SAMA5D4 Xplained Board

---

SoC Features

The SAMA5D4 MPU is ideal for any high-performance, secure, and cost-sensitive industrial application. High-speed computing needs are supported by ARM Neon and 128kB L2 cache which increases the overall system performance. The SAMA5D4 is an ideal fit for low-cost user interface applications that require video playback. The high-grade security features allows you to protect any system against counterfeiting and software theft, and allows you to securely store and transfer data.

Kit Information

Kit Overview

Access the console

The usual serial communication parameters are 115200 8-N-1 :

Baud rate	115200
Data	8 bits
Parity	None
Stop	1 bit
Flow control	None

Access the console on DBGU serial port

The DBGU serial console can be accessed from two connectors. One is from the DBGU port with the help of a TTL-to-USB serial cable (marked as DEBUG J1), another is from micro-A USB connector that gives access to the on-board serial-to-USB converter (marked as J20 EDBG-USB).

Using DBGU on TTL-to-USB connector (DEBUG J1)

• For Microsoft Windows users: Install the driver of your USB TTL serial cable. FTDI-based ones are the most popular, have a look to this page to get the driver: http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm
• Be sure to connect a 3.3V compatible cable and identify its GND pin. Place it properly according to the silkscreen and connect the cable to the board (J1)
  • For Microsoft Windows users: Identify the USB connection that is established, USB Serial Port should appear in Device Manager. The COMxx number will be used to configure the terminal emulator.

• • For Linux users: Identify the serial USB connection by monitoring the last lines of dmesg command. The /dev/ttyUSBx number will be used to configure the terminal emulator.

[605576.562740] usb 1-1.1.2: new full-speed USB device number 17 using ehci-pci
[605576.660920] usb 1-1.1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0403, idProduct=6001
[605576.660933] usb 1-1.1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[605576.660939] usb 1-1.1.2: Product: TTL232R-3V3
[605576.660944] usb 1-1.1.2: Manufacturer: FTDI
[605576.660958] usb 1-1.1.2: SerialNumber: FTGNVZ04
[605576.663092] ftdi_sio 1-1.1.2:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
[605576.663120] usb 1-1.1.2: Detected FT232RL
[605576.663122] usb 1-1.1.2: Number of endpoints 2
[605576.663124] usb 1-1.1.2: Endpoint 1 MaxPacketSize 64
[605576.663126] usb 1-1.1.2: Endpoint 2 MaxPacketSize 64
[605576.663128] usb 1-1.1.2: Setting MaxPacketSize 64
[605576.663483] usb 1-1.1.2: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0

A /dev/ttyUSB0 node has been created.

• Now open your favorite terminal emulator with appropriate settings

Using the micro-A USB connector (J20 EDBG-USB)

You can also access the serial console through the on-board serial-to-USB converter. In fact, the Atmel EDBG (Embedded Debugger) chip on the Evaluation Kit acts as a serial-to-USB converter and is loaded with a firmware that is able to talk USB-CDC protocol.

• For Microsoft Windows users: Install USB drivers for Atmel and Segger tools. No need to install a driver on any regular Linux distribution.
• Open JP1 to enable EDBG
• Connect the USB cable to the board (J20 EDBG-USB)
  • For Microsoft Windows users: identify the USB connection that is established
    EDBG Virtual COM Port should appear in Device Manager. The COMxx number will be used to configure the terminal emulator.

• • For Linux users: identify the USB connection by monitoring the last lines of dmesg command. The /dev/ttyACMx number will be used to configure the terminal emulator.

[172677.700868] usb 2-1.4.4: new full-speed USB device number 31 using ehci-pci
[172677.792677] usb 2-1.4.4: not running at top speed; connect to a high speed hub
[172677.793418] usb 2-1.4.4: New USB device found, idVendor=03eb, idProduct=6124
[172677.793424] usb 2-1.4.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[172677.793897] cdc_acm 2-1.4.4:1.0: This device cannot do calls on its own. It is not a modem.
[172677.793924] cdc_acm 2-1.4.4:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
   

idVendor=03eb, idProduct=6124: from this message you can see it's Microchip board USB connection.

