt_desc_kernel_1=Test kernel A
nand_pt_desc_kernel_2=Test kernel B
nand_pt_size_al_boot=0x00100000
nand_pt_size_fs=0x3f000000
nand_pt_size_kernel=0x00c00000
odmbootbackusb=usb start;lcd_print "Loading..."; fatload usb 0 $loadaddr uImage-recovery;if test $? -eq 0; then fatload usb 0 $loadaddr_fs initrd-recovery.gz;if test $? -eq 0; then flash_contents_obj_read DT 0 $loadaddr_dt;run odmboot;else;lcd_print "Failed!";failure;fi;else;lcd_print "Failed!";failure;fi;
odmboot=lcd_print "Booting..."; gpio set 33;bootm $loadaddr $loadaddr_fs $loadaddr_dt;
test=echo this is a test!

This is from 'ALPINE_DB> fdt print'.
( Per Netgear for 'usb recovery' put usb drive in and press and hold the backup button and power on, and it 'should' load from the usb. Not sure if the backup button is 'gpio33'.)

if_gpio33 {
	id = "if_gpio";
	arg = <0x00000021>;
};
button@3 {
	label = "Backup Button";
	linux,code = <0x00000085>;
	gpios = <0x00000009 0x00000000 0x00000001>;
};

If I do not interrupt boot process this is some of what comes on console:

Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0 
bootargs=pci=pcie_bus_perf console=ttyS0,115200 reason=normal bdtype=rn204
## Error: "odmbootusb" not defined

NAND read: device 0 offset 0x7000000, size 0x400000
 4194304 bytes read: OK

NAND read: device 0 offset 0x7400000, size 0xb00000
 11534336 bytes read: OK
## Booting kernel from Legacy Image at 08000000 ...
   Image Name:   Linux-3.10.20-al-2.5.2
   Created:      2014-11-17  23:30:27 UTC
   Image Type:   ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
   Data Size:    2978744 Bytes = 2.8 MiB
   Load Address: 00008000
   Entry Point:  00008000
   Verifying Checksum ... OK
## Loading init Ramdisk from Legacy Image at 08800000 ...
   Image Name:   
   Created:      2015-01-12   8:29:10 UTC
   Image Type:   ARM Linux RAMDisk Image (lzma compressed)
   Data Size:    10039368 Bytes = 9.6 MiB
   Load Address: 00000000
   Entry Point:  00000000
   Verifying Checksum ... OK
** Using primary FDT on legacy kernel
## Flattened Device Tree blob at 01b25008
   Booting using the fdt blob at 0x1b25008
   Loading Kernel Image ... OK
   Loading Ramdisk to 01190000, end 01b23048 ... OK
   Using Device Tree in place at 01b25008, end 01b2c1b4
ft_board_setup_clock: unable to set /soc/arch-timer.clock-frequency!

Starting kernel ...

If I interrupt the boot process and type in boot at command line, this is what I get:

ALPINE_DB> run odmbootseq
bootargs=pci=pcie_bus_perf console=ttyS0,115200 reason=normal bdtype=rn204
(Re)start USB...
USB0:   Register 8000450 NbrPorts 8
Starting the controller
USB XHCI 1.00
scanning bus 0 for devices... 1 USB Device(s) found
       scanning usb for storage devices... 0 Storage Device(s) found
** Bad device usb 0 **

