AT91SAM9x5 EK Board

---

SoC Features

The SAM9x5 family is based on the ARM ARM926EJ-S core. The SAM9x5 family runs at 400 MHz and features connectivity peripherals, high data bandwidth architecture, and a small footprint package option, making it an optimized solution for industrial applications. Peripherals include a soft modem supporting exclusively the Conexant SmartDAA line driver, High Speed (480Mbps) USB Host/Device ports and Full Speed USB Host with on-chip transceivers, 10/100 Ethernet MAC, two HS SDCard/SDIO/MMC interfaces, USARTs, SPIs, I2S, multiple TWIs and 10-bit ADC. It offers support for 8-bank DDR2 and for LPDDR, SDRAM/LPSDRAM, static memories, as well as specific circuitry for MLC/SLC NAND Flash with integrated ECC up to 24 bits. The SAM9x5 family is available in a 217-ball BGA package with 0.8mm ball pitch, as well as a 247-ball BGA package with 0.5mm ball pitch.

Kit Information

Kit Overview

Access the console

The usual serial communication parameters are 115200 8-N-1 :

Baud rate 115200 Data 8 bits Parity None Stop 1 bit Flow control None

Access the console on DBGU serial port

The DBGU serial console can be accessed from the RS-232 connector (marked as DBGU J11).

Using RS-232 connector (DBGU J11)

• Connect a DB9 serial cable to the J11 connector
• Now open your favorite terminal emulator with appropriate settings

• • For Linux users: identify the USB connection by monitoring the last lines of dmesg command. The /dev/ttyUSBx or /dev/ttyACMx number will be used to configure the terminal emulator.

    [605576.562740] usb 1-1.1.2: new full-speed USB device number 17 using ehci-pci
    [605576.660920] usb 1-1.1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0403, idProduct=6001
    [605576.660933] usb 1-1.1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
    [605576.660939] usb 1-1.1.2: Product: TTL232R-3V3
    [605576.660944] usb 1-1.1.2: Manufacturer: FTDI
    [605576.660958] usb 1-1.1.2: SerialNumber: FTGNVZ04
    [605576.663092] ftdi_sio 1-1.1.2:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
    [605576.663120] usb 1-1.1.2: Detected FT232RL
    [605576.663122] usb 1-1.1.2: Number of endpoints 2
    [605576.663124] usb 1-1.1.2: Endpoint 1 MaxPacketSize 64
    [605576.663126] usb 1-1.1.2: Endpoint 2 MaxPacketSize 64
    [605576.663128] usb 1-1.1.2: Setting MaxPacketSize 64
    [605576.663483] usb 1-1.1.2: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0
    

    A /dev/ttyUSB0 node has been created.

• Now open your favorite terminal emulator with appropriate settings

Demo

Demo archives

Media type Board Screen Binary Description Yocto Project / Poky based demo NAND Flash AT91SAM9x5-EK - linux4sam-poky-at91sam9x5ek-6.1.zip (~ 102 MB) md5: e83868ae1f9ea1b77c31e2d9e58fd969 Linux4SAM Yocto Project / Poky based demo compiled from tag linux4sam_6.1 Follow procedure: #Flash_the_demo SD Card image AT91SAM9x5-EK - linux4sam-poky-at91sam9x5ek-6.1.img.bz2 (~ 80 MB) md5: d6c0d2da6c30086a7b6763c3d7bdc202 Linux4SAM Yocto Project / Poky based demo compiled from tag linux4sam_6.1 Follow procedure: #Create_a_SD_card_with_the_demo BuildRoot based demo SD Card image AT91SAM9x5-EK - linux4sam-buildroot-at91sam9x5ek-6.1.img.bz2 (~ 52 MB) md5: 6d1927f815ee6473b7b3c7b556888933 Linux4SAM BuildRoot based demo compiled from tag linux4sam_6.1 Follow procedure: #Create_a_SD_card_with_the_demo

Create a SD card with the demo

You need a 1 GB SD card (or more) and to download the image of the demo. The image is compressed to reduce the amount of data to download. This image contains:

• a FAT32 partition with the AT91Bootstrap, U-Boot and the Linux Kernel (zImage and dtb).
• an EXT4 partition for the rootfs.

Multi-platform procedure

To write the compressed image on the SD card, you will have to download and install balenaEtcher. This tool, which is an Open Source software, is useful since it allows to get a compressed image as input. More information and extra help available on the balenaEtcher website.

