Hi auxtoni78

If you loose console access, as a failsafe you can always reinstall the firmware through the bootloader.

The bootloader is something that runs when you first boot and it's completely independent of Linux and inittab (it runs before loading the OS).

Therefore if you brick the board you can always use the bootloader to load a fresh new image (it's done with a serial connection and a TFTP server; it's described in the wiki).

We've worked with a RALINK board that only exposes 1 UART and we need to detach it from the console to be able to talk to serial devices. You can always access the console through SSH but if something goes wrong with either SSH server or the LAN set up you need to erase and restart by re loading a fresh firmware which is a real pain as you say.

That's why moving to Carambola appeals so much to us. You can imagine how frustrating it is to have to re do hours of work whenever something goes wrong (and that "something" you never knwo what it is because you lost console).


However from a functionality point of view it's practically impossible to brick these devices with a wrong Linux config becaus eyou can always re load a fresh image using the bootloader.

Pedro

NaYthan, robotsavvy,

Thanks for your reply!
I've completly ommited that the bootloader is totally independant... Shame on me!

I think I will give the patch proposed in "Better uart1/spi/jtag mode switch" a try. I've searched for the software change in the mmc-over-gpio modules with no luck. I wonder if the UART1 is in gpio-mode by default. Can anyone check this?
The idea is to apply this patch to change the UART1 mode to GPIO+UARTF and change the pins I'm using.
I will be back tomorrow, hope I have good news!

yes, UART0 is in gpio mode by default, that's why you need the mmio tool...

Finally I tried

mmio 0x10000060 0x15

to share the 4 pins of the UART0 with GPIOs. I also moved the SD pins to the GPIO 11, 12, 13 & 14. The SD is still working and I also got access to the UART0.

So I now have the SD, UART0 & UART1 working.
As I said I installed full python in the SD and it's still working. I once received a "segmentation fault" when I executed python, but tried again and worked fine.

Any update about this?

Did you get the MMC over SPI working?

Thanks.

I would also like to add external storage, preferably MMC/SDCARD to Carambola, and would love to know if there has been an update to this?

Thank you 8devices!

Sidhant