• Now open your favorite terminal emulator with appropriate settings

Demo

Demo archives

Media type	Board	Screen	Binary	Description
Yocto Project / Poky based demo
NAND Flash	SAMA5D4 Xplained	-	linux4sam-poky-sama5d4_xplained-headless-6.2.zip (~ 116 MB) md5: 880c5b4c865db6d9821a92f0d214e810	Linux4SAM Yocto Project / Poky based demo compiled from tag linux4sam_6.2 Follow procedure: #Flash_the_demo
		PDA5" (TM5000 or AC320005-5)	linux4sam-poky-sama5d4_xplained-graphics-6.2.zip (~ 236 MB) md5: b2663641d1f4590190e3608eed874a4a
SD Card image	SAMA5D4 Xplained	-	linux4sam-poky-sama5d4_xplained-headless-6.2.img.bz2 (~ 92 MB) md5: fdc721a20dad42fed91d7472a1b744f2	Linux4SAM Yocto Project / Poky based demo compiled from tag linux4sam_6.2 Follow procedure: #Create_a_SD_card_with_the_demo
		PDA5" (TM5000 or AC320005-5)	linux4sam-poky-sama5d4_xplained-graphics-6.2.img.bz2 (~ 201 MB) md5: 999c63c8d8ae30b26c021c8017a32e95
BuildRoot based demo
SD Card image	SAMA5D4 Xplained	-	linux4sam-buildroot-sama5d4_xplained-headless-6.2.img.bz2 (~ 41 MB) md5: dc8f4075327c008db43e19fb2d8121ff	Linux4SAM BuildRoot based demo compiled from tag linux4sam_6.2 Follow procedure: #Create_a_SD_card_with_the_demo
		PDA5" (TM5000 or AC320005-5)	linux4sam-buildroot-sama5d4_xplained-graphics-6.2.img.bz2 (~ 227 MB) md5: 5d4b700cacf67336262c33ba765d63b7
OpenWrt based demo
SD Card image	SAMA5D4 Xplained	-	linux4sam-openwrt-sama5d4_xplained-headless-6.2.img.gz (~ 17 MB) md5: 744801ec2f7be529e52a218fb3b66e30	Linux4SAM OpenWrt based demo compiled from tag linux4sam_6.2 Follow procedure: #Create_a_SD_card_with_the_demo

Create a SD card with the demo

You need a 1 GB SD card (or more) and to download the image of the demo. The image is compressed to reduce the amount of data to download. This image contains:

• a FAT32 partition with the AT91Bootstrap, U-Boot and the Linux Kernel (zImage and dtb).
• an EXT4 partition for the rootfs.

Multi-platform procedure

To write the compressed image on the SD card, you will have to download and install Etcher. This tool, which is an Open Source software, is useful since it allows to get a compressed image as input. More information and extra help available on the Etcher website.

• Insert your SD card and launch Etcher:

1. Select the demo image. They are marked as "SD Card image" in the demo table above.
   Note that you can select a compressed image (like the demos available here). The tool is able to uncompress files on the fly
2. Select the device corresponding to your SD card (Etcher proposes you the devices that are removable to avoid erasing your system disk)
3. Click on the Flash! button
4. On Linux, Etcher finally asks you to enter your root password because it needs access to the hardware (your SD card reader or USB to SD card converter)
5. then the flashing process begins followed by a verification phase (optional)

• Once writing done, Etcher asks you if you want to burn another demo image:

• Your SD card is ready!

Flash the demo

use SAM-BA 3.2.y onwards. You can download it here: SAM-BA 3.x release page.

Connect the USB to the board before launching SAM-BA

• Short the JP7 (BOOT_DIS) to prevents booting from Nand or serial Flash by disabling Flash Chip Selects
• Connect a USB micro-A cable to the board (J11 5V-USB-A) to power up the board
• Open the JP7 (BOOT_DIS) to enable booting from Nand or serial Flash by enabling Flash Chip Selects
• check whether the board is found in your PC as a USB device:
  • For Microsoft Windows users:* verify that the USB connection is well established
    AT91 USB to Serial Converter should appear in Device Manager. If it shows a unknown device you need to download and install the driver: AT91SAM USB CDC driver
    
     
  • For Linux users: check /dev/ttyACMx by monitoring the last lines of dmesg command:
    

[172677.700868] usb 2-1.4.4: new full-speed USB device number 31 using ehci-pci
[172677.792677] usb 2-1.4.4: not running at top speed; connect to a high speed hub
[172677.793418] usb 2-1.4.4: New USB device found, idVendor=03eb, idProduct=6124
[172677.793424] usb 2-1.4.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[172677.793897] cdc_acm 2-1.4.4:1.0: This device cannot do calls on its own. It is not a modem.
[172677.793924] cdc_acm 2-1.4.4:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
   

idVendor=03eb, idProduct=6124: from this message you can see it's Microchip board USB connection.

