TS-7200: Difference between revisions

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If you are backing up directly on the board you will likely need to use some kind of offboard storage like a thumbdrive or external hard drive.
If you are backing up directly on the board you will likely need to use some kind of offboard storage like a thumbdrive or external hard drive.


You can find the latest CF card image [ftp://ftp.embeddedarm.com/ts-arm-sbc/ts-7200-linux/binaries/ts-images/2gbsd-may262011.dd.bz2 here].  Make sure you decompress the image before writing.
You can find the latest CF card image [ftp://ftp.embeddedarm.com/ts-arm-sbc/ts-7200-linux/binaries/ts-images/2gbsd-may262011.dd.bz2 here] which will contain the Debian OS.  Make sure you decompress the image before writing.


'''Backup '''
'''Backup '''
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dd if=/initrd bs=32k of=/dev/mmcblk0p3
dd if=/initrd bs=32k of=/dev/mmcblk0p3
</source>
</source>
= eCos RedBoot =
RedBoot is a feature rich boot-ROM monitor, that allows manipulation of the on-board flash, JFFS and YAFFS images, loading and execution of a kernel or executable from either tftp (trivial ftp), http or flash, and gdb debugging stubs. From RedBoot, one can load and execute any standalone binary.  Most commonly, a Linux kernel binary is used. One can also write applications within the eCos environment and load them with RedBoot.  Please refer to [http://ecos.sourceware.org/ Sourceware] for more information on programming for eCos.
= Operating Systems =
On the compact flash we have enough room to provide [[Debian]].  This provides a very mature OS with many packages, but does require significantly more space.  For the onboard flash we have developed [[TS-Linux]] which requires very little space while still providing a powerful system.
== Debian ==
Our boards boot a standard [[Debian]] installation which provides a large amount of software that you can install with relatively little effort. See the [[Debian]] page for more general information on installing/removing software, and further documentation.
For this series we provide the Debian versions Woody, Sarge, Etch and Lenny.  The EP9302 supports both OABI and EABI, so future Debian distributions may be run on the SBC, but will not be supported.  We do provide distributions available as archives separate from the images.  You can find them on [ftp://ftp.embeddedarm.com/ts-arm-sbc/ts-7200-linux/distributions/ this folder] on the ftp. You will need a linux system to extract it:
<source lang=bash>
# Replace the mmcblk0p4 device with your card
# on your workstation
mount /dev/mmcblk0p4 /mnt/sd/
cd /mnt/sd/
tar --numeric-owner -xvf /path/to/debian-lenny-arm-latest.tar.gz
cd ../
umount /mnt/sd/
</source>
You can download the Debian Etch and Debian Lenny minimal install for x86 from [http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/archive/ here] and install it on a PC or virtual machine to become more familiar with a debian environment.

Revision as of 21:22, 11 August 2011

TS-7200
TS-7200.jpg
Product Page
Documentation
Schematic
Mechanical Drawing
FTP Path
Cirrus Logic EP9302
CPU User Guide

Overview

The TS-7200 is a compact, full-featured Single Board Computer (SBC) based upon the Cirrus EP9302 ARM9 CPU, which provides a standard set of on-board peripherals.

Getting Started

A Linux PC is recommended for development. For developers who use Windows, virtualized Linux using VMWare or similar are recommended in order to make the full power of Linux available. The developer will need to be comfortable with Linux anyway in order to work with embedded Linux on the target platform. The main reasons that Linux is useful are:

  • Linux filesystems on the microSD card can be accessed on the PC.
  • More ARM cross-compilers are available.
  • If recovery is needed, a bootable medium can be written.
  • A network filesystem can be served.
  • Builds such as Linux kernel, buildroot, yocto, distro-seed will not work from WSL1/2 on a case insensitive filesystem.
WARNING: Be sure to take appropriate Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) precautions. Disconnect the power source before moving, cabling, or performing any set up procedures. Inappropriate handling may cause damage to the board.

With the TS-7200 there is a terminal block power connector which is removable to expose 2 pins you can also use to supply power.

Get a Console

The default console is available on the DB9 port using the a 115200 baud, 8n1 connection with no flow control. You also must have JP2 in place in order to enable the console out. You can redirect console to COM2 by enabling JP4.

Use a null modem cable to connect the ARM system to your workstation. If you do not have a COM port on your system (as many newer systems do not), you can find a USB serial adapter that will bring out RS232.

