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Thread: do i need a bootloader?

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	Replies: 1 - Pages: 1 - Last Post: 12-Jun-2009 12:13 Last Post By: shanekearns	Threads: [ Previous \| Next ]

james-deng

Posts: 1
Registered: 03/12/08

do i need a bootloader?
Posted: 31-May-2009 16:13

I have a text shell rom image and i am able to download it to ram to run it from there.
If I want flash the rom image to nor flash, do i need a seperate bootloader to load the bootstrap and/or start running it? I guess the bootstrap is part of the text shell rom image.
The platform is omap2430. If i need to flash a bootloader, where should I flash it to? I can only flash image to 0x4000000 in the case of Nor flash on omap2430 with TI's tool, if I have to flash a seperate bootloader to it, how can I do that? since text shell rom image has already been flashed to that address.

Is the bootstrap is the first code to run righter afer reset? The first function is bootstrap is InitializeHardware, who calls it?
I am new to Symbian.
Thanks in advance.

shanekearns

Posts: 206
Registered: 05/12/07

Re: do i need a bootloader?
Posted: 12-Jun-2009 12:13

in response to: james-deng

With NOR flash, the image will execute directly without needing a bootloader.
The first few bytes of a ROM image contain a jump instruction which points to the kernel bootstrap's entry point.

On 2430 development board, there are some switches to set whether it boots from NOR or other.
Check the TI documentation.

You need a bootloader for booting from NAND, because the ROM image must be copied to RAM.

Finally, you can do what Symbian did:
Make bootloader image and download it to NOR.
The bootlaoder in NOR copies an image from MMC card to RAM and then executes it.
(It's called ubootldr)

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