Run script to flash the demo

• download the demo package for the board. They are marked as "Media type: NAND Flash" in the table above
• extract the demo package
• run your usual terminal emulator and enter the demo directory
• make sure that the sam-ba application is in your Operating System path so that you can reach it from your demo package directory
• for Microsoft Windows users: Launch the demo_linux_nandflash.bat file
• for Linux users: Launch the demo_linux_nandflash.sh file
• this script runs SAM-BA 3 and the associated QML sam-ba script (demo_linux_nandflash_usb.qml) with proper parameters
• when you reach the end of the flashing process (this will take a few minutes), the following line is written:

  -I- === Done. ===

• connect a serial link on DBGU and open the terminal emulator program as explained just above
• power cycle the board
• monitor the system while it's booting on the LCD screen or through the serial line

Build From source code

Setup ARM Cross Compiler

• Ubuntu:
  In Ubuntu, you can install the ARM Cross Compiler by doing:

  sudo apt-get install gcc-arm-linux-gnueabi
  export CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabi-
     

• Others:
  For others, you can download the Linaro cross compiler and setup the environment by doing:

  wget -c https://releases.linaro.org/components/toolchain/binaries/7.3-2018.05/arm-linux-gnueabi/gcc-linaro-7.3.1-2018.05-x86_64_arm-linux-gnueabi.tar.xz
  tar xf gcc-linaro-7.3.1-2018.05-x86_64_arm-linux-gnueabi.tar.xz
  export CROSS_COMPILE=`pwd`/gcc-linaro-7.3.1-2018.05-x86_64_arm-linux-gnueabi/bin/arm-linux-gnueabi-
     

Build AT91Bootstrap from sources

This section describes how to get source code from the git repository, how to configure with the default configuration, how to customize AT91Bootstrap based on the default configuration and finally to build AT91Bootstrap to produce the binary. take the default configuration to download U-Boot from NandFlash for example.

Get AT91Bootstrap Source Code

You can easily download AT91Bootstrap source code on the at91bootstrap git repository.

To get the source code, you should clone the repository by doing:

$ git clone git://github.com/linux4sam/at91bootstrap.git
Cloning into 'at91bootstrap'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 51, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (51/51), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (32/32), done.
remote: Total 10880 (delta 20), reused 39 (delta 19), pack-reused 10829
Receiving objects: 100% (10880/10880), 4.03 MiB | 395.00 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (8300/8300), done.
$ cd at91bootstrap/

Configure AT91Bootstrap

Assuming you are at the AT91Bootstrap root directory, you will find a board/sama5d4_xplained folder which contains several default configuration files:

sama5d4_xplainednf_uboot_secure_defconfig
sama5d4_xplainedsd_uboot_secure_defconfig

Tips: nf means to read nandflash, df means to read serial flash, sd means to read mmc card.
Tips: uboot means to load u-boot to RAM, secure means to enter into secure mode, every peripherals are accessible.

You can configure AT91Bootstrap to load U-Boot binary from NAND flash by doing:

$ make mrproper
$ make sama5d4_xplainednf_uboot_secure_defconfig

If the configuring process is successful, the .config file can be found at AT91Bootstrap root directory.

Customize AT91Bootstrap

If the default configuration doesn't meet your need, after configuring with the default configuration, you can customize it by doing:

$ make menuconfig

Now, in the menuconfig dialog, you can easily add or remove some features to/from AT91Bootstrap as the same way as kernel configuration.
Move to <Exit> with arrows and press this button hitting the Enter key to exit from this screen.

Build AT91Bootstrap

Then you can build the AT91Bootstrap binary by doing:

$ make

If the building process is successful, the final .bin image is binaries/at91bootstrap.bin.

Build U-Boot from sources

Getting U-Boot sources

Dedicated page on U-Boot wiki: http://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot/SourceCode

You can easily download U-Boot source code from Linux4SAM GitHub U-Boot repository:

• clone the Linux4sam GitHub U-Boot repository

     $ git clone git://github.com/linux4sam/u-boot-at91.git
     Cloning into 'u-boot-at91'...
     remote: Enumerating objects: 106920, done.
     remote: Counting objects: 100% (106920/106920), done.
     remote: Compressing objects: 100% (24617/24617), done.
     remote: Total 566593 (delta 84756), reused 96342 (delta 81351), pack-reused 459673
     Receiving objects: 100% (566593/566593), 131.67 MiB | 430.00 KiB/s, done.
     Resolving deltas: 100% (456142/456142), done.
     $ cd u-boot-at91
     

• The source code has been taken from the master branch which is pointing to the latest branch we use. If you want to use the other branch, you can list them and use one of them by doing:

     $ git branch -r
     origin/HEAD -> origin/master
     origin/master
     origin/u-boot-2012.10-at91
     origin/u-boot-2013.07-at91
     origin/u-boot-2014.07-at91
     origin/u-boot-2015.01-at91
     origin/u-boot-2016.03-at91
     origin/u-boot-2017.03-at91
     origin/u-boot-2018.07-at91
     origin/u-boot-2019.04-at91
     origin/uboot_5series_1.x
     $ git checkout origin/u-boot-2019.04-at91 -b u-boot-2019.04-at91
     Branch u-boot-2019.04-at91 set up to track remote branch u-boot-2019.04-at91 from origin.
     Switched to a new branch 'u-boot-2019.04-at91'
     

Cross-compiling U-Boot

Before compiling the U-Boot, you need setup cross compile toolchain in the section.