• Insert your SD card and launch Etcher:

1. Select the demo image. They are marked as "SD Card image" in the demo table above.
   Note that you can select a compressed image (like the demos available here). The tool is able to decompress files on the fly
2. Select the device corresponding to your SD card (Etcher proposes you the devices that are removable to avoid erasing your system disk)
3. Click on the Flash! button
4. On Linux, Etcher finally asks you to enter your root password because it needs access to the hardware (your SD card reader or USB to SD card converter)
5. then the flashing process begins followed by a verification phase (optional)

• Once writing done, Etcher asks you if you want to burn another demo image:

• Your SD card is ready!

Flash the demo

use SAM-BA 3.8.y onwards. You can download it here: SAM-BA 3.8.1 release page.

Connect the USB to the board before launching SAM-BA

• Remove power from the board
• JP9 must be opened (BMS=1) to boot from the on-chip Boot ROM

Cogent module	Embest module	Ronetix module
open *NCS jumper	open SW1 switch (not ON position)	open J1 and J2 jumpers
which is (are) located on the CPU module to prevent access to serial flash and NAND flash

• power up the board
• check whether the board is found in your PC as a USB device
  • For Microsoft Windows users: verify that the USB connection is well established
    AT91 USB to Serial Converter should appear in Device Manager. If it shows a unknown device you need to download and install the driver: AT91SAM USB CDC driver
    
  • For Linux users: check /dev/ttyACMx by monitoring the last lines of dmesg command:
    

[172677.700868] usb 2-1.4.4: new full-speed USB device number 31 using ehci-pci
[172677.792677] usb 2-1.4.4: not running at top speed; connect to a high speed hub
[172677.793418] usb 2-1.4.4: New USB device found, idVendor=03eb, idProduct=6124
[172677.793424] usb 2-1.4.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[172677.793897] cdc_acm 2-1.4.4:1.0: This device cannot do calls on its own. It is not a modem.
[172677.793924] cdc_acm 2-1.4.4:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
   

idVendor=03eb, idProduct=6124: from this message you can see it's Microchip board USB connection.

Cogent module	Embest module	Ronetix module
close *NCS jumper	close SW1 switch (move to ON position)	close J1 and J2 jumpers
which is (are) located on the CPU module to re-gain access to serial flash and NAND flash

Run script to flash the demo

• download the demo package for the board. They are marked as "Media type: NAND Flash " in the table above
• extract the demo package
• run your usual terminal emulator and enter the demo directory
• make sure that the sam-ba application is in your Operating System path so that you can reach it from your demo package directory
• for Microsoft Windows users: Launch the demo_linux_nandflash.bat file
• for Linux users: Launch the demo_linux_nandflash.sh file
• this script runs SAM-BA 3 and the associated QML sam-ba script (demo_linux_nandflash_usb.qml) with proper parameters
• when you reach the end of the flashing process (this will take a few minutes), the following line is written:

  -I- === Done. ===

• connect a serial link on DBGU and open the terminal emulator program as explained just above
• power cycle the board

• monitor the system while it's booting on the LCD screen or through the serial line

Build From source code

Setup ARM Cross Compiler

• First step is to dowload the ARM GNU Toolchain:
  

  wget -c https://developer.arm.com/-/media/Files/downloads/gnu/13.2.rel1/binrel/arm-gnu-toolchain-13.2.rel1-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf.tar.xz
     

• Next step is to add the ARM GNU Toolchain into your system:
  

  tar -xf arm-gnu-toolchain-13.2.rel1-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf.tar.xz
  export CROSS_COMPILE=`pwd`/arm-gnu-toolchain-13.2.rel1-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf/bin/arm-none-linux-gnueabihf-
      

  or

  tar -xf arm-gnu-toolchain-13.2.rel1-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf.tar.xz
  export CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-linux-gnueabihf-
  export PATH=$PATH:/YOUR/PATH/TO/arm-gnu-toolchain-13.2.Rel1-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf/bin/
     

• !Note: If you already have an old ARM GNU Toolchain need to clean up the PATH with:
  

  export PATH=${PATH/':/YOUR/PATH/TO/arm-gnu-toolchain-VERSION-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf/bin/'/}
      

Build AT91Bootstrap from sources

This section describes how to get source code from the git repository, how to configure with the default configuration, how to customize AT91Bootstrap based on the default configuration and finally to build AT91Bootstrap to produce the binary. take the default configuration to download U-Boot from NandFlash for example.

Get AT91Bootstrap Source Code

You can easily download AT91Bootstrap source code on the at91bootstrap git repository.