Console from Linux

There are many serial clients for Linux, but 3 simple ones would be picocom, screen, and minicom. These examples assume that your COM device is /dev/ttyUSB0 (common for USB adapters), but replace them with the COM device on your workstation.

Linux has a few applications capable of connecting to the board over serial. You can use any of these clients that may be installed or available in your workstation's package manager:

Picocom is a very small and simple client.

picocom -b 115200 /dev/ttyUSB0

Screen is a terminal multiplexer which happens to have serial support.

screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200

Or a very commonly used client is minicom which is quite powerful:

minicom -s
  • Navigate to 'serial port setup'
  • Type "a" and change location of serial device to '/dev/ttyUSB0' then hit "enter"
  • If needed, modify the settings to match this and hit "esc" when done:
     E - Bps/Par/Bits          : 115200 8N1
     F - Hardware Flow Control : No
     G - Software Flow Control : No
  • Navigate to 'Save setup as dfl', hit "enter", and then "esc"

Console from Windows

Putty is a small simple client available for download here. Open up Device Manager to determine your console port. See the putty configuration image for more details.

Device Manager Putty Configuration

You can also telnet to the board with the default network configuration which will provide telnet.

Jumpers

Jumper Description Address Bit Description
JP1 Boot to serial port COM1. N/A
JP2 Enable serial console (COM1 Default) 0x1080_000 0 On=1
JP3 Write enable flash. 0x1080_000 1 On=1
JP4 Redirects console to COM2 (with JP2 on) 0x1080_000 3 On=0
JP5 Enables Testing 0x1080_000 4 On=0
JP6 User Configurable 0x2280_000 0 On=1

Backup / Restore

Compact Flash

If backing up on a separate workstation, keep in mind windows does not have direct block device support needed to write these images. You will also need to determine the CF card device. You can usually find this in the output of 'dmesg' after inserting the CF card and you will typically see something like '/dev/sdb' as the block device and '/dev/sdb1' for the first partition. On some newer kernels you will see '/dev/mmcblk0' as the block device and '/dev/mmcblkop1' for the first partition. For these examples I will use the '/dev/mmcblk0' format.

If you are backing up directly on the board you will likely need to use some kind of offboard storage like a thumbdrive or external hard drive.

You can find the latest CF card image here which will contain the Debian OS. Make sure you decompress the image before writing.

Backup

Entire SD card

dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 of=/path/to/backup.dd bs=32k

Kernel

dd if=/dev/mmcblk0p2 of=/path/to/zImage bs=32k

Initrd

dd if=/dev/mmcblk0p3 of=/path/to/initrd bs=32k

Restore

Entire SD card

dd if=/path/to/backup.dd of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=32k

Kernel

dd if=/path/to/zImage bs=32k of=/dev/mmcblk0p2

Initrd

dd if=/initrd bs=32k of=/dev/mmcblk0p3

eCos RedBoot

RedBoot is a feature rich boot-ROM monitor, that allows manipulation of the on-board flash, JFFS and YAFFS images, loading and execution of a kernel or executable from either tftp (trivial ftp), http or flash, and gdb debugging stubs. From RedBoot, one can load and execute any standalone binary. Most commonly, a Linux kernel binary is used. One can also write applications within the eCos environment and load them with RedBoot. Please refer to Sourceware for more information on programming for eCos.

Operating Systems

On the compact flash we have enough room to provide Debian. This provides a very mature OS with many packages, but does require significantly more space. For the onboard flash we have developed TS-Linux which requires very little space while still providing a powerful system.

Debian

Our boards boot a standard Debian installation which provides a large amount of software that you can install with relatively little effort. See the Debian page for more general information on installing/removing software, and further documentation.

For this series we provide the Debian versions Woody, Sarge, Etch and Lenny. The EP9302 supports both OABI and EABI, so future Debian distributions may be run on the SBC, but will not be supported. We do provide distributions available as archives separate from the images. You can find them on this folder on the ftp. You will need a linux system to extract it:

# Replace the mmcblk0p4 device with your card
# on your workstation
mount /dev/mmcblk0p4 /mnt/sd/
cd /mnt/sd/
tar --numeric-owner -xvf /path/to/debian-lenny-arm-latest.tar.gz
cd ../
umount /mnt/sd/

You can download the Debian Etch and Debian Lenny minimal install for x86 from here and install it on a PC or virtual machine to become more familiar with a debian environment.