Running embedded linux on mpc8572ds using NFS and TFTP servers

    In this post I will mention the steps that should be performed to run embedded linux on powerpc board mpc8572ds using NFS and TFTP servers. I have used mentor embedded linux for this purpose. In order to boot the target with linux we need to perform following steps.

• Setting up NFS Server
• Setting up TFTP Server
• Running embedded linux on target

Setting up NFS Server

I installed NFS Server on Ubuntu 12.04 64 bit machine using following command.

sudo apt-get install nfs-kernel-server

    In order to configure the directories to be exported edit /etc/exports file. I exported /nfsboot directory by adding following line in /etc/exports.

/nfsboot  *(ro,sync,no_root_squash)

   In above command I specified all host formats to be valid by specifying *, as this is a network machine in my case which can only be accessed by network machine and expected to be accessed by all systems in the network network, so this format is fine in my case. If you want to restrict unwanted access to NFS server make it specific one.  

Start the NFS server by executing following command

sudo /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server start

Setting up TFTP Server

    Install TFTP server by executing following command'

sudo apt-get install tftpd-hpa openbsd-inetd

I want directory /tftpboot to be the root of tftp server. So create it and give rights to everyone using following commands.

cd /

mdir tftpboot

sudo chmod -R 777 /tftpboot

Now, in order to configure tftp server open tftpd-hpa file using following commands

cd /etc/default






sudo vi tftpd-hpa

Insert following code in file.

# /etc/default/tftpd-hpa







RUN_DAEMON="yes"





TFTP_USERNAME="tftp"



TFTP_DIRECTORY="/tftpboot"


TFTP_ADDRESS="0.0.0.0:69"

TFTP_OPTIONS="--secure"

Now restart tftp server using following commands.

sudo service openbsd-inetd restart





sudo service tftpd-hpa restart

Running embedded linux on target

Now transfer filesystem and boot images on nfsboot and tftboot servers. Create a directory mpc8572ds in tftpboot and copy following files.

mpc8572ds/uimage.bin
mpc8572ds/uimage.dtb

Similarly create a folder mpc8572ds in nfsboot and copy file system in it.

Now connect target serial port with computer and monitor the output using a suitable tool like putty, minicom etc.

Here I am assuming that uboot is already installed on the target. Starting up the target will show similar uboot console output.

U-Boot 2009.11-rc1 (Nov 05 2010 - 01:19:31)





CPU0:  8572E, Version: 2.1, (0x80e80021)

Core:  E500, Version: 3.0, (0x80210030)

Clock Configuration:

       CPU0:1499.985 MHz, CPU1:1499.985 MHz,

       CCB:599.994 MHz,

       DDR:399.996 MHz (799.992 MT/s data rate) (Asynchronous), LBC:37.500 MHz

L1:    D-cache 32 kB enabled

       I-cache 32 kB enabled

Board: MPC8572DS Sys ID: 0x14, Sys Ver: 0x20, FPGA Ver: 0x01, vBank: 0

I2C:   ready

DRAM:  Initializing....    DDR:  1 GB (DDR2, 64-bit, CL=6, ECC off)

       DDR Controller Interleaving Mode: bank

Now running in RAM - U-Boot at: 3ff70000

FLASH: 128 MB

L2:    1024 KB enabled

NAND:  4096 MiB

EEPROM: Invalid ID (ff ff ff ff)



    PCIE3 connected to ULI as Root Complex (base addr ffe08000)

               Scanning PCI bus 01

        02  1c  10b9  5237  0c03  00

        02  1c  10b9  5237  0c03  00

        02  1c  10b9  5237  0c03  00

        02  1c  10b9  5239  0c03  00

        02  1d  10b9  5455  0401  00

        02  1d  10b9  5457  0703  00

        02  1e  10b9  1575  0601  00

        02  1e  10b9  7101  0680  00

        02  1f  10b9  5229  0101  00

        02  1f  10b9  5288  0101  00

        01  00  10b9  5249  0604  00

    PCIE3 on bus 00 - 02



    PCIE2 connected to Slot 1 as Root Complex (base addr ffe09000)

    PCIE2 on bus 03 - 03



    PCIE1 connected to Slot 2 as Root Complex (base addr ffe0a000)

    PCIE1 on bus 04 - 04



In:    serial

Out:   serial

Err:   serial

SCSI:  AHCI 0001.0000 32 slots 4 ports 3 Gbps 0xf impl IDE mode

flags: ncq ilck pm led clo pmp pio slum part

scanning bus for devices...

