Advance Usage of uboot¶

Familiarity with uboot is a skill that you should master in order to play with the routers.

About uboot¶

Uboot (universial bootloader) is the bootloader we used on our boards and routers to start OpenWrt Linux. The bootloader heavily depends on the hardware so almost every device requires a different bootloader.

To use the bootloader, you have to connect a UART serial connector to your device.

Taking our Atheros 9331 boards for example, when powered up, uboot will output the following text:

*********************************************
*   U-Boot 1.1.4  (Sep  9 2014, 09:20:16)   *
*********************************************

AP121 (AR9331) U-Boot for GL.iNet

DRAM:   64 MB DDR 16-bit
FLASH:  Winbond W25Q128 (16 MB)
CLOCKS: 400/400/200/33 MHz (CPU/RAM/AHB/SPI)

LED on during eth initialization...

Hit any key to stop autobooting:  0

Quickly press any key to stop booting.

Uboot console¶

Uboot is very useful to save your router. Here is some useful command in uboot.

printenv prints out the environment variables

uboot> printenv
bootargs=console=ttyS0,115200 root=31:02 rootfstype=squashfs init=/sbin/init mtdparts=ar7240-nor0:128k(u-boot),1024k(kernel),2816k(rootfs),64k(config),64k(ART)
bootcmd=bootm 0x9F020000
bootdelay=1
baudrate=115200
ipaddr=192.168.1.1
serverip=192.168.1.2
bootfile="firmware.bin"
loadaddr=0x80800000
ncport=6666
uboot_addr=0x9F000000
uboot_name=uboot.bin
uboot_size=0x10000
uboot_upg=if ping $serverip; then tftp $loadaddr $uboot_name && if itest.l $filesize == $uboot_size; then erase $uboot_addr +$filesize && cp.b $loadaddr $uboot_addr $filesize && echo OK!; else echo ERROR! Wrong file size!; fi; else ERROR! Server not reachable!; fi
firmware_addr=0x9F020000
firmware_name=firmware.bin
firmware_upg=if ping $serverip; then tftp $loadaddr $firmware_name && erase $firmware_addr +$filesize && cp.b $loadaddr $firmware_addr $filesize && echo OK!; else ERROR! Server not reachable!; fi
stdin=serial
stdout=serial
stderr=serial
ethact=eth0

Environment size: 937 bytes

uboot>

md displays data in flash or memory. The following command displays the data in flash from beginning, which is the binary of uboot itself.

uboot> md 0x9f000000
9F000000: 100000FF 00000000 100000FD 00000000    ................
9F000010: 1000018E 00000000 1000018C 00000000    ................
9F000020: 1000018A 00000000 10000188 00000000    ................
9F000030: 10000186 00000000 10000184 00000000    ................
9F000040: 10000182 00000000 10000180 00000000    ................
9F000050: 1000017E 00000000 1000017C 00000000    ...~.......|....
9F000060: 1000017A 00000000 10000178 00000000    ...z.......x....
9F000070: 10000176 00000000 10000174 00000000    ...v.......t....
9F000080: 10000172 00000000 10000170 00000000    ...r.......p....
9F000090: 1000016E 00000000 1000016C 00000000    ...n.......l....
9F0000A0: 1000016A 00000000 10000168 00000000    ...j.......h....
9F0000B0: 10000166 00000000 10000164 00000000    ...f.......d....
9F0000C0: 10000162 00000000 10000160 00000000    ...b.......`....
9F0000D0: 1000015E 00000000 1000015C 00000000    ...^.......\....
9F0000E0: 1000015A 00000000 10000158 00000000    ...Z.......X....
9F0000F0: 10000156 00000000 10000154 00000000    ...V.......T....

Setting up tftp server¶

Ubuntu Linux¶

In Ubuntu, you can install tftp using apt

sudo apt-get install tftpd-hpa

The configuration file is /etc/default/tftpd-hpa. Modify its content and change the TFTP_DIRECTORY to your folder which will contains your files.

