AT91SAM9N12-EK Special Page

Introduction

Welcome to the Linux4SAM page dedicated to the newly introduced AT91SAM9N12-EK board. This page provides the latest information on this eMPU in the same way as elsewhere on the site Linux4SAM. Each component is detailed in its own section just below. As is always done for the material we published on Linux4SAM. This special release will be integrated in each component release cycle and the associated Open Source upstream project.

GettingStarted

Demo packages available in Getting Started AT91SAM9N12-EK page

Basic components

AT91Bootstrap

Pre-built binaries

!BootingMedia	Description	Binary
SerialFlash	AT91Bootstrap binary with 2nd level application in SerialFlash	boot.bin
SDCard	AT91Bootstrap binary with 2nd level application in Micro SD Card	at91sam9n12ek-sdcardboot-3.2.bin Rename it as BOOT.BIN while loading it on SD card.

Boot capabilities matrix

Here is :
a summary of the boot feature for each board
the solution chosen for the Linux4SAM pre-built binaries.

Product	Boot from SerialFlash (SPI0 CS0)	Boot from SerialFlash (SPI0 CS1)	Boot from NAND Flash	Boot from SD card	Boot from TWI EEPROM
AT91SAM9N12-EK

Using AT91Bootstrap binaries

Boot from Serial Flash with AT91Bootstrap

You need to use SAM-BA to flash AT91Bootstrap. Here we are assuming you want to boot from Serial Flash:

1. Choose the SerialFlash AT25/AT26 tab in the SAM-BA GUI.
2. Initialize the media choosing the Enable Serialflash (SPI0_CS0) action in the Scripts rolling menu and press Execute.
3. Select Send Boot File in the Scripts rolling menu and press Execute. Then select the bootstrap file and press Open; the media is written down.
4. Close SAM-BA, remove the USB cable.

Boot from SD card with AT91Bootstrap

You can boot from SD card. To do this, you will need an SD Card with the first partition formated as FAT32. Then you will need to copy the AT91Bootstrap binary file and the U-Boot binary file. These files must be respectively named BOOT.BIN (AT91Bootstrap image file) and u-boot.bin (U-Boot file).

Building AT91Bootstrap

AT91Booststrap has been created by Atmel to ease the loading of binaries from several boot media. The revision created for AT91SAM9N12-EK is available on www.linux4sam.org FTP site: at91bootstrap_9n12.tar.gz.

Getting AT91Bootstrap source code

You can get AT91Bootstrap source code:

$ wget ftp://ftp.linux4sam.org/pub/at91bootstrap/AT91Bootstrap3.2/at91bootstrap_9n12.tar.gz
$ tar xvzf at91bootstrap_9n12.tar.gz
$ cd at91bootstrap

Configuring AT91Bootstrap and choosing the boot media

Before building AT91Bootstrap, you need to configure it for AT91SAM9N12-EK board and to indicate where you want your third stage bootloader to be located: in this example it will be U-Boot. If you want to run it from Serial FLASH use:

$ make at91sam9n12df_defconfig

And if you want to run it from the SD card use:

$ make at91sam9n12sd_defconfig

Note that you may need to specify the CROSS_COMPILE variable. This will be explained later.

Then you can customize the AT91Bootstrap configuration further with:

$ make menuconfig

Compiling AT91Bootstrap

Now you can cross-compile the AT91Bootstrap:

$ make CROSS_COMPILE=<path_to_cross-compiler/cross-compiler-prefix->

<path_to_cross-compiler> is only needed if it is not in your PATH. Usually cross-compiler-prefix- looks like arm-linux- , arm-elf- or arm-none-linux-gnueabi- .

The result of this operation is a fresh AT91Bootstrap binary located in the binaries directory and called at91sam9n12ek-xxxboot-3.2.bin corresponding to the binary ELF file called at91sam9n12ek-xxxboot-3.2.elf.