To get the source code, you should clone the repository by doing:

$ git clone https://github.com/linux4sam/at91bootstrap.git
Cloning into 'at91bootstrap'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 17621, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (3324/3324), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (1029/1029), done.
remote: Total 17621 (delta 2465), reused 3102 (delta 2285), pack-reused 14297
Receiving objects: 100% (17621/17621), 5.65 MiB | 4.65 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (13459/13459), done.
$ cd at91bootstrap/

Configure AT91Bootstrap

Assuming you are at the AT91Bootstrap root directory, you will find a board/at91sam9x5ek folder which contains several default configuration files:

at91sam9x5eksd_uboot_defconfig
at91sam9x5ekdf_uboot_defconfig
at91sam9x5eknf_uboot_defconfig

Tips: nf means to read nandflash, df means to read serial flash, sd means to read mmc card.
Tips: linux means to load linux kernel to RAM, android means to load android kernel to RAM, uboot means to load u-boot to RAM, dt means to load dtb to RAM.

You can configure AT91Bootstrap to load U-Boot binary from NAND flash by doing:

$ make mrproper
$ make at91sam9x5eknf_uboot_defconfig

If the configuring process is successful, the .config file can be found at AT91Bootstrap root directory.

Customize AT91Bootstrap

If the default configuration doesn't meet your need, after configuring with the default configuration, you can customize it by doing:

$ make menuconfig

Now, in the menuconfig dialog, you can easily add or remove some features to/from AT91Bootstrap as the same way as kernel configuration.
Move to <Exit> with arrows and press this button hitting the Enter key to exit from this screen.

Build AT91Bootstrap

Then you can build the AT91Bootstrap binary by doing:

$ make

If the building process is successful, the final .bin image is build/binaries/at91bootstrap.bin.

Build U-Boot from sources

Getting U-Boot sources

Dedicated page on U-Boot wiki: http://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot/SourceCode

You can easily download U-Boot source code from Linux4Microchip GitHub U-Boot repository:

• clone the Linux4microchip GitHub U-Boot repository

     $ git clone https://github.com/linux4microchip/u-boot-mchp.git
   Cloning into 'u-boot-mchp'...
   remote: Enumerating objects: 951876, done.
   remote: Counting objects: 100% (17718/17718), done.
   remote: Compressing objects: 100% (5735/5735), done.
   remote: Total 951876 (delta 12391), reused 15314 (delta 11846), pack-reused 934158
   Receiving objects: 100% (951876/951876), 164.77 MiB | 401.00 KiB/s, done.
   Resolving deltas: 100% (790362/790362), done.
     $ cd u-boot-mchp/
     

• The source code has been taken from the master branch which is pointing to the latest branch we use. If you want to use the other branch, you can list them and use one of them by doing:

     $ git branch -r
    origin/HEAD -> origin/master
    origin/dev/tony/sama7g5ek_optee
    origin/master
    origin/sam9x60_curiosity_early
    origin/sam9x60_early
    origin/sam9x60_iar
    origin/sam9x7_early
    origin/sama5d27wlsom1ek_ear
    origin/sama7g5_early
    origin/u-boot-2012.10-at91
    origin/u-boot-2013.07-at91
    origin/u-boot-2014.07-at91
    origin/u-boot-2015.01-at91
    origin/u-boot-2016.01-at91
    origin/u-boot-2016.03-at91
    origin/u-boot-2017.03-at91
    origin/u-boot-2018.07-at91
    origin/u-boot-2019.04-at91
    origin/u-boot-2020.01-at91
    origin/u-boot-2021.04-at91
    origin/u-boot-2022.01-at91
    origin/u-boot-2023.07-mchp
    origin/u-boot-2024.07-mchp
    origin/uboot_5series_1.x
  
     $ git checkout origin/u-boot-2024.07-mchp -b u-boot-2024.07-mchp
    Branch 'u-boot-2024.07-mchp' set up to track remote branch 'u-boot-2024.07-mchp' from 'origin'.
    Switched to a new branch 'u-boot-2024.07-mchp'
     

Cross-compiling U-Boot

Before compiling the U-Boot, you need setup cross compile toolchain in the section.

Latest versions of U-boot (2018.07 and newer) have a minimum requirement of 6.0 version of the GCC toolchain. We always recommend to use the latest versions.

Once the AT91 U-Boot sources available, cross-compile U-Boot is made in two steps: configuration and compiling. Check the Configuration chapter in U-Boot reference manual.

Go to the configs/ to find the exact target when invoking make.

The U-Boot environment variables can be stored in different media, above config files can specify where to store the U-Boot environment.

   # To put environment variables in serial flash:
   at91sam9x5ek_spiflash_defconfig
   # To put environment variables in nandflash (default):
   at91sam9x5ek_nandflash_defconfig
   # To put environment variables in SD/MMC card:
   at91sam9x5ek_mmc_defconfig

Here are the building steps for the AT91SAM9x5-EK board:

  # You can change the config according to your needs.
  make at91sam9x5ek_nandflash_defconfig
  make

The result of these operations is a fresh U-Boot binary called u-boot.bin corresponding to the binary ELF file u-boot.

