SAMA5D4EK
SoC Features
The SAMA5D4 MPU is ideal for any high-performance, secure, and cost-sensitive industrial application. High-speed computing needs are supported by ARM Neon and 128kB L2 cache which increases the overall system performance. The SAMA5D4 is an ideal fit for low-cost user interface applications that require video playback. The high-grade security features allows you to protect any system against counterfeiting and software theft, and allows you to securely store and transfer data.
Kit Information
The usual serial communication parameters are
115200 8-N-1 :
|
|
| Baud rate |
115200 |
| Data |
8 bits |
| Parity |
None |
| Stop |
1 bit |
| Flow control |
None |
|
|
|
The DBGU serial console can be accessed from two connectors. One is from the RS-232 connector (marked as DBGU J24), another is from micro-A USB connector that gives access to the on-board serial-USB converter (marked as J22 OB-JLink).
The JP19 and JP20 jumpers are used to select which port is used to access DBGU serial console.
Using RS-232 connector (DBGU J24)
- Open JP21 to enable DBGU
- Choose (1-2) for JP19 and JP20 jumper settings
- Connect a DB9 serial cable to the J24 connector
- Now open your favorite terminal emulator with appropriate settings
Using the micro-A USB connector (J22 OB-JLink)
You can also access the serial console through the on-board serial-USB converter. In fact, the Cortex-M3 chip underneath the Evaluation Kit acts as a serial-to-USB converter and is loaded with a firmware that is able to speak USB-CDC.
- For Microsoft Windows users: Install the J-Link CDC USB driver
. No need to install a driver on any regular Linux distribution.
- Open JP21 to enable DBGU
- Open JP10 to enable CDC for OB-JLINK
- Choose (2-3) for JP19 and JP20 jumper settings
- Connect the USB cable to the board (J22 OB-JLink)
- For Microsoft Windows users: identify the USB connection that is established
JLink CDC UART Port should appear in Device Manager. The COMxx number will be used to configure the terminal emulator.
-
- For Linux users: identify the USB connection by monitoring the last lines of
dmesg command. The /dev/ttyACMx number will be used to configure the terminal emulator.
- Now open your favorite terminal emulator with appropriate settings
Demo
Build From source code
- 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/
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/sama5d4ek folder which contains several default configuration files:
sama5d4ekdf_uboot_secure_defconfig
sama5d4eknf_uboot_secure_defconfig
sama5d4eksd_uboot_secure_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 sama5d4eknf_uboot_secure_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.
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/
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:
sama5d4ek_spiflash_defconfig
# To put environment variables in nandflash (default):
sama5d4ek_nandflash_defconfig
# To put environment variables in SD/MMC card:
sama5d4ek_mmc_defconfig
Here are the building steps for the SAMA5D4EK board:
# You can change the config according to your needs.
make sama5d4ek_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.
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
- 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/
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
Now we Configure and Build kernel for sama5d4ek board:
$ make ARCH=arm sama5_defconfig
HOSTCC scripts/basic/fixdep
HOSTCC scripts/kconfig/conf.o
SHIPPED scripts/kconfig/zconf.tab.c
SHIPPED scripts/kconfig/zconf.lex.c
SHIPPED scripts/kconfig/zconf.hash.c
HOSTCC scripts/kconfig/zconf.tab.o
HOSTLD scripts/kconfig/conf
#
# configuration written to .config
#
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.
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'
Recent FAQ
- Sama5d4ek
-
• Using Atmel DRMDriver: Using Atmel KMS/DRM LCD driver. (Kernel, 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, linux-6.6-mchp)
• Convert SAMBAScript: SAM-BA API revisions. (SAM-BA)
• Crypto Config: How to configure Crypto driver. (Kernel, 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, linux-6.6-mchp)
• 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)
• 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)
• Pmecc Configure: About PMECC configuration. ()
• Build Linux Ssl: Kernel Compilation Error related to OpenSSL. (Kernel)
• Using Isi: How to use the Image Sensor Interface. (Kernel, linux-3.18-at91, linux-4.1-at91, linux-4.4-at91, linux-4.9-at91)
• Driver Model In UBoot: How to enable U-Boot driver model, using Sama5d2Xplained as an example. (U-Boot)
• Gui Solutions: Presentation of some GUI solutions. (YoctoProject)
• Yocto Project FAQ: Some Yocto Project FAQ entries. (YoctoProject)
• AT 91 Bootstrap Debug Eclipse: Debug AT91Bootstrap. (AT91Bootstrap)