Latest versions of U-boot (2018.07 and newer) have a minimum requirement of 6.0 version of the GCC toolchain. We always recommend to use the latest versions.

Once the AT91 U-Boot sources available, cross-compile U-Boot is made in two steps: configuration and compiling. Check the Configuration chapter in U-Boot reference manual.

Go to the configs/ to find the exact target when invoking make.

The U-Boot environment variables can be stored in different media, above config files can specify where to store the U-Boot environment.

   # To put environment variables in serial flash:
   sama5d4_xplained_spiflash_defconfig
   # To put environment variables in nandflash (default):
   sama5d4_xplained_nandflash_defconfig
   # To put environment variables in SD/MMC card:
   sama5d4_xplained_mmc_defconfig

Here are the building steps for the SAMA5D4-Xplained board:

# You can change the config according to your needs.
make sama5d4_xplained_nandflash_defconfig
make

The result of these operations is a fresh U-Boot binary called u-boot.bin corresponding to the binary ELF file 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.

Build Kernel from sources

Getting Kernel sources

To get the source code, you have to clone the repository:

$ git clone git://github.com/linux4sam/linux-at91.git
Cloning into 'linux-at91'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 5812545, done.
remote: Total 5812545 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 5812545
Receiving objects: 100% (5812545/5812545), 1.63 GiB | 4.89 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (4862825/4862825), done.
Checking connectivity... done.
Checking out files: 100% (56330/56330), done.
$ cd linux-at91

The source code has been taken from the master branch which is pointing on the latest branch we use.

Note that you can also add this Linux4SAM repository as a remote GIT repository to your usual Linux git tree. It will save you a lot of bandwidth and download time:

$ git remote add linux4sam git://github.com/linux4sam/linux-at91.git
$ git remote update linux4sam
Fetching linux4sam
From git://github.com/linux4sam/linux-at91
 * [new branch]                linux-2.6.39-at91 -> linux4sam/linux-2.6.39-at91
 * [new branch]                linux-3.10-at91 -> linux4sam/linux-3.10-at91
 * [new branch]                linux-3.15-at91 -> linux4sam/linux-3.15-at91
 * [new branch]                linux-3.18-at91 -> linux4sam/linux-3.18-at91
 * [new branch]                linux-3.4.9-at91 -> linux4sam/linux-3.4.9-at91
 * [new branch]                linux-3.6.9-at91 -> linux4sam/linux-3.6.9-at91
 * [new branch]                linux-4.1-at91 -> linux4sam/linux-4.1-at91
 * [new branch]                linux-4.4-at91 -> linux4sam/linux-4.4-at91
 * [new branch]                linux-4.9-at91 -> linux4sam/linux-4.9-at91
 * [new branch]                linux-4.14-at91 -> linux4sam/linux-4.14-at91
 * [new branch]                linux-4.19-at91 -> linux4sam/linux-4.19-at91
 * [new branch]                master     -> linux4sam/master

If you want to use an other branch, you can list them and use one of them by doing this:

$ git branch -r
  origin/HEAD -> origin/master
  origin/linux-2.6.39-at91
  origin/linux-3.10-at91
  origin/linux-3.15-at91
  origin/linux-3.18-at91
  origin/linux-3.4.9-at91
  origin/linux-3.6.9-at91
  origin/linux-4.1-at91
  origin/linux-4.4-at91
  origin/linux-4.9-at91
  origin/linux-4.14-at91
  origin/linux-4.19-at91
  origin/master
$ git checkout origin/linux-4.19-at91 -b linux-4.19-at91
Branch linux-4.19-at91 set up to track remote branch linux-4.19-at91 from origin.
Switched to a new branch 'linux-4.19-at91'

Configure and Build the Linux kernel

Now you have to configure the Linux kernel according to your hardware. We have two default configuration at91 SoC in arch/arm/configs

arch/arm/configs/at91_dt_defconfig
arch/arm/configs/sama5_defconfig

• at91_dt_defconfig: for at91sam ARM926 series chips
• sama5_defconfig: for SAMA5 series chips

Now we Configure and Build kernel for sama5d4_xplained board:

$ make ARCH=arm sama5_defconfig
  HOSTCC  scripts/basic/fixdep
  HOSTCC  scripts/kconfig/conf.o
  SHIPPED scripts/kconfig/zconf.tab.c
  SHIPPED scripts/kconfig/zconf.lex.c
  SHIPPED scripts/kconfig/zconf.hash.c
  HOSTCC  scripts/kconfig/zconf.tab.o
  HOSTLD  scripts/kconfig/conf
#
# configuration written to .config
#

At this step, you can modify default configuration using the menuconfig

$ make ARCH=arm menuconfig

Now, in the menuconfig dialog, you can easily add or remove some features. Once done, Move to <Exit> with arrows and press this button hitting the Enter key to exit from this screen.