• u-boot.bin is the file you should store on the board
• u-boot is the ELF format binary file you may use to debug U-Boot through a JTag link for instance.

Build Kernel from sources

Required packages

You must install essential host packages on your build host. These requirements are listed in the Linux kernel documentation with the chapter Install build requirements. You must follow this process which includes, but not limited to, the following packages:

• build-essential
  
• flex
  
• bison
  
• git
  
• perl-base
  
• libssl-dev
  
• libncurses5-dev
  
• libncursesw5-dev
  
• ncurses-dev
  

Getting Kernel sources

To get the source code, you have to clone the repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/linux4microchip/linux.git
Cloning into 'linux'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 8587836, done.
remote: Total 8587836 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 8587836
Receiving objects: 100% (8587836/8587836), 3.49 GiB | 13.44 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (7117887/7117887), done.
Updating files: 100% (70687/70687), done.
$ cd linux

The source code has been taken from the master branch which is pointing on the latest branch we use.

Note that you can also add this Linux4SAM repository as a remote GIT repository to your usual Linux git tree. It will save you a lot of bandwidth and download time:

$ git remote add linux4microchip https://github.com/linux4microchip/linux.git
$ git remote update linux4microchip
Fetching linux4microchip
From https://github.com/linux4microchip/linux
 * [new branch]                linux-6.1-mchp -> linux4microchip/linux-6.1-mchp
 * [new branch]                linux-6.6-mchp -> linux4microchip/linux-6.6-mchp
 * [new branch]                master     -> linux4microchip/master

If you want to use another branch, you can list them and use one of them by doing this:

$ git branch -r
  linux4microchip/linux-5.10-mchp
  linux4microchip/linux-5.15-mchp
  linux4microchip/linux-5.15-mchp+fpga
  linux4microchip/linux-6.1-mchp
  linux4microchip/linux-6.1-mchp+fpga
  linux4microchip/linux-6.6-mchp
  linux4microchip/linux-6.6-mchp+fpga
  linux4microchip/master
$ git checkout -b linux-6.6-mchp --track remotes/linux4microchip/linux-6.6-mchp
Branch linux-6.6-mchp set up to track remote branch linux-6.6-mchp from linux4microchip.
Switched to a new branch 'linux-6.6-mchp'

Setup ARM Cross Compiler

• First step is to dowload the ARM GNU Toolchain:
  

  wget -c https://developer.arm.com/-/media/Files/downloads/gnu/13.2.rel1/binrel/arm-gnu-toolchain-13.2.rel1-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf.tar.xz
     

• Next step is to add the ARM GNU Toolchain into your system:
  

  tar -xf arm-gnu-toolchain-13.2.rel1-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf.tar.xz
  export CROSS_COMPILE=`pwd`/arm-gnu-toolchain-13.2.rel1-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf/bin/arm-none-linux-gnueabihf-
      

  or

  tar -xf arm-gnu-toolchain-13.2.rel1-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf.tar.xz
  export CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-linux-gnueabihf-
  export PATH=$PATH:/YOUR/PATH/TO/arm-gnu-toolchain-13.2.Rel1-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf/bin/
     

• !Note: If you already have an old ARM GNU Toolchain need to clean up the PATH with:
  

  export PATH=${PATH/':/YOUR/PATH/TO/arm-gnu-toolchain-VERSION-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf/bin/'/}
      

Configure and Build the Linux kernel

Now you have to configure the Linux kernel according to your hardware. We have two default configuration at91 SoC in arch/arm/configs

arch/arm/configs/at91_dt_defconfig
arch/arm/configs/sama5_defconfig
arch/arm/configs/sama7_defconfig

• at91_dt_defconfig: for SAM9 (ARM926) series chips
• sama5_defconfig: for SAMA5 series chips
• sama7_defconfig: for SAMA7 series chips

At this step, you can modify default configuration using the menuconfig

$ make ARCH=arm menuconfig

Now, in the menuconfig dialog, you can easily add or remove some features. Once done, Move to <Exit> with arrows and press this button hitting the Enter key to exit from this screen.

Build the Linux kernel image, before you build you need set up the cross compile toolchain, check this section.

$ make ARCH=arm

[..]

  Kernel: arch/arm/boot/Image is ready
  Kernel: arch/arm/boot/zImage is ready

Now you have an usable compressed kernel image zImage.

If you need an uImage you can run this additional step:

make ARCH=arm uImage LOADADDR=0x20008000

[..]

