Ubuntu - the board does not boot from provided BOOT.bin

Hi,

If you aren't getting the blue LED, then the first stage loader is not even able to program the PL with the bitstream, and that is very early on in the boot process and has nothing to do with Ubuntu.  So let's isolate on the boot process to see if we can get that working.

Just to be 100% sure, I downloaded the Ubuntu 2014.4 package for the 7z100 and installed only the BOOT.BIN file on the SD card.  It loads the FPGA correctly, and on the serial console U-boot runs and ends at the command line when it fails to locate a boot image.  Again, exactly the operation I would expect with only the BOOT.BIN in place.

So let's get the board booting first and not worry about Ubuntu.  

1)  You should be using the BOOT.BIN from the sd_card folder in the downloaded package, not one you have generated.

2)  For this test, you only need connect the power and the USB serial line.  We only care about programming the FPGA and seeing serial output.   The switch block must be set to OFF:OFF:ON:ON:OFF (where ON is towards the Zynq device) to boot from microSD.

3)  Some SD cards are not compatible with Zynq.  Are you using the same microSD card for the successful OOB boot as you are using for the Ubuntu test?  If not, try booting the OOB design using the Ubuntu card.  Perhaps the microSD is the issue.

4) Validate that your BOOT.BIN file is not corrupt.    I ran an MD5 checksum on BOOT.BIN only and the result is:

CD95C9C7A8F1316A63EC9D1AA9F8E8E4

Using this procedure, when you switch on power, the blue DONE LED on the board should illuminate almost immediately, and you should see the U-boot countdown on the serial terminal.   U-boot will fail to find any other files on the card, and so will print an error and end at the prompt.  You can interact with U-boot through the serial console at this point.

Let me know what happens.

Ron

Hi,

thank you for your fast response. I now donu00B4t have the opportunity to test your approach, but I already had similar testing approaches.
My setup is the following:
1) The board has got power, all 8 green LEDs are illuminated and the USB UART is connected to my host computer. Nothing else is attached.
2) The boot switch is set to sd boot mode, 00110, just as you described.
3) The sdcard is partitioned according to the tutorial. 4MB unallocated, 400MB FAT32, remaining space ext4 partition. The card has a capacity of 4GB and was partitioned using gparted.
4) Just the BOOT.BIN from the OOB archive (Zynq Mini-ITX 7Z100 Out-of-Box Linux v2013.4) is copied to the FAT32 partition. md5sum: bd1df2ae8e8faff6252ec270b38a0760

The board is powered up, blue LED lights up and I get a prompt at the terminal screen as you described.

Then I replace on the same sdcard the BOOT.BIN file, with the BOOT.BIN from the Ubuntu archive (Zynq Mini-ITX 7Z100 Ubuntu v2014.4). md5sum: cd95c9c7a8f1316a63ec9d1aa9f8e8e4

And the board does not boot up, no LED, no terminal screen activity.

This is already the second sdcard I was testing this with. At first I tried a 32 GB class 10 card, but not even the OOB BOOT.BIN booted from it. Then I tried the 4 GB card and at least the OOB image was booting.

I kind of have the feeling, the sdcard might be the problem here. Maybe the way it was partitioned. Now I found this article: http://www.wiki.xilinx.com/Prepare+Boot+Medium
I will try it according to it, not with gparted.
There is also the approach to mark the first partition with a boot flag, I could try it also. But that does not explain, why the one BOOT.BIN does boot up and the other one doesnu00B4t.
And maybe try a third sdcard.

What kind of sdcard have you been using and how did you partioned it?

I will post as soon as I have some news.
Thank you for your time
Andrej

Hi Andrej,

  Very curious indeed.  The partitioning of the SD card should make no difference in the initial boot, as long as there is a FAT32 partition where the boot.bin file can be read from.  At this stage you don't care about the ext4 partition at all, so you could use any compatible SD with a FAT32 partition.

  I use SanDisk SD/microSD cards exclusively, because I have never had a failure with one.  For Ubuntu, since the ext4 partition resides on the card, I like to use the SanDisk Ultra with 30 mbps transfer rate, as it gives a little better performance when working with the desktop environment.  I created my card by following the Ubuntu tutorial instructions.  These have been verified in many different instances, and they definitely should work just fine. 

You can eliminate the partitioning issue by using a new microSD card, which are generally preformatted to FAT32.  Just copy the Ubuntu boot.bin file to that, and see if the DONE LED and Ubuntu output appears.  If possible, try using a SanDisk microSD.  I consulted with a colleague, and he says there is a possibility that if a card is marginal, one boot.bin file could work while another does not.  I have not seen that myself, but it would be good to eliminate the possibility.

Ron

Hello Ron,

so nothing I tried worked so far. Every idea I had and tried out, didnot bring any success.
The problem is still the same.
So I will get a new SanDisk microSD card as you suggested.
What capacities of the microSD cards can the board handle? Not that there will be another issue.
Thank you

Andrej

Hello Ron,

it is finally working!
I am using now a Samsung micro SDHC 16GB Class 10 EVO card.
The BOOT.bin file from the Ubuntu 2014.4 package is now successfully booting.
I generated also my own BOOT.bin according to the Ubuntu tutorial and it boots up as well.
I didnot try the OOB boot image though, which worked on the 4GB Kingston card.
Well I am happy now, I managed to boot the whole Ubuntu using this Samsung microSD card.
So good to know, that the Zynq Mini-ITX is really sensitive, which microSD card it boots from.
To sum up, the list of microSD cards I tried out:
4GB Kingston Class 4: Ubuntu 2013.4 & 2014.4 not booting, OOB 2013.4 is working
32GB Samsung Class 10: cannot boot OOB 2013.4 and Ubuntu 2013.4 & 2014.4
16GB Samsung Class 10 EVO: Ubuntu 2014.4 and own image are booting successfully

The only thing I donu00B4t understand now is, why the 4GB card booted up the OOB 2013.4 image without any problems, but the Ubuntu 2014.4 and even the 2013.4 package, could not boot at all. No error, no nothing. The board behaved, like when there was no microSD card in the slot at all.
Very strange.

Thank you for your help.
I am glad it worked out now :)

Regards
Andrej

Glad to hear it's working! 

I have used SanDisk cards in various classes in 4GB, 8GB and 16 GB sizes without any issues.  In theory there should be no problem on Zynq with the 32 GB card, but clearly that is not your experience.   I'll see about getting larger cards here to try to replicate your issue.

Ron

Hiii Every one,here i have a problem in porting zedboard.I created all required files those are BOOT.bin uImage devicetree and copied all these to a SD card manually,then i am traing to boot Zedboard through SD card.After switch on the board both blue led is immulated but here the booting process is never started... please any one help me

Please start a new topic rather than reply to a previously solved one. You can do this by clicking the "New forum topic" button at the top left. Re-enter your request.

Bryan