Dfu-util
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WARNING: Dfu-util is currently broken on big-endian architectures |
WARNING: Do not flash U-Boot unless you are sure you need to |
NOTE: You need to connect your neo directly to your pc with no hub between. Otherwise there could be problems with the hub and the usb reset. |
Contents |
Purpose
dfu-util is a program that implements the Host (PC) side of the USB DFU (Universal Serial Bus Device Firmware Upgrade) protocol.
In the Openmoko project, we use this program to communicate with our specially enhanced u-boot boot loader, which implements the DFU device side.
Using dfu-util and your smartphone, you can
- transfer and flash partitions in internal NAND Flash.
- transfer anything into RAM
- this can be used for fast development cycles of low-level code such as kernels without flashing them
- read out the current internal NAND partitions
- this is an easy and efficient way of doing full backups of your phone
Source Code
On Debian and Ubuntu, you'll need libusb-dev:
sudo apt-get install libusb-dev autogen pkg-config autotools-dev autoconf automake
On Fedora you'll need libusb-devel and libusb-static:
yum install libusb-devel libusb-static
On Gentoo you can use the live svn ebuild from bug 201920. You will need to put this in an overlay which is described here. Now install it with:
emerge -va app-mobilephone/openmoko-dfu-util
You can check out and build the latest version of dfu-util using the following subversion commands:
svn co http://svn.openmoko.org/trunk/src/host/dfu-util/ cd dfu-util ./autogen.sh ./configure make
The resulting binary is dfu-util/src/dfu-util.
Binaries
Binary packages will be made available as part of the regular Openmoko builds. Currently, there is a dfu-util for Linux/i386.
You need to make the downloaded file (dfu-util) executable with:
chmod +x dfu-util
you can then run it with
./dfu-util
see below for full instructions.
dfu-util is packaged for Debian >= lenny, so can be installed with: apt-get install dfu-util
Currently, there is a largely untested binary for Win32 (see Dfu-util-windows). Windows users can refer to No_Linux for a more tested approach.
Compiling dfu-util on Mac:
- http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2007-July/008438.html
- User:SNMoore
- MacOS_X#Flashing_to_your_device
Reference Documentation
To run dfu-util, you need to have /proc/bus/usb mounted and working. If you don't (ls /proc/bus/usb is empty), you can add this line to your fstab:
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs defaults
or run
sudo mount -t usbfs usbfs /proc/bus/usb
Before using dfu-util
You'll need to boot your phone into the NAND Boot Menu:
- Ensure your phone is connected directly to the host computer by USB (not the USB-charger! :)
- Ensure that you execute all dfu-util commands as root
- Power off the phone
- Hold down AUX
- Press POWER until the Boot Menu appears
see also Booting the Neo FreeRunner
Command-line options
--help
dfu-util - (C) 2007 by Openmoko Inc. This program is Free Software and has ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY Usage: dfu-util [options] ... -h --help Print this help message -V --version Print the version number -l --list List the currently attached DFU capable USB devices -d --device vendor:product Specify Vendor/Product ID of DFU device -c --cfg config_nr Specify the Configuration of DFU device -i --intf intf_nr Specify the DFU Interface number -a --alt alt_nr Specify the Altseting of the DFU Interface -t --transfer-size Specify the number of bytes per USB Transfer -U --upload file Read firmware from device into <file> -D --download file Write firmware from <file> into device -R --reset Issue USB Reset signalling once we're finished
--list
Using the --list option, you can list the available DFU capable devices, their configuration, interface and altsettings. Below is an example for a current Neo1973 phone in u-boot Runtime Mode
# ./dfu-util --list dfu-util - (C) 2007 by Openmoko Inc. This program is Free Software and has ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY Found DFU Runtime: [0x1457:0x5119] devnum=0, cfg=0, intf=2, alt=0, name="USB Device Firmware Upgrade"
Below is an example for a current Neo1973 phone in u-boot DFU Mode
# ./dfu-util --list dfu-util - (C) 2007 by Openmoko Inc. This program is Free Software and has ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY Found DFU: [0x1457:0x5119] devnum=16, cfg=0, intf=0, alt=0, name="RAM 0x32000000" Found DFU: [0x1457:0x5119] devnum=16, cfg=0, intf=0, alt=1, name="u-boot" Found DFU: [0x1457:0x5119] devnum=16, cfg=0, intf=0, alt=2, name="u-boot_env" Found DFU: [0x1457:0x5119] devnum=16, cfg=0, intf=0, alt=3, name="kernel" Found DFU: [0x1457:0x5119] devnum=16, cfg=0, intf=0, alt=4, name="splash" Found DFU: [0x1457:0x5119] devnum=16, cfg=0, intf=0, alt=5, name="rootfs"
This shows you six interfaces, all in configuration 0 and interface 0, with altsetting 0...5, for RAM and each partition.
