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Serge.V

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Joined: 01/09/2011
Location: United States
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Posted: 05:45pm 30 Nov 2011

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Hi,

Does there exist a version of BootLoader.exe for Linux and/or Mac OS X?

Thanks,
Serge

bigmik

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Joined: 20/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2946

Posted: 11:55pm 30 Nov 2011

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Serge.V said Hi,

Does there exist a version of BootLoader.exe for Linux and/or Mac OS X?

Thanks,
Serge

Hi Serge,

I cant answer your question fully but does the existing Windows one work with a WIndows Emulator? Something like WINE?

Regards,

Mick

Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<<

ajkw
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Joined: 29/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 290

Posted: 09:57am 01 Dec 2011

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Windows7 on a Ubuntu Host VirtualBox works fine for me. The Maximite bootloader is one of the very few remaining reasons why I need Windows these days.

Cheers,
Anthony.

vasi

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Joined: 23/03/2007
Location: Romania
Posts: 1697

Posted: 05:12pm 01 Dec 2011

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Serge is developing mainly on Mac and Linux. He have an working setup on those OSes for developing retroBSD and I imagine is annoying for him to switch constantly to test things on Maximite hardware...

A bootloader under Linux from Geoff will be helpful (I think) for the platform he is promoting.

Vasi

Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton
Elvish name: Mablung Miriel
Beyound Arduino Lang

Serge.V

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Posted: 12:21am 02 Dec 2011

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bigmik said I cant answer your question fully but does the existing Windows one work with a WIndows Emulator? Something like WINE?

I tried it under Wine - it fails somewhere in mscoree:_CorDllMain(). I guess some problems with .NET, both on Ubuntu 11.10 and Mac OS X.

Currently I use Windows XP on Parallels virtual machine under Mac OS X. It works fine, but looks somewhat cumbersome.

Now I started porting RetroBSD to Duinomite family. Fortunately, it uses UBW32-compatible bootloader, so I can use ubw32 utility.

I guess Maximite uses some kind of a commercial USB bootloader. It's ok, but it would be great to have some programming utility for Linux and Mac.

Thanks,
Serge

wizard

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Joined: 29/07/2011
Location: United States
Posts: 38

Posted: 09:04am 02 Dec 2011

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Hi Serge,

I am wondering if it makes sense to teach one Maximite/Max32/Uno32 to read
an MMC card and to program a 2nd unit from the hex file? The program could probably even be written in MMBasic?

That said, the only way I have been able to ALWAYS program PIC32 is via J-TAG,
but driving J-TAG is a pretty simple and well documented process.

I am curious what you think of this idea as a solution?

warm regards,
Wiz

Olimex
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Joined: 02/10/2011
Location: Bulgaria
Posts: 226

Posted: 01:14pm 02 Dec 2011

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If I remember correctly Ken had idea to make firmware upgrades possible by reading file from the SD card but I'm not sure where is it with the implementation
otherwise it would be very handy to write the HEX on the SD card then to use command like
UPGRADE "firmware.hex"
and it to read the file, program and re-boot
some chksum and firmware signature should be verified before programming as HEX may be corrupted or have non valid image and to screw the processor

JohnS
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Joined: 18/11/2011
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 4004

Posted: 04:49pm 02 Dec 2011

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Serge.V said I guess Maximite uses some kind of a commercial USB bootloader. It's ok, but it would be great to have some programming utility for Linux and Mac.

Thanks,
Serge

I already asked this (somewhere!) and Ken explained that on the board he uses the Microchip USB bootloader, with changes needed for the Olimex boards and Vendor/Product IDs. The Windows app that sends the new firmware across is also from a changed Microchip example.

Both are from www.microchip.com/MAL

You might find App Note AN1388 useful.

The Windows-based bootloader uses Qt and its source code is available from the above URL so with some effort could be ported to Linux.

As you probably know, ubw32 is a renamed version of mphidflash, whose source is readily found via google :)

John

wizard

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Joined: 29/07/2011
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Posts: 38

Posted: 08:57pm 02 Dec 2011

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Hi Serge,

One thought about documentation for retrobsd.

I seem to recall reading that retrobsd would compile
under chipkit? A detailed how-to would be very nice to
have. i.e.- download chipkit, unpack retrobsd here, do this,
etc.

And it would be VERY nice to have MMBasic running under
retrobsd! Also, retroforth :).

warm regards,
Wiz

vasi

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Joined: 23/03/2007
Location: Romania
Posts: 1697

Posted: 09:58pm 02 Dec 2011

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Hi Wiz,

A Mac OS or Ubuntu is recommended for compiling the retroBSD and user applications. You need also a SVN client to retrieve the last version (or whatever revision you want) of the code.