  Kernel: arch/arm/boot/zImage is ready
  UIMAGE  arch/arm/boot/uImage
  Image Name:   Linux-6.6.23-linux4microchip-202
  Created:      Thu May 16 14:36:06 2024
  Image Type:   ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
  Data Size:    5221704 Bytes = 5099.32 KiB = 4.98 MiB
  Load Address: 20008000
  Entry Point:  20008000
  Kernel: arch/arm/boot/uImage is ready

make ARCH=arm dtbs

[..]

  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sam9x60_curiosity.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sam9x60ek.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sam9x75_curiosity.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sam9x75eb.dtb  
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama5d27_som1_ek.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama5d27_wlsom1_ek.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama5d29_curiosity.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama5d2_icp.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama5d2_ptc_ek.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama5d2_xplained.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama7d65_curiosity.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama7g5ek.dtb

[..]

If the building process is successful, the final images can be found under arch/arm/boot/ directory.

Build Yocto/Poky rootfs from sources

Note that building an entire distribution is a long process. It also requires a big amount of free disk space.

The support for Microchip AT91 SoC family is included in a particular Yocto Project layer: meta-atmel. The source for this layer are hosted on Linux4SAM GitHub account: https://github.com/linux4sam/meta-atmel

Building environment

A step-by-step comprehensive installation is explained in the Yocto Project Quick Build. The following lines have to be considered as an add-on that is AT91 specific or that can facilitate your setup.

Prerequisite

Here are the reference pages for setting up a Yocto Project building environment: What You Need and How You Get It.

add git-lfs to the package requirement list from whichever Linux distribution you use.

For instance, on Ubuntu or debian, these packages need to be installed on your development host:

sudo apt-get install gawk wget git-core git-lfs diffstat unzip texinfo gcc-multilib \
     build-essential chrpath socat cpio python3 python3-pip python3-pexpect \
     xz-utils debianutils iputils-ping python3-git python3-jinja2 libegl1-mesa libsdl1.2-dev \
     pylint3 xterm

Step by step build procedure

here is a copy of the README procedure available directly in the meta-atmel layer. This file in the meta-atmel layer repository must be considered as the reference and the following copy can be out-of-sync.

starting with Linux4SAM 2021.04 release, the meta-atmel layer supports Yocto Project templates, so make sure you create a new build environment using oe-init-build-env

This layer provides support for Microchip microprocessors (aka AT91)
====================================================================

For more information about the Microchip MPU product line see:
http://www.microchip.com/design-centers/32-bit-mpus
Linux & Open Source on Microchip microprocessors:
http://www.linux4sam.org


Supported SoCs / MACHINE names
==============================
Note that most of the machine names below, have a SD Card variant that can be
built by adding an "-sd" suffix to the machine name.
- SAMA5D2 product family / sama5d2-xplained, sama5d2-xplained-emmc, sama5d27-som1-ek-sd, sama5d27-som1-ek-optee-sd, sama5d2-ptc-ek, sama5d2-icp, sama5d27-wlsom1-ek-sd, sama5d29-curiosity-sd
- SAMA5D4 product family / sama5d4ek, sama5d4-xplained
- SAMA5D3 product family / sama5d3xek, sama5d3-xplained
- AT91SAM9x5 product family (AT91SAM9G15, AT91SAM9G25, AT91SAM9X25, AT91SAM9G35 and AT91SAM9X35) / at91sam9x5ek
- AT91SAM9RL / at91sam9rlek
- AT91SAM9G45 / at91sam9m10g45ek
- SAM9X60 / sam9x60ek, sam9x60-curiosity
- SAMA7G5 / sama7g5ek-sd, sama7g5ek-optee-sd, sama7g5ek-emmc, sama7g5ek-ospi
- SAM9X75 / sam9x75eb, sam9x75-curiosity

Sources
=======
- meta-atmel
URI: https://github.com/linux4sam/meta-atmel.git
Branch: scarthgap
Tag/commit:53c6bb2eddceb62ae5120c7c68174ce423d341e2

Dependencies
============
This Layer depends on :
- poky
URI: https://git.yoctoproject.org/poky
Branch: scarthgap
Tag:scarthgap-5.0.3

- meta-openembedded
URI: https://git.openembedded.org/meta-openembedded
Branch: scarthgap
Tag/commit:735ae0310870ffce07ce0c55c4f87c20ac161ff9

- meta-arm (for optee components)
URI: https://git.yoctoproject.org/meta-arm
Branch: scarthgap
Tag:yocto-5.0

Build procedure
===============

0/ Create a directory
mkdir my_dir
cd my_dir

1/ Clone yocto/poky git repository with the proper branch ready
git clone https://git.yoctoproject.org/poky && cd poky && \
git checkout -b scarthgap scarthgap-5.0.3 && cd -