Net:   eTSEC1, eTSEC2, eTSEC3, eTSEC4

Hit any key to stop autoboot:  10

Press enter when you see above message. Now execute printenv command to see the settings of the machine. In my case I see following settings. You need to make the correct settings for your specific case.

=> printenv

ramboot=setenv bootargs root=/dev/ram rw console=$consoledev,$baudrate

$othbootargs;tftp $ramdiskaddr $ramdiskfile;tftp $loadaddr $bootfile;tftp $fdtaddr $fdtfile;bootm $loadaddr $ramdiskaddr $fdtaddr

baudrate=115200

loads_echo=1

ethaddr=00:E0:0C:02:00:FD

eth1addr=00:E0:0C:02:01:FD

eth2addr=00:E0:0C:02:02:FD

eth3addr=00:E0:0C:02:03:FD

rootpath=/opt/nfsroot

hostname=unknown

loadaddr=1000000

memctl_intlv_ctl=2

netdev=eth0

uboot=u-boot.bin

tftpflash=tftpboot $loadaddr $uboot; protect off 0xeff80000 +$filesize;

erase 0xeff80000 +$filesize; cp.b $loadaddr 0xeff80000 $filesize;

protect on 0xeff80000 +$filesize; cmp.b $loadaddr 0xeff80000 $filesize

consoledev=ttyS0

ramdiskaddr=2000000

ramdiskfile=8572ds/ramdisk.uboot

bdev=sda3

bootdelay=3

bootcmd=run nfsboot

bootfilele=/tftpboot/abbasr/mpc8572/uImage-2.6.31-r14-mpc8572ds.bin

fdtaddr=c00000

dtbfile=MEL4_cycle1_rc4/mpc8572ds-nonsmp/uImage-mpc8572ds.dtb

nfsboot=tftp 1000000 $bootfile;tftp c00000 $fdtfile;bootm 1000000 - c00000

bootfile=uImage-mpc8572ds.bin

fdtfile=uImage-mpc8572ds.dtb

filesize=3AAC

fileaddr=C00000

gatewayip=137.202.157.254

netmask=255.255.254.0

ipaddr=137.202.156.100

bootargs=root=/dev/nfs rw nfsroot=137.202.157.115:/nfsboot/8572ds ip=dhcp console=ttyS0,115200

ethact=eTSEC1

serverip=137.202.157.94

stdin=serial

stdout=serial

stderr=serial

Now execute below command to set serverip, which will be used to get boot images from tftpserver

setenv serverip 137.202.156.63

Now execute following commands to specify the location of bin and dtb files. It can be seen that I don't specify tftpboot folder path while specifying any file, using tftpboot in the path will be wrong here.

setenv fdtfile mpc8572ds/uimage.dtb

setenv bootfile mpc8572ds/uimage.bin

Now set the bootargs as shown below.

setenv bootargs root=/dev/nfs rw nfsroot=137.202.156.63:/nfsboot/mpc8572ds/ ip=dhcp console=ttyS0,115200 

If I need to use a static ip address instead of using dhcp I can use following command as shown below.

setenv bootargs root=/dev/nfs rw nfsroot=137.202.156.63:/nfsboot/mpc8572ds/

ip=137.202.156.114:137.202.156.63:137.202.157.255:255.255.254.0:MPC8572DS:eth0:on console=ttyS0,115200

Now load the bin and dtb files using tftp command as shown below.

tftp 1000000 $bootfile;tftp c00000 $fdtfile;

Now start the linux using following boot command.

bootm 1000000 - c00000

If images are fine and properly placed on servers, executing above command will successfully boot embedded linux on mpc8572ds