BELK/BXELK software components

Info Box Applies to Bora Applies to BORA Xpress

Introduction

From the software standpoint, Bora Embedded Linux Kit (BELK) and BoraX Embedded Linux Kit (BXELK) are built on top of Zynq Linux BSP released by Xilinx. Customization are added to support for the Bora and BoraX platforms, in particular at bootloader and Linux kernel levels. BELK and BXELK share the same software modules, even if they are based on different hardware platforms.

Reading of this document is strongly recommended to understand the logical structure of the kits and how the software components are related.

Kits' composition

The following table details the software modules of BELK/BXELK releases.

Kit composition
Release number BELK BXELK	1.0.0 n/a	1.1.0 n/a	2.0.0 n/a	2.1.0 n/a	2.2.0 n/a	3.0.0 n/a	3.0.1 1.0.0	3.0.2 1.0.1
Status BELK BXELK	Released n/a	Released n/a	Released n/a	Released n/a	Released n/a	Released n/a	Released Beta	Released Beta
Release date BELK BXELK	July 2013 n/a	November 2013 n/a	May 2014 n/a	August 2014 n/a	September 2015 n/a	March 2016 n/a	December 2016 December 2016	January 2017 January 2017
Release notes BELK BXELK	Ver 1.0.0	Ver 1.1.0	Ver 2.0.0	Ver 2.1.0	Ver 2.2.0	Ver 3.0.0	Ver 3.0.1	Ver 3.0.2
SOM PCB version BELK BXELK	CS020313A n/a	CS020313A n/a	CS020313B n/a	CS020313B n/a	CS020313B n/a	CS020313C n/a	CS020313C CS112714B	CS020313C CS112714B
Supported carrier boards BELK BXELK	BoraEVB-Lite n/a	BoraEVB-Lite n/a	BoraEVB n/a	BoraEVB n/a	BoraEVB n/a	BoraEVB n/a	BoraEVB BoraXEVB	BoraEVB BoraXEVB
U-Boot version	2013.04-belk-1.0.0	2013.04-belk-1.1.0	2013.04-belk-2.0.0	2013.04-belk-2.1.0	2014.07-belk-2.2.0	2014.07-belk-3.0.0	2014.07-belk-3.0.0	2014.07-belk-3.0.2
Linux version	3.9.0-bora-1.0.0	3.9.0-bora-1.1.0	3.9.0-bora-2.0.0	3.9.0-bora-2.1.0	3.17.0-bora-2.2.0	3.17.0-bora-3.0.0	3.17.0-bora-3.0.0	3.17.0-bora-3.0.0
Drivers	-	-	Gigabit Eth #0 UART NOR NAND SD/MMC USB Host/Device RTC CAN I2C	Gigabit Eth #0 UART NOR NAND SD/MMC USB Host/Device RTC CAN I2C	Gigabit Eth #0 UART NOR NAND SD/MMC USB Host/Device RTC CAN I2C ConfigID	Gigabit Eth #0 UART NOR NAND SD/MMC USB Host/Device RTC CAN I2C ConfigID	Gigabit Eth #0 UART NOR NAND SD/MMC USB Host/Device RTC CAN I2C ConfigID	Gigabit Eth #0 UART NOR NAND SD/MMC USB Host/Device RTC CAN I2C ConfigID
Vivado version	2013.2	2013.3	2013.3	2013.3	2014.4	2014.4	2014.4	2014.4
Build System	-	-	-	Yocto Daisy (1.6)	Yocto Daisy (1.6)	Yocto Daisy (1.6)	Yocto Daisy (1.6)	Yocto Daisy (1.6)

Downloadable binary images

All binary images for BELK/BXELK are hosted on DAVE Embedded System mirror server. There you can find a sub directory for each version of this development kit.

A summary of images with a brief description can be found into the tables below:

Image	BELK version	BXELK version
	3.0.2	1.0.1
mksd.sh	mksd.sh	mksd.sh
bootscript	boot.scr	boot.scr
FSBL (QSPI)	fsbl.bin	fsbl.bin
U-Boot (QSPI)	u-boot.bin	u-boot.bin
Boot.bin (SD)	boot.bin	boot.bin
Boot header	boot-header	boot-header
Linux kernel	uImage	uImage
Device tree	bora.dtb	bora.dtb
Root File System	bora.tar.gz	bora.tar.gz

Image	BELK version	BXELK version
	3.0.1	1.0.0
mksd.sh	mksd.sh	mksd.sh
uEnv	uEnv.txt	uEnv.txt
FSBL (QSPI)	fsbl.bin	fsbl.bin
U-Boot (QSPI)	u-boot.bin	u-boot.bin
Boot.bin (SD)	boot.bin	boot.bin
Boot header	boot-header	boot-header
Linux kernel	uImage	uImage
Device tree	bora.dtb	bora.dtb
Root File System	bora.tar.gz	bora.tar.gz

microSD layout

The microSD card provided with BELK/BXELK is partitioned as shown in the following image:

microSD card partitioning

Most of storage space is occupied by two partitions:

• a FAT32 partition (mmcblk0p1) containing:
  • boot.bin boot image
  • U-Boot uEnv.txt environment
  • Linux kernel and DTB binary images
• an ext3 partition (mmcblk0p2) containing the root file system for the target.

uEnv.txt and root file system are used to boot the target as described in this section.

It is worth remembering that the microSD card is bootable and U-Boot environment is retrieved from (and stored to with saveenv) into the FAT partition as bora.env

Updates

It's recommended to use the latest source release available. Please refer to Release notes for further information.

