Upgrading U-boot to 2015.07 on Compulab Utilite

This manual is about upgrading U-boot on Utilite Standard / Pro device.

Originally the default U-boot on Utilite has version U-Boot 2009.08-cm-fx6-0.87+tools (Oct 06 2013 – 13:46:27). Here we try to flash the chip to U-Boot 2015.07-cm-fx6-3 (Sep 02 2015 – 13:30:11 +0300). This is how you proceed.

• Have the Micro SD card ready and partitioned with “vfat” on the first /dev/sdb1 partition. Your partition name can be different than /dev/sdb1, put in the Micro SD card into the PC slot and run “dmesg” it will reveal which device it is at the end. Run the “mkfs” command with filesystem un-mounted to create vfat partition.
• # mkfs -t vfat /dev/sdb1
• Download the latest U-boot release from Compulab Utilite website or from this alternative location.
• Ensure the integrity of the file with md5sum utility.
• # md5sum utilite-updater.tar.bz2
• bf0d453aeb61a680e15e263eb3ff31bb utilite-updater.tar.bz2
• Untar the archive on PC to get the firmware image (cm-fx6-firmware file) and update script.
• # mkdir utilite-updater
• # tar -xvf utilite-updater.tar.bz2 -C utilite-updater
• Copy the “cm-fx6-firmware” file onto first partition example /mnt/sdcard1 of the Micro SD card.
• # cp utilite-updater/cm-fx6-firmware /mnt/sdcard1
• Insert the Micro SD card into Utilite and boot Utilite, your old U-boot will appear.
• Perform these commands
• CM-FX6 # mmc dev 2
• mmc2 is current device
• CM-FX6 # mmc rescan
• CM-FX6 # fatls mmc 2
• 512000 cm-fx6-firmware 1 file(s), 0 dir(s)
• CM-FX6 # fatload mmc 2 10800000 cm-fx6-firmware
• reading cm-fx6-firmware
• 512000 bytes read
• From here on we will flash the U-boot (be aware that anything above this step is dangerous and can break your device, make sure you keep it powered until you finish all the other steps !)
• CM-FX6 # sf probe 0
• JEDEC ID: 0xbf:0x25:0x41 2048 KiB SST25VF016B – 2MB at 0:0 is now current device
• CM-FX6 # sf erase 0 80000
• Erasing SPI NOR flash 0x0 [0x80000 bytes] ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..SUCCESS
• CM-FX6 # sf write 10800000 0 80000
• Writing SPI NOR flash 0x0 [0x80000 bytes] <- ram 0x10800000 …….SUCCESS

This is all, you can disconnect Utilite and replug it back to power. You should see the new U-boot on it.

If you upgrade from a more recent U-boot like U-Boot 2014.04-cm-fx6-1.3 (Sep 16 2014 – 16:11:56), then your messages will appear like this:

• CM-FX6 # fatload mmc 2 10800000 cm-fx6-firmware
  reading cm-fx6-firmware
  512000 bytes read in 58 ms (8.4 MiB/s)
• CM-FX6 # sf probe 0
  SF: Detected M25PX16 with page size 256 Bytes, erase size 64 KiB, total 2 MiB
• CM-FX6 # sf erase 0 80000
  SF: 524288 bytes @ 0x0 Erased: OK
• CM-FX6 # sf write 10800000 0 80000
  SF: 524288 bytes @ 0x0 Written: OK

Links used for this manual:

• U-Boot v2015.07-cm-fx6-3 for Utilite is available
• CM-FX6: U-Boot: Firmware Update
• Utilite U-boot update

I take no responsibility if you damage your Utilite device, this is not an official manual !