NAND read: device 0 offset 0x200000, size 0x600000
 6291456 bytes read: OK

NAND read: device 0 offset 0x800000, size 0x400000
 4194304 bytes read: OK
gpio: pin 33 (gpio 33) value is 1
## Booting kernel from Legacy Image at 08000000 ...
   Image Name:   Linux-4.4.184.alpine.1
   Created:      2019-09-05   2:32:26 UTC
   Image Type:   ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
   Data Size:    3437376 Bytes = 3.3 MiB
   Load Address: 00008000
   Entry Point:  00008000
   Verifying Checksum ... OK
## Loading init Ramdisk from Legacy Image at 08800000 ...
   Image Name:   initramfs
   Created:      2019-09-18   3:20:11 UTC
   Image Type:   ARM Linux RAMDisk Image (lzma compressed)
   Data Size:    3423536 Bytes = 3.3 MiB
   Load Address: 00000000
   Entry Point:  00000000
   Verifying Checksum ... OK
## Flattened Device Tree blob at 07000000
   Booting using the fdt blob at 0x7000000
   Loading Kernel Image ... OK
   reserving fdt memory region: addr=0 size=100000
   Loading Ramdisk to 017df000, end 01b22d30 ... OK
   Using Device Tree in place at 07000000, end 07008bd3

Starting kernel ...

Also, I noticed in the environment these line:

bootext4=lcd_print "Booting...";scsi init; ext4load scsi ${ext4dev}:${ext4part} $loadaddr ${ext4dir}${dt_filename};if test $? -ne 0; then run fail; exit; fi;if test ${dt_is_from_toc} != 1; then; else flash_contents_obj_read_mem $loadaddr_dt $loadaddr;if test $? -ne 0; then run fail; exit; fi;fi;ext4load scsi ${ext4dev}:${ext4part} $loadaddr ${ext4dir}uImage;if test $? -ne 0; then run fail; exit; fi;fdt addr $loadaddr_dt;bootm $loadaddr - $fdtaddr;run fail; exit
bootnand=lcd_print "Booting...";nand set_partition_offset $nand_pt_addr_kernel;nand read $loadaddr $nand_pt_addr_kernel 4;setenvmem filesize $loadaddr;incenv filesize 4;nand read $loadaddr $nand_pt_addr_kernel $filesize;nand set_partition_offset $nand_pt_addr_al_boot;bootm $loadaddr_payload - $fdtaddr;lcd_print Failed!;failue;
bootnandmulti=run kernel_select;if test $kernel_selected -ne 0; then run bootnand; fi
boottftp=lcd_print "Booting...";tftpboot $loadaddr ${tftpdir}${dt_filename};if test $? -ne 0; then run fail; exit; fi;if test ${dt_is_from_toc} != 1; then; else flash_contents_obj_read_mem $loadaddr_dt $loadaddr;if test $? -ne 0; then run fail; exit; fi;fi;tftpboot $loadaddr ${tftpdir}uImage;if test $? -ne 0; then run fail; exit; fi;fdt addr $loadaddr_dt;bootm $loadaddr - $fdtaddr;run fail; exit
bootupd=is_nand_boot; if test $? -eq 0; then run bootupdspi; else; run bootupdnand; fi
bootupdnand=lcd_print "Updating al-boot" "to NAND"; tftpboot $loadaddr_dt ${tftpdir}${dt_filename};if test $? -ne 0; then run fail; exit; fi;if test ${dt_is_from_toc} != 1; then; else flash_contents_obj_read_mem $loadaddr $loadaddr_dt;if test $? -ne 0; then run fail; exit; fi;fi;tftpboot $loadaddr ${tftpdir}boot.img; if test $? -ne 0; then run fail; exit; fi;nand set_partition_offset $nand_pt_addr_al_boot;nand erase.spread $nand_pt_addr_al_boot $filesize; nand write $loadaddr $nand_pt_addr_al_boot $filesize; nand erase.spread ${dt_location} 10000; nand write ${loadaddr_dt} ${dt_location} 10000; lcd_print "Done"
bootupdnandy=lcd_print "Updating al-boot" "to NAND"; echo >> Use YModem to upload the device tree binary...;loady $loadaddr_dt;if test $? -ne 0; then run fail; exit; fi;if test ${dt_is_from_toc} != 1; then; else flash_contents_obj_read_mem $loadaddr $loadaddr_dt;if test $? -ne 0; then run fail; exit; fi;fi;echo >> Use YModem to upload the boot image binary...;loady $loadaddr;if test $? -ne 0; then run fail; exit; fi;nand set_partition_offset $nand_pt_addr_al_boot;nand erase.spread $nand_pt_addr_al_boot $filesize; nand write $loadaddr $nand_pt_addr_al_boot $filesize; nand erase.spread ${dt_location} 10000; nand write ${loadaddr_dt} ${dt_location} 10000;lcd_print "Done"
bootupdspi=lcd_print "Updating al-boot" "to SPI"; tftpboot $loadaddr_dt ${tftpdir}${dt_filename};if test $? -ne 0; then run fail; exit; fi;if test ${dt_is_from_toc} != 1; then; else flash_contents_obj_read_mem $loadaddr $loadaddr_dt;if test $? -ne 0; then run fail; exit; fi;fi;setenv filesize_dt $filesize;tftpboot ${loadaddr} ${tftpdir}boot.img; if test $? -ne 0; then run fail; exit; fi;sf probe; sf erase 0 +${filesize}; sf write ${loadaddr} 0 ${filesize}; sf erase ${dt_location} +${filesize_dt}; sf write ${loadaddr_dt} ${dt_location} ${filesize_dt}; echo bootupd done;echo Notice: Changes in default environment variables will only take effect once the;echo environment variables are deleted from flash using the 'delenv' script;lcd_print "Done"
bootupdspiy=lcd_print "Updating al-boot" "to SPI"; echo >> Use YModem to upload the device tree binary...;loady $loadaddr_dt;if test $? -ne 0; then run fail; exit; fi;if test ${dt_is_from_toc} != 1; then; else flash_contents_obj_read_mem $loadaddr $loadaddr_dt;if test $? -ne 0; then run fail; exit; fi;fi;setenv filesize_dt $filesize;echo >> Use YModem to upload the boot image binary...;loady ${loadaddr};if test $? -ne 0; then run fail; exit; fi;sf probe; sf erase 0 +${filesize}; sf write ${loadaddr} 0 ${filesize}; sf erase ${dt_location} +${filesize_dt}; sf write ${loadaddr_dt} ${dt_location} ${filesize_dt};echo bootupd done;echo Notice: Changes in default environment variables will only take effect once the;echo environment variables are deleted from flash using the 'delenv' script;lcd_print "Done"
bootupdy=is_nand_boot; if test $? -eq 0; then run bootupdspiy;else; run bootupdnandy; fi
rootargshd=setenv rootargs root=${hdroot} rw
rootargsnand=setenv rootargs root=ubi0:root rootfstype=ubifs ubi.mtd=3
rootargsnfs=setenv rootargs root=/dev/nfs rw nfsroot=${serverip}:${nfsrootdir},tcp,nolock rw ip=${ipaddr}:${serverip}:${gatewayip}:${netmask}:${board_name}:eth1:none
rootfsupd=lcd_print "Updating rootfs...";tftpboot $loadaddr_rootfs_chk ${tftpdir}rootfs.ubi.md5;if test $? -ne 0; then run fail; exit; fi;tftpboot $loadaddr ${tftpdir}rootfs.ubi;if test $? -ne 0; then run fail; exit; fi;md5sum -v $loadaddr $filesize *$loadaddr_rootfs_chk;if test $? -ne 0; then run fail; exit; fi;nand set_partition_offset $nand_pt_addr_fs;nand erase.spread $nand_pt_addr_fs $nand_pt_size_fs;nand write $loadaddr $nand_pt_addr_fs $filesize;nand set_partition_offset $nand_pt_addr_al_boot;echo rootfsupd done;lcd_print "Done"

2nd question - how do the root and bootup and a few other statements come into play? What calls these variables?
3rd question – ‘odmbootseq=run odmbootargs; run odmbootusb; run odmbootfirmware; failure;’ what does ‘failure’ do in u-boot? I cannot find that in command listings, or anywhere on the web.

Thanks in advance.
Mike

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