Updating git repositories

In BELK/BXELK, the following source trees are clones of the correspondent DAVE Embedded Systems git repositories:

Component	GIT Remote
U-Boot	git@git.dave.eu:dave/bora/u-boot-xlnx.git
Linux kernel	git@git.dave.eu:dave/bora/linux-xlnx.git
Yocto BSP	git@git.dave.eu:dave/bora/bora-bsp.git
Vivado project	git@git.dave.eu:dave/bora/bora.git

For more information about the access to these repositories, please refer to this link.

Updating the repositories from BELK 2.1.0

To update the repositories from BELK 2.1.0, the following commands should be used:

git fetch origin
git checkout -b <new_branch_name> origin/bora

Synchronizing the repositories

When the account is enabled, you can synchronize a source tree entering the repository directory and launching the git fetch command. Please note that git fetch doesn't merge the commits on the current branch. To do that, you should run the git merge command or replace the fetch-merge process with a single git pull command. Please note that the recommended method is the fetch-merge process. For further information on Git, please refer to Git Documentation.

Release notes

BELK 3.0.2 / BXELK 1.0.1

Updates:

1. Fix BELK-3.0.1/BXELK-1.0.0 software issues
2. Use standard DAVE recovery scripts for u-boot

(BoraXEVB only) For LCD interfacing, please refer to this application note.

Known Limitations

Issue	Description
External DDR3 bank (BoraEVB only)	DDR3 bank can be populated on request. For more details please refer to Sales Department.
ETH1 interface	Please refer to this application note for second Ethernet interface support.
RTC	Date/time retention is limited to about 4 hours.

BELK 3.0.1 / BXELK 1.0.0

Updates: added support for BoraX/BoraXEVB evaluation system

(BoraXEVB only) For LCD interfacing, please refer to this application note.

Known Limitations

Issue	Description
canutils package is missing is default root file system	It can be downloaded directly from our package repository as described here
External DDR3 bank (BoraEVB only)	DDR3 bank can be populated on request. For more details please refer to Sales Department.
ETH1 interface	Please refer to this application note for second Ethernet interface support.
RTC	Date/time retention is limited to about 4 hours.
Boot for NOR flash	U-Boot is not configured properly to support NOR boot. Please use boot from microSD card instead.

BELK 3.0.0

Updates:

1. Added preliminary support for BORA Xpress SOM
2. Updated U-Boot and Linux versions

(BoraXEVB only) For LCD interfacing, please refer to this application note.

Known Limitations

Issue	Description
Yocto ubi-utils command line	Some Yocto ubi-utils command line are in non standard format. For ubimkvol and ubirmvol the UBI device must be the last argument (e.g. ubimkvol -m -N belk /dev/ubi0)
External DDR3 bank (BoraEVB only)	DDR3 bank can be populated on request. For more details please refer to Sales Department.
ETH1 interface	Please refer to this application note for second Ethernet interface support.
RTC	Date/time retention is limited to about 4 hours.

BELK 2.2.0

Updates:

1. Switched to Vivado 2014.4
2. Added “board part” for the BORA SOM, which includes all the settings of the Zynq PS for BORA, allowing users to manage projects from the Vivado GUI (and not only using the CLI).
3. Added ConfigID
4. Updated U-Boot and Linux versions

Known Limitations

Issue	Description
Kernel command line	User should remove mem=xxx from kernel command line to avoid system hang during boot. This is fixed in current u-boot default environment
Yocto ubi-utils command line	Some Yocto ubi-utils command line are in non standard format. For ubimkvol and ubirmvol the UBI device must be the last argument (e.g. ubimkvol -m -N belk /dev/ubi0)
External DDR3 bank (BoraEVB only)	DDR3 bank can be populated on request. For more details please refer to Sales Department.
ETH1 interface	Please refer to this application note for second Ethernet interface support.
RTC	Date/time retention is limited to about 4 hours.
u-boot default environment	Default u-boot environment has a syntax error on sdboot command. This is already fixed in bora-next branch, release belk-2.2.1-rc1, available on u-boot repository.

BELK 2.1.0

Updates:

1. Fix and performance improvement on u-boot network interface
2. Fix SD card hotplug issue in Linux
3. First Yocto Daisy (1.6) BSP Release

Known Limitations

Issue	Description
ETH0 interface	Primary Gigabit Ethernet Interface (ETH0) is not working correctly at 10Mbps
Kernel command line	User should remove mem=xxx from kernel command line to avoid system hang during boot
Yocto ubi-utils command line	Some Yocto ubi-utils command line are in non standard format. For ubimkvol and ubirmvol the UBI device must be the last argument (e.g. ubimkvol -m -N belk /dev/ubi0)
External DDR3 bank (BoraEVB only)	DDR3 bank can be populated on request. For more details please refer to Sales Department.
ETH1 interface	The additional Gigabit Ethernet interface (ETH1) is not supported in this BELK version.
RTC	Date/time retention is limited to about 4 hours.

BELK 2.0.0

Updates:

1. Added support for the BoraEVB carrier board
2. Updated supported drivers list (please refer to BELK_software_components)

Known Limitations

The following table reports the known limitations of this BELK release:

Issue	Description
External DDR3 bank (BoraEVB only)	DDR3 bank can be populated on request. For more details please refer to Sales Department.
ETH1 interface	The additional Gigabit Ethernet interface (ETH1) is not supported in this BELK version.
RTC	Date/time retention is limited to about 4 hours.

BELK 1.1.0

Updates:

1. Switched to Vivado 2013.3
2. Added application note "AMP on Bora"

BELK 1.0.0

First official release