Build the Linux kernel image, before you build you need set up the cross compile toolchain, check this section.

$ make ARCH=arm

[..]

  Kernel: arch/arm/boot/Image is ready
  Kernel: arch/arm/boot/zImage is ready

Now you have an usable compressed kernel image zImage.

If you need an uImage you can run this additional step:

make ARCH=arm uImage LOADADDR=0x20008000

[..]

  Kernel: arch/arm/boot/zImage is ready
  UIMAGE  arch/arm/boot/uImage
Image Name:   Linux-4.1.0-linux4sam_5.3+
Created:      Fri Sep  9 17:02:45 2016
Image Type:   ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
Data Size:    3441072 Bytes = 3360.42 kB = 3.28 MB
Load Address: 20008000
Entry Point:  20008000
  Image arch/arm/boot/uImage is ready

make ARCH=arm dtbs

[..]
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/at91-kizbox2.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/at91-nattis-2-natte-2.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/at91-sama5d27_som1_ek.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/at91-sama5d2_ptc_ek.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/at91-sama5d2_xplained.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/at91-sama5d3_xplained.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/at91-tse850-3.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/sama5d31ek.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/sama5d33ek.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/sama5d34ek.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/sama5d35ek.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/sama5d36ek.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/sama5d36ek_cmp.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/at91-sama5d4_ma5d4evk.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/at91-sama5d4_xplained.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/at91-sama5d4ek.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/at91-sama5d4ek_isi.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/at91-vinco.dtb
[..]

If the building process is successful, the final images can be found under arch/arm/boot/ directory.

Build Yocto/Poky rootfs from sources

Note that building an entire distribution is a long process. It also requires a big amount of free disk space.

The support for Atmel AT91 SoC family is included in a particular Yocto layer: meta-atmel. The source for this layer are hosted on Linux4SAM GitHub account: https://github.com/linux4sam/meta-atmel

Building environment

A step-by-step comprehensive installation is explained in the Yocto Project Quick Start. The following lines have to be considered as an add-on that is AT91 specific or that can facilitate your setup.

Prerequisite

Here are the reference pages for setting up a Yocto building environment: What You Need and How You Get It.

Step by step build procedure

here is a copy of the README procedure available directly in the meta-atmel layer. This file in the meta-atmel layer repository must be considered as the reference and the following copy can be out-of-sync.

This layer provides support for Microchip microprocessors (aka AT91)
====================================================================

For more information about the Microchip MPU product line see:
http://www.microchip.com/design-centers/32-bit-mpus
Linux & Open Source on Microchip microprocessors:
http://www.linux4sam.org


Supported SoCs / MACHINE names
==============================
Note that most of the machine names below, have a SD Card variant that can be
built by adding an "-sd" suffix to the machine name.
- SAMA5D2 product family / sama5d2-xplained, sama5d2-xplained-emmc, sama5d27-som1-ek-sd, sama5d2-ptc-ek, sama5d2-icp, sama5d27-wlsom1-ek-sd
- SAMA5D4 product family / sama5d4ek, sama5d4-xplained
- SAMA5D3 product family / sama5d3xek, sama5d3-xplained
- AT91SAM9x5 product family (AT91SAM9G15, AT91SAM9G25, AT91SAM9X25, AT91SAM9G35 and AT91SAM9X35) / at91sam9x5ek
- AT91SAM9RL / at91sam9rlek
- AT91SAM9G45 / at91sam9m10g45ek
- SAM9X60 / sam9x60ek


Sources
=======
- meta-atmel
URI: git://github.com/linux4sam/meta-atmel.git
URI: https://github.com/linux4sam/meta-atmel.git
Branch: warrior


Dependencies
============
This Layer depends on :
- poky
URI: git://git.yoctoproject.org/poky
Branch: warrior
Tag: 1153a954e652304b6b5d287437817b7da891d491

- meta-openembedded
URI: git://git.openembedded.org/meta-openembedded
URI: http://cgit.openembedded.org/meta-openembedded/
Branch: warrior
Tag: 3bdbf72e3a4bf18a4a2c7afbde4f7ab773aeded9

Optionally:
- meta-qt5
URI: git://code.qt.io/yocto/meta-qt5.git
URI: http://code.qt.io/cgit/yocto/meta-qt5.git/
Branch: jansa/warrior (5.12)
Tag: dc2dedef9961950b88f4245ba7499538ec4244ab

Build procedure
===============

0/ Create a directory
mkdir my_dir
cd my_dir

1/ Clone yocto/poky git repository with the proper branch ready
git clone git://git.yoctoproject.org/poky -b warrior

2/ Clone meta-openembedded git repository with the proper branch ready
git clone git://git.openembedded.org/meta-openembedded -b warrior

3/ Clone meta-qt5 git repository with the proper branch ready
git clone git://code.qt.io/yocto/meta-qt5.git
cd meta-qt5
git checkout upstream/warrior
cd ..

