Here is an article in which I will try to describe/document how I installed a normal debian beside the original demo OS on the sama5d35 board won at Fosdem 2013 (thanks again !)

firmware

I did not flash the bootloader nor the NAND for now.

The internal bootloader [name] checks for SD card before the NAND. Beware, the second slot, uSD card, is not checked, despite beeing listed in the datasheet provided with the board (Atmel_11121_32-bit-Cortex-A5-Microcontroller_SAMA5D3_Datasheet.pdf).

In the User Guide (Atmel_11180_32-bit-Cortex-A5-Microcontroller_SAMA5D3-Series-EK_User-Guide.pdf) int the boot process, only the first slot, the one that accept SD card, is mentioned.

It took me a week to figure that... I though my builds were bad and/or flashing the board with sam-ba was mendatory.

But with U-Boot and a kernel on a FAT(16 or 32) partition on a SD-card, you can boot without flashing the demo system :)

For the setup, I used the uUSB to USB cable to connect the board to my desktop.

I use screen to connect to the serial console.

screen /dev/ttyACM0

NOTE: You can interrupt the original U-boot boot process by hitting any key before it starts to scan boot devices.

Boot loader

Uboot paramaters

You may configure U-Boot boot parameters in Uboot shell This one is for booting the original kernel, and rootfs (and /) on ne nor partition

setenv bootargs console=ttyS0,115200 mtdparts=atmel_nand:8M(bootstrap/uboot/kernel)ro,-(rootfs) rw rootfs=ext3 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootdelay=2

For the records, the original boot params to boot from the Nand:

console=ttyS0,115200 mtdparts=atmel_nand:8M(bootstrap/uboot/kernel)ro,-(rootfs) rw rootfstype=ubifs ubi.mtd=1 root=ubi0:rootfs

Boot

kernel

• at91 patched
• this at91 still not in 3.9. 15-20 patches need to be added
• 3.10 ? Yes ! sama5d35 support has been merge into mainlin kernel 3.10 ! TODO: test it.

base system

• debian armhf

uname

• Linux jouet 3.6.9-sama5-armv7-d0.8 #1 Wed May 8 13:04:54 CEST 2013 armv7l GNU/Linux

My mileage

I am using the board as a router for my home connection. Also for a few additional services: DHCP server, RA announcer, DNS server (authority and resolver/cache for the lan), firewall and NTP server for the lan. I have a pretty decent connection, FTTH, 100 Mbps / 50 Mbps, vendor stated.

Images