Buildroot overlay for BL808 based boards

Usage

git clone --recursive https://github.com/bouffalolab/buildroot_bouffalo.git
cd buildroot_bouffalo
export BR_BOUFFALO_OVERLAY_PATH=$(pwd)
cd buildroot
make BR2_EXTERNAL=$BR_BOUFFALO_OVERLAY_PATH bl808_nor_flash_defconfig
make

Flashing Instructions

• Get DevCube 1.8.3 from https://dev.bouffalolab.com/media/upload/download/BouffaloLabDevCube-v1.8.3.zip (normal download location is http://dev.bouffalolab.com/download but 1.8.4 and later do not work, see #60)

• Connect BL808 board via serial port to your PC

• Set BL808 board to programming mode

  • Press BOOT button when reseting or applying power
  • Release BOOT button

• Run DevCube, select [BL808], and switch to [MCU] page

• Select the uart port and set baudrate with 2000000

  • UART TX is physical pin 1/GPIO 14.
  • UART RX is physical pin 2/GPIO 15.

• Flash whole flash image to quickly finish the flash process, or refer to next section if updating partial image

  • In the 'IOT' view, enable single download, set address to 0, choose bl808_16M_whole_bin.bin.
  • Click 'Create & Download' and wait until it's done
  • You can reboot and enjoy now!

• M0 Group[Group0] Image Addr [0x58000000] [PATH to m0_lowload_bl808_m0.bin]

• D0 Group[Group0] Image Addr [0x58020000] [PATH to d0_lowload_bl808_d0.bin]

• Click 'Create & Download' and wait until it's done

If you want to load linux, dtb and rootfs from flash, you need do as the following steps:

NorFlash layout:

file	description	size	offset
m0_lowload_bl808_m0.bin	M0 lowlevel loader	128KB	0x0
d0_lowload_bl808_d0.bin	D0 lowlevel loader	128KB	0x20000
bl808-firmware.bin	openspi+uboot+uboot dtb	710KB	0x40000
none	uboot Environment	64KB	0xf0000
bl808.itb	linux kernel + dtb FIT image	4MB	0x100000
rootfs.squashfs	RO rootfs	8MB	0x500000
none	RW rootfs overlay	3MB	0xd00000

• Switch to [IOT] page
• Flash bl808-firmware.bin:
  • Enable 'Single Download', set Address to 0x40000, choose [bl808-firmware.bin]
  • Click 'Create & Download' again and wait until it's done

• Flash linux kernel & dtb

  • Enable 'Single Download', set Address to 0x100000, choose [bl808.itb]
  • Click 'Create & Download' again and wait until it's done

• Flash linux rootfs

  • Enable 'Single Download', set Address to 0x500000, choose [rootfs.squashfs]
  • Click 'Create & Download' again and wait until it's done

• Serial Console access:

  • UART TX is physical pin 32/GPIO 16.
  • UART RX is physical pin 31/GPIO 17.
  • Baud 2000000.

• Flash uboot environments.

  • Reboot, press any key to stop autoboot and talk with uboot.
  • It's okay if logs say that uboot fails to load environments from flash, because you never programmed them, type printenv bootcmd and check if it is 'mtd read nor0 52000000 100000 400000', then type saveenv.
  • This step is one-time and optional.

• Flash overlay filesystem data.

  • Actually, we don't need to do anything here, just assure that the whole flash is erased before flashing any binaries or firmwares. To achieve this, set Chip Erase to true.

• Reboot and Enjoy!

Set up WiFi

Please refer to here

Compiling Applications for BL808 based boards

Buildroot provides a "SDK" for the boards. This is a tarball containing the cross compiler and sysroot for the target board. This can be used to compile applications for the board. Please refer to https://github.com/openbouffalo/buildroot_bouffalo/wiki/Building-Programs-outside-of-buildroot for basic instructions (or consult the buildroot documentation)

Current Status of Linux

Please refer to the projects tab for the status of drivers in development.

Disucssions

Please use the github discussions for any questions or issues.