• at91sam9n12ek-dataflashboot-3.2.bin is the binary file able to boot the application located in Serial Flash.
• at91sam9n12ek-sdcardboot-3.2.bin is the binary file able to boot the application called u-boot.bin located in the FAT32 formated SD card.

Check additional information in the dedicated AT91Bootstrap page on Android4sam.

U-Boot

U-Boot binaries

Here are the U-Boot binaries, in this example the U-Boot environment is located into the SerialFlash.

Booting Media	Description	Binary
!SerialFlash	U-Boot binary with environment in SerialFlash Based on U-Boot revision 2011.06	u-boot.bin

U-Boot 2011.06 experimental patch

Description	Source	Patch
Add at91sam9n12 support to AT91 u-boot	U-Boot 2011.06 archive U-Boot 2011.06 tag on git tree	U-Boot-9n12_m2.patch

Flashing U-Boot

You will have to use SAM-BA to flash U-Boot. Here we are assuming you want to put U-Boot and its environment into the Serial Flash:

1. Choose the SerialFlash media tab in the SAM-BA GUI.
2. Initialize the media choosing the Enable Serialflash action in the Scripts rolling menu and press Execute.
3. Specify 0x8400 as the address of the U-Boot image.
4. Click the icon button to choose the U-Boot image file.
5. Press Send File button.
6. Close SAM-BA, remove the USB cable

Check additional information in the dedicated U-Boot page.

Building U-Boot

Getting U-Boot source code

You need to get U-Boot source code:

$ wget ftp://ftp.denx.de/pub/u-boot/u-boot-2011.06.tar.bz2
$ tar xvjf u-boot-2011.06.tar.bz2
$ cd u-boot-2011.06

Or by using GIT:

$ git clone http://git.denx.de/u-boot.git
$ cd u-boot
$ git checkout v2011.06 -b yourbranch

Then apply the at91 AT91SAM9N12 patch:

$ wget ftp://ftp.linux4sam.org/pub/uboot/u-boot-v2011.06/u-boot-9n12_m2.patch
$ patch -p1 < u-boot-9n12_m2.patch

Configuring and Compiling U-Boot

First you should indicate the cross-compiler to U-Boot:

$export CROSS_COMPILE=<path_to_cross-compiler/cross-compiler-prefix->

<path_to_cross-compiler> is only needed if it is not in your PATH. Usually cross-compiler-prefix- looks like arm-linux- , arm-elf- or arm-none-linux-gnueabi- .

And now you can compile U-Boot. If you want to compile it for Serial Flash:

$ make at91sam9n12ek_dataflash_cs0

The result of this operation is a fresh u-boot binary called u-boot.bin corresponding to the binary ELF file called u-boot.

• u-boot.bin is the file you should store on the board.
• u-boot is the ELF format binary file you may use to debug u-boot through a JTAG link for instance.

Linux Kernel

Pre-built image

2.6.39 (2.6.39-at91sam9n12-exp.tar.gz)
Board	Description	Binary
at91sam9n12ek	linux-2.6.39 uImage configured by at91sam9n12ek_defconfig \	uImage-2.6.39-m2-at91sam9n12ek.bin

Flashing the Linux kernel image

Using SAM-BA

The procedures to flash the kernel image by using SAM-BA:

1. Choose the SerialFlash media tab in the SAM-BA GUI.
2. Initialize the media choosing the Enable Serialflash action in the Scripts rolling menu and press Execute.
3. Specify 0x100000 as the address of Linux kernel image
4. Press Browse Button and choose your kernel image.
5. Press Send File button.
6. Close SAM-BA, remove the USB cable.

Using U-Boot

You can also flash the kernel image with U-Boot. You must have configured your network access in U-Boot as the binary image will be transferred to the target using TFTP protocol.
Type the following commands:

tftp 0x22000000 uImage-2.6.39-m2-at91sam9n12ek.bin
sf probe 0
sf erase 0x100000 0x300000
sf write 0x22000000 0x100000 0x250000
boot

Note that last parameter is the actual size of the binary written. You may adapt it to the size of your kernel image.