2/ Clone meta-openembedded git repository with the proper branch ready
git clone git://git.openembedded.org/meta-openembedded && \
cd meta-openembedded && git checkout -b scarthgap 735ae0 && cd -

3/ Clone meta-atmel layer with the proper branch ready
git clone https://github.com/linux4sam/meta-atmel.git && cd meta-atmel && \
git checkout -b scarthgap 53c6bb && cd -

4/ Clone meta-arm layer with the proper branch ready
git clone https://git.yoctoproject.org/meta-arm && cd meta-arm && \
git checkout -b scarthgap yocto-5.0 && cd -

5/ Enter the poky directory to configure the build system and start the build process
cd poky
If not created yet, add a new "build-microchip" directory:
mkdir build-microchip
Else, if it's the first time you use Yocto Project templates, and if the
build-microchip directory remains from a previous use, we advise you to start
from a fresh directory. Keep your build-microchip/conf/local.conf file for
reference.

6/ Inside the .templateconf file, you will need to modify the TEMPLATECONF
variable to match the path to the meta-atmel layer "conf" directory:
export TEMPLATECONF=${TEMPLATECONF:-../meta-atmel/conf/templates/default}

7/ Initialize build directory
source oe-init-build-env build-microchip

8/ To build a small image provided by Yocto Project:
[MACHINE=] bitbake core-image-minimal

Example for sama5d2-xplained-sd SD card image:
MACHINE=sama5d2-xplained-sd bitbake core-image-minimal

9/ To build the microchip image with no graphics support:
[MACHINE=] bitbake microchip-headless-image

Example for sama5d2-xplained-sd SD card image:
MACHINE=sama5d2-xplained-sd bitbake microchip-headless-image

10/ To build the microchip image with graphics support (EGT):
[MACHINE=] bitbake microchip-graphics-image

Example for sama5d2-xplained-sd SD card image:
MACHINE=sama5d2-xplained-sd bitbake microchip-graphics-image

Typical bitbake output
======================
Build Configuration:
BB_VERSION           = "2.8.0"
BUILD_SYS            = "x86_64-linux"
NATIVELSBSTRING      = "universal"
TARGET_SYS           = "arm-poky-linux-gnueabi"
MACHINE              = "sam9x75-curiosity-sd"
DISTRO               = "poky-atmel"
DISTRO_VERSION       = "5.0.3"
TUNE_FEATURES        = "arm armv5 thumb dsp"
TARGET_FPU           = "soft"
meta                 
meta-poky            
meta-yocto-bsp       = "heads/scarthgap-5.0.3:0b37512fb4b231cc106768e2a7328431009b3b70"
meta-oe
meta-networking
meta-webserver
meta-python
meta-initramfs       = "735ae0310870ffce07ce0c55c4f87c20ac161ff9:735ae0310870ffce07ce0c55c4f87c20ac161ff9"
meta-atmel           = "heads/linux4microchip-2024.10:53c6bb2eddceb62ae5120c7c68174ce423d341e2"
meta-multimedia      = "735ae0310870ffce07ce0c55c4f87c20ac161ff9:735ae0310870ffce07ce0c55c4f87c20ac161ff9"
meta-arm
meta-arm-toolchain   = "heads/yocto-5.0:8aa8a1f17f5b64bc691544f989f04fc83df98adb"

Contributing
============
To contribute to this layer you should submit the patches for review to:
the github pull-request facility directly or the forum. Anyway, don't forget to
Cc the maintainers.

Microchip Forum:
https://www.microchip.com/forums/f542.aspx

for some useful guidelines to be followed when submitting patches:
http://www.openembedded.org/wiki/How_to_submit_a_patch_to_OpenEmbedded

Maintainers:
Hari Prasath G E 
Nicolas Ferre 

When creating patches insert the [meta-atmel] tag in the subject, for example
use something like:
git format-patch -s --subject-prefix='meta-atmel][PATCH' 

Using SAM-BA to flash components to board

NAND Flash demo - Memory map

Install SAM-BA software in your PC

In addition to the official SAM-BA pages on http://www.microchip.com, we maintain information about SAM-BA in the SoftwareTools page.

use SAM-BA 3.8.y onwards. You can download it here: SAM-BA 3.8.1 release page.

Launch SAM-BA tools

• According to this section make sure that the chip can execute the SAM-BA Monitor.

In addition to the Qt5 QML language for scripting used for flashing the demos, most common SAM-BA action can be done using SAM-BA command line.

For browsing information on the SAM-BA command line usage, please see the Command Line Documentation that is available in the SAM-BA installation directory: doc/index.html or doc/cmdline.html .