--device
You can specify the USB Vendor and Product ID of the device you want to program:
dfu-util --device 0x1457:0x5119
If you only have one standards-compliant DFU device attached to your PC, this is optional. However, as soon as you have multiple DFU devices, dfu-util will detect this and abort, asking you to specify which device it shall use.
--transfer-size
Specifies the size of each individual USB transfer. If you don't use it, the maximum possible size for your combination of host operating system and USB device is chosen (for optimal performance).
--download
download the given file into the device.
--upload
upload from the DFU device into the given file[name].
NOTE: Upload support is currently broken - #676 |
Phrasebook
There's no full-fledged manual yet. Instead, some examples:
Flashing the rootfs
dfu-util -a rootfs -R -D /path/to/openmoko-devel-image.jffs2
Flashing the kernel
dfu-util -a kernel -R -D /path/to/uImage
Flashing the bootloader
dfu-util -a u-boot -R -D /path/to/u-boot.bin
Flashing the splash image
dfu-util -a u-splash -R -D /path/to/splash.gz
Configuring_the_boot_splash_screens
Copying a kernel into RAM
dfu-util -a 0 -R -D /path/to/uImage
Once this has finished, the kernel will be available at the default load address of 0x32000000 in Neo1973 RAM.
NOTE: You cannot transfer more than 2MB of data into RAM using this method |
Troubleshooting notes
If during flashing of an image using dfu-util you're consistently getting an error -110 message, check that the size of the destination NAND partition is big enough to hold the image. For example the kernel partition is only 2 MB big by default and a kernel with debugging info compiled-in can often exceed this. It's possible to change the partition layout to enlarge a given partition and shrink other partitions but you have to remember to reflash all partitions whose start offset has changed afterwards. To adjust partitions layout use the mtdparts u-boot command.
If in turn you're facing errors in seemingly random places during the flashing of images, most likely the USB hub or cable through which your Neo1973 is connected, is of too poor quality. It is recommended that you always connect the phone directly to the host when using dfu-util.
If dfu-util reports a message like the following, before it starts flashing:Resetting USB... not at least 2 device changes found ?!? Lost device after RESET?retry the command - it should work on a second run.
If dfu-util complains about not being able to program the device while in runtime mode, do the following: while in the boot menu, remove the usb cable and insert it again. Depending on the version of uBoot it should display somewhere in the menu that it is now in DFU mode. Now dfu-util should be able to continue.
If dfu-util is too slow on Windows, that's a known bug. A suggestion is to run Linux on a virtual box. An full root image 97MB that is 776Mbit, the USB 1.1 on the Neo FreeRunner is capable of either 1.5 Mbit/s (Low-Speed) and 12 Mbit/s (Full-Speed). So flashing it should take less than 9 minutes with low speed and a bit more than a minute with full-speed. Plus transfer overhead, plus decompression on the Neo side.
See also
- Flashing the Neo 1973 to the latest software.
- Flashing the Neo FreeRunner