Linux4SAM AT91SAM9N12 Experimental Patches

2.6.39-at91sam9n12-exp.tar.gz

• Support for AT91SAM9N12 SoC
• DMA use on SD/MMC, SSC (I2S) audio, SPI and NAND flash peripherals
• NAND hardware ECC support using PMECC controller
• LCD with one base layer
• Qtouch touch button
• USB Full-Speed and Ethernet (Through EBI interface)

AT91SAM9n12 Linux kernel sources summary table

Linux Kernel revision	Vanilla Linux Kernel	AT91 Maintainer patchset	Experimental patches
Linux 2.6.39 \	linux-2.6.39.tar.bz2 \	Not needed \	2.6.39-at91sam9n12-exp.tar.gz

Check additional information in the dedicated Linux Kernel page.

Building Linux kernel

Getting source code

The AT91SAM9N12 patch is based on the 2.6.39 Linux kernel version, so the first step is to get it:

$ wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.39.tar.bz2
$ tar xvjf linux-2.6.39.tar.bz2
$ cd linux-2.6.39

Now you need to apply the Atmel patch series:
Download experimental patch archive:

$ wget ftp://ftp.linux4sam.org/pub/linux/2.6.39-at91/2.6.39-at91sam9n12-exp.tar.gz

Decompress archive with:

$ tar xvzf  2.6.39-at91sam9n12-exp.tar.gz

And then apply patchset one patch after the other in proper order:

$ patch -p1 < 2.6.39-at91-exp.patch

Configuring and building the kernel

Firstly, use the 9n12ek default kernel configuration:

$ make ARCH=arm at91sam9n12ek_defconfig

Then you can customize the kernel configuration further with:

$ make ARCH=arm menuconfig

Build the Linux kernel image:

$ make ARCH=arm  CROSS_COMPILE=<path_to_cross-compiler/cross-compiler-prefix->

<path_to_cross-compiler> is only needed if it is not in your PATH. Usually cross-compiler-prefix- looks like arm-linux- , arm-elf- or arm-none-linux-gnueabi- .

To produce a kernel image suitable for U-Boot:

mkimage -A arm -O linux -C none -T kernel -a 20008000 -e 20008000 -n linux-2.6 -d arch/arm/boot/zImage uImage.bin

Open source embedded distribution solutions

OpenEmbedded / QTDemo

OpenEmbedded 2011.03 QT Demo Binaries

Board	Description	Binary
AT91SAM9N12-EK	QT Demo image tailored for AT91 UBI root filesystem	Angstrom-qt4e-at91sam9n12ek-image-eglibc-ipk-v20120109-at91sam9n12ek.rootfs.ubi

Flashing the root file system

Connect to the Flashing the root file system page to know how to deploy this UBI/UBIFS image on NAND flash.

How to build QT Demo for AT91SAM9N12-EK

Dedicated page that explains how to build QT Demo for AT91SAM9N12-EK. It explains the procedure to get an QT Demo UBI/UBIFS image. QT Demo is based on the OpenEmbedded build system.

Buildroot

Buildroot 2011.05 binaries

The Root filesystem image is for all AT91SAM9N12-EK board. It's provided as a UBI image for NAND FLASH memory with page size of 2KBytes.

Board	Description	Binary
at91sam9n12ek	BuildRoot image tailored for AT91 UBI root filesystem	buildroot_2011.05-at91_9n12_m2.ubi

Flashing the root file system

Connect to the Flashing the root file system page to know how to deploy this UBI/UBIFS image on NAND flash.

How to build BuildRoot for AT91SAM9N12-EK

Dedicated page that explains how to build BuildRoot for AT91SAM9N12-EK. It explains the procedure to build a BuildRoot UBI/UBIFS image.

FAQ

FAQ about AT91SAM9N12-EK