SAM-BA includes command line interface that provides support for the most common actions:

• reading / writing to arbitrary memory addresses and/or peripherals
• uploading applets and using them to erase/read/write external memories

The command line interface is designed to be self-documenting.

The main commands can be listed using the "sam-ba --help" command:

SAM-BA Command Line Tool v3.8
Copyright 2024 Microchip Technology

Usage: ./sam-ba [options]
SAM-BA Command Line Tool

Options:
  -v, --version                          Displays version information.
  -h, --help                             Displays this help.
  -t, --tracelevel <trace_level>         Set trace level to <trace_level>.
  -L, --applet-buffer-limit <SIZE>       Set applet buffer limit to <SIZE>
                                         bytes (default 131072).
  -x, --execute <script.qml>             Execute script <script.qml>.
  -p, --port <port[:options:...]>        Communicate with device using <port>.
  -d, --device <device[:options:...]>    Connected device is <device>.
  -b, --board <board[:options:...]>      Connected board is <board>.
  -m, --monitor <command[:options:...]>  Run monitor command <command>.
  -a, --applet <applet[:options:...]>    Load and initialize applet <applet>.
  -c, --command <command[:args:...]>     Run command <command>.
  -w, --working-directory <DIR>          Set working directory to <DIR>.

Additional help can be obtained for most commands by supplying a "help" parameter that will display their usage.

For example "sam-ba --port help" will display:

Known ports: j-link, serial, secure

Command that take an argument with options (port, monitor, applet) will display even more documentation when called with "help" as option value.

For example "sam-ba --port serial:help" will display:

Syntax:
    serial:[<port>]:[<baudrate>]
Examples:
    serial                serial port (will use first AT91 USB if found otherwise first serial port)
    serial:COM80          serial port on COM80
    serial:ttyUSB0:57600  serial port on /dev/ttyUSB0, baudrate 57600

Configure NAND ECC

Using default PMECC parameters

when choosing the board variant with the -b parameter of SAM-BA, the default PMECC configuration for the NAND populated on the board is valid. You can verify its value by running the command that reads one byte in a dummy file (named test.bin in the following command):

before accessing the NAND flash, you have to initialize the external RAM:

# sam-ba -p serial -b sam9xx5-ek -a extram

# sam-ba -p serial -b sam9xx5-ek -a nandflash -c read:test.bin:0:1
Opening serial port 'ttyACM0'
Connection opened.
Compatible device detected: SAM9G35.
Detected memory size is 268435456 bytes.
Page size is 2048 bytes.
Buffer is 131072 bytes (64 pages) at address 0x2000a000.
NAND header value is 0xc0c00405.
Supported erase block sizes: 128KB
Executing command 'read:test.bin:0:1'
Read 1 bytes at address 0x00000000 (100.00%)
Connection closed.

You can figure out that the default PMECC parameter for this sam9xx5-ek board is 0xc0c00405.

: Note that if you connect a serial console to the SoC RomCode default UART, you can see even more details about the NAND ECC parameters given by the SAM-BA Applet:

Applet 'NAND Flash' from softpack 3.8 (v3.8).
Initializing NAND ioSet1 Bus Width 16
PMECC configuration: 0xc0c00405
Sector size: 512
Sectors per page: 4
Spare size: 64
ECC bits: 2
ECC offset: 48
ECC size: 16
PMECC enabled
Buffer Address: 0x2000a000
Buffer Size: 67065856 bytes
NAND applet initialized successfully.

If you want to change the default PMECC parameters you can simply specify another value on the SAM-BA command line with the -a nandflash argument as shown below:

# sam-ba -p serial -b sam9xx5-ek -a nandflash:help
Syntax: nandflash:[<ioset>]:[<bus_width>]:[<header>]
Parameters:
    ioset      I/O set
    bus_width  NAND bus width (8/16)
    header     NAND header value
Examples:
    nandflash                 use default board settings
    nandflash:2:8:0xc0098da5  use fully custom settings (IOSET2, 8-bit bus, header is 0xc0098da5)
    nandflash:::0xc0098da5    use default board settings but force header to 0xc0098da5
For information on NAND header values, please refer to SAMA5D4 datasheet section "12.4.4 Detailed Memory Boot Procedures".

By reading this in-line documentation we can specify the NAND PMECC parameter with this command:

# sam-ba -p serial -b sam9xx5-ek -a nandflash:::0xc0c00405
Opening serial port 'ttyACM0'
Connection opened.
Compatible device detected: SAM9G35.
Detected memory size is 268435456 bytes.
Page size is 2048 bytes.
Buffer is 131072 bytes (64 pages) at address 0x2000a000.
NAND header value is 0xc0c00405.
Supported erase block sizes: 128KB
Connection closed.

