09-16-2020, 08:20 AM
Greetings all,
It has been some time, but I have finally had some time to experiment with this. I was going to use the Pomona clip method using a separate SBC to program the flash, but @tsys recommended a different approach, writing to SPI flash using u-boot (on a micro SD card).
I am still a u-boot novice, but I learned enough to create an SD card image containing mainline u-boot and the files to write to SPI flash. I tested two separate processes, flashing SPI manually using the u-boot prompt (serial connection required), and flashing the SPI automatically by creating a boot.scr script containing the same instructions used manually. The latter process also includes extra noise to the console letting the user know what is being done. The power LED is also used to emit codes in case serial connection is not possible. Erasing the images written to SPI can be accomplished using the manual approach (serial connection required).
I will document this within the next couple days in the "Pinebook Pro Tutorials" thread.
Keep in mind all I have done is flash u-boot to SPI and interacted with u-boot via serial connection. Next I am going to experiment to see if I can boot to grub efi.
It has been some time, but I have finally had some time to experiment with this. I was going to use the Pomona clip method using a separate SBC to program the flash, but @tsys recommended a different approach, writing to SPI flash using u-boot (on a micro SD card).
I am still a u-boot novice, but I learned enough to create an SD card image containing mainline u-boot and the files to write to SPI flash. I tested two separate processes, flashing SPI manually using the u-boot prompt (serial connection required), and flashing the SPI automatically by creating a boot.scr script containing the same instructions used manually. The latter process also includes extra noise to the console letting the user know what is being done. The power LED is also used to emit codes in case serial connection is not possible. Erasing the images written to SPI can be accomplished using the manual approach (serial connection required).
I will document this within the next couple days in the "Pinebook Pro Tutorials" thread.
Keep in mind all I have done is flash u-boot to SPI and interacted with u-boot via serial connection. Next I am going to experiment to see if I can boot to grub efi.