4/ Clone meta-atmel layer with the proper branch ready
git clone git://github.com/linux4sam/meta-atmel.git -b warrior

5/ Enter the poky directory to configure the build system and start the build process
cd poky

6/ Initialize build directory
source oe-init-build-env build-microchip

7/ Add meta-atmel layer to bblayer configuration file
vim conf/bblayers.conf

# POKY_BBLAYERS_CONF_VERSION is increased each time build/conf/bblayers.conf
# changes incompatibly
POKY_BBLAYERS_CONF_VERSION = "2"

BBPATH = "${TOPDIR}"
BBFILES ?= ""

BSPDIR := "${@os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(d.getVar('FILE', True)) + '/../../..')}"

BBLAYERS ?= " \
  ${BSPDIR}/poky/meta \
  ${BSPDIR}/poky/meta-poky \
  ${BSPDIR}/poky/meta-yocto-bsp \
  ${BSPDIR}/meta-atmel \
  ${BSPDIR}/meta-openembedded/meta-oe \
  ${BSPDIR}/meta-openembedded/meta-networking \
  ${BSPDIR}/meta-openembedded/meta-python \
  ${BSPDIR}/meta-openembedded/meta-multimedia \
  ${BSPDIR}/meta-qt5 \
  "

BBLAYERS_NON_REMOVABLE ?= " \
  ${BSPDIR}/poky/meta \
  ${BSPDIR}/poky/meta-poky \
  "

8/ Edit local.conf to specify the machine, location of source archived, package type (rpm, deb or ipk)
Pick one MACHINE name from the "Supported SoCs / MACHINE names" chapter above
and edit the "local.conf" file. Here is an example:

vim conf/local.conf
[...]
MACHINE ??= "sama5d2-xplained"
[...]
DL_DIR ?= "your_download_directory_path"
[...]
PACKAGE_CLASSES ?= "package_ipk"
[...]
USER_CLASSES ?= "buildstats image-mklibs"

To get better performance, use the "poky-atmel" distribution by also adding that
line:
DISTRO = "poky-atmel"

9/ Build core minimal image
bitbake core-image-minimal

10/ We found that additional local.conf changes are needed for our QT demo
image. You can add these two lines at the end of the file:
vim conf/local.conf
[...]
LICENSE_FLAGS_WHITELIST += "commercial"
SYSVINIT_ENABLED_GETTYS = ""

11/ Build images
bitbake microchip-headless-image


Typical bitbake output
======================
Build Configuration:
BB_VERSION           = "1.42.0"
BUILD_SYS            = "x86_64-linux"
NATIVELSBSTRING      = "universal"
TARGET_SYS           = "arm-poky-linux-gnueabi"
MACHINE              = "sama5d2-xplained-sd"
DISTRO               = "poky-atmel"
DISTRO_VERSION       = "2.7.1"
TUNE_FEATURES        = "arm vfp cortexa5 neon vfpv4 thumb callconvention-hard"
TARGET_FPU           = "hard"
meta
meta-poky
meta-yocto-bsp       = "warrior:1153a954e652304b6b5d287437817b7da891d491"
meta-atmel           = "warrior:f883dcdcb4e55ec0e073c497221e7fe7466b7acb"
meta-oe
meta-networking
meta-python
meta-multimedia      = "warrior:3bdbf72e3a4bf18a4a2c7afbde4f7ab773aeded9"
meta-qt5             = "warrior:dc2dedef9961950b88f4245ba7499538ec4244ab"

Contributing
============
To contribute to this layer you should submit the patches for review to:
the github pull-request facility directly or the forum. Anyway, don't forget to
Cc the maintainers.

AT91 Forum:
http://www.at91.com/discussions/

for some useful guidelines to be followed when submitting patches:
http://www.openembedded.org/wiki/How_to_submit_a_patch_to_OpenEmbedded

Maintainers:
Nicolas Ferre 
Patrice Vilchez 

When creating patches insert the [meta-atmel] tag in the subject, for example
use something like:
git format-patch -s --subject-prefix='meta-atmel][PATCH' 

Using SAM-BA to flash components to board

NAND Flash demo - Memory map

Install SAM-BA software in your PC

In addition to the official SAM-BA pages on http://www.microchip.com, we maintain information about SAM-BA in the SoftwareTools page.

use SAM-BA 3.2.y onwards. You can download it here: SAM-BA 3.x release page.

Launch SAM-BA tools

• According to this section make sure that the chip can execute the SAM-BA Monitor.