Programming components into NAND

Program AT91Bootstrap binary

Run SAM-BA with USB connection (equivalent to serial) and erase the beginning of the NAND flash and then write AT91Bootstrap binary:

# sam-ba -p serial -b sam9xx5-ek -a nandflash -c erase::0x40000 -c writeboot:at91bootstrap.bin
Opening serial port 'ttyACM0'
Connection opened.
Compatible device detected: SAM9G35.
Detected memory size is 268435456 bytes.
Page size is 2048 bytes.
Buffer is 131072 bytes (64 pages) at address 0x2000a000.
NAND header value is 0xc0c00405.
Supported erase block sizes: 128KB
Executing command 'erase::0x40000'
Erased 131072 bytes at address 0x00000000 (50.00%)
Erased 131072 bytes at address 0x00020000 (100.00%)
Executing command 'writeboot:at91bootstrap.bin'
Prepended NAND header prefix (0xc0c00405)
Appending 1380 bytes of padding to fill the last written page
Wrote 14336 bytes at address 0x00000000 (100.00%)
Connection closed.

Program U-Boot binary

Run SAM-BA with USB connection (equivalent to serial) and erase the U-Boot section in the NAND flash memory map and then write U-Boot binary:

# sam-ba -p serial -b sam9xx5-ek -a nandflash -c erase:0x40000:0x80000 -c write:u-boot.bin:0x40000
Opening serial port 'ttyACM0'
Connection opened.
Compatible device detected: SAM9G35.
Detected memory size is 268435456 bytes.
Page size is 2048 bytes.
Buffer is 131072 bytes (64 pages) at address 0x2000a000.
NAND header value is 0xc0c00405.
Supported erase block sizes: 128KB
Executing command 'erase:0x40000:0x80000'
Erased 131072 bytes at address 0x00040000 (25.00%)
Erased 131072 bytes at address 0x00060000 (50.00%)
Erased 131072 bytes at address 0x00080000 (75.00%)
Erased 131072 bytes at address 0x000a0000 (100.00%)
Executing command 'write:u-boot.bin:0x40000'
Appending 640 bytes of padding to fill the last written page
Wrote 131072 bytes at address 0x00040000 (24.81%)
Wrote 131072 bytes at address 0x00060000 (49.61%)
Wrote 131072 bytes at address 0x00080000 (74.42%)
Wrote 131072 bytes at address 0x000a0000 (99.22%)
Wrote 4096 bytes at address 0x000c0000 (100.00%)
Connection closed.

Recent FAQ

AT91sam9x5-ek boards

• U-Boot FAQ: Some U-Boot FAQ entries. (U-Boot)
• Convert SAMBAScript: SAM-BA API revisions. (SAM-BA)
• USBGadget Config: Configure AT91 USB Gadget on Linux and Endpoint order management (composite USB). (Kernel, linux-4.4-at91, linux-4.9-at91, linux-4.14-at91, linux-4.19-at91, linux-5.4-at91, linux-5.10-at91, linux-5.15-mchp, linux-6.1-mchp, linux-6.6-mchp)
• External Component On EBI: Connecting an external component on the External Bus Interface. (Kernel, linux-4.14-at91, linux-4.19-at91, linux-5.4-at91, linux-5.10-at91, linux-5.15-mchp, linux-6.1-mchp, linux-6.6-mchp)
• SDCard Boot Notice: How to boot up the board from SD card. (AT91Bootstrap)
• Using Isi 6: Using ISI with Linux4sam 6.0 and Kernel 4.14 and later. (Kernel, linux-4.14-at91, linux-4.19-at91, linux-5.4-at91, linux-5.10-at91, linux-5.15-mchp, linux-6.1-mchp)
• Iio Adc Driver: Adc IIO driver introduction. (Kernel, linux-3.10-at91, linux-3.18-at91, linux-4.1-at91, linux-4.4-at91, linux-4.9-at91, linux-4.14-at91, linux-4.19-at91, linux-5.4-at91, linux-5.10-at91, linux-5.15-mchp, linux-6.1-mchp)
• Build Linux Ssl: Kernel Compilation Error related to OpenSSL. (Kernel)
• Selecting PDAat Boot: How to manually select PDA in U-boot. (U-Boot, Kernel)
• Shutdown Wake Up: Use the Wakeup Feature of the Shutdown Controller.. (Kernel, linux-4.4-at91, linux-4.9-at91, linux-4.14-at91, linux-4.19-at91)
• Yocto Project FAQ: Some Yocto Project FAQ entries. (YoctoProject)
• Real Time: Enable Real Time support for AT91SAM9 Soc. (Kernel)