TFTP_USERNAME="TFTP"
TFTP_DIRECTORY="/tftpboot"
TFTP_ADDRESS="[::]:69"
TFTP_OPTIONS="--secure"

Sometime the service cannot be started because network is not available when it starts. Start the service manually.

sudo service tftpd-hpa restart

Windows¶

Download service edition of tftpd from http://tftpd32.jounin.net/tftpd32_download.html, then install it.

tftp install

Turn off windows firewall, which is the main reason causing tftpd failed to connect.

tftp install

Run tftpd64_SE Admin, choose your tftpd root (in this example D:\tftp), choose the "Server interface" 192.168.1.2 When clients are connecting to this server, you can see them in the status window.

tftp install

Compiling uboot¶

Each device has a different uboot because it is hardware related.

GL-AR150, GL.iNet6416, GL-AR300, GL-AR300M¶

For these models you can use Pepe2k's uboot, you can download the source from github.

$ git clone https://github.com/pepe2k/u-boot_mod.git
$ cd u-boot_mod

To compile the source, you need to have a cross complier toolchain. I am using openwrt toolchain. Make modification to the Makefile.

export BUILD_TOPDIR=$(PWD)
export STAGING_DIR=$(BUILD_TOPDIR)/tmp

# **Replace the following line with your real path**
export TOOLPATH=$(BUILD_TOPDIR)/../openwrt/staging_dir/toolchain-mips_34kc_gcc-4.8-linaro_uClibc-0.9.33.2/

export PATH:=$(TOOLPATH)/bin:${PATH}

export MAKECMD=make --silent --no-print-directory ARCH=mips CROSS_COMPILE=mips-openwrt-linux-uclibc-

# boot delay (time to autostart boot command)
export CONFIG_BOOTDELAY=1

Now start to compile the source. For example, for GL.iNet 6416, you can use:

make gl-inet

For GL-AR150, you can do this:

make 8devices_carambola2

For GL-AR300 and GL-AR300M, we modified the code a lot so please consult us for details.

It should be very quick and finish in minutes. Then you will find uboot_for_gl-inet.bin in bin/.

GL-AR150 uboot modify as IoT devices¶

If you connect IoT addon to AR150's UART, which talks to AR150 using serial. When the IoT addon send some data during uboot boot, it may stop the booting process so you never have the router alive. You need to modify the uboot a little bit so that it can succesffuly boot.

Use this code from github https://github.com/domino-team/uboot-domino

In this uboot, you need to type gl quickly during uboot boot to enter uboot console.

MT300A, MT300N, MT750¶

MT series routers use a different uboot and different code. Consult us if you need.

Using uboot¶

You can use printenv to display the environment variables in uboot. here are some quick guide of how to use uboot.

First you need to set up tftp server as above and put your files in tftp root folder.

basic uboot command¶

Download file to router (AR150, Domino, 6416 as example)

tftp 0x81000000 file.bin

Erase some part of flash

erase 0x9f050000 +0x10000

Write file to flash

cp.b 0x81000000 0x9f050000 0x10000

predefined script¶

Actually it is not easy to use basic uboot command to do everyting. It is quite risky. Fortunately we have some pre-defined scripts that simplifeis the work.

Plase do check using printenv to find out the correct filename that the script trying to download. For example, if you want to update uboot for AR150, the uboot file should be named as uboot_for_gl-ar150.bin and put in your tftp root folder.

Replace uboot

run lu

Update firmware

run lf

Update mac address etc

run lc

Erase uboot env variables Be sure to use the right command for the right model For AR150, Domino AR300, AR300M

erase 0x9f040000 +0x10000
reset

For 6416

erase 0x9f010000 +0x10000
reset

Uboot Web UI¶

Uboot has a webUI so that you can save your device without entering uboot console.

Uboot Web UI

Check this section for how to enter uboot web UI using the reset button.

If you are in uboot console, you can start the WebUI the following command. This only works for AR series, not MT series.

httpd

AR300M Specific¶

AR300M uses dual flash so in uboot there are a lot of things to deal with dual flash. Please refer to AR300M for more details.