In addition to the Qt5 QML language for scripting used for flashing the demos, most common SAM-BA action can be done using SAM-BA command line.

For browsing information on the SAM-BA command line usage, please see the Command Line Documentation that is available in the SAM-BA installation directory: doc/index.html or doc/cmdline.html .

SAM-BA includes command line interface that provides support for the most common actions:

• reading / writing to arbitrary memory addresses and/or peripherals
• uploading applets and using them to erase/read/write external memories

The command line interface is designed to be self-documenting.

The main commands can be listed using the "sam-ba --help" command:

Usage: ./sam-ba [options]
SAM-BA Command Line Tool

Options:
  -v, --version                          Displays version information.
  -h, --help                             Displays this help.
  -x, --execute <script.qml>             Execute script <script-file>.
  -p, --port <port[:options:...]>        Communicate with device using <port>.
  -d, --device <device>                  Connected device is <device>.
  -b, --board <board>                    Connected board is <board>.
  -m, --monitor <command[:options:...]>  Run monitor command <command>.
  -a, --applet <applet[:options:...]>    Load and initialize applet <applet>.
  -c, --command <command[:args:...]>     Run command <command>.

Additional help can be obtained for most commands by supplying a "help" parameter that will display their usage.

For example "sam-ba --port help" will display:

Known ports: j-link, serial

Command that take an argument with options (port, monitor, applet) will display even more documentation when called with "help" as option value.

For example "sam-ba --port serial:help" will display:

Syntax: serial:[<port>]:[<baudrate>]
Examples: serial -> serial port (will use first AT91 USB if found otherwise first serial port)
          serial:COM80 -> serial port on COM80
          serial:ttyUSB0:57600 -> serial port on /dev/ttyUSB0, baudrate 57600

Configure NAND ECC

Using default PMECC parameters

when choosing the board variant with the -b parameter of SAM-BA, the default PMECC configuration for the NAND populated on the board is valid. You can verify its value by running the command that reads one byte in a dummy file (named test.bin in the following command):

# sam-ba -p serial -b sama5d4-xplained -a nandflash -c read:test.bin:0:1
Opening serial port 'ttyACM0'
Connection opened.
Detected memory size is 536870912 bytes.
Page size is 4096 bytes.
Buffer is 20480 bytes (5 pages) at address 0x0020a240.
NAND header value is 0xc1e04e07.
Supported erase block sizes: 256KB
Executing command 'read:test.bin:0:1'
Read 1 bytes at address 0x00000000 (100.00%)
Connection closed.

You can figure out that the default PMECC parameter for this sama5d4-xplained board is 0xc1e04e07.

: Note that if you connect a serial console to the SoC RomCode default UART, you can see even more details about the NAND ECC parameters given by the SAM-BA Applet:

Applet 'NAND Flash' from softpack 2.10 (v2.10).
Initializing NAND ioSet1 Bus Width 8
PMECC configuration: 0xc1e04e07
Sector size: 512
Sectors per page: 8
Spare size: 224
ECC bits: 8
ECC offset: 120
ECC size: 104
PMECC enabled
Buffer Address: 0x0020a240
Buffer Size: 20480 bytes
NAND applet initialized successfully.

If you want to change the default PMECC parameters you can simply specify another value on the SAM-BA command line with the -a nandflash argument as shown below:

# sam-ba -p serial -b sama5d4-xplained -a nandflash:help
Syntax: nandflash:[<ioset>]:[<bus_width>]:[<header>]
Parameters:
    ioset      I/O set
    bus_width  NAND bus width (8/16)
    header     NAND header value
Examples:
    nandflash                 use default board settings
    nandflash:2:8:0xc0098da5  use fully custom settings (IOSET2, 8-bit bus, header is 0xc0098da5)
    nandflash:::0xc0098da5    use default board settings but force header to 0xc0098da5
For information on NAND header values, please refer to SAMA5D4 datasheet section "12.4.4 Detailed Memory Boot Procedures".

By reading this in-line documentation we can specify the NAND PMECC parameter with this command:

# sam-ba -p serial -b sama5d4-xplained -a nandflash:::0xc1e04e07
Opening serial port 'ttyACM0'
Connection opened.
Detected memory size is 536870912 bytes.
Page size is 4096 bytes.
Buffer is 20480 bytes (5 pages) at address 0x0020a240.
NAND header value is 0xc1e04e07.
Supported erase block sizes: 256KB
Connection closed.

Programming components into NAND

Program AT91Bootstrap binary

Run SAM-BA with USB connection (equivalent to serial) and erase the beginning of the NAND flash and then write AT91Bootstrap binary:

# sam-ba -p serial -b sama5d4-xplained -a nandflash -c erase::0x40000 -c writeboot:at91bootstrap-sama5d4_xplained.bin
Opening serial port 'ttyACM0'
Connection opened.
Detected memory size is 536870912 bytes.
Page size is 4096 bytes.
Buffer is 20480 bytes (5 pages) at address 0x0020a240.
NAND header value is 0xc1e04e07.
Supported erase block sizes: 256KB
Executing command 'erase::0x40000'
Erased 262144 bytes at address 0x00000000 (100.00%)
Executing command 'writeboot:at91bootstrap-sama5d4_xplained.bin'
Prepended NAND header prefix (0xc1e04e07)
Appending 4008 bytes of padding to fill the last written page
Wrote 20480 bytes at address 0x00000000 (83.33%)
Wrote 4096 bytes at address 0x00005000 (100.00%)
Connection closed.

Program U-Boot binary

Run SAM-BA with USB connection (equivalent to serial) and erase the U-Boot section in the NAND flash memory map and then write U-Boot binary:

# sam-ba -p serial -b sama5d4-xplained -a nandflash -c erase:0x40000:0x80000 -c write:u-boot-sama5d4-xplained.bin:0x40000
Opening serial port 'ttyACM0'
Connection opened.
Detected memory size is 536870912 bytes.
Page size is 4096 bytes.
Buffer is 20480 bytes (5 pages) at address 0x0020a240.
NAND header value is 0xc1e04e07.
Supported erase block sizes: 256KB
Executing command 'erase:0x40000:0x80000'
Erased 262144 bytes at address 0x00040000 (50.00%)
Erased 262144 bytes at address 0x00080000 (100.00%)
Executing command 'write:u-boot-sama5d4-xplained.bin:0x40000'
Appending 3137 bytes of padding to fill the last written page
Wrote 20480 bytes at address 0x00040000 (4.59%)
Wrote 20480 bytes at address 0x00045000 (9.17%)
Wrote 20480 bytes at address 0x0004a000 (13.76%)
[..]
Wrote 20480 bytes at address 0x00094000 (81.65%)
Wrote 20480 bytes at address 0x00099000 (86.24%)
Wrote 20480 bytes at address 0x0009e000 (90.83%)
Wrote 20480 bytes at address 0x000a3000 (95.41%)
Wrote 20480 bytes at address 0x000a8000 (100.00%)
Connection closed.

Recent FAQ

Sama5d4Xplained

• Using FITwith Overlays: How to use U-boot with FIT image to load overlays. (U-Boot, Kernel)
• Patching DTin Uboot: How to apply DTBOs in U-boot. (U-Boot, Kernel)
• U-Boot FAQ: Some U-Boot FAQ entries. (U-Boot)
• Crypto Config: How to configure Crypto driver. (Kernel, linux-3.18-at91, linux-4.1-at91, linux-4.4-at91, linux-4.9-at91, linux-4.14-at91, linux-4.19-at91)
• SDCard Boot Notice: How to boot up the board from SD card. (AT91Bootstrap)
• USBGadget Config: Configure AT91 USB Gadget on Linux and Endpoint order management (composite USB). (Kernel, linux-4.4-at91, linux-4.9-at91, linux-4.14-at91, linux-4.19-at91)
• Connect Module From PDA: How to connect LCD module from PDA to the Boards. (Kernel)
• Pwm Faq: PWM Driver. (Kernel, linux-3.10-at91, linux-3.18-at91, linux-4.1-at91, linux-4.4-at91, linux-4.9-at91, linux-4.14-at91, linux-4.19-at91)
• Using Atmel DRMDriver: Using Atmel KMS/DRM LCD driver. (Kernel, linux-3.18-at91, linux-4.1-at91, linux-4.4-at91, linux-4.9-at91, linux-4.14-at91, linux-4.19-at91)
• External Component On EBI: Connecting an external component on the External Bus Interface. (Kernel, linux-4.14-at91, linux-4.19-at91)
• PDADetection At Boot: PDA detection in U-boot. (U-Boot)
• Using Max Touch: Introduction for how to use MaxTouch. (Kernel, linux-3.18-at91, linux-4.1-at91, linux-4.4-at91, linux-4.9-at91, linux-4.14-at91, linux-4.19-at91)
• Selecting PDAat Boot: How to manually select PDA in U-boot. (U-Boot, Kernel)
• Iio Adc Driver: Adc IIO driver introduction. (Kernel, linux-3.10-at91, linux-3.18-at91, linux-4.1-at91, linux-4.4-at91, linux-4.9-at91, linux-4.14-at91, linux-4.19-at91)
• Using Isi: How to use the Image Sensor Interface. (Kernel, linux-3.18-at91, linux-4.1-at91, linux-4.4-at91, linux-4.9-at91)
• Driver Model In UBoot: How to enable U-Boot driver model, using Sama5d2Xplained as an example. (U-Boot)