Looking in some configuration files from inside sources you can have a clue about where (what path) should be the development tools installed.

For the Chipkit, you have two variants:
- installing MPIDE on /opt,
- and the Chipkit compiler without IDE (more clues here).

This is how I work on Ubuntu:
1. download and install both MPIDE (because I work with MAX32) and Chipkit C compiler;
2. inside a "src" folder, I'm issuing the svn command from a terminal (see retrobsd.googlecode.com), required to get the last version of the sources then I move in the sources main folder;
3. I start the compilation issuing "make" command and I look at the messages to figure out what compiler is used during the process. If I'm not content with the automatic choice, I manually edit (just disabling some lines by transforming them in comments) target.mk file (or any other required) and, eventually, editing some paths to force it using the wanted development tool.

If everything goes right, I'm a happy user. If not, I report some errors and get help on the forum.

P.S. I compile only with Chipkit tools.
P.P.S. AFAIK, pforth is there already...Edited by vasi 2011-12-04

Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton
Elvish name: Mablung Miriel
Beyound Arduino Lang

wizard

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Joined: 29/07/2011
Location: United States
Posts: 38

Posted: 08:17pm 03 Dec 2011

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Hi Vasi,

Thanks for your note.

I will try it. I will probably try to get some
more convenient way to loading new software into
a PIC32 first. Maybe using MMBasic?

Regards forth, I think RetroForth is a better
choice. The core is small and it seems like it
would be pretty easy to use to link other software
pieces together. i.e.- You could call 'C' routines
from it, do direct i/o to the chip, etc.

As always, comments are most welcome.

I've gotta figure out how to change my password
on RetroBSD so I can more easily post there.

warm regards,
Qiz

Olimex
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Joined: 02/10/2011
Location: Bulgaria
Posts: 226

Posted: 08:05pm 09 Dec 2011

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Hi Serge

try this http://code.google.com/p/mphidflash/

Ken just posed on KSD forum and it have support for Linux, MAC OS and Windows

Tsvetan

Serge.V

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Joined: 01/09/2011
Location: United States
Posts: 8

Posted: 07:39am 13 Dec 2011

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JohnS said I already asked this (somewhere!) and Ken explained that on the board he uses the Microchip USB bootloader, with changes needed for the Olimex boards and Vendor/Product IDs. The Windows app that sends the new firmware across is also from a changed Microchip example.John

Thanks JohnS! This was a key hint. :)
I added a support for this bootloader to pic32prog utility, with Maximite IS. And now it's possible to load RetroBSD (or update MMBasic) on any Maximite or Duinomite board from Linux or Mac.

AN1388 is a totally different protocol. It does not allow reading data back from flash memory, and thus more 'secure'. And it's more efficient when verifying memory: CRC16 checksum is used. This protocol is also supported by pic32prog.

--Serge

ajkw
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Joined: 29/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 290

Posted: 09:44am 13 Dec 2011

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Olimex said try this http://code.google.com/p/mphidflash/

The requirement for libhid-dev is a problem for Ubuntu 10.10 onwards. Installs ok in Fedora 15, haven't tried flashing the Maximite with it however.

refer https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2010-November /032180.html

Edited by ajkw 2011-12-14

JohnS
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Joined: 18/11/2011
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 4004

Posted: 04:23pm 13 Dec 2011

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Serge.V said Thanks JohnS! This was a key hint. :)
I added a support for this bootloader to pic32prog utility, with Maximite IS. And now it's possible to load RetroBSD (or update MMBasic) on any Maximite or Duinomite board from Linux or Mac.

AN1388 is a totally different protocol. It does not allow reading data back from flash memory, and thus more 'secure'. And it's more efficient when verifying memory: CRC16 checksum is used. This protocol is also supported by pic32prog.

--Serge

You're welcome - and thanks for that info about AN1388 (not sure I care but that's hardly the point!).

BTW, pic32prog is on my To Do list

John

JohnS
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Joined: 18/11/2011
Location: United Kingdom
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Posted: 04:26pm 13 Dec 2011

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Olimex said Hi Serge

try this http://code.google.com/p/mphidflash/

Ken just posed on KSD forum and it have support for Linux, MAC OS and Windows

Tsvetan

LOL - see my post in this thread from 3 December :)

JohnS
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Joined: 18/11/2011
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 4004

Posted: 12:06pm 14 Dec 2011

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Serge - looking at pic32prog (under Linux) it uses libusb, but which one?

As you probably know, there are 2 main versions of libusb but they are incompatible :(

John

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