Communicate with your board from a Linux Host (Basics)

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Revision as of 23:27, 8 December 2007 by JulienB (Talk | contribs) (Kermit installation)

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RS232 configuration

We suggest you to use Kermit as Terminal emulator for RS232 connection. Minicom was sadly reported to have problems when communicating with U-Boot (ZModem data transfer). If you just need a simple serial console and not to transfer data then GTKTerm is the perfect choice ! (package gtkterm in Ubuntu)

Kermit installation

  • On *Ubuntu / Debian:
# apt-get install ckermit

or use Synaptic graphical package manager.

  • On Fedora:
# rpm -q ckermit

Kermit configuration

  • Edit/Create .kermrc file in your $HOME directory and put in it:
set line /dev/ttyS0
set speed 115200
set carrier-watch off
set handshake none
set flow-control none
robust
set file type bin
set file name lit
set rec pack 1000
set send pack 1000
set window 5
set transmit linefeed on
  • In this example, we assume that your serial port is ttyS0 (first serial port). Change this to correct value if necessary.
  • If you use an USB <-> Serial converter then serial port would surely be named like that: ttyUSB0
  • If you get an error message such:
$ kermit -c
 /dev/ttyS0 
 ?SET SPEED has no effect without prior SET LINE 

check that you have read/write rights on /dev/ttyS0 (ie your serial port)

Kermit usage

  • To launch it:
$ kermit -c
  • To switch from terminal mode to command mode:
CTRL + \ then c
  • To switch from command mode to terminal mode:
C-Kermit>c then ENTER

TFTP server

In order to send your image files (U-Boot, Linux, RootFS or Firmware) with higher speed to your Armadeus board, you can use the Ethernet link and a TFTP server. Once the server started, the files located in the server shared directory (/tftpboot by default) will be accessible from the U-Boot TFTP client.

TFTP server installation

  • On *Ubuntu / Debian:
# apt-get install tftpd xinetd

or use Synaptic

  • On Fedora:
# rpm -q tftpd xinetd
  • Then create the directory that will contain all the files that the server will export (you have to be root to do that):
# mkdir /tftpboot
# chmod 777 /tftpboot

Server configuration

  • Edit or create the configuration file /etc/xinetd.d/tftp and modify/add it the following lines:
# default: off
# description: The tftp server serves files using the trivial file transfer
#       protocol.  The tftp protocol is often used to boot diskless
#       workstations, download configuration files to network-aware printers,
#       and to start the installation process for some operating systems.
service tftp
{
       socket_type             = dgram
       protocol                = udp
       wait                    = yes
       user                    = root
       server                  = /usr/sbin/in.tftpd
       server_args             = -s /tftpboot
#       disable                 = yes
}

  • Restart xinetd service:
# killall -HUP xinetd
  • Put